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British
Stig’s Supercar Showdown: wallpapers
Hi-res decoration for your computer from our multi-million pound road trip to Italy
Last month, Top Gear magazine put together a truly unprecedented selection of performance cars on one of the world's best driving roads: Italy's Stelvio Pass.
The fastest production car ever, the Bugatti Veyron Supersport. Ferrari's new FF. The McLaren MP4-12C. Porsche's finest ever 911: the GT3 RS 4.0. Jaguar's new XKR-S. Ariel's mental Atom Mugen. BMW's new accessible thrill machine, the 1M Coupe. The Ford Mustang Boss Laguna Seca. The Zonda F. And a few more besides.
Altogether, a combined value of £3,718,090 and 6,071bhp.
We've got some fine photography from the trip, which many of you have requested as decoration for your computer. So here's the first instalment - we'll add more pics and sizes in the coming days...
Photography: Paul Barshon, Lee Brimble, Justin Leighton
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"It's almost like the designers of the Stelvio Pass electrocuted a snake then simply scaled up the chalky outline of its bucking death"
"At the top end of the range, the Mugen is vicious, rabid and more than a bit terrifying. The only car that gets close to providing the same accelerative thrill is the Veyron."
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"You've probably heard all about this car, but some of the statistics bear repetition. It has an 8.0-litre W16, 1,187bhp, 1,100lb ft of torque and hits 62mph in under 2.5 secs, 0-124 in 6.7, holds the land speed record for a production car at 267.85mph and decelerate from 250mph to zero in less than 10 seconds."
"When the Bugatti slips into handling mode, the rear aerofoil levers itself up and out, like a falcon doing pre-flight yoga, and the body slinks to the floor. Punt the throttle and snap shut the horizon"
"The Veyron is excruciating to follow, mainly because you can be in an enormously fast car and, given the briefest sniff of a straight, the SS will simply expand away with breathtaking arrogance."
"In Italy, parking up a pair of supercars in a town isn't considered an ostentatious display of wealth but an act of public service. If we'd lined up a dozen playboy bunnies wearing nothing but nipple tassels, we couldn't hope to elicit such a frenzied reaction."
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"Though the Ferrari's extra half-tonne of mass means it can't quite match the Z for outright acceleration, but its four-wheel drive means you can attack even the most gravelly bends with the full 660bhp while the Zonda searches for grip."
"The Aventador gets to 62mph in 2.9 seconds, demolishes the speed limit in second gear, gets to 124mph in 8.9 seconds and tops out at 217mph."
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"When you pilot a 12C up a mountain pass, you come to appreciate the superlative all-round vision, the peerless driving position the forensic attention to ergonomic detail. Even the weight of the switches - the clarity of vision proves itself"
"Give the throttle the very lightest of a tickle at a roundabout and it'll find some bumps - the back steps away like it's avoiding a dog turd."
"The Aventador doesn't like crawling along in first gear much. You can sense its 6.5-litre engine - all 691bhp of it - getting the hump at this abuse of its job description."
"The grip is huge, the brakes are indefatigable, the handling full of options: this thing just drips soul"
"Some say he thought Star Wars was a documentary. Which is an acceptable mistake when you've helming a mass-defying SS."
"Some say that if he could be bothered, he could crack the Da Vinci code in 43 seconds. And that his ears have a paisley lining."
"Someone punch me in the face - life isn't going to get much better than this"
"It's far more difficult to engineer a car capable of going fast on any road than one that can merely flatten the Nurburgring production record at the expense of any subtlety or comfort. As an all-round proposition, the Jaguar XKR-S is unsurpassed."
"The McLaren's quick - shockingly so in isolation - but it's nothing compared to the Veyron. The more revs pile on, the harder the Bugatti punches forward. The Super Sports is mind scrabbling. Other worldly. A force multiplier."
"It may be quite bulky by petite rest-of-world standards, and yes, it may have a good old V8 and live-axle rear-wheel drive, but the Boss ‘Stang - especially this even more committed "Laguna Seca" version - is a proper driver's car. And we're not going to qualify that last statement with 'for an American,' either."
"We have the archetypal hot hatch. A four-seat coupe from M-Sport. A Porsche 911 at the apogee of the generational arc. And we have theBugatti Veyron SS. The fastest car on Planet Earth."
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