Has the Ferrari F40 really been with us for twenty-five years? That seems like an impossibly long time for a car that still grips us so completely, yet any suspicion that time has played tricks evaporates when Andy Wallace parks alongside me, grinning widely from the driver’s seat of Ferrari’s unmistakeable red wedge. I gawp, just as I did as a sixteen-year-old when I saw the world’s fastest, fiercest road car for the first time.

Moments later another mid-engined supercar arrives and parks behind it. Also powered by a twin-turbo V8 and blessed with the halo of a Formula 1 pedigree, the technology-packed McLaren MP4-12C may well be regarded as the cold-hearted antithesis of the fire-and-brimstone F40, but it’s these differences – and essential similarities – that make it a worthy guest of honour at the F40’s landmark birthday.