Does it have dark green paint? Does it have right hand drive?
Aston Martin 177
1,320,000 kazulas - 580pp 77 made
7312cc V12 749bhp/76.5torques - 6 gears
1630kg 48:52
FR / Sports Hard Tyres
4601x1999x1222mm
0/0 Magic Aero
7/35/15 Diff
248mph (Unaided top speed) - 4m52.8 Route X time (B spec)
6 chips (Black.White, silver/grey, dark red, orange brown and a light blue)
Huayra '11
1,350,000 kazulas - 618pp 100 made
5980cc V12 Twin Turbo 719bhp/102 torques - 7 gears
1350kg 45:55
MR / Sports Hard Tyres
4605x2036x1169mm
80/200 Magic Aero
7/30/15 Diff
256mph (Unaided Top Speed) - 4m35.8 Route X time (BSPec)
Chips options loads!
Naked Carbon Fibre with Black bits with Tan leather trim
or
12 other colours which you can have with a black leather interior and a few bits of Black trim or a consistent outer body shell and tan leather goodness inside.
I picked... The Naked Carbon Fibre one... I thought it was just black, Now I look like an extra from a Fast and Furious Film, fiddlesticks!
La Sarthe run out
4m15.6 - 1-Seventyseven
4m06.2 - Huayra
Aston was a tough drive. Loads of power, loads of speed, not alot of grip or braking strength. So you can enter a brake zone very quickly but find the front tyres get pulverized by the huge weight of the car and the high speed.
The Pagani was much faster to lap a track with and fractionally easier to balance in the brake zone.
I looked at the stats and the Huayra has lots of advantages over the Aston, less weight, much more torque, magical aero (If I ran ABS I guess I would get even more of an effect of the little canard winglets.)
Looks
Now this may seem like the wrong thing to say about these cars but I am not a huge fan of either of them. The Hyundai concept style floating front bumper on the Aston... Girly wine bar fairy lights... have no place on a car. It also seems "too long" in Ryk's car proportion scale... Looks like a Limo with small wheels that had a sporty body dropped on it... which as a first impression did spoil things for me. (I wanted to like it, honestly!)
The Huayra? It is a car I didn't love at first sight. I like certain bits - the wing mounted "Snail eye" mirrors gives it the look of a slug or maybe an insect. The Quad head lamps. It is a definite step up over the Kardashian Sized Rear on the Zonda. Again the car has wonky proportions and the styling of the body shape towards the rear of the car seems a bit plain.
Engine note
Aston - a bit nasally and doesn't really sound that powerful
Better than the Zonda - but not great.
Handling
Aston Once you get the slowing down bit out of the way the car is quite nice, no overt understeer.
The Huayra has the same base issue as the Aston. Front tyres overworked in the brake zone.
Both cars require you to be gentle as a virgin's first kiss, but the relative lightness of the Pagani lets you corner with much more poise than the ponderous Aston.
Active Aerodynamics...
The Aston has a comedy pop up rear tea tray wing... that slides down when not needed. The Pagani has flip up active canards in the nose and at the back of the car that should give the car much more balance.
---------
Right This isn't really a test of ability. The Pagani smokes the Aston when it comes to actual performance on a track.
Both had woeful brakes and grip. Could be the Super Hard Sport tyres and the top shelf power and the heavy weight (The Huayra isn't that heavy but the tyres and brakes can't live with the speeds the engine was serving up.
Looks - The Aston is okay. A Bit like a catwalk Fashion model... almost alien in how they look, The 1-Seventyseven is nice, a bold brave styling exercise and maybe the stand out bits you would grow to love, but my first taste was the car wetting the bed under brakes at Le Mans.
But this sort of car is about "American" style high speed straight line point to point cruises with no corners to trouble you, much as the Bugatti Veyron or the MercLaren SLR.
Which to pick?
The Pagani - it is left hand drive as it should be; it is an Italian car. The Aston is also left hand drive... which is reprehensible for an English car. And it doesn't have Dark Green Paint? Really Aston... Really? Also first impressions tend to last, and the milk bottle top brakes and the Hyundai front end scuppers the 1-Seventyseven... left hand drive... No Dark GreenPaint ... mumble grumble (Best Danno Ricciardo impression ever)
Ryk recommends by default, the latest comedy clown car from Pagani, the Huayra-tata.
1.3 million... ouch my wallet!
(But a swift 5 lap run in a trusty but rusty TVR Tamora got me 1.1million in the current seasonal on Comfort Softs...