Lamborghini Murcielago

We're aboard the clutch pedal-less manual E-gear model here, which is slightly disappointing - I'd always choose a manual over even the best of these paddle-shift systems. Changing gear is an event when you have an open gate, and your brain imprints the motion of each change, so you remember where you are in the 'box.

Not here - one flick is the same as another, so it would take a while to get to know the car and the engine revs at various speeds. Not to worry, flick the right-hand paddle toward you - right is up, left is down - and the automatic clutch engages smoothly, moving the big car away.

Let's clack the badass throttle pedal all the way to the badass cabin floor as soon as she's warm. Now we're moving. I drove the previous Murciélago - and the Diablo and Countach before that - and this thing is much, much faster. Not sure whether it clicked with you how new and wonderful this Murciélago in LP640 form is, but take it from me, it is properly rapid, a mind-shattering car.

The engine revs smoothly and quickly. There's plenty of torque down low, then as the needle rips up the rev range, things start to get hairy - the howl gets deeper, the thrust harder and suddenly the 'box has changed up for you at about 8,000rpm - 62mph arrives in 3.4secs, 0.4secs quicker than its predecessor. Badass.

Cornering is epic. The balance is largely neutral and you never get the impression the car is particularly heavy. It changes direction with great confidence, and the steering transmits an amazing amount of feel, especially when you get to the point when the tyres start to make a soft 'swish' sound and you approach the limit of adhesion.

That's when you need the steering to communicate with you and it does, lightening up just enough to let you know you're about to run short of grip. Grab another gear in this state and the nose jerks inward quite violently as the throttle comes off, but not enough to unsettle the tail - there's too much grip for that.

Probably the best way to slide this car on dry tarmac would be to trail-brake into a corner - the brakes seem to have enough rear bias to encourage that sort of behaviour, but you'd be going so fast at entry that you'd need a track to prove it. Or at least, I would. Speeds are very high when you get to the limit of these tyres (13 inches wide at the rear).

The cockpit remains relatively quiet and free of buffeting, no matter what speed you're doing, but taller drivers will get a slightly uncomfortable blast of air to the very top of their heads - that air was hitting my noggin at pretty high speeds on the way back to Santa Ana, but at no point was I anything other than comfortable.

At one stage, as the road opened out into a long downhill straight dotted with very little traffic, even the idiot that is yours truly thought twice about trying for 205mph. But the car was still accelerating hard at unmentionable speed, and with no roof and the glorious wail of the big V12 bouncing off the Armco, 205mph seemed superfluous. You only need 60mph.

No supercar gets close to this thing, and possibly never will. Maybe we've reached a zenith here - maybe the Germans will put too much German-ness into the Murciélago's replacement. I won't (and you probably won't) ever have the sort of wealth to be able to throw away £200,000 on a car. But anyone who is that lucky should put the LP640 on their list.

It makes the Gallardo Roadster seem about as hard as a Kia Picanto 1.0S. It really is that badass.

Bill Thomas