Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Since taking over Aston Martin, Ford has transformed the company from one that struggled to sell a couple of hundred cars a year, into a genuine rival for the likes of Ferrari. And, in the shape of the V8 Vantage, a serious challenger for Porsche as well.The Vantage's sleek, seductive styling will be sufficient by itself to make many fall in love. The strong lines are clearly related to those of the larger, pricier DB9 and Vanquish models - but the Vantage's compact dimensions and squat stance give it more of a muscular appearance. The cabin is good too, combining conservative and modern design elements and finished in classy, quality-feeling materials. The only significant niggle from the driver's seat is with the restricted forward visibility, with fat windscreen pillars making pulling out of junctions tricky.But it's when you start the engine that the Vantage comes alive - this side of the Ferrari F430 we reckon this is probably the best-sounding V8 in the world, a specially designed acoustic exhaust system giving it a hard-edged yowl at higher revs. Performance is correspondingly strong, with the Vantage pulling hard all the way to its 170 mph top speed.Comfortable seats, a compliant ride and impressive refinement make the Vantage an accomplished Grand Tourer - there's even a reasonable amount of luggage space under the rear hatch. Handling is keen enough to reward enthusiastic driving - although the Aston's slightly aloof steering leaves it without the dynamic intimacy of a Porsche 911 or BMW M6.It might be the baby Aston, but the Vantage's running costs are still enormous with very steep servicing bills and terrible fuel economy - you'll be doing well to get more than 15-16 mpg under everyday use. Exclusivity like this comes at a price.

Cost Price: ± $270.000
Engine: V8, 4280 cc
Power, bhp: 380
Transmission: 6-spd
Driven Wheels: R
Top speed: 175 mph
0 - 62 mph: 4.9 seconds

Lamborghini Gallardo

Any new Lamborghini is an event, mainly because the time between model releases is so painfully long. There were sixteen years between the Countach and the Diablo, a whopping twenty-eight between the Silhouette/Jalpa and the newest small Lamborghini, the Gallardo. But too often, the cars made news not with refinement and poise but with flashy bodywork, ludicrous top speeds, and handling so diabolical Lamborghini even named a car after it. Rudeness is at the core of the Lamborghini allure, but come on. Would you really want to ride a mechanical bull like
the Diablo all the way up to 204 mph? The Diablo should have been equipped with dual-stage, front and side airsick bags.Things are different at the little company from Sant'Agata Bolognese today, chiefly because the Italians have some very serious bosses from Audi peering over their shoulders. Proof of this is in the slightly less glacial pace at which Lamborghinis are arriving. The new Gallardo, due here in October, comes right after 2001's Murciélago, offering its own kind of proof that Lamborghini is serious about building world-class sports cars. The Gallardo is a comfortable, stylish, and thoroughly viable competitor to Porsche's 911 GT2 and Ferrari's 360 Modena-a daily driver of the type Ferruccio Lamborghini had in mind when he founded the company in 1963.The legendary Ferrari-directed ire that prompted Lamborghini to make sports cars burns as fiercely as it ever did in Sant'Agata. The Gallardo's mission is to be the highest-performance car in its segment, and thus it uses some conventions of that segment as its starting point. Like the Modena, it has an aluminum spaceframe, optional automated-manual gearbox, mid-mounted engine, and twin front-mounted radiators that give the car its generous interior package. The Gallardo one-ups the Modena, though, in a few important areas. Instead of the 394-horsepower V-8 in the Ferrari, it has a 492-horsepower V-10. Instead of rear-wheel drive, it has a performance-oriented yet bacon-saving four-wheel-drive system. It is a bit heavier than the Modena, but its extra power puts it right in the low-four-second ballpark, acceleration-wise.The V-10 that overcomes the Gallardo's 3153-pound curb weight is literally the centerpiece of the car. In contrast to Lamborghini's recent twelve-cylinder cars, power flows rearward from the engine to a tail-mounted six-speed transaxle. (In the Countach, the Diablo, and the Murciélago, the transmission is located forward of the engine.) A 90-degree V angle was selected to reduce the overall height of the undersquare (the stroke is longer than the bore) engine-a move that necessitated split crank pins to achieve even firing intervals. Other features include a dry-sump lubrication system that further lowers engine height and center of gravity, variable timing on intake and exhaust tracts, a two-stage intake manifold with long runners to optimize midrange output and short runners for peak power at high rpm, and dual electronically actuated throttles.

Cost Price: ± $500.000
Engine: V10, 4961 cc
Power, bhp: 520
Transmission: 6-spd/e-gear
Driven Wheels: 4
Top speed: 197 mph

Porsche Carrera Gt

The Porsche Carrera GT lifts its nose, squats down, and leaps forward like a world-class sprinter out of the blocks. With traction control activated, wheelspin isn't an issue in first or second gear, which clonks in at 48 mph. Porsche claims that the Carrera GT can storm from 0 to 62 mph in just 3.9 seconds-on this run, we record 4.2 seconds, and that feels pretty damned quick.Second gear stretches to an indicated 82 mph, third is good for 113 mph, and fourth takes us to 143 mph-close to the chip-controlled top speed for all BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes-Benzes. In the Carrera GT, though, there are still two more ratios to come. Fifth runs out of revs at 170 mph, and sixth takes over at 7000 rpm. Because it's not that aerodynamically efficient (the Cd is 0.40), the Carrera GT tops out at 205 mph-plenty fast but some way short of a McLaren F1, for instance. Porsche tester Roland Kussmaul says that some of the prototypes have been clocked at up to 218 mph, but one would need a ton of room to achieve that. In the vast acreage of the Michelin proving ground at Gross-Dölln, near Berlin, we run out of road at 199 mph. This exercise looks positively stunning from the outside, but on a dry stretch of arrow-straight tarmac, driving this über-Porsche at this speed is childishly simple.The Carrera GT is Porsche's fastest and most expensive supercar, challenging the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari and the upcoming Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren for the title of ultimate supercar of the early twenty-first century. Like the others, the Carrera has a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, with a matching drivetrain cradle. Made in Italy, each monocoque consists of more than 1000 individual elements that are glued, laminated, and baked together. Attached to the carbon fiber structure are composite body panels, so you need to look long and hard to detect the few metal ingredients. Among them are the front chassis rails, tubular A-post inserts, fuel tank, and double control-arm and pushrod suspension. The combination of an ultra-stiff structure with suspension components mounted without rubber isolation yields exceptional steering precision and unfiltered, unamplified communication among car, driver, and the road on which they travel.

Cost Price: ± $500.000
Engine: V10, 4961 cc
Power, bhp: 520
Transmission: 6-spd/e-gear
Driven Wheels: 4
Top speed: 197 mph