I think I might owe the SLC a grovelling apology. I thought it lacked pace – I simply couldn’t find a road long enough around south London to open up the throttle.

Well driving back to the Cotswolds in the fog last night I finally got my chance. After a lacklustre drive up the M4 motorway I slipped the SLC into ‘sport’ mode and let rip.

Wow! It’s a flyng machine. 0-60mph in 4.6 seconds and finally, a decent crackle and pop from the exhaust too.

It’s no Porsche Boxster or Audi TT for handling (although it’s more comfortable than both) but I was afraid Mercedes had ruined everything by disposing of the naturally aspirated V8.

Now, if they could only make the handling a bit more dynamic…