Aston's million-pound player

More details are emerging about Aston’s million-pound One-77. It’s been known for a while that just 77 of the hand-built, carbon-fibre supercars will be made, but now we’re told it will be powered by a 700bhp, 7-litre derivation of its Ford-designed 6-litre V12 and will weigh just 1500kg, giving it a similar power-to-weight ratio to a Bugatti Veyron.

No top speed has been quoted but it gets pretty meaningless at this level: if it were a sufficiently important factor to chase, 230mph is clearly within the scope of such a car, but Aston will probably want more downforce than such a body would likely provide. Even so, it seems clear the first true 200mph Aston will soon be with us.