It's not often that you hear of a car maker saying that it's going to 'uncage' a new model, rather than merely launch it.
Final flagship edition
However, we suspect that the incoming Aston Martin DBS 770 Ultimate might not be an entirely normal car, so perhaps the uncaging will be appropriate. To be honest, we don't know all that much about the car as yet - so far, all Aston Martin will officially say is that this DBS "is a final edition flagship to surpass them all."
Faster, hotter, sexier
Presumably, that means that it will be the last version of the DBS, which since its launch has been a faster, hotter, sexier alternative to the V12-engined DB11 coupe. Originally called the DBS Superleggera (the name being a nod to the lightweight construction of the original DB4 and DB5), the DBS has been Aston's V12 flagship for a while now, with up to 760hp.
There have been numerous special edition DBS models, including one that celebrated the Concorde supersonic airliner, and a DBS GT Zagato edition that was only sold with an accompanying recreated 1960s DB5 GT Zagato, the pair costing a cool £6 million (not far off €7 million at today's exchange rate).
Most powerful road-going Aston ever?
The DBS 770 Ultimate, we can pretty safely infer, will arrive with a 770hp version of the twin-turbocharged 5.3-litre V12 engine. That will make it the most powerful road-going Aston Martin ever to leave the factory. The previous most powerful was the One-77 supercar, which used a 7.3-litre version of the old naturally aspirated V12 engine to hit 760hp. The Aston Martin Vulcan was more powerful, at 831hp, but was for the track only so can't take the road-going record.
What do we know? Little enough except that only 499 of these run-out DBS models will actually be made, and that Aston Martin will show us what it looks like soon. Don't expect it to be in any way affordable...