Subtitles section Play video
-
Even at slow speeds, it is quite loud in here,
-
which is why I'm wearing this silly face microphone
-
so you can hear what I'm on about.
-
The noisiest part of this car, however, is not the engine.
-
[ENGINE REVS]
-
[SQUEALING]
-
That's the brakes.
-
[SQUEALING]
-
They are quite... They are quite squeaky.
-
[BRAKES CONTINUE TO SQUEAL]
-
It actually sounds like I'm stamping on a piglet.
-
And things get worse when you put your foot down.
-
[ENGINE REVS]
-
I'm not going to say that it's like
-
being attacked by a bear because it isn't.
-
But it is like being in a room with a bear
-
that's thinking of attacking you.
-
At the moment I've turned the engine down on this knob here
-
to its minimum setting.
-
It's only producing 500 horsepower.
-
So it's not really the speed that's scary.
-
Oh, God!
-
It's the noise and the harshness
-
and the vibrations.
-
It's not a very well-equipped car either.
-
The windows don't wind down, for instance.
-
There are no toys at all.
-
And you only get half a steering wheel.
-
However, there is one amazing thing
-
you get for your £1.8 million.
-
An all-expenses-paid trip to a racetrack of your choice,
-
where an Aston Martin test driver
-
will teach you how to drive your car,
-
not with the engine wound down to 500 horsepower,
-
but with it turned up...
-
...to the max.
-
Holy cow! Ha-ha-ha!
-
The engine is now producing 820 horsepower.
-
And the speed just beggars belief.
-
The bear is in attack mode.
-
The figures say it'll do 0-60 in 2.9 seconds.
-
And has a top speed of 208 with that wing on the back.
-
But it feels a hell of a lot faster than that.
-
Oh, God!
-
The other thing you get for your money
-
is a squadron of mechanics.
-
But sadly... not a handbrake.
-
Right, what I've done now is I've taken... yes...
-
I've taken the steering wheel off,
-
so I can't put it in gear to stop it rolling away.
-
Oh, God.
-
Agh.
-
Argh, argh...
-
When I'd finally got it to stop,
-
the jacks were deployed and the mechanics set to work.
-
That's the thing about the Vulcan.
-
Wing angle, roll bar, suspension, brakes.
-
Everything can be adjusted to suit your personal taste.
-
After ten minutes of pretending I knew what they were doing,
-
I was back on the track.
-
And the car felt... just as bonkers as it had done before.
-
However, I've changed.
-
I've been driving this thing now,
-
I don't know, three or four hours,
-
and I'm starting to... understand it.
-
I'm starting to get used to it.
-
I'm starting to trust it.
-
Now I'm starting to understand...
-
why the Vulcan can go round
-
the Nardo handling circuit in southern Italy
-
nine seconds faster than the McLaren P1.
-
Nine seconds in car time, that's a year!