ferrari 599 xx

Using Top Gear Maths, we've concluded that DRS makes your life exactly 93.5 per cent better*.

And thus, the new Ferrari 599XX with the Evolution package - that includes a mighty rear wing with a movable flap - makes you a better human being. It's a good thing Ferrari only allows you to operate said DRS on the 599XX Evo seven times a year, because your life would otherwise be spent slipstreaming supercars and gloating mercilessly to your peers. All day long.

Confused? The new Evo is, of course, part of Ferrari's XX programme; that series of set events at special race circuits across Europe where the lucky owners of the XX cars - 599XX, XX Evo and the Enzo-based Ferrari FXX - get to drive their cars and actually ‘work' for Ferrari.

The third round has just finished at Monza, in Italy, and owners were given five driving sessions, helped by a group of engineers and professional wheel warriors teaching them racing lines and the specific handling nuances of their million-pound machines.

Naturally, the ‘work' part comes in the post-race debrief, where Ferrari collate data to help develop its future model range. You had better hope those drivers are good...

Ferrari's XX programme will hit Silverstone on 14-16 September (more details here), so if you want to see the FXX and Evo powering around, there's your chance. Oh, and Ferrari will also be attempting to reclaim the Guinness World Record for the Largest Parade of Ferrari Cars at the same gathering. They're going for over 500 - so if you're a current owner here's your chance to enter the record books. For the rest of us, that's going to be a sight worth beholding...

Porsche 918 Spyder

To the uninitiated, the addition of a racing-style livery on the new Porsche 918 Spyder merely underlines the hybrid supercar's Nürburgring credentials. But those in the know will appreciate the subtle nod to Porsche's very own 917; a model once described as the greatest racing car in history, and one that took the Le Mans crown two years in a row.

Viewed as such, the addition of this livery is less a reflection of glory, more a trumpeting of intent: this car is serious on the business of performance.

But then we already knew that, because we've already had a shotgun ride in a very, very, very early prototype. Porsche has now released these lovely pictures of its upcoming halo model to let us know the first prototypes have been finished, and unlike the car we got to sit in, sports a body. A full carbon fibre reinforced plastic monocoque. That's good.

You should of course, know everything there is to know about the Porsche 918 Spyder, but if you need a quick recap, click here. It's got a 4.6-litre V8 that revs to 9,000rpm; its got two electric motors; it's a four-wheel-drive, 770hp green machine.

Oh, and about those Nürburgring credentials: Porsche reckons it will lap the terrifyingly green and terrifyingly terrifying circuit in 7m 22secs. That's ten whole seconds quicker than a Carrera GT. Reasonably fast, then.

Porsche Boxster S

Let's cut to the chase; new Boxster is very, very good. We've been testing the car across Germany for a couple of days and even on the worst backroads the Black Forest has to offer, and it manages to suck up bumps and deliver it's power in way that constantly impresses. It's incredibly grown-up, acting like a big car when it really shouldn't, flipping modes into a fun little roadster when it gets twistier. The suspension really is a bit of a wonder, and the engine in this S revving steplessly sweetly right up to the 7,800rpm - making for many happy faces in the cockpit. It stops on a short dime, using carbon brakes nicked direct from the new 911. Seriously, it'll uncrease your face when you really try. And driven properly you can pick up some serious pace. It's a very, very comforting car to go fast in. Sorry, kind of spoiled the ending there, but you get the idea: new Boxster is better than old Boxster, and old Boxster wasn't half bad.

It comes in two guises, straight Boxster with a 2.7, 265bhp and 207lb ft of torque, or as this S with a 3.4, 315bhp and 266lb ft. The basic format is the same; fabric roof, two-seat roadster with a mid-mounted flat-six and rear wheel drive. The standard transmission is a six-speed manual, with the optional PDK weighing in at £1,922. The roof operates in just 9 seconds, is one-touch, good-looking up or down and insulated up to its eyeballs, so it feel as good as a tin-top on the motorway or pootling around the countryside. The super light magnesium frame that forms the top section now acts as the ‘lid' when folded, so there's no separate covering section - saving a 12kgs of weight and visually lengthening the profile in the process; the back of the Boxster now looks a bit less... porky, roof down.

The styling is sharper, neater and not at all like a Toyota MR2 MkIII in the metal. There are new headlights, front end, side intakes and clipped rear end with a Carrera GT-ish ridgeline running through the rear lamps and around the bodywork, neatly hiding a pop-up rear spoiler. It's longer in the wheelbase, but with a shaved front overhang that stops it looking bigger, and there's a tautness to the design - especially in darker colours - that makes it look solid but deft. Wheels are big: standard Boxster comes with 18s, the S has 19s and there are even optional 20s (huge).

The body itself is made from a fairly conservative mix of steel and alloy, but the doors, bonnet and rear luggage compartment lid are all wrought from unalloyed aluminium. Despite more kit, the Boxster S actually weighs some 30kg less than the old version, even with the heavy PDK ‘box.

Ah yes. The PDK. The Boxster S we've been driving has absolutely every option on it.: PDK, PASM, PTV, PCCB, PSM, and Sport Chrono. Adjustable suspension, active engine mounts (previously only seen in the 911), torque-vectoring, intelligent traction control and stability. The PDK is brilliant but a little overwhelming - a great auto, fun when going fast, but a bit uninvolving when you want to really drive the little roadster. Similarly, the new electro-mechanical steering is pin-sharp, accurate and just a little numb. None of this stuff is bad as such, it just feels very mature, much more like you'd expect in a bigger car (like a 911, plucking a Thing From Nowhere). All of which makes for a measurably ‘better' car (more refinement, more efficiency), but just edges the Boxster up a class and away from simple roadster fun.

So it's brilliant, the new Boxster. Still best in class and massively satisfying. But there's a sneaking feeling that a 2.7 Boxster with the standard 6-speed manual might be the more intuitive - and immediately easier to fall for - car. I've just got to get my hands on one to let you know.

lamborghini aventador

I have seen fear, and it is orange. The keys are in it; the scissor door is open; the engine is thumping away happily in that slightly lo-fi, muted way that cars do when sat on new snow and... everyone is avoiding the Aventador. I've seen a couple of people approach it with eager eyes, look up and down the road, pause for a moment and back away. As if any sudden movement might provoke attack. Then again, if you were here on this -20 degree morning, a full-fat moon still hanging tubbily in the sky, you'd understand.

Access to our ice track is down some distance of hilly, snowy track that has apparently been chewed through by a plough with deliberately jagged edges, leaving bluish knives of ice at the fringes. The margin leaves only three inches of clearance either side of the 2.2-metre-wide LP700-4. Grip is on the low side of marginal, pedestrians adopting a kind of low-gravity shuffle, arms out and fingers spread, like bulky tightrope walkers, and even cars on studs require a little fizz of wheelspin when they pull away. You get the feeling that getting it wrong isn't so much a matter of time, but a matter of the severity of the inevitable. So most members of the Top Gear team are opting for something a little less expensive, obvious and... feral to begin the first morning of the first day. There has been an unseemly scuffle over the keys to the Range Rover. Thing is, someone has to drive the Lambo. We need to find out if four-wheel drive allows you to actually use a car like this in an environment extreme enough to hobble an elk. What - as they so ominously tend to say - could possibly go wrong?

Audi R8 V10 R-Tronic

Audi hasn't transformed the R8 by adding a pair of cylinders. Not like Porsche transforms the 911 by adding a pair of turbos anyway. No, the R8 V10 is basically an R8 V8 that's faster, a little grippier, and better equipped.

Which means it's the perfect everyday-use supercar. A Gallardo (with which the Audi shares an engine) is too noisy to be more than a special-occasions car. And if ‘everyday' includes the British winter, well you won't want to be getting by on 2WD.

The 525bhp engine has an astonishing spread of power, pulling hard from low in the rev range and getting pregressively and implausibly stronger all the way to an 8,700rpm red-line.

And the magical, predictable, transparent handling of the V8 car isn't messed up by the extra power. This is a car that always seems to be on your side.

The launch price looks high, but at least it doesn't need any extras. The R Tronic and the carbon-ceramic brakes are both a waste of money unless you want to do track days. And actually this isn't a track-day car.

Bentley Continental GTC SS ISR

Built to celebrate Kankkunen's world ice speed record, this Bentley Conti GTC Supersports ISR is not one for the shy and retiring. Even Bentley describes it as ‘dramatically extrovert'.

Red is the order of the day in the ISR, which is limited to 100 cars worldwide. There are red graphics down the flanks (you can delete these), red inserts in the bonnet vents, red weave in the carbon fibre on the dash. Even the Breitling clock has a red accent. Thankfully, the leather upgrades, like the soft-grip steering wheel and diamond-quilted Alcantara on the doors and seats, are not red. Good.

What's amazing about this car is that even though it's the most powerful Bentley ever - 631bhp and 590lb ft - this Supersports ISR version of the now superseded GTC (a heavily facelifted model was launched recently) still rides and drives with huge refinement. You'd never think it was on 20in wheels the way the car absorbs bumps.

But the ISR version doesn't alter any of these mechanical bits. So all you end up with is an over-the-top GTC Supersports - far better to save the £7,200 premium and just buy a normal version. Especially as the record it commemorates has since been broken.

Audi R8 V10 GT Spyder

This must be the ultimate Audi R8. Must be, as it wears the biggest price tag - a mighty 158,145 of your British pounds. So it stands to reason the R8 GT Spyder must be a hell of a car, a step up from the V8 and V10, a hardcore roadster to show the likes of the Merc SLS Roadster and Ferrari 458 Spider a thing or two.

The extra cash - £41,435 over and above the standard V10 Spyder - buys you 85kg less, if that makes sense. Audi has cut weight to 1,640kg, which is commendable, although you might be surprised at how the savings work out. The front splitter, rear spoiler and rear bumper together save 5.5kg. Add to that a thinner-skinned bonnet (minus 2.4kg), and you have the same 7.9kg saving as has been achieved by using thinner carpets inside. Yes, all that carbon and aluminium work adds up to the same as having a slightly balder sheep in the footwell. The only major weight-saving comes from the less comfortable - but 31kg lighter - fixed bucket seats.

The GT Spyder ensures you're aware of the weight reduction, thanks to the fact your eye cannot rest on anything that isn't carbon fibre. This is just as well, because aside from that and those moulded chairs, it's hard to tell you're not in a standard V10.

And, yes, that means that you don't really feel the extra 34bhp, liberated by a simple engine-management tweak. The V10 hurls itself down the road convincingly enough, but the smooth, rich, surprisingly relaxed character of the engine hasn't changed. Nor has the noise. The GT neither acts nor sounds like a fire-spitting savage, and part of us is a bit sorry about that.

So, a mild engine upgrade, no new exhaust, no new gearbox. The GT only comes with the R tronic sequential manual, and that's just not good enough when all around have instant-shifting double-clutchers. Full-throttle shifts have you lurching and are bad enough to force you to lift the throttle as you pull the paddle, just to smooth things out.

And aside from a 10mm drop and minor camber change, nothing's been done to the suspension, either. Which means the GT handles and drives the same as every other R8 model. In many ways, this is a good thing, because few mid-engined cars are as supple, balanced and friendly. The GT rides beautifully, has a little warning understeer, sweet steering and is a pleasurable car to drive. But so is a standard R8, and there's the rub...

The R8 GT Spyder isn't a hardcore roadster but a highly expensive trim upgrade, much like the difference between Sport and S line in Audi's lesser models. Yes, it comes with a load of standard kit, including superb ceramic brakes, and only 333 are being made, with just 66 destined for the UK. But, for our money, this is too high a price for the exclusivity.