Had an unusual full beans opportunity to follow a Ferrari 430 Scuderia from the lights on a stretch of clear urban motorway up to the speed limit. Well, he was eager to give it some beans off the line and so I thought what the heck. No, not racing, following very briskly. I must say the R surprised me - of course the Ferrari is a very different and much more powerful car - but the car did much better than I thought it would. And BOTH kept within the limit - he must have been holding back quite a bit so he did not go though the limit - but it felt very satisfying nonetheless to know that I could have bought my R fifty times over for the price of one of those and could keep up at full tilt (mine, not his - that would be ludicrous).

But only my car could do it with eight sheets of plywood on the roof and twenty rubbish sacks on board.

The pleasures of estate car motoring.

Not condoning racing, speeding, or reckless driving - none of these were involved in the situation described.

Need to be cut down to size - should come to Avon.