AMG ONE VS THE REAL WORLD

Yep, we drove the AMG on the road too... and lived to tell the tale

- TOM FORD

The messaging from the AMG then, is mixed. If you know the technical backstory, what happens next won't come as such a surprise, but if your experience has only been visual, taking in the sleek bodywork and awkward but manageable access, start up is going to come as quite the shock.

Not for the fact that from cold you have to wait 50-60 seconds for the cats to preheat, but that once they have I've never come across a car that sounds quite as broken at idle. It honestly made me think the crankshaft had snapped and was busily churning the engine internals to pieces. It's awful. It turns out Lewis Hamilton won F1 championships with something that brought the sounds of a construction site to the pitlane.

We're at Thruxton. It's everything a Tilke track isn't. Gritty, intimidating and puckeringly fast with zero friendly runoff.

We've come here because it's the UK's fastest circuit and we want to feel the downforce. An F1 car has been here but only once.

In 1993 Damon Hill used his Williams FW15C to set an all time lap record of 57.6secs at an average speed of 147mph. Dearie me.

Honestly, if you haven't been, come here, do one of the track experiences and while you're bricking yourself through the endless right after Noble, ponder that lap time.

It's pouring with rain and both are wearing barely there track tyres... since neither Jethro or I fancy a trip across Thruxton's endless grass we amuse ourselves by weighing the cars. Full of fuel the Valkyrie comes in at 1,340kg, the One at 1,745kg. Now 405kg more is a lot. But let's put this in context. The Valkyrie is a simple car - rear drive, V12 dominant and as stripped bare as a prison cell. It is a wheeled self-flagellation chamber (only there's no room to swing the whip). Yes, the AMG has a smaller engine, but then there are the additions, most notably a pair of front electric motors and a much bigger battery pack (8.4kWh versus 1.3).