Top Gear: The Perfect Road Trip Page #2

from my Italian grand touring supercar.

We just have to be careful that

if we go into a tunnel,

we don't hit a bulldozer.

Oh, that's just... Oh!

This is just magnificent.

But soon the real reason

for turning off became apparent.

As the roads became more twisty,

the Ferrari was becoming

more of a handful.

Oh-ho! Oh!

Uh, just need to be a bit careful about

unleashing 730 brake horsepower.

It's actually more than an F1 car

and I'm conscious of that right now.

Help! Oh!

Oh! Yeah.

I wasn't scared

I have no doubt

that the Ferrari is faster than this

but this is just nicer to drive

'cause it's less frightening.

With the F12, Ferrari have

given you everything you need

to have an incredible drive

or get yourself into

a very great deal of trouble.

Get a racing driver in this car

and he will tell you,

"Yes, that is a real car. "

It's not been tamed for people

to park at the golf course

and talk about in the bar.

It's amazing how different this is

to the standard SLS,

which would be wobbling its

bottom all over everywhere.

This isn't because of its

electronic differential.

You can think of it really

like a Porsche GT3,

lightened, hard,

focused, on it, built for this.

The SLS behaving like this is like

Eddie Izzard doing Richard III, it's...

It's almost weird to watch

a pantomime character

become so straight.

Weird and yet brilliant.

Eventually,

we reached our overnight halt

and I went for supper

with my cultured colleague.

What do you mean

you prefer the Lake District?

Well, this is beautiful

It is.

- And to be honest, for me...

- More beautiful than Derwentwater.

Garda's not even the prettiest lake

and look at it!

It's very lovely.

Just scale it down to 75% of that

and then introduce

a bit of drizzle and...

- Is Keswick in the Lake District?

- Ooh, yeah.

What you don't get in Keswick

are these. Have you had one?

- No.

- Have a pepper. Eat.

Eat. Eat it. Go on, you'll like it.

I don't like it.

Then we thought

we'd play our favourite game.

He's got the Ferrari

options pricelist there

and I'm going to guess

how much they cost.

There are quite

a Lot of options available.

Pick some.

Okay. Racing seats with carbon fibre.

I don't know, 600 quid?

L5,184.

- I was a bit under.

- Yeah.

But carbon fibre wheel caps,

on the tyres, you know, on the...

- What, dust caps?

- Yeah.

Carbon fibre dust caps? Tenner.

L480. I thought that was cheap.

- What, for four dust caps?

- Yeah.

L480?

Are the cup holders standard?

There is a carbon fibre

cup holder you can get.

- A carbon fibre cup holder?

- Yeah, you know, it pops in...

Well, they were?600 on

a Lamborghini Gallardo a while back,

so I'LL go a thousand.

L2,112. Yeah, this is amazing.

Really, the car is the cheapest option.

The next day,

we consulted a map and realised

we were just a spit from the fastest

Grand Prix track on the calendar...

Monza.

The Cathedral of Speed.

Because it's so fast,

I've ditched the Ferrari

and upped the ante

to this Pagani Huayra,

still a V12 but now with two turbos.

'Cause what you need here is a missile.

I've gone for a Porsche Cayman S.

- You're just being obtuse.

- I'm not.

You are. You've gone for a Porsche

so you can not go for a 911.

It's just annoying.

This is better than a 911.

- It isn't! A 911 is better than that.

- It isn't.

- Because the 911 has its engine here.

- Yes.

- This is mid-engine.

- Because it isn't a 911.

- No!

- It's better!

Listen, if we were driving around

Cadwell Park, Lydden Hill...

- Yeah.

- Nippy and fizzy, yes!

But not here at Monza. You need power.

You're just hung up on this

- great big long straight.

- Yes.

But there must be

a corner down there somewhere,

otherwise you wouldn't be able

to get down there again.

There has to be...

In fact there've got to be two corners.

- Yes, genius, that's two corners.

- Yeah.

Brilliant. Do you know what?

The Pagani Huayra goes around

corners really incredibly well.

You will not believe

how fast this goes around corners.

- Okay.

- It's a lot better.

If s true,

I don't like Porches

and I don't much like

the people who drive them,

especially the ones called

James and Richard.

I didn't much like the original

Cayman, either,

I called it the Cockster.

And there are one or two things

that I don't much like about this.

The styling, for example,

I think it looks too like a 911.

And then there's the seats,

the shoulder bolsters are too narrow.

So, if you're broad-shouldered

and hunky, like me,

you're getting sort of

squashed all the time.

However, the rest of it

is absolutely sublime.

You've got these adaptive dampers,

which means that it rides

and handles and steers

like the very best supercars.

But the best thing is the engine.

A 3.4-litre flat six.

There's just no thing about it

that's wrong.

And all the time it makes this...

You can hear that

deep, reassuring noise,

it's like having

Richard Burton in the boot,

endlessly complimenting you on your hair

and your clothes and your driving style.

Oh, my God! That is so fast!

Oh, my God!

230, 240, 250,

260 kilometres an hour.

270! Oh, dear God.

Oh! I scared the crap

out of myself then.

Holy sh...

Oh, my God!

What a machine!

Monza is all about speed

and a Pagani Huayra

is about that and very little else.

6.3-litre, v12, twin turbos.

Truly, enormously powerful.

Turning in, immense grip

from those fat tyres.

I have aero, active aero keeping me

planted on the track.

These things are built to work as well,

they're not some fragile trailer queen.

This car I'm in has

done 86,000 kilometres.

And I'm guessing

not many of them were gentle.

The Ferrari would've been good at this

but not as good as the Huayra.

The problem is

Hammond is going too fast,

he's not savouring this glorious,

historical tracks.

He's just wolfing it down,

like a dog wolfs down a steak.

What I'm doing is masticating,

enjoying every mouthful.

As Jeremy crawled

round in his wrong car,

I was waiting for him

to get back to the pits.

He's going to be a while, isn't he?

While he's gone, let me show you

the interior of the Pagani.

It's worth seeing.

They want it to feel special in here

and I think they've succeeded.

They've really put thought into this,

making it feel special.

This gear linkage here,

all these parts,

there's 67 components have gone

into making that

in that skeleton form,

so you can see it working.

And the materials, too,

it's all genuine,

a lot of real carbon fibre,

real leather. And the aluminium,

every single aluminium component

you can see in here isn't cast,

it's milled from a single piece,

a single billet, a lump of aluminium.

All of which means it feels

as expensive as it is.

I like this car.

He's not back yet, is he?

This is the only track in the world with

two lesbos, the first one's quite tight,

second one, though,

you can really hang your arse out

There it is.

It's 12 cylinders in total.

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