There’s an adage that racing improves the breed, but sports cars do, too. Twin-camshaft cylinder heads, improved gearboxes, disc brakes and fuel injection developed to win silverware on the track also debuted in road-going sports cars.

But where are we in the new world order of EVs? A world where everyday drivers eke out the available range to get to the next charge point, where batteries add up to half a tonne to dull the car’s responses to the major controls – but also where maximum torque at zero revs means that even the most humble EV hatchback can take off like a scalded cat. Is that how cars are going to be from now on?

Colin Chapman’s giantkilling Lotus 11 of 1956 weighed only 450kg, the 1958 Austin Healey “Frogeye” Sprite was 667kg, the first Mazda MX-5 in 1989 weighed 940k

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