19 Nov 07
When this thing is pulling maximum g in any direction, the last thing you have time to do is look at the instruments. With four-wheel drive, all the power goes straight to the road, even in first gear, so if you do nothing more than plant your right hoof on the throttle as hard as you can you'll rocket away from rest and pass 60mph very little more than three seconds later.
Find the space and apparently the Reventon will keep kicking until it's doing 211mph but, on crowded Italian roads in the only functioning Reventon currently in existence, it wasn't something I felt inclined to find out for myself. I was very content simply squirting it through its lower gears, marvelling at how that massive engine, sited just behind my right ear, would spin past 8,000rpm with the ease of something 10 times smaller installed in a motorbike. And, on the right road, it has savage, intoxicating speed.
The colossal carbon-ceramic brakes are so strong that you worry less about accruing silly velocity than you would in a more conventional car because you know you can lose it again in little more than the blink of an eye. And in open curves its 335/30 ZR18 Pirelli tyres offer so much grip you feel a huge hand has wrapped itself around and is trying to tug you out of the side of the car.
Clearly, its mammoth size means it's not intended for urban use, but you'd not be enjoying the car to the full if you did not venture into a town centre once in a while just to watch the reaction it gets. Jaws drop, fingers point and people walk into things. Oddly they don't seem too keen on actually getting that close to it, preferring to keep a safe distance from something you'd not be too surprised to discover comes with a lethal forcefield around it as standard.
