You face a sextet of classy, blue-faced dials, check the time from an ornate clock and sink your feet into luxuriant carpet. Even if you must wait for the AA, this is a pretty pleasant place to do it.
And then there are those boomerang taillights, these curving stripes of variegated light unique to the GT and a flourish that has tempted many a buyer across the financial line.
The 3200’s subtly voluptuous body was Giorgetto Giugiaro’s work, its only oddity a roofline that turns curiously turret-like from certain angles.
The rest is sheer Italian class, and as a bonus, the rear half of its cabin will just about house a couple of adults. Who can push if necessary.
So what about the drive? Well. The figures say it’s fast, and the early drive-by-wire throttle and enthusiastic turbos will have you surging about like an amateur if you aren’t delicate.
You must also wrestle a slightly resistant gearchange if it’s a six-speeder, the task further burdened by unhelpfully sited pedals and a troubled driving position that even a quartet of electric seat motors can’t mask.
Which is why some buyers prefer the four-speed auto, despite its paucity of ratios. Further wrestling occurs if you get heavy with the throttle, the V8’s fast-boosting torque easily overwhelming the rear wheels, giving the ESP – or you, if you turn it off – plenty to do. But that’s part of the thrill.
A different kind of thrill, if you really want a sexy sub-£20k car bearing a trident, is that most of the routine failures such as the throttle body, exhaust back-boxes, radiator, starter motor and over-eager warning lights can be sorted for sensible money, as can the frequent need for cambelts.