Fittingly, the concept made its debut today at the Nürburgring Nordschleife during the 2013 ADAC Zurich 24 Hours. The CC100 Speedster Concept lapped the daunting ‘green hell’ with Dr. Bez at the wheel, accompanied on the track by none other than Sir Stirling Moss in the DBR1 in which Moss and Jack Fairman won the 1959 1,000km sports car race.

An enthusiastic Bez commented: “CC100 is the epitome of everything that is great about Aston Martin. It represents our fantastic sporting heritage, our exceptional design capability, our superb engineering know-how and, above all, our adventurous spirit!

“But this car is more, even, than a simple ‘birthday present’ to ourselves: it shows that the soul of Aston Martin – the thing that differentiates us from all the other car makers out there – is as powerful as ever and I very much hope that everyone who catches a glimpse of it at the Nürburgring today enjoys seeing it.”

The concept came from an idea late last year inspired, we understand, from seeing a DB3S in for restoration at Aston Martin Works, Newport Pagnell. Why not build a modern homage to a past ‘great’ and use it to test styling cues for future models? And the fact that Aston Martin would be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2013 was too much of a chance to pass over. So, in less than six months, the 4.5-metre long (by two metres wide) roadster was designed and built.

With the aid of the latest AM11 V12 and a six-speed hydraulically actuated automated sequential manual transmission, the car – limited to 180mph – offers staggering performance. The 0-62mph sprint is covered in “a little over four seconds”, so the company says.

Aston-watchers should note that not only is the CC100 Speedster Concept a glorious celebration of the past, and its ‘can-do’ attitude to the present, it also hints at an exciting “potential future design direction” – a space we are watching keenly.

Photos: Aston Martin