Imagine turning up for a saloon-car race at Snetterton and discovering that Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Seb Vettel are entered in works Alfas and Fords.

Back in 1966, on a wet, windswept Sunday in June, the Touring Car feature race included Jackie Stewart in a Lotus Cortina and Austrian sensation Jochen Rindt enlisted to drive the Autodelta team’s Alfa Romeo GTA.