Had a good day out yesterday with business partner and 6th Gear’s Operations Director Andy Cummings when the guys at Evo Magazine called and asked if they could borrow our Aston Martin DBS and the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 for a blast round the Bedford Autodrome’s West circuit.
The weather was typically crap as per usual for this green and pleasant land, and the track surface greasy with a bit of light rain. Roger Green climbed behind the wheel of the 580bhp Bond car first and hammered it round the tarmac for a good 10 minutes before one final flying lap to set the best time. Then it was the turn of our Lamborghini LP640…Roger quickly getting to grips with the different handling of this four wheeled drive monster. Watching Roger take this Lambo around the track was great fun – this is a guy who has raced the iconic Porsche 962 Le Mans car, and is trying to get a drive this year in the Le Mans classic. Even with its 1650kilo’s and four wheel drive it seemed to struggle around the twisties before spinning once on the bus stop chicane. No matter..Roger was soon off again and flew past the pits on a final fast lap with the howl from that wonderful V12 hanging in the wind.

So which of these awesome V12’s do you think set the fastest lap time? Bear in mind the Lambo LP640 can hit 215mph and 0-60mph in 4 seconds, the Aston DBS 190mph and 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds. Both are a similar weight.
Well be surprised, because the DBS trounced the LP640 by a fair margin…
Interesting, but the LP640’s power band really comes into it’s own above 5000rpm but when it does hit that magic number this Lambo absolutely flies, it really is astonishing. However the DBS is much more linear – a good spread of power throughout the rev range and considering the wet weather it just got the power down better on this occasion.
So what would it have been like in the dry?

I reckon it would have been a different story…

Simon George