What's the news?
Aston Martin's new ultra-luxury sports saloon with the Lagonda badge will be known as the Taraf - and the best news is, it might not be confined to the Middle East after all.
We already knew Aston was reviving the Lagonda nameplate for a line of hand-built saloons destined for the oil-rich Arabian states, but due to 'extremely high' levels of interest from the rest of the world, the British marque is having a rethink and evaluating selling it in other markets.
It's unlikely to keep the Taraf nameplate if it does hit showrooms outside the Middle East, though, as that's an Arabic word for 'ultimate luxury'. Meanwhile, the new car's styling takes influence from the striking, angular 1976 original of William Towns.
We don't know all the details about the car's specification but we can say it is based on the VH aluminium chassis architecture of so many Astons of recent years, it will be hand-built in the same factory that put together the One-77 hypercar, and it's likely to use the firm's 6.0-litre V12 engine, rear-wheel drive and an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox; all of this should ensure it's a genuine 320km/h supersaloon with sub-4.0-second 0-100km/h capability.
Anything else?
The naming ceremony was held in Dubai, given that Aston initially planned this to be exclusive to the region, and it was the first official appearance of the company's new CEO Andy Palmer, fresh from his transfer over from Nissan.