This week Jay Leno has something special in his garage: the 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish. It is the same baby blue press car James May drove across the West Coast a couple of weeks ago, and it’s a cracking looking car. This particular color makes the curves and details of the body pop the way a dark color can never manage.

So here’s what Jay Leno thinks of the new Vanquish, and why he believes it is worth spending almost $300K on a car with less horsepower than a 50 grand Mustang GT500:

Aston Martin AM 310 Vanquish is a new Aston Martin featuring the next generation of the renowned VH architecture as well as a significantly upgraded 6.0-litre V12 engine that is considerably more potent than before. The V12’s power peak of 565 bhp (573 PS) makes it Aston Martin’s most potent production model yet, outmuscled only by the strictly limited edition £1.2m One-77 supercar.