If you watched this week's episode of The Grand Tour, you'll know that Jeremy Clarkson was rather smitten with the Aston Martin DB11 throughout the show's Italian road trip. It's easy to see why. With its breathtakingly-beautiful looks, brisk performance and an aluminium chassis built for comfort, it's the perfect grand tourer. But there's one feature that makes the dashing DB9 successor truly stand out: its innovative, revolutionizing aerodynamics.

As noted by Clarkson, Aston Martin have cleverly designed the DB11 to suck in air through holes in the rear window, which is then shot out of a vent located on the trunk lid to provide the downforce it needs to deliver ample grip, thus eliminating the need for an actual, physical rear spoiler.

This, of course, is essential – a grand tourer must, if nothing else, look good, and a gaudy spoiler would compromise the styling. Aston Martin call its innovation the 'Aeroblade,' which is showcased in this latest promotional video. Should the DB11 require additional downforce, a gurney flap deploys if the car strays over 100 mph in order to push the rear down with minimum drag. This means the DB11 serves both as a sophisticated grand tourer and an all-round sports car. It's exactly this sort of engineering ingenuity that set Aston Martin apart from the competition. Combine this with a blisteringly fast, twin turbocharged 5.2-liter V12 engine that produces 600 hp, and you have the ultimate contemporary, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer.