Part of the One Per-Cent - Aston Martin DB7 Zagato

It's not often the chance pops up to get up close with a one-of-100-built piece of automotive history in the metal, never mind the chance for an audience with such a machine.

Yes, the Lamborghini IS striking

Which is why, when I heard Aston Martin Edinburgh had a pre-loved DB AR1 DB7 Zagato in stock, I rushed along, camera in hand to take a peek at this rarity.

In Pictures: Gumball 3000 Returns To Edinburgh 2016

On May Day weekend, the Gumball 3000 rally once again brought Edinburgh to a standstill. The notorious cross-continent epic runs this year from Dublin to Bucharest, and Edinburgh just so happened to be the third city stop for the drivers on their way to Romania.

Above: the waiting crowds took to the roofs of nearby restaurants
in search of a better view.
Below: A cavalcade of classics and modern supercars awaited
the Gumballers' arrival.

Over 100 cars made the run from Stranraer ferry terminal to Scotland's historic capital, having shot from Dublin to Belfast on the first day of the rally. Overlooking Waverley and the Old Town, the cartoonish cavalcade were greeted by huge crowds, which their delayed arrival did little to erode.

Above: "Gimme some skin!"
Below: Modern exotics sat alongside pristine classics.

On Sunday evening, McMotors headed to the temporary paddock in the city centre to soak up the atmosphere before heading out to Sighthill to see the first of the cars arrive from the motorway. (Thanks to Charlie for the excellent video!)

Upon reaching the edge of the city, the competitors were in good spirits. flanked by enthusiasts in their own cars, with spotters lining the streets, as they tore through the outskirts of the city bound for Waterloo Place.

A great many people braved the rain to see the cars off on bank holiday Monday.

The next morning, the weather took a turn in a very typical Edinburgh fashion, but this did nothing to dampen the spirits of the gathered spectators and car spotters. Crowds flocked through the grey to Regent Street once again, to see off the rally.

Above / Below: Maximillion Cooper, founder of the Gumball 3000, and his wife, Eve,
travelled in style in their Aston Martin Vanquish. The couple got engaged
whilst visiting Edinburgh at Christmas time, 2013

Following the cars' late arrival, parking was rather cramped, and barriers were removed in order to allow the early birds to depart, meandering around vehicles left at a standstill by later risers among the drivers.

Above: The cars took up the majority of Regent Street and were parked up tight.
Below: Enterprising Shmee150 and his Team 120 were among the first
to arrange a somewhat unorthodox detour around the immobile motors.

Many cars followed in the wake of the ABT RS6 - Gumballers
would much rather stand out than stand still.

Splitters came perilously close to crunching on tarmac as these speed machines crept their way from pavement back to road.

Above: Team 61 very wisely elected to leave the roof up on their Jaguar Project 7. This car
would later partake in a sky-splitting rev-off with a Ferrari F12 TDF on the start line.
Below: Having navigated the makeshift car park, the Gumballers were keen to get on their way.

One by one, the competitors charged from the grid, sleuthing down Waterloo Place to join the ebb and flow of Edinburgh Monday morning traffic, splashing colour and noise amidst the sea of everyday.

Things began to get crowded once more on Waterloo Place.

Rapturous bellows shook the air for the rest of the morning, with the cars pelting south for a brief rendezvous at Manchester's Etihad Stadium, before their evening hault in London.

When Gumball Comes To Town

This Sunday, the Gumball 3000 rally returns to Edinburgh, the third stop on its extraordinary trek from Dublin to Bucharest. Running from April 30th - May 7th, the competitors will tear up tarmac across Europe, with 13 stops at cities and racetracks along the way to party hard and drive fast.

Regent Street will play host to a display of cars from world's foremost manufacturers of hyperbole, and events and festivities will take place leading up to the arrival of the 2016 rally before the cars line up to depart for Manchester, the next stop on their 3000+ mile journey.

This isn't the first time Scotland's capital has been brought to a hault by this hyper-rally, which sounds like the stuff of comic book legend. Back in 2014, The Mound became the most expensive car park in Scotland, and thousands of people flocked to Edinburgh City Centre to see the Gumballers off on the next leg of their Miami to Ibiza run.

Despite the drizzle, people flocked to see the supercars parked up.
Not exactly Monaco, but it has it's own charm.

The cobbles of Rutland Street were entirely fenced off on the evening of 7th June, to provide a holding pen for an advance guard of mega-metal that had roared into town earlier that day.

Whilst the drivers unwound in nearby bars and hotels, their cars were swamped with spectators and spotters alike, phones out, fixated with the extraordinary machines that sat in the street that night. Security guards stood diligently in the rain, breaking their watch only to join passersby in sharing awe and ruminations on the cars, and imagine what it could be like for those involved.

The mix was eclectic; a Defender and a Shelby Cobra replica
were two motors dangling off either edge of the scale.

The warm and heady air of an Edinburgh June was tinged with excitement that night. The arrival of the cars was in many ways shrouded in mystery, and even the paddock of supercars already in situ couldn't have prepared for what was to come the next day.

Gumball regulars Team Wolfpack are one of the teams
set to return this year.

Rising fairly early, I dawdled along to Princes Street in the mid-morning sun; mercifully, the heavens were spent and the roof tops of the New and the Old Town were aglow in bright sunlight. Crowds had already begun to gather at Rutland Street, where windows shook to the sound of many cylinders being warmed up in their respective engines, and an impromptu t-shirt cannon dispatched memorabilia into the growing throngs.

Above: Covers are lifted, final polishes completed and engines idle thunderously
ahead of the UK leg of the Gumball 3000 2014.
Below: An orange Ferrari California was one of the first
to lead the pack from Rutland Street.

Pressing on towards The Mound, I took my place between families enjoying a summers day out and people going about their regular Sunday, whose curiosity peaked at the sheer numbers of car fans lining the street. Waiting ensued. Social media accounts of drivers were consulted.

And then, spilling round past the old Bank of Scotland building came wave after wave of extraordinary exotica. Familiar faces from the night before sat proudly in their machines, leading the cavalcade of cars from the airport directly into the centre of attention.

Attention leapt to a black Nissan Skyline, near the head of the parade, rumoured to contain one David Hasslehoff, sadly sans KITT-style scrolling LEDs. In it's wake came big name after big name; Mclaren P1, Bugatti Veyron, Ford GT, Lamborghinis big and small... the list goes on and reads like the single greatest GT racing grid ever put together, and in a lot of ways that's exactly what the Gumball 3000 is.

"Michal, my scanners show large crowds blocking the way.
Would you like me to turbo boost over them?"
"No, KITT, they're the reason we're here."

A cacophony of V6, V8, V10, and V12 engines sang, howled and rasped in symphony as splitters narrowly missed Edinburgh's ancient cobbles. The constant 'ca-click' of digital camera shutters was all but completely drowned out, and though marshals tried valiantly to part the crowds, the ebb and flow of sheer people power meant cars were often at a standstill, allowing for plenty of door-lifting, photo-ops and back-and-forth with between drivers and their adoring fans.

On a grid where social media stars like Schmee150 mingle with the likes of Deadmau5, and racing drivers from various series take stints in the rally, ostentatious showing off is inevitable. Two Brabus-tuned Mercedes-Benz 6x6s, one decked out in flags and flashing lights, charged over The Mound. A Union-Jack wrapped Jaguar F-Type sat in the same jam as a Rolls-Royce completely covered in velvet - the latter driven by a Scottish team. A McLaren P1 paused to erupt it's sonorus V8 howl, before silently traversing the rest of the way down to the paddock on electric drive.

Bringing a black Veyron amongst so many other supercars, most adorned
in bright wraps, could almost be called being discrete on a day like this.

The cars parked briefly at the foot of the hill, enough time for another quick flash-and-dash photo-op, before engines ignited once more. Outrageous car after outrageous car merged amongst the buses and taxis that typically trundle along Princes Street, before roaring off towards Manchester, London and then the continent beyond, bound for Ibiza.

Not your typical Sunday afternoon Princes Street black cab.

This year, the weather has not been as kind. An Arctic wind has brought plumetting temperatures, and despite the fact that it's May Day weekend, snow could potentially be on the cards.

Might be a tad chilly for doors up on Princes Street this year, Jon.

And yet, the Gumballers shall roll on. Come what may weather-wise, this circus of horsepower will pass through Auld Reekie on Sunday to delight and enthuse the city, before heading south on the next leg of their very-grand-indeed-tour.

Hopefully this week's December weather will give way to May sun by Sunday.

McMotors will be in Edinburgh this weekend,  soaking up the sights, sounds, and atmosphere that comes with the Gumball 3000. Follow us on Twitter @Jack_McMotors for updates.

Some Things To Be Excited About At Geneva 2016 If You Can't Afford A Bugatti Chiron

If you haven't already heard about it, the new Bugatti Chiron has been unveiled ahead of it's official launch at the Geneva Motor Show this week. Its astronomical power figure of 1,478 horsepower is surpassed only by the £1.9 million price tag, and that's all just fine.

If you can afford to buy the Chiron you probably already have access to somewhere with enough room to enjoy all of that power, and maybe even get it up to it's top speed which is claimed to be around 261mph. But what about the rest of us mere mortals? What is there for us to enjoy?

The Opel GT Concept, with its boss.

Oddly, the first thing that caught my eye at Geneva was Vauxhall / Opel's GT Concept. This tiny coupe may not have reached the realms of reality yet, but fingers crossed some of the ideas will trickle through from the matrix to our dimension. The concept, a two-seater could see production as a front-drive car with a 1 litre, 3-cylinder engine putting out around 143bhp. This should keep running costs nice and low, whilst also delivering punchy performance. It's early days yet, but this fairly un-Vauxhall car could put the company into competition with sports car stalwarts like the Mazda MX-5, which is very dangerous territory indeed.

Bedroom walls across the land should be sorted, with Lamborghini unveiling their bonkers new Centenario LP770-4 poster child. Produced as a 100th birthday present to honour the company's late founder Ferruccio Lamborghini, the Centenario will see very limited production at just 20 coupes and 20 roadsters. At the heart of it's carbon fibre body sits a higher-revving version of Lambo's legendary V12 engine, with power output upped to 759bhp. It runs the Bugatti very close for price, but this car is built as much to dwell in the imagination of children, spitting flames and spinning wheels in a very exciting manner, as it is to hide under covers in the ultra-secure garages of the super rich.

Interesting headlamp arrangement adds to asymmetry and alliteration.

At a very different end of the spectrum, Morgan will be bringing along their EV3, showcasing a 'pre-production phase' of their take on what an electric vehicle should be. Sticking to form, the EV3 is a super light three-wheeled two-seat roadster, using a combination of carbon fibre and aluminium body panels built around an ash frame to give a weight of less than 500kg. Up front, the 1983cc V-Twin of the current car is replaced with cooling fins for the 20KWh lithium battery, which combine with a liquid-cooled 46kW electric motor to zip the whole thing from 0-60 in under 9 seconds. The range, thanks no doubt in part to the car's tiny weight, is slated to be up to 150 miles.

Pininfarina have also brought their idea for a performance car with a progressive drivetrain: the H2 Speed utilises hydrogen fuel cell technology which has been track-tested by GreenGT, a company focussed on bringing hydrogen fuel tech to motorsport. The H2 produces 503 horsepower and is capable of 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, and with the only exhaust being water vapour, this makes it the world's fastest steam cleaner. Having been draped in Pininfarina magic, the H2 Speed is also the world's prettiest steam cleaner, with sleek lines and a paintjob that harks back to the 1969 Ferrari Sigma Formula One show car, presented to the public by the Italian design house at the Geneva show that year. If this is a showcase of what a hydrogen powered sports car could be, then I for one can't wait for a Formula H racing series.

Speaking of sleek lines, how could we ignore the new Aston Martin DB11, which sneaked its way into the public eye at the start of the week. The successor to the DB9 shows off heavy styling influence from the bespoke DB10, wielded by James Bond in Spectre, with added aggression from the limited-run One-77. The aluminium body incorporates aerodynamic elements, including a special AeroBlade system, consisting of cleverly hidden ducts beneath the C-pillars which channel air over the back end, helping to reduce rear lift. Under the bonnet sits a new 5.2 litre, twin-turbo V12 pushing out 600bhp. Whilst the Aston may not be within most peoples budget (including mine!), it'll certainly drop a few jaws as it barrels along the motorway.

Thought I'd treat you to a nice big picture of the DB11, for obvious reasons.