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The Aston Martin V8 Vantage racing car last year won the World Endurance Championship’s LMGTE Pro title. This exact car also won the LMGTE Am title in 2014, and scored a class win in the Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s a car with history. And it’s due on the Geneva motor show stand in two weeks’ time.

First, there’s the small matter of us driving it at speed around a racing circuit in Portugal. Gulp.

It sits menacingly in the pit garage, all road-going Vantage turned up to the max. Pretty much everything is carbonfibre, not least the humungous rear wing and diffuser that look so breathtaking. After disconnecting a load of hoses used to warm up the V8 engine, the team beckons us to get inside.

It’s tricky even getting in. The seat is positioned way back in the chassis, to help weight distribution. Despite this, the rectangular steering wheel is nice and close, albeit covered in buttons and switches development engineer John Ogden advises us not to touch. The team belts us into the Racetech seat as technicians put on the centre-lock wheels, and the Aston is dropped onto the tarmac with a thud.

We fire up the engine and get rolling. It’s surprisingly light and non-intimidating in the pits, with an easy clutch and intuitive six-speed sequential gearbox. Earlier, the team had told us the handling had been set up like this too – so a pro driver could get the best from it, but an amateur wouldn’t find intimidating.

Doesn’t stop us being intimidated by it, though. Poor visibility, light steering, over-sensitive throttle, all transpire against us. That was our warm up stint, and it was a bit of an anti-climax. The second run is far better though. We go quicker. The car comes alive. Steering is nicer and the traction control is crisp. The brakes, though, remain incredibly heavy. Basically, the technique is to push the pedal as hard as you possibly can. And then push harder.

The V8 engine? It sounds wonderful near its 8000rpm redline, but it isn’t actually the star of the show. Because the rest of the car is so capable, it doesn’t seem all that fearsome: this is a car that weighs 1280kg and has a massive amount of downforce, so is merely quick on the straights rather than ferocious. But while some road-going supercars would accelerate faster, the Aston would soon have them in the corners…

We get one more stint. Here, it really clicks. It feels amazing, driving like a real pro around a sweeping, open race circuit. But it also only adds to our awe of real racers: to think about doing this at speed, lap after lap, with other cars pouncing at you and, as it’s endurance racing, the odd bit of darkness and inclement weather to deal with – well, it seems like a world away.

So it’s with relief as well as awe that we roll the car back in one piece. It’s an amazing piece of engineering, and a mighty car to drive – one that needs mighty talent to do as they did with this car and win the world title. And with this experience in mind, it’s going to be even more amazing to watch it being driven by the true pros from the comfort of a grandstand seat during the opening round of the WEC season on 16 April at Silverstone…

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