ON MY ANNUAL tour of British car makers last week I read a biography of the Roman orator Seneca, with whom I discovered I have a lot in common. For instance, Seneca was an unforgivable hypocrite: He preached Stoicism—simplicity, non-materialism, the ready acceptance of whatever came—but as one of the richest men in the empire he never actually practiced it.
I too am deeply skeptical of the so-called luxury lifestyle but, like Seneca, I do not consider it beneath me. So I was pleased to be received at Aston Martin’s headquarters...