Bugatti, Pagani, Aston or McLaren: where would your £1.5m go?

Next month, lots of lovely cars are going under the hammer at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale. So many lovely cars, that you might be spoilt for choice. If you’ve got circa £1.5million to spend, you really will be.

That’s because four hypercar icons from the last ten years are all being auctioned for that sort of money, the very last Bugatti Veyron Super Sport included.

There’s an argument that if you can afford one, you can afford them all, but we’re going to make that null and void: you must choose your favourite, the one place your virtual £1.5m (or thereabouts) would go.

Flick through the pictures for details of them all – it helps to research these decisions fully, no matter how virtual your spending money is – and let us know your pick below…

Images: Bonhams

Sure, the Chiron is the poster car at the moment. But it wouldn’t exist if the Veyron hadn’t laid the foundations beforehand, and until the Chiron goes officially for a high-speed record, this is faster.

The Super Sport hit 267mph in front of the official Guinness adjudicators; the Chiron claims a paltry 261mph for now, with something closer to 300mph likely during its lifetime should the tyre world be able to produce rubber strong enough.

This particular Veyron comes in a striking black and red colour scheme and a scant 350 miles since new. It’s not even run in. You might want to avoid hitting the red line for the first 1,000 miles or so, then to avoid engine damage.

You might also want to avoid hitting the red line after the first 1,000 miles or so, to avoid the kinds of speeds that involve going to jail for an indefinite amount of time…

The estimate? A princely £1.7m to £1.8million.

If you always preferred art to maths at school, then this is likely to appeal more than the Veyron. Supercars get no more intricately sculptured than this.

The Huayra was the twin-turbocharged replacement to the screaming Zonda. That the Zonda still continues production might convince you it hasn’t quite hit the spot, yet the estimated value of this one would suggest otherwise.

It’s a bit more used than the Veyron, with 7,650 miles under its belt. It’s one of a mere four UK-bound Huayras, so you’ll likely never see another. Nor ever learn how to correctly pronounce its name.

Over the Zonda, the Huayra gained lots of active aero and a new, though still AMG-sourced engine, a 6.0-litre V12 producing a not unhealthy 720bhp and 737lb ft. Expect fuel and tyre bills to be sizeable.

Pagani’s engines are hand-built at the AMG factory near Stuttgart – just like every other AMG engine – but while you could own several AMG GT Rs, each with its V8 built by someone different, only one man is trusted to piece Pagani’s allocated engines together. His name is Michael Kübler, and naturally it’s scrawled across this Huayra’s V12.

Want it in your life? It’s a wee bit cheaper than the Veyron, with an estimate of £1.3m to £1.6million. More money in reserve for that fuel and tyre supply.

And now for something a little bit different. You’d forgotten about the One-77 hadn’t you? It launched long before Aston’s big revival and current, unstoppable product push.

It did so with – at the time – the world’s most powerful naturally aspirated engine, its 750bhp only beaten relatively recently by the Ferrari 812 Superfast. The new Aston Martin DBS Superleggera employs a pair of turbos but produces a mere 715bhp. How does it even move?

The One-77 also launched with the idea that each of the 77 produced were completely unique. You told Aston how you wanted it to drive, and they’d tweak and tune it to your tastes (and abilities).

As if that wasn’t enough, a select seven of them were even more bespoke, dubbed the One-77 Q Series. One of those is up for auction at Goodwood, finished in Frost White with Kestrel Tan leather. We presume the name refers to its colour, rather than source material. Otherwise, poor Kes…

“Including Aston Martin's development team, a handful of journalists, the original owners and - perhaps - their family and close friends, probably fewer 200 people have ever experienced what it is like to drive a One-77,” reads the advert.

The cost of adding your name to the list? Bonhams’ estimate is £1.65m to £1.8million.

Did you know it’s over five years since McLaren launched the P1? Do you feel as old as we do right now?

It probably needs little introduction, as one corner of the hybrid hypercar triangle. Its combination of twin-turbo V8 and electric power yielded 903bhp, and allowed a 217mph top speed yet 34mpg fuel economy. Not, we hasten to add, at the same time…

Gathering it together with its contemporary rivals – the Porsche 918 Spyder and LaFerrari – was said to be an impossible task, but in 2015 we managed to move not only heaven, but the Earth too, making the world’s most outrageous comparison test come to life.

While we picked our own winner on the day, you can make a case for any of them. They each use their electrical assistance in slightly different ways. The P1, on the most part, uses it to frighten the absolute life out of you and make sure your palms are never anything below ‘clammy’.