As we performance enthusiasts try and get ourselves worked up about a future populated by electric supercars (we're trying, we're trying...) it was refreshing to stop for a moment of reflection next to this torpedo-shaped projectile on the Michelin stand at Detroit.
It's a replica of the Jamais Contente, an electric powered machine that - on Michelin tyres - was the first vehicle ever to reach 100km/h in 1899 with Belgium racing driver Camille Jenatzy at the wheel. The original doesn't exist, but this one was put together back in 1993 by a group of French university students.
The car looks a bit like a glorified soapbox to modern eyes, but it must have been a pretty inspirational sight whern it was scaring the horses at the dawn of the 20th century.
Sadly the word 'inspirational' is not one that can often be used around today's electric automotive offerings - with one or two notable exceptions, perhaps.
I wonder what 'Mr Bibendum' makes of it all?