my inquisitory sideways glance, grimaces, and half apologises: “Sorry, I am a nervous passenger. This is my baby, and I get very nervous.” Quite understandable.

Pagani’s Zonda C12 S is, after all, a rare species. One-point-two million dollars. Say it fast and it’s easy to dismiss, but after a day touring the factory, watching the handful of Italian women carefully cut and brush the resin into the carbon fibre weave before baking it in the on-site autoclave, there is some weird sense of value in that figure. This is truly one of the world’s finest, fastest, fantastic supercars.

The Zonda runs a V12, like a Murciélago, but at 7.3-litres it’s more than a full litre larger. Its 414kW may be 12kW down on the Lambo, but its 750Nm is 100Nm more than both the Lambo and a V12 Ferrari Enzo. And the Zonda weighs the same as an Astra SRi Turbo, with a power-to-weight ratio tiny enough to make a Gallardo owner go gaga.