Bentley Brooklands

Recently staged a coup on the government of a sizeable nation? Need a car to reflect your benevolent-yet-frighteningly-powerful status?

Well, El Presidente, may we recommend the Bentley Brooklands Coupe?

Based on the Arnage chassis, the Brooklands coupe is a luxury four-seater powered by Bentley's most powerful V8 ever.

A modified version of Bentley's 6.75-litre twin-turbo, the hand-built Brooklands engine develops 530bhp at just 4,000rpm and a terrifying 774lb ft of torque at 3,250rpm. That's the highest torque output of any V8. In the world.

All that power is put to the road through a semi-automatic six-speed box, with the Brooklands hitting 60mph in five seconds flat before topping out at 184mph.

As an option, you can also spec the biggest set of brakes of any production car on the road: the 420mm cross-drilled discs off the Conti GT Diamond series.

But make no mistake, the Brooklands is no lithe-and-low supercar. It's massive. See those delicate little five-spoke wheels? They're 20-inchers. Gives you an idea of the sheer size of the thing.

The over-the-top-theme continues in the cabin, with swathes of aluminium and carbon fibres complemented by that lurid, luminous leather - an option that Bentley calls 'Cashew' and we call deeply tasteless.

But at least it'll be exclusive tastelessness: only 550 Brooklands coupes will be built, with prices starting around £220,000, and the first deliveries should arrive in early 2008.

The only problem, El Presidente, is that this year's allocation has already sold out. We're sorry, we're sorry...