I’m stressed out. Like a lot. But it’s stress in a good way. If that’s possible? It’s the sort of stress that comes with weight on your shoulders – £350,000 worth of weight to be exact.

Today the cars are arriving for our annual Road Test of the Year – our celebration of the best machines launched in the last 12 months. And the worry of keeping them safe for the next five days is sending my blood pressure to submariner-worrying pressure levels.

For example, I just spilt an entire cup of coffee over my desk, new Mac, iPhone and about a month’s worth of paperwork. If it wasn’t for some swift intervention from her indoors it could have ended in Falling Down levels of apocalyptic rage…

So what’s causing this worry? Well, yesterday we took delivery of the first machine in the five-car line-up. Aston Martin’s £140,000 four-door Rapide. It’s stunning. I’ve driven it for about 40 miles now and am in love already.

It pulls off those extra doors so well and when you wind up that 6.0-litre V12 engine it excites like every other Aston. Inside it’s incredibly well made, but I’m a little surprised at the size of the seats in the back – they’re quite ‘cosy’. Oh, and look at the cool numberplate…

About half an hour ago a bright red Audi R8 V10 Spyder turned up. I’ve already taken it for a very quick spin and my word does it sound INCREDIBLE.

Dean Smith, our snapper for this year’s event, has taken delivery of a Peugeot RCZ, and due at the office later this morning are a Renault Megane 250 Cup and a Porsche Boxster Spyder.

THE PLAN

The idea behind our RTOTY is to enjoy some of the finest cars that have hit your showrooms this year in a celebration of metal. And for us to have a bit of fun at the same time.

We’re heading to Porthmadog, North Wales, for this year’s event and leave tomorrow for a five-day road trip that will include three days of pictures and videoing.

Photo shoot locations include Black Rock Sands beach where we plan to do a sunrise shot as well as countless valley roads and the famous ‘Evo triangle’.

I’ll be writing blogs as often as I can and tweeting heavily (as usual) throughout the trip so make sure you come back and check out our adventure during the weekend and next week.

The plan is for the story to feature on the cover of next month’s magazine, that is, of course, as long as I haven’t popped a vein with this stress and passed out at the side of a Welsh mountain.

James

Tags: aston martin, Audi, rtoty, rtoty10

This entry was last updated on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 12:25 am and is filed under Blog.