Is this the future of Aston Martin?

This is the Aston Martin Design Prototype 100. It's the latest concept car in a series of rather good ones built for Gran Turismo 6 on the PS3, which manufacturers now seem be using as a de facto virtual motor show. And it's possibly the best one yet. 

The other GT6 Vision GT concepts from Mercedes, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen, have all taken a few too many sips of the digital Kool Aid, and this is right up there. A firm riposte to many TopGear.com commenters who accuse Astons of always looking the same. 

Actually, there are some familiar nods. The HDMI socket grill remains, of course, and the light blade rear lamps and judicious use of yellow are reminiscent of the CC100 Speedster Concept we saw last year. Design Director Marek Reichman says "many of the design cues visible ... could also feed through into future sports cars that we'll launch in the offline world. The importance of this project should not be underestimated."  

There will also be a digital twin-turbo V12 offering up 800bhp in the game: imagine the NA monster from the One-77 with a couple of massive blowers on it, although that can probably remain strictly a virtual fantasy for now.

A model of the car will be at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend. Worth a poke around to get close to the future of Aston Martin. You never know, the Mercedes Gran Turismo concept eventually became the AMG GT S...