MAGICAL HISTORY TOUR

Let me talk you through the outfit. I bought the hat in Tortilla Flat, not because it sounds like the opening line of a country & western song, but because a baseball cap just wouldn’t cut it. In the footwell are cowboy boots. The other footwell, because they’re terrifically uncomfortable. I should also be wearing a tasselled jacket with a coyote on the back, but guess what? It’s raining in Arizona, so it’s technical waterproofs and a bodywarmer.

Rain. The most they’ve had in five years. It doesn’t make any difference in the McLaren, whose glass roof glides silently, sleekly up in 11 seconds, even while you’re rattling over dirt track washboard. The Cobra, though? That doesn’t like washboard in the first place. Makes the whole chassis tremble like a jelly, and that’s not becoming of a Cobra. This is the original super-roadster after all, the most muscular machine that ever bestrode Route 66. No car looks better parked up next to a saguaro cactus. Not one.

Not many let in as much water, either. But we’re not here to compare waterproofing – we’re here to have fun on a great road in a couple of (hopefully) like-minded cars to see what lessons the youngster has learned from the old-timer. And perhaps more interestingly, what’s been forgotten. Because there’s a feeling cars have got too serious-minded and boastful, constantly harping on about their power, downforce and top speeds. Maybe that’s forgivable in a hard-top supercar (although ask yourself