At the heart of this has been the automotive industry, whose turnaround makes for remarkable reading. In October, the Chinese market posted its sixth consecutive monthly year-on-year rise in new car registrations – a stunning result, given that the figures in the world’s largest car market had been stagnating for almost two years prior, dipping for each of the preceding 21 months.

While bumps are still expected in the future as a variety of stimulus packages are withdrawn (ranging from a £1 billion fund to drive EV uptake to the easing of restrictions put in place to slow car-buying in polluted cities), it’s predicted that 2019’s total registrations figure will be comfortably eclipsed by 2022.

“It looks sustainable,” said Russo. “The new car figures are impressive, but this is about a whole-market move to mobility, including commercial vehicles, used vehicles and over forms of micromobility, such as e-bikes and scooters.

“It’s driven by a desire to escape the petri dish of public transport during a pandemic, but this is an upwardly mobile population that will want to keep enjoying the benefits of personal transport.”

So it is that China’s position within the global car industry has strengthened again, with numerous Western companies’ fortunes intrinsically knitted into its fortunes.

A measure of its importance, for instance, can be seen in the Volkswagen Group’s financial records. Its 12 brands posted profits of £3.2bn in the third quarter of 2020, the figures driven most strongly upwards by strong Chinese demand for Audi and Porsche; it lost £1.2bn in the first half of the year.

At times in this tumultuous year, the Chinese market has accounted for upwards of 40% of the German giant’s sales volume and 30% of its profits.

The flipside to that story, and a cautionary tale of over-reliance on what have long been rapidly evolving market tastes, is the ongoing catastrophe of the PSA Group’s sales collapse in China. Back in 2014, it recorded more than 700,000 registrations through its joint-venture partnership, eclipsing sales even in its native France. Heavy investment in manufacturing plants and retail sites followed but sales didn’t, as German and Japanese rivals eroded its advantage and Chinese firms got their acts together to sell cheaper, capable alternatives. This year, PSA is expected to sell fewer than 50,000 cars in China.

Autocar has launched its new home for electric vehicles online, in reaction to the growing demand for EV content from its readers.

The new EV homepage on Autocar’s website comprehensively curates the brand’s wide-ranging EV content, spanning in-depth reviews and comparison tests to the latest breaking news and advice, as well as Autocar’s leading video reviews.

Visit the Autocar electric cars hub here

Autocar’s electric content has seen a dramatic upswing in the past 12 months, which will likely continue with the government’s recent announcement of a ban on all new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. One of the brand’s most popular articles across the entire website, ‘Top 10 best electric cars‘ has experienced growth of 268% over the same period. That and other prominent articles such as a comprehensive list of the EVs arriving in 2020 and 2021 are highlighted on the new electric homepage for easy access.

The growing interest in EVs reflects zero-emissions vehicle sales, which for the year to date account for 5.5% of market share, up from 1.4% for the same period last year, according to figures from The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The trade body predicts that EV market share will exceed 10% in 2022.

Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw said: “The launch of our EV homepage demonstrates how Autocar continues to react to the fast-paced automotive industry, as it has done for the past 125 years. Our EV coverage around everything from reviews to advice and our latest news is booming, underlining the growing demand from consumers to understand the emerging technology. Autocar’s accessible expertise is perfectly placed to help EV buyers on their journey as we and they embrace this exciting new technology.”

He added: “With an exciting array of EV launches during 2020 and many more to come over the next few years, there couldn’t be a better time to bring our extensive EV content together in one place.”

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Learn what to look for, though, and you can take your pick from a huge array of convertibles, vans, two-doors, saloons and estates, any of which could be your next daily driver with the right care and attention.

How to get one in your garage

An expert’s view

Richard Plant, Minorparts of Oxford: “A shabby original car that has just been used and well maintained can be a much better buy than one that looks shiny because somebody has painted over all the rust. If you’re unsure about roadworthiness, it’s always worth offering to pay the cost of an MOT certificate if the seller is prepared to take it to the garage.”

Buyer beware…

■ Engine: The Austin-derived side-valve engines are poor performers and have a weak bottom end, but the later A-series is peppier and more durable, particularly in its later 948cc and 1098cc guises. Head gaskets don’t like hotter-burning modern fuels but valve-seat recession is rare. Some owners get an unleaded conversion or use lead additive, but others report no issues with an original unit. The fuel pump can play up, but a new one is only £100. Be more worried by burning oil than by any leakage.

■ Brakes and tyres: Spend £25 on good-quality shoes rather than skimping, because the primitive braking system needs all the help it can get. The original 145/80 R14 tyres are still in production, but many owners prefer wider 155s. Tyres still age when not being used, so even a low-miler might need new rubber.

■ Bodywork: Don’t be put off by tatty paint; what’s important is that the substructure (sills, chassis legs, door pillars etc) is fit. Minors aren’t worth enough to justify huge welding bills, so walk away from a crumbling car. Reproduction panels can be poor, so get solid parts from breakers’ yards. The Traveller’s wood is prone to rot, but professional treatment should hold it at bay.

■ Gearbox: Crunching into first is normal, because there’s no synchromesh, so just take it easy. One owner reports 350,000 miles from his original gearbox, so they can last, but be sure to change the oil every 6000 miles. Reconditioned units may be as knackered as the part you’re trying to replace, so get a guarantee.

The use of natural fibres to make a composite material that’s more sustainable than carbonfibre is something mainstream car manufacturers have been looking at for a few years.

One of the favourite materials is flax, an ancient plant widely grown in the UK and elsewhere for the linseed it produces. Tellingly, its fibres are also used to manufacture linen.

Swiss firm Bcomp has made great strides with the new material, producing a reinforcement called Amplitex that consists of woven fabric made of flax fibres that can be impregnated with standard epoxy resin. Like carbonfibre, it can be woven in different ways and weights to suit various applications. For semi-structural use such as body panels, Amplitex is bonded on inside surfaces with ‘Powerribs’, also made from flax but resembling a kind of 3D grid to add stiffness to the finished component.

Making cars lighter and more efficient comes at a price because lightweight materials can consume more energy and generate more CO2 during manufacture. Carbonfibre is an example. The carbonisation process used to make the fibres requires temperatures of between 1000deg C and 3000deg C, depending on the properties required, and consumes large amounts of energy. Carbonfibre can’t be recycled into high-quality carbonfibre fabric, either.

Bcomp claims that using the combination of Amplitex and Powerribs instead of carbonfibre in bodywork reduces CO2 emissions during manufacture by 75% (16.9kg of CO2 per square metre for Amplitex with Powerribs and epoxy compared with around 45.6kg of CO2 per square metre for carbonfibre and epoxy). The natural fibre is also up to 30% less expensive while achieving the same stiffness and weight as carbonfibre in thin laminates.

There are no high-temperature processes involved between the field and the fabric, the crop is grown naturally and processing it is water based. After harvesting flax for making any kind of fabric, the flax is left lying in the field for a while to allow the outer surface to break down, making it easier to extract the fibres while enriching the soil at the same time.

Because Amplitex is made from a plant that absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere when growing, it can be incinerated at the end of its life and still remain CO2 neutral. Both carbonfibre and Amplitex use the same epoxy resin, which doesn’t come from renewable sources, and although the CO2 contribution of resin is relatively low compared with carbonfibre, Bcomp is working with partners on a more sustainable bio-resin.

Like so many advanced new technologies, this one made its debut in motorsport, and this year McLaren’s Formula 1 seats for Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were made of it. In September, Porsche Motorsport’s new Cayman 718 GT4 CS MR was revealed at the Nürburgring 24-hour race sporting a full bodykit made using Amplitex with Powerribs.

Technology transfer is already moving to road cars. The Polestar Concept’s interior panels are made from Amplitex and Bcomp expects to launch products in “large-scale mobility” during 2021.

You need bottle to do this

Site of the first Butlins holiday camp and of a seafront packed with amusement arcades and kiddy rides, Skegness is the perfect location for Jolly Roger. So I look forward to entering the company’s technicolour reception, replete with gaily coloured rides chiming nerve-jangling catchphrases. But what I find is an entrance that’s worryingly deserted until Watson arrives with the news that most of his staff are still on furlough. Never mind; as he takes me on a Cook’s tour of his factory, it’s clear that, in Covid-free times, Jolly Roger is a thriving concern.

Completed and part-completed new rides fill the various departments. In one corner, production manager Roy Balmbra – with 25 years’ service under his belt, one of the firm’s longest-serving employees – remains hard at work producing glassfibre bodies ready for gel coating. Close by, in a room all of its own, is a scale replica of a race car in mid-development. Designed in Poland but to be produced here, the model is intended for older users and will house a video game.

Jolly Roger was founded more than 30 years ago but for the past 15 has been owned by self-service machine operator Photo Me. It claims to be the world’s largest manufacturer of kiddy rides, producing 1200 per year, mainly for export to the US, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.

New vehicle-based rides cost from around £3500 plus VAT for one of Hank’s vans, rising to £6000 for the International Speedway Carousel, a thrilling three-car ride that any aspiring Lewis Hamilton or Jamie Chadwick would be thrilled to helm. Elsewhere around the plant, used rides await refurbishment.

“Our rides can last up to 30 years, so repairing and maintaining them is an important part of our business,” say Watson. “Chinese manufacturers charge lower prices for their rides but can’t make the business work, because they build them to fail and to be thrown away. We’ve survived by building rides our customers can rely on to earn money all year round with minimal maintenance and for a very long time.”

One thing bothers me, though. Watson is 60 years older than most of his toddler customers. How does he keep tabs on their changing tastes?

“Until my 60th year, I did the business plan,” he says. “Then, when I turned 63, there was a big change in the marketing department…” He shows me a photo of his daughter, three-year-old Alice. “She’s my first child and my chief market researcher.”

Plenty of circuits run these events, providing you with something exciting of theirs in which to run around. This might be a Porsche or a Ferrari, something light and exciting like a Caterham, an old classic car or even a single-seat racer. These tend to be separate events, usually run by the circuits themselves rather than track day organisers.

Corporate days

On corporate bookings, you and your team spend the day driving a whole host of different machinery from off-roaders to purpose-built racing cars, with instructors next to you with the aim of pushing you to the limit of what you can achieve behind the wheel. They’re exemplified by Palmer Sport days at Bedford Autodrome (palmersport.com).

Costs

You can pay pretty much what you like for some time on track, from a two-figure sum for a morning or afternoon at a less than epic circuit, perhaps run in sessions and maybe with an inconvenient noise restriction, up to many hundreds of pounds for a ‘noisy’ day at a famous circuit with an open pit lane policy.

How to drive on your first track day

* Make sure your car’s tyres are all at their correct pressures before heading out on track.

* Don’t do racing gearchanges, because they will do nothing other than wear out the transmission.

* Look after the brakes. If you don’t, the least that will happen is that they will start to go off just when you need them most. But if you push on and boil the brake fluid, they will stay gone all day.

* Regard kerbs as your safety margin, to be used only when you’ve run out of track width by mistake. If instead you treat them as part of the track, you will come off the track altogether if something goes wrong. In the meantime, clouting kerbs means potentially damaging your wheels, tyres, suspension and wheel bearings.

* Keep off painted surfaces if the track is even damp, let alone wet. They can throw you into the wall without warning.

* Bear in mind that the usual racing line is often not the fastest when the track is wet. Instead try a wider, more outside line where there’s less rubber on the surface.

* Keep your car’s traction and stability systems on at first, ideally in track or dynamic modes if those are available. These should allow the car some slip while still providing a safety net.

* Don’t, however, think that these systems are infallible. They aren’t: physical law is physical law, and if you brake much too late or turn in far too fast, it’s unlikely there will be a happy ending.

What you must watch out for

* Track day companies aren’t all the same. Some, like Motorsport Vision (MSV), RMA and Gold Track are world-renowned, others less so. But pick your level: do you want to spend your first track day being monstered by far faster road and racing cars on a super-fast track that might not play to your car’s strengths? Maybe start at the bottom and work your way up.

Again, this is dependent on your car and the way you use it, because there are numerous options when it comes to public charging stations. For instance, if you only need charge when out and about infrequently, then a pay-as-you-go method is possible, costing between 20p and 70p per kWh, depending on whether you’re using a fast or rapid charger, the latter costing more to use. Recent arrival Instavolt works on this principle, requiring nothing more than contactless payment as when you need to top up, Others providers will charge an hourly rate (effectively a parking charge) plus a kWh charge for electricity consumed.

If you travel further afield more frequently, then providers such as Polar offer a subscription service with a monthly fee of about £8, but this gives you free access to about 80% of its network of 7000 chargers instead of paying the normal pay-as-you-go rate. It’s also worth bearing in mind that some hotels and shopping centres offer free charging to customers. The widespread use of smartphone apps for all providers makes it easy to see where the charging points are, how much they cost to use and and whether they’re free, so you can easily tap into a provider that suits your needs and budget.

Many manufacturers also offer simplified charging by giving access to numerous providers under their own charging scheme. For instance, Audi’s E-tron Charging Service account gives access to nearly 20 different energy firms, while all new E-trons come with a voucher that’ll cover the first 1000 miles worth of charges for free. Tesla owners get their own dedicated rapid-charging Supercharger network, plus a number of Destination fast chargers at locations such as hotels. Owners of a Model S or Model X registered before 2017 are eligible for free charging, while owners of later cars will currently be charged at a rate of 26p per kWh.

How much does it cost for motorway charging?

You’ll pay a little more to charge at a motorway service station, largely because most of the chargers there are fast or rapid units. Until recently, Ecotricity was the only provider at these locations, with around 300 chargers available, but it has now been joined by companies such as Ionity. In the case of Ecotricity, there’s a choice of both AC and DC charging options, all with a 45-minute maximum use time. You’ll be charged a £3 connection fee plus 17p per kWh used. However, if you use Ecotricity for your home energy supply, then the connection fee will be waived. Ionity costs a little more for pay-as-you-go customers but has commercial tie-ins with EV manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar, which entitles drivers of these cars to lower rates.

Why can’t it do that? The mass is part of it, but ultimately the NSX gets its priorities wrong. It’s as if its American designers set out to create the most impressive car they could, one in which the driver could witness with awe the talent and technology on display. And, best of all, it would ask for nothing in return. Sit back, hold this, press that and enjoy the show. You will be amazed.

Well, maybe. But you won’t be involved, let alone enthralled. Driving isn’t a spectator sport and your car shouldn’t seat you in the audience. It’s not even enough that you should get to direct the action. Driving should be a two-hander between two actors, you and your car, with the road as your stage. That’s it. Anything that get in the way of that, be it excess weight, over-reliance on electronic control systems or a lack of feel in the steering or brakes, gets in the way of your driving pleasure.

That isn’t to say there’s no future for hybrid supercars, just that they need to be done a different way. To be honest, BMW tried far harder and achieved far more with the i8. You could plug it in, you could go 10 times as far in silence (at least), it had rear seats (of a sort), it sounded just as good on three cylinders as the NSX does on six and it had a carbonfibre tub, which is why it was also phenomenally light for a hybrid supercar – 235kg lighter than the NSX, no less. Yes, the Honda has more power, but that’s the easy bit.

The post-modern supercar I would like to see has two seats and a 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 with an electric motor between it and the gearbox, directing an easily achieved 500bhp through the rear wheels alone. It has a carbonfibre tub, aluminium panels and lots of luggage space up front (because there are no motors to get in the way) and weighs less than 1500kg. It’s less potent than the NSX but has a better power-to-weight ratio. And I don’t think it’s a fantasy, either; I think it’s achievable today.

Will anyone do it? Who knows. But until someone finds a way to keep weight in hand and resists the urge to go overboard with electronics, the idea of the hybrid supercar will still be far more attractive on paper than it turns out to be on the road – as the NSX continues to show all too well.

Is downsizing the way forward?

Given we’re not commuting to the office for now, I’m doing far fewer miles, so each journey has a different kind of purpose. I’m also running a Honda E, a short-range electric city car that is proving to be ideal for the 80% of journeys that really are just down the road. As such, the 911 spent 48 hours on my drive before I drove it in anger for the first time.

That drive was wonderfully humdrum – a five-mile trip to a neighbouring town on a Saturday morning – but it was a delight. From behind the wheel, the 911 feels nowhere near as wide as it looks. It manages bumps with far greater compliance than its big wheels and sports car silhouette would have you believe. And, road noise aside, it’s quiet and comfortable enough for general pottering around.

Put your foot down and this 911 feels the right kind of fast: definitely more sports car than supercar, progressive in its power delivery and never threatening to overwhelm either its driver or the road. It flatters and lets you have fun, which is a word I think we’ll be coming back to over these next few weeks.

Second Opinion

This car confirms a lesson I learned 30 years ago: that while owners commonly add many thousands in options to their base 911, if they restrained themselves they’d still have a great car. The only thing a 911 needs is LED headlights, ideally the matrix type. Otherwise, a 911 Carrera is terrific out of the box, as this car proves.

Steve Cropley

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Porsche 911 Carrera specification

Specs: Price New £82,793 Price as tested £90,891 Options Sports exhaust £1844, 14-way electric memory sports seats £1599, 20/21in Carrera S wheels £1145, Aventurine Green metallic paint £876, Dynamic LED headlights £699, Park Assist with rear camera £464, Black/Island Green two-tone leather interior £422, privacy glass £387, auto-dimming mirrors £387, Porsche crest-embossed headrests £161, Porsche crest wheel centres £114

Test Data: Engine Flat 6, 2981cc, twin turbo petrol Power 380bhp at 6500rpm Torque 332lb ft at 1950 to 5000rpm Kerb weight 1595kg Top speed 180mph 0-62mph 4.2sec Fuel economy 28.5mpg CO2 206g/km Faults None Expenses None

Andreas Mikkelsen has had a career bumpier than Ouninpohja and twistier than the Tour de Corse – and he’s still only 31.

The Norwegian started precociously with a Ford Focus WRC in his teens – perhaps the most lavishly funded beginning for a rally driver recently seen. And he became the youngest driver ever to score WRC points in 2008 – just before the world went into financial meltdown and he was left on foot.

Mikkelsen tried to build himself back up on national events but met with tragedy: the name Elise is still on his helmet today, a tribute to the 10-year-old girl who lost her life when he went off the road on Rally Larvik in Norway in 2009.

Then Mikkelsen signed for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with Skoda UK. His first event was the Rally Monte-Carlo, but the Norwegian skated off the road shortly after the start of the first stage, earning himself the nickname One-Mile Mikkelsen.

Things got better, though: by the end of the season, he had clinched the title. When Skoda’s parent company, Volkswagen, entered the WRC, Mikkelsen was a shoo-in for the third car alongside Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala. He finished third in the championship three times and took three wins – before the German giant suddenly withdrew after 2016.

Back on the sidelines, Mikkelsen was eventually picked up by Hyundai for a part-programme, but the partnership never really gelled, producing just four podiums in two years from 2018 to 2019. Things were fading away before he struck gold: Pirelli needed a test driver for the new generation of WRC tyres that will make their debut in 2021.

Mikkelsen did a good job and so was asked to drive on the Hungarian round of the European Rally Championship two weekends ago. It was his first rally in nearly a year, but he won it by more than a minute.

Fortunes change quickly in rallying, and although testing will take place in December, Mikkelsen is still the only driver with experience of all the new tyres heading into next season. He has also driven nearly all of the recent WRC cars out there. Pirelli proved his worth in testing and Hungary showed that he has no competitive rustiness. Even his film-star looks haven’t changed much.

Mikkelsen says that he’s working hard on a deal for the 2020 WRC finale at Monza in December – but surely there’s a place for him beyond then, too? With a blend of (relative) youth, experience, speed and insider knowledge, any new manufacturer or team should look no further than the man who the WRC forgot.

Anthony Peacock

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