The list of special edition road cars bearing the name of F1 world champions is short, but not short enough. Fiat’s Stilo Schumacher was entirely unspecial. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class A160 Häkkinen Edition boasted acceleration as ponderous as its name. The Peugeot Prost Speedfight 2 was – and there’s no polite way to put this – a scooter.
And then there was this lumpen honker. (Projected UK sales: 15. Actual UK sales: 5.) In 2012, as Seb Vet marched his merry way to a third consecutive drivers’ title, Infiniti chose to honour its German race ace (OK, not its German race ace, but Red Bull used Renault engines, Renault was married to Nissan, and Nissan owned Infiniti, so there was a spurious family connection of sorts) with this two-tonne beluga whale on wheels.
The Vettel Edition was lower and stiffer than the regular FX50, power from the 5.0-litre V8 was up to 420bhp, and there was abundant carbon f ibre, all helping transform the FX from lardy sow’s ear into a... ver y-slightly-less-lardy sow’s ear. Herr Vettel himself allegedly had a hand in shaping that (futile) rear wing, at least helping explain its £4,800 tag on the options list: a mere snip atop the £100k starting price. At least the Vettel Edition’s eye watering cost was authentically F1. Nothing else about it was.