I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but to get a really quick time, you’ve got to seriously smoke the tyres, get bags of heat into them and then do your run, winced TVR pr man Ben Samuelson.

This car had done just 200 miles and, apart from Ben and one engineer, we were the first people to drive it. And there was Ben, telling us to give it death. Excellent. Angus and me hopped in, grinning broadly, ready to do just that.

Smoke plumed off the protesting rear tyres all the way through first, second and into third gear a Michael Jackson entrance produces less. The tyres, we could safely assume, were warm.

But getting a quick time was still not easy. The throttle was ultra sensitive and the brand new 4.5 litre 420bhp AJP V8 engine spun up eagerly a touch too eagerly a fine balance between bogging down or turning into a smoke machine again.

Snaking away from a standstill, the engine screamed up to 7,200rpm with-in three seconds. Then a red light flashed at the base of the rev counter and a beeper warning me to shift quickly. The noise is extraordinary imagine a live Grand Prix in your pants and you’re still nowhere near.

Another couple of seconds, another gearchange, then another and another. And then, within 30 seconds of that frenzied start, it was all over we’d run out of runway and the brakes were hauling us down from 165mph.

We stopped to study the laptop computer screen of our timing gear and were amazed. We could feel that the Cerbera was quicker than all the oth-ers, but didn’t expect the blitzing it gave the Viper and Aston.

Even though we never really got a perfect start, the 0-60mph time of 4.33 seconds wasn’t bad. But it was only after this, when the tyres were gripping roperly, that the Cerbera got into its stride. It hit 100mph in just 8.78 seconds (1.5 seconds ahead of the Viper), 120mph in 12.22 (three seconds clear of the Chrysler) and 150mph in a stunning 18.71 seconds, by which time it was over six seconds clear of the Viper and nearly eight ahead of the Aston. And what’s more it was still accelerating. Hard.

There’s nowhere near enough room here to top out this 4.5, but at least 180mph seemed reasonable. Pick any Porsche other than a GT1 or any Ferrari short of an F50, and the Cerbera will simply blow it into the weeds. It’s that fast.

As if that wasn’t enough, it’s the best-handling TVR yet. It’s much stiffer than previous cars, there’s a beefier anti-roll bar and a Hydratrak limited slip diff to aid traction, yet it still rides acceptably. It turns in as sharply as the Viper, but without the feeling that a huge spin is imminent. The steering feedback is ace and the chassis is almost infinitely adjustable on the power.

It’s the most fun, best balanced, most driftable car on the airfield. The brakes are already incredibly strong and fade-free while full production versions will have even more powerful stoppers and they’ll run on bigger 17 inch rims, too.