360bhp, 765kg, 3.0sec 0-60mph, 165mphLet's start with – and rewind back to – that Ariel. This is the Atom 4, lower, wider and stiffer than its predecessor but just as delectable to behold. A kind of rolling cutaway drawing, it's a little like a high-end sportsbike to walk around and admire, drinking in all of its componentry. Tucked away in the middle is a turbocharged Honda engine plucked from the current Civic Type R.
The McLaren's fast and great fun. The best lap time comes from being neat and tidy but the McLaren's happy for you to lean on it and over-drive it a little. It won't bite, even with its stability control in lenient Track mode, or switched off altogether.
It's hard to think of a car more raw than the Radical Rapture. If the McLaren is only one step removed from a pure race car, the Rapture is even closer to its original source material. It feels incongruous to see number plates on the car, and to climb into the open cockpit – with leather trim! – and find a handbrake.
Stowe doesn't quite feel the right setting for the Rapture to stretch its legs. 'Really strong brakes, great gearbox, but it would be better on a longer, faster circuit, where you could use the downforce,' Chadwick says. 'You need more momentum than you can get here. But somewhere like Spa...' If the Caterham's a home from home for Jamie, the Lotus Exige is new territory. And this is the ultimate Exige: the Cup 430 is the most powerful, most expensive and most ruthlessly stripped-out version of Hethel's hairiest car. The gearchange mechanism looks fantastic, exposed to the open air like Arnie's arm post-surgery in The Terminator, but the action is similarly stiff.