Aston Martin news - The seven-figure Aston - 2008

Meet the million pound Aston, the One-77.

Yeah, you read that right. One million pounds. Or is that Euros, the price of a Veyron? Aston is just saying 'seven figures'. That and denying the car is anything like the Veyron.

The One-77 has a seven-litre V12 engine and while its chassis is made of carbon fibre, the body is crafted the traditional way, in aluminium by blokes with hammers. One look at the picture tells you the engine is where it needs to be in an Aston, way out the front.

On the tech side that's it. You know how fast a DBS is: 0-60 in 4.3 seconds and 191mph flat out, so one can only imagine the lighter, more powerful and presumably more slippery One-77 will blow that in to the weeds. 200mph-plus easy, but probably not as fast as a Veyron.

So why that price tag? Well, Aston is promising to 'redefine the personalisation experience'. Not just an interior to match your significant others favourite gown, then, but something more akin to the Ferrari FXX programme, where customers got to play a role in the development of the car, and a natty set of fireproofs with an 'FXX Official Test Pilot' embroidered on the back.

One-77 - the name harks back to old Aston prototypes - gives a clue to the production numbers as does the website, www.one-of-77.com. Ads for the car will run in the papers this weekend, the responses to which will dictate what happens next.

The plan is to have the car out of the computer and in front of the cameras by the end of the year, although rest assured we're trying to convince them to let us all have a look a lot sooner.

But log on to that site and register as a potential customer. I'm sure they won't ask for proof of income for a little while yet.