1:00 pm, August 14, 2010
NEW rule: If you do not want to enjoy twisty roads PULL OVER. That concludes today’s public service broadcast.
As you can probably tell, the first day of this year’s Road Test of the Year has been rather frustrating.
If it wasn’t soaking motorways in Warwickshire, it was outside lane-hogging white van drivers. Then, after four hours, we arrived in Wales to be greeted by a national go slow campaign.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for safe driving – but if there’s a supercar on your tail, do the decent thing and get out of the way. Fast.
Ever since I booked in our selection of cars – our favourite machines to hit dealers’ showrooms in the last 12 months – I’ve been in a bit of a quandary. That quandary being which car I wanted to drive the most.
The last two RTOTYs both featured a real stand out car, the one the editor really should be taking the keys for first. But this year it’s a bit different – there are three cars I REALLY want to drive, and two I want to experience a little bit less.
You can probably guess which are which. The Aston Martin Rapide, Audi R8 Spyder and Porsche Boxster Spyder are all on equal peggings in my mind. The Peugeot RCZ and Megane 250 Cup are both must-drives, but not so urgently as the other three.
And that made choosing the car I wanted to spend the first day in even harder. So which keys did I pluck from the table this morning? That’ll be the Audi.
Why? Well it’s because it’s got me totally addicted already. Within just a few miles, the feel of the steering, the ride and the sound – oh my god the sound – have all hooked me.
It’s absolutely incredible. The R8 V10 will hit 60mph in under four seconds and on the soggy motorway slip-roads feels every bit as fast as those figures suggest.
We stopped three times on the way here and even though I had the chance to grab the keys to any of the others every time, I still didn’t. That really speaks volumes about just how good this Audi really is.
On the A542 en route to Denbigh, Denbighshire (where we’re staying) we stopped at an incredible set of switchbacks to grab some video for the piece we’ll be putting together after the event.
I concentrated on the Rapide, but thought you might like to hear it accelerate away in anger at the hands of our man Dunc. It sounds like bottled thunder.
They’ll be more video over the next few days, but here is the Aston:
Tomorrow we’ll be scoping out a selection of shoot locations and grabbing some more video, so pop back around this time Sunday for another update.
I’m also tweeting whenever I stop – I’m pretty addicted to be honest – so if you want more pictures, follow me.
James
