Aston Martin's 700-horsepower One-77 is to cars as John Steed is to civil servants — a proper English gent quite capable of kicking your ass without so much as breaking a sweat.

The super-exclusive, super-expensive supercar unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show seamlessly blends top-shelf luxury with race-car engineering to create what may be the finest automobile the quintessentially British firm has ever produced.

Of course, for $1.4 million, it damn well ought to be.

Aston Martin spared no expense with the One-77, so named because just 77 will be handbuilt at the factory in Gaydon, and says it represents the culmination of all the company has learned since its founding in 1913.

"Quite simply, it had to be the ultimate expression of Aston Martin," company chief executive Ulrich Bez said in a statement. "As you can now see, we have achieved that goal in magnificent style."

Indeed.

While the One-77's funky ducts, oversize headlights and ribbed sides will prompt debate among aesthetes, few can deny the car's mechanical beauty. Aston's engineers looked long at hard at the hardcore race cars of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series when designing the One-77, and the car is packed with race-car technology. "We wanted to create something that wows you as much when you see what's under the skin as the exterior styling itself," said Chris Porritt, who led the car's development.

The handformed aluminum body rests on a carbon fiber monocoque cradling a 7.3-liter V12 engine developed by Cosworth. Aston Martin is still nailing down the final figures but is quite confident the engine will produce at least 700 horsepower in production trim. Look for a zero to 60 time in the mid-three-second range and a top speed just north of 200 mph, although asking so basic a question as "What'll she do?" is, as the Times found out, a touch vulgar.

"It goes fast enough," Bez told the British paper during the show, with what we imagine was just a touch of indignation.

Power, the old advertising slogan goes, is nothing without control, so the One-77 features a fully adjustable suspension with pushrod-activated dampers. All those ponies flow through a six-speed paddle-shifted transmission developed exclusively for the One-77 and they are reined in with carbon-ceramic brake rotors.

The car was billed as the most expensive automobile on the planet when it was announced last year, but a slump in the value of the Sterling means the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 will retain the title. Aston Martin may be going through the same rough time as the rest of the auto industry, but Bez says the company has received "expressions of interest" from 250 potential buyers around the globe. It seems there are at least 77 people with the means to drop £1 million — $1.4 million at today's exchange rate — on a car.

Photos: Aston Martin.

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