Insert key, reach down past the hazard lights and seat heaters, and press the Start button. There’s the briefest whirr and then a subdued boom as all 12 cylinders catch and send a deep, liquid-sounding idle out of the large exhausts. The engine note on the GTC is well-managed, like everything else on this highly accomplished product, which benefits from the many revisions introduced for the model’s second series in 2011.
If the gear lever is left in ‘D’, the car will drift about in a subdued, civilised mode like any other automatic. Well, any other 600bhp automatic. But knock it over to the left, to the plus and minus positions, and some clever control unit turns up the volume on the exhaust. It’s expecting you to make use of the shift paddles on either side of the steering column. These are the same as those in the GT, of course, and the Continental Flying Spur
