While you can take this as further evidence the GT is a driver's car, it also betrays the DB7's age. In newer, more sophisticated super-GTs like the Vanquish or 575M, you can switch between 'normal' and 'sport' modes, which raises the threshold of traction aids without completely disengaging the traction control altogether. Once bitten in damp, slippery conditions, you soon learn to adopt a more cautious, less committed driving style in the 7, the kind usually reserved for cars bereft of such traction control systems. That's fine if you're fortunate enough to get away with it the first time, but having experienced wet-road wheelspin in fourth gear with the traction control firmly on, my only concern is that hands more used to swifter-acting systems and less familiar with the GT's precipitation-sensitive limits might come a cropper.

That said, there's little wrong with the GT's intrinsic dynamics. Peter T hit the nail on the head when he suggested you 'pour' it through corners, and it's this fluid, confident mien that defines the DB7 driving experience. It just feels so polished and composed you can't help but relax into the job of guiding it down the road in a similarly focussed and accomplished manner. Never intended as a car you emerge from bathed in sweat and buzzing with adrenalin, instead a brisk drive in the Aston delivers a deep and lasting level of satisfaction, not only because it's extremely quick, but because you have to get in tune with its responses to get the best from it.

Highlight of living with the Aston this month was attending the DB7's 10th birthday bash at the fittingly stately venue of Buscot Park in Oxfordshire. Tell anyone the magnificent 7's been around for a decade and they all scoff in disbelief, but the sight of more than five hundred gleaming, privately-owned examples spanning the model's evolution from the original supercharged straight-six to era-ending V12 GTs, was proof not only that it has been around forever, but that Ian Callum's eye for proportion and surfacing created one of the all-time great automotive shapes. Yet another reason why living with TFU continues to be a pleasure and a privilege.