But while the EVs would be carrying out their own programme, completing stages in the mornings before stopping to charge and rejoining later on, they were very much in the mix the rest of the field. In a car that stood out rather alarmingly among the sea of classic Alfa Romeos, Mercedes 300 SLs, Lancia Aurelias and so on. If ever an EV6 looked out of place, it was here.
“We did get that kind of sideways glance. You could see they were thinking like, ‘is this actually going to be any good?’ You have to earn your respect in those kinds of environments and I think it really did make its mark.”
The metaphor here is obvious. The world is changing, ever so gradually, but while we enjoy remembering the past, there’s no shame in being a little bit excited for what comes next. It’s even more fun when the two converge on each other, and we get an interesting new perspective on life.
“We were driving through these beautiful roads in Italy and it was very rewarding actually with the EV6 GT because I've never experienced in a petrol or a diesel car where you actually got the fuel gauge to go back up again.
“When we were driving through the test sections, I would use it in the full Eco mode, I had the regenerative braking on full.
“And when we were going back down the hills it would put recharge back into the battery and I could just basically flick between the different settings and make that work for the roads that we were driving on.
“Obviously there's the competition element, but learning how to get the best out of the car was brilliant. You have that with any other car really, you want to get the best out of it, but I was just very aware and enjoying the different settings that you could use.”