conaero
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Having revealed some of his astonishing car collection to the world on last Sunday's Top Gear (even letting James May drive his Ferrari 250 GT California), Chris Evans must have decided that he needed to surpass himself...
...so he went to the shops in the conspicuous Italian hypercar you see above. He's difficult to make out behind the dark windscreen, but that's definitely Chris Evans driving his (presumably recently purchased) Maserati MC12 up there.
Pictured in London today, Evans is one of only 50 people in the world that can possibly have an MC12; in 2004 Maserati made 30 of them, then the same number again in 2005, with 50 of the total run available to buy.
We're not sure what he paid for his, but every one of the original cars was sold before being made, each for €600,000. Today that's £500,000 - and we're guessing Chris paid more.
One of the reasons it's so rare is that it's built on the chassis of the extraordinary Ferrari Enzo, only 400 of which were produced.
It has a removable targa top, although with nowhere to store the roof once it's removed, the MC12 is hardly the classic boulevard cruiser. It's wider than an American hospital bed, has no rear screen and no boot. In fact, it's a pretty thoroughbred race car.
Built as a homologation model so that Maserati could race, the MC12's Ferrari-sourced 6.0-litre V12 engine has 620bhp, giving it a 3.8-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 205mph.
It's rear-mid engined, and power is fed to the rear wheels through a flappy paddle gearbox; this is not an easy car to drive.
But it is a fairly phenomenal way of getting a pint of milk. And for that we salute you, Mr Evans.
