Today's fastest road cars:
There are only four constructors today producing cars which top the 300 kilometres per hour top speed mark. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and the recent arrival, Pagani. Of course we could have taken the easy way out and gone to the archives to fish out the old pictures and articles. But that would have been far too simple. No, we decided to get the cars together, in all their glory, this year. You can imagine all the wheeling and dealing that decision created among the various press offices.

And don't think that it was easy just because we are car journalists. There was a great deal of gentle persuasion and gentle cajoling at times allied to turning up the heat on a couple of occasions because we were upfront with them on the way we intended to do this test and also to tell them our plan to drive all the cars side by side for a long photographic shoot. You might think that was a fairly straightforward request, but it turned into quite a game.

We went to Italy in a Porsche 911 to pick up the 550 and the 456 Ferraris. When we parked the 911 Turbo in the visitors' car park, we were kindly, but extremely firmly, told to park further away! In principle, the competition is not welcomed at Maranello. You bet! (Amazing then that when I was last at Maranello, I did see an Aston Martin being wheeled into the works by the Italian firm's drivers. Was it for benchmarking or what one can never tell but the sight surely stood tall in all its intensity - Ed).

Same thing for the press office at Porsche. In fact they earned a real black mark in our book. We wanted the 911 GT2 in our report, as it is their fastest current model. But plead as we might, we got nowhere. The German motor press has all the leisure in the world to test and show off the GT2 whenever and wherever, but to put it in the frame of foreign cameras was not deemed to be a remotely interesting exercise. We did not, however, allow ourselves to become downhearted over this little hitch.

At the end of the day, the immense privilege of actually being around these five cars was reward enough. All the pain and the hard work of putting this show on the road was forgotten. We managed a good 100 kilometres together in our little procession. Just imagine being at the wheel of a Diablo, looking up the tailpipe of 550 Maranello and a Zonda, with a 456M GT and a 911 Turbo in the rear-view mirror. Our little convoy hardly slipped along unnoticed either. The lively interest of the onlookers we passed en route proved once again the terrific interest everyone has in these supercars. Whether you are aged 7 or 77 an exceptional car always hits the button.

Coming back to our plan, we needed to split it into two sections. On the one hand, the cars whose performance had already been tested by us: the two Ferraris, and the 911 Turbo. On the other, the Pagani and the Lamborghini, whose manufacturers claims had never been verified.  So the Ferrari Maranello 550 with its 312kmph top speed is our current number one. Frankly, a really marvellous car, soft and manageable at ordinary speeds, wonderful in its performance if you open the throttle. Second is the 456 GT with its 309kmph top speed. This excellent tourer, don't forget, is a 2+2, and that doesn't change anything! Eight years old now, and not a wrinkle to show for it. The 911 Turbo just manages to make the 300kmph mark. And you have to say that the latest GT2 from Porsche would appear to pulverise the performance of the 911, at 315kmph, if we are to believe the figures issued from Weissach.

Finally, there's the rather special case of the Lamborghini and the Pagani. Our proposals for a road test of the former have been met with a straight denial, so it remains to be seen if the 330kmph top speed claimed for this 6-litre engine is realistic or not. On balance, with the 328kmph already confirmed by us in 1991 with the 5.7-litre engine, one would give them the benefit of the doubt. As for the Zonda C12S, there is a question mark over the claimed 339kmph.

So what's for tomorrow?
The future for fast cars is a topic you could chew over for hours. One thing is certain. The automobile manufacturers are not going to let this challenge go. The future looks set for even more astonishing figures. Take the Edonis, for example. The claimed top speed of 365 kilometres per hour will once more set alight the old debate if it is confirmed.

And then there is the Volkswagen W12 and the even more outrageous Bugatti Veyron - the ultimate supercar you may already be thinking about in your wildest dreams. Back to the future and beyond. Next time you are there, take your equipment with you on this ride in the dark red supercar from Molsheim, and check out yourself, once and for all, whether you can really get to 406 kilometres per hour out of this incredible monster.

MCLAREN F1 & BUGATTI VEYRON - Click for details