Vying for position with my Espada, this car is probably my crown jewel. Chairman Yu approached me about writing for Auto-Journals when I was in this car at Virginia Water early in 2006. It's called the Boss Cerbera, a unique 5.0 litre factory-built special that, if it were a Lamborghini, might be called a Jota. Just as the great Bob Wallace personally fashioned the ultimate Miura, this car had the personal blessing of TVR Boss Peter Wheeler and TVR engine guru John Ravenscroft (the P and J in "AJP") …and the one-off AJP8 motor was put together by Ravey himself.

As you'll know from my Cerbera 4.5 journals, I truly, madly, deeply love TVR Cerberas. The problem that the 4.5 presented me with was: what could possibly succeed it? Whenever I saw Peter Wheeler, I would say as much. He was pretty convinced that at the 2000 Motor Show he would have something: the Tuscan R. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I ordered a Tuscan R anyway but it never really got me pant-wettingly excited. I told my dealer, The TVR Centre in Barnet, that I felt the 'R' needed a shed load more power - I wanted that same quantum leap that I'd got moving from a Griffith 500 to the 4.5. I wanted at least 500bhp, preferably 600bhp. I wanted a proper fright.

In the autumn of 2003 I popped into the Blackpool factory on the way back from a meeting in Buttyland and the first Tuscan R (now called T400R or T440R) was at the end of the production line. "When are you going to spec yours up then?" I was asked. I sort of grimaced, shrugged and replied: "When it's got more grunt, 440bhp isn't enough. You can do better, I want a terrifying car from you for that sort of money." Then Mr Wheeler arrived on the scene and dropped the bombshell that Ravey was experimenting with superchargers and pointed out, on the part-built T440R, where the blower/intercooler installation would go. "Ha ha! That's more like it!" I began rubbing my knees.

At the 2003 MPH Show in London, where the Sagaris first appeared and stole the limelight, the covers quietly came off the supercharged T440R: the Typhon. It was finished in Reflex Charcoal (a tri-colour flip - charcoal/green/purple) with a black, green and polished alloy interior. Lovely colours, and with "about 600bhp" lovely performance too. The price of £75K with an options list that could take me into six-figures made me privately question my sanity though. The thing about TVRs is that the more they build, the better they get and it was unlikely that there would ever be enough Typhons for them to get very good. And I was near the front of the queue.

In 2004 I was invited to make good on my enthusiasm and finalise the specification of my Typhon. When I got to the dealership, with the pen hovering, I blurted: "Ya know… What I really, really, really want is a 600bhp Cerbera …maybe a supercharged 4.5 V8?" The question was put to TVR and they calculated that heat would be a real problem. A nett 600bhp would be well over 700bhp gross (the blower(s) taking at least 150bhp to run). 750bhp = 560kW …in other words an awful lot of heat. The Mercedes-McLaren SLR's nett 612bhp is after the blowers have consumed about 180bhp - and that gets so hot under the bonnet, they had to use special paint. Having ruled out the blown 4.5 on the grounds it might combust spontaneously, a Typhon motor was suggested because more was known about the heat issue. But I didn't want a straight six, I wanted a V8 and, in any case, soon after the suggestion, it was again ruled out by TVR because of intercooler space and heat extraction problems. In the end, this proved to be a major contributing factor to the Typhon project itself being canned.

We seemed to be at an impasse and then Ravey said "there are some parts in Peter's Toy Box for a 5.0 litre AJP8 that might be made to push out 500bhp, with loads of torque. Would that do?" My exact reply was "OK, I'll get the other 100bhp on nitrous". The torque reference sort of went in one ear and out the other. I specified the same colour scheme as the MPH Typhon and the project started early in the summer of 2004.

My first inkling of just how special the car was going to be came at a track day in August 2004. One of the TVR race engineers was there and, looking at my black Tuscan, said:
"Isn't it about time you got yourself a new car?"
"I've got one in build, a special Cerbera", I replied.
"What? The five litre? Jeez! You should see the exhaust system Quicky has made for that thing! The floor pan's all modified and the tail pipes are massive - they kind of come out in a Y shape. It's mental!"
I was quite taken aback by this bow wave of enthusiasm and he seemed delighted that "the mad Cerbera" was going to a good home.

Thereafter, I'd get excited calls from Giles Cooper at Barnet with updates about the engine pushing well over 400 lb·ft on the dyno. "Look at the torque of the Gallardo (376 lb·ft) and the new M5 (384 lb·ft) - your engine is incredible!" he'd exclaim. "You'll need traction control, I'm telling you!" (Traction control my arse, I thought.) I also remember very well a call from Ravey explaining - almost apologetically - that the car would be rather loud. I was, of course, delighted. Spilling more beans about Quicky's stainless steel masterpiece underneath he explained the headers were huge and that the pipes running the length of the car were as big they could fit in. He'd also knocked up a pair of de-cat pipes for it.

To make big power, you need to pull in lots of air and fuel and get rid of it similarly efficiently. The hole in the front of a Cerbera (and the air sump behind it) simply isn't big enough for big numbers. The solution TVR devised was to take cold air in from the top - like a Tuscan Challenge car - which would require a bespoke bonnet and scuttle panel. As the only dry-sumped V8 Cerbera, there was already bespoke under-bonnet bodywork, to add to the underfloor modifications for the exhaust. Graham Browne (Sagaris stylist) was tasked with sculpting the bonnet, which I first got to see in January 2005.

Just before Christmas 2004, I'd had a call from TVR about joining as Head of Marketing. I popped up to Blackpool in the New Year to discuss the position …and take a look at my new car that was parked in the corner of the production hall awaiting completion. I was stunned. With its small projector headlamps like squinty eyes and big gaping mouth (now solely to feed the radiator and oil cooler), the bonnet scoops looked like nostrils on an evil snake or dragon. Wow!

I joined TVR at the beginning of February by which time the car was complete, running and having its final rolling road mapping and road tests. The first time I got to hear it, I was sitting in my office with a dealer and both of us looked up at the same time. "What the hell is THAT?" he asked. Awesome is such an over-used word these days but I'll never forget that first hearing - it's like no other TVR …it's awesome. It's bassier than normal Cerberas with a much smoother roar. When the throttle was blipped, it revved like a motorbike - instantly rising and dropping. Wow, again! Resisting the temptation to drive it yet, I enjoyed listening to the test drivers' reports: "it's the fastest thing we've let out of the gates". One reported getting wheelspin at 130 (something I've since done - just to check). Sure the Typhon and Cerbera Speed 12 have even more power and are undoubtedly faster still but I'm more than happy with where my car sits in the pecking order - it's the most powerful factory-built TVR on the road.

The car wears a simple Cerbera badge on the back but I felt it needed a proper name and, as Head of Marketing at the time, it was my prerogative to conceive of one. Cerbera 500 or 5.0 were a bit lame, so my thoughts went towards great old British names like "Dominator" (Norton) but finally led to "Boss" because 5 litres is 302 cubic inches. The first Boss Mustangs were hi-po 302s and a 70s racing Capri that had a Ford 302 in it was known as the Boss Capri. While the notion of a "mother of all Cerberas" had been its beginnings, this car looked every inch "the daddy". It may, as Jeremy Clarkson observed, have "breasts" on its bonnet but there's nothing feminine about this brute unless you fancy female shotputters from the Eastern Bloc. "Boss" definitely suits it.

At 7pm on 17 February 2005, my Boss Cerbera was the last Cerbera to leave the factory. Despite working at Blackpool, I was keen that the TVR Centre technicians - who I trust implicitly - should do their PDI and final preparation magic. I bought a registration and picked the Boss up on 3 March.

The really big "WOW" was the first drive. With the engine already run in on the dyno, the Boss was ready to rock the day I picked it up… Cue 'feem toon' until next journal…

Cover shot: Sinclair Scotchmere