I am prepared for people to think I have a tiny penis...

...if that's the result of owning one of these...

Although I actually suspect that wouldn't be the case - not with an Aston. Ferrari, yes; Lamborghini, quite probably, but Aston Martin, probably not.

What an incredible car though...the other day I got to have a go in a V8 Vantage, and although I have been in love with that car since its inception, I was still bowled over by its awesomeness. They should rename it the V8 Awesome. And then there's the V12...just look at the thing! It's like the V8 Vantage, but just more so in every way, including on the awesome front. One thing that really surprised me driving the V8 was how easy it was to drive and user-friendly it was, hiding its power to some extent (except for when I got it going sideways around one of the corners). Then again, it has a 'mere' 380hp, as it wasn't the latest iteration of the car (that one has 420hp), so in supercar terms, it isn't massively powerful. The V12 Vantage, on the other hand, has 510hp, and is designed to be a much harder-edged and focussed machine. And obviously, I want to drive one, and I want to own one. As the guy giving the briefing the other day said, with the Aston, he doesn't always know whether to drive it or stroke it.

At the same time, I also want one of these beauties. And best make it the V10 version - wouldn't want to settle for 'just' 420hp, when I could have 518 afterall! Again, this Audi is a stunning looking thing, albeit in a slightly more fussy and technical way than the Aston. But it looks like a batmobile, which makes it immediately desirable in my eyes. Specced up the way I want it, the Audi comes in at around 125,000 pounds, which is an eye-wateringly painful price tag, particularly from a manufacturer that also produces hundreds of thousands of 'normal' cars each year. So the Aston V12 Vantage costs more, but it is from a small-volume manufacturer that exclusively builds this kind of vehicle, so that's to be expected.

I was asked the other day which car (of these two) I'd have, should I have to choose, and I immediately went for the Aston Martin. I've not driven the R8, but from what I've read and what I know of Audi, I believe it would be a wonderful machine to pilot either on the road or round a track, and that, technically, it's virtually perfect. It's also gorgeous, unique and sounds amazing. The Aston Martin, in either V8 or V12 guise, is a flawed machine. It isn't as quick as the Audi, nor does it handle as well. In bright sunlight, you can barely read the gauges in the instrument binnacle, and instead of a key, you get the ridiculous ECU, or 'Emotional Control Unit', a block of etched glass that you push into a slot on the dashboard and push to start the car, at which point it glows red. But that is part of the Aston's charm...it has soul in a way the Audi could never manage. Each car is hand-built, in England, and when you buy one new, you have to go and pick it up from the factory. No matter that the Audi R8 is rare, it can't make you feel special the way the Aston Martin can, and there's just a certain something to knowing you have an Aston.

However, at the end of the day, I wouldn't want to choose - I want both!