Mission: Possible

It was the simplest, most beguiling of emails, and when it landed all I wanted to do was type ‘yes’, jump in the car and go. Which, a couple of days later, is precisely what I did.

It was an invitation to drive a Subaru BRZ, and there’s nothing terribly unusual about that, least not from the outside. It’s blue, as the best Subarus tend to be, and has gold wheels (ditto) but otherwise all appears much as you’d expect.

Yet where it counts this particular Subaru is not like any other, and the theme of the invitation was so intriguing I couldn’t resist.

‘Dear Steve,’ it began. ‘Having written various articles for The Intercooler recently telling your readers how to drive their own cars, how do you fancy being shown how to drive someone else’s car? The only catch is, this one has no throttle or brake pedal, and although it looks like a regular Subaru BRZ, it isn’t. To drive it properly you’ll need to start all over again upstairs, plus you’ll get to meet the team who has just built it, and they are quite an interesting bunch.’