Aston Martin Vantage vs Ferrari Roma vs McLaren Artura

Like the Aston, the Roma features a forced-induction V8 and an eight-speed gearbox (a dual-clutch auto here, rather than a torque converter) that combine to drive the rear wheels. It also has a powered cloth covering (with five-layer insulation, no less), but at 13.5sec to stow or open, it’s the most sluggish here.

For jaw-dropping kerb appeal, both the Ferrari and Aston have to give best to the bright orange McLaren, which has a magnetic attraction to smartphone-wielding supercar spotters. Acting as the outlier in this contest, the carbonfibre-tubbed Woking wonder goes about its business of delivering fast fresh-air thrills in a very different way.

Not only is its engine mid-mounted, the 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 has the smallest capacity and the fewest cylinders. Moreover, the McLaren Artura is also a hybrid, and a plug-in one at that. That means both 21 miles of electric running and a combined power output of 690bhp, making the Spider the spiciest of our sun-seekers.

Speaking of which, McLaren favours a folding hard-top (actually it’s more of a targa panel) for the Artura, which means its convertible conversion adds the fewest extra kilos – the roof and associated mechanism weigh 62kg for an overall kerb weight of 1560kg.

Next up is the Ferrari, which at 1556kg (Maranello only quotes a ‘dry’ figure, so let’s say somewhere around 1600-and-a-bit with fluids) weighs 84kg more than its coupé cousin. Heaviest Hector is the Aston, which is a scale-creaking 1805kg all in.

Perhaps the Aston’s extra avoirdupois is down to its lavishly trimmed cabin, which is slathered in soft leather and rich-feeling materials.

As a result, it matches the more expensive Roma for club-class appeal, each giving you the feeling that you’ve climbed into an expensively tailored suit – although only the Fezza offers four-up practicality.

The McLaren, on the other hand, feels a little minimalist by comparison, although it’s nicely finished, with plenty of Alcantara and carbon fibre accents.

Okay, that’s the showroom tyre-kicking done; it’s time to get moving. On the drive westwards to our mid-Wales destination, it’s the long-legged Ferrari that draws first blood: its mix of plush damping and remarkable roof-up refinement make it the most relaxed cruiser – the only intrusion is the distant backbeat of the V8.

The Aston can’t compete. Its adaptive dampers remain fairly uncompromising in all modes, leading to a fidgety firmness that means the Vantage struggles to settle.

Surprisingly, the McLaren comes closest to matching the Roma’s cushioned ride. Its low-speed stiffness (even in the dampers’ so est setting) gives way to a supple yet tautly controlled gait.

The downside is that the carbon tub transmits a fair bit of road noise. Top down, there’s little between the three when it comes to keeping your hairdo unharmed: each one opens you up to the elements with surprisingly little buffeting from fast-flowing air.

Each has a wind deflector that can be deployed to help keep the cabin calm, although the Ferrari’s set-up is rather Heath Robinson in its operation – it can be automatically activated at the touch of a button but requires you to twist around in your seat and manually push it back into place when no longer needed.

Best is the McLaren’s powered glass window, which can be lowered with the roof in place to allow some open-air vibes even in inclement weather. To get the best out of this trio, however, you’ll want to travel topless most of the time – and today’s fine weather demands it.

Not only does it add the extra stimulation of the sights and smells of the great outdoors, but it also gets you closer to the aural action – and no car here puts on a greater sonic show than the bombastic Vantage.

This isn’t one of the all-time great vocalists (think Lemmy from Motörhead rather than Annie Lennox), but the way it barks, pops and cracks never fails to elicit a giggle – although extended and use in shouty Sport+ mode could land you with an asbo.

It has substance to match the sounds, too, and despite the need to move a lot of mass, the Aston’s 656bhp V8 accelerates with a muscular, deep-chested urgency.

The sense of instant energy is enhanced by the carefully chosen and closely stacked ratios of the Roadster’s eight-speed automatic gearbox. It can’t quite match the whip-crack ratio changes of the dual-clutch units used in the Roma and Artura, but it offers greater smoothness and civility in low-speed manoeuvres.

That said, neither the Aston nor the Ferrari can match the McLaren’s all-electric party trick, which makes early morning getaways less wearisome for your neighbours. The novelty of being able to slip silently through city traffic never really wears off in the Artura, and it’s a USP that will endear it to many who will use these cars for more than high days and holidays.

Better still, when the V6 does fire into life, it reveals itself as one of the firm’s sweeter-sounding units. The older V8s have a certain industrial quality to their delivery, but the Artura Spider’s engine takes on an ear-pleasingly harmonious howl as it spins quickly and eagerly towards 8000rpm. And, boy, is it fast.

By using its 94bhp electric motor to add low-speed torque, the McLaren avoids the laggy wait-and-whoosh that characterises the firm's other wares, meaning there’s instant get-up-and-go in any gear and at any revs: the Artura is a proper card-carrying supercar.

With 612bhp the Roma looks a little weak-kneed in this company, and there’s no denying that in an all-out, hell-for-leather sprint the Fezza would come home in third spot. Yet all things are relative, and anyone feeling short-changed by the Spider’s accelerative abilities needs their adrenal gland checked for signs of drought.

It’s not the most musical of Maranello’s motors – it sounds more like a couple of fruity four-pots stitched together – but the firm’s mastery of turbocharging means it has an almost naturally aspirated response and appetite for revs that encourages you to work for your rewards.

Of our topless triumvirate, it’s the Roma that should be the least focused and fun in the corners, owing to Ferrari’s assertion that the Spider is more of a GT than the fine-handling coupé version.

Its bodyshell’s static rigidity has been reduced by 30% as a result of roof removal, and the adaptive dampers have been slackened across the board to compensate.

And yet… If anything, the Roma’s more forgiving suspension, especially in Bumpy Road mode, makes it feel right at home on the UK’s raggedy highways, and that offsets some of the admittedly very minimal scuttle shake.

It’s almost as if Ferrari’s chassis engineers have spent as much time on this route out of Llanidloes as they have lapping Fiorano. It sounds like damning with faint praise, but there’s something of a supersized Mazda MX-5 about the way the Spider slices through corners: the Ferrari’s so yet beautifully controlled chassis allows you to more clearly feel the car approaching its limits and so more confidently exploit its natural balance.

The steering is quick and light but not flighty, which allows you to place the nose of the car just so. And as the cornering forces build and your confidence grows, you can use the V8’s predictable power delivery to subtly alter your cornering angle with a delicate right foot.

Yet it’s the way the Ferrari flows down the road, working with the surface rather than against it, that really impresses. Climb into the Aston Martin immediately afterwards and the contrast couldn’t be clearer.

There’s the same classic front-engined, rear-wheel-drive balance that allows you to throw some oversteery shapes on corner exit, but the Vantage is a more overtly aggressive proposition that leaves you in no doubt that it wants to be taken seriously as a sports car.

There’s no more feedback through the steering compared with the Roma, but it requires more muscle to turn. You also get a smidge less understeer: the Vantage’s nose responds more quickly and crisply.

At sensible speeds, it feels a fraction more agile and alert, and that sense is underlined by a damping set-up that veers between stiff in baseline Sport mode and brainshakingly rigid in Track.

In all settings, the extra firmness highlights the slightly weaker shell (the Roadster’s structure shakes the most over bumps), which also results in quite a few creaks and squeaks from the cabin architecture.

Go a little harder over these bucking and weaving Welsh roads and the Aston’s mass starts to tell. You sense the Vantage’s brakes working harder to slow it down, while mid-corner bumps and crests cause brief heart-in-mouth moments as the suspension skips over rather than soaks up imperfections, causing a little step sideways that leaves the already wide Aston with even less margin for error on its side of the road.

It’s an exciting and extroverted thing but, like a manic comedian who’s always ‘on’, it can become tiring. Slip into the McLaren’s trademark low-slung driving position and you know you’re behind the wheel of a proper driver’s car.

The straight-legged layout, perfectly placed and slim-rimmed steering wheel and panoramic view ahead make you feel right at home immediately. With its carbon-fibre tub, the Spider is also pretty much as structurally solid as the coupé, which is our reigning Britain’s Best Driver’s Car champ, and that means this drop-top is every bit as brilliant to punt down these wicked Welsh roads.

It offers a very different experience from its rivals here, though. The Artura is perhaps the most expressive McLaren yet, but its dizzyingly high limits mean on-the-road pleasure is derived not from its ability to be steered at will by your right foot but in its tactility and precision.

The hydraulically assisted steering offers exceptional weighting and feel, writhing gently in your hands, while there’s an equally uninhibited flow of information through the seat of your pants.

With a low polar moment of inertia and Gorilla Glue grip, the Artura doesn’t really do understeer or oversteer on the road: you simply point the nose where you want to go and the rest of the car follows in a beautifully neutral stance.

It’s hugely satisfying, but there’s also a sense you’re scratching the surface and that to really extend and exploit the Spider you need the gloves-off, helmet-on environs of a circuit. Does that undermine the McLaren’s bid for victory in this company?