Founded by the Italian racing driver Amédée Gordini, the Gordini company was a Formula One constructor who got their best result, a third place, at the 1950 British Grand Prix, the very first F1 race. Gordini later became what AMG is to Mercedes-Benz, an in-house engine tuner who created hot versions of the company’s cars like the Renault 8 Gordini rally car, which sounds just fantastic.

Gordinis always came in a magical shade of French Racing Blue, and when Renault decided to revive the somewhat forgotten brand, they went whole hog on the paint: called Malte Blue, it’s also used on the vacuum cleaners Renault cleaned their displayed Gordinis with at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The car in the picture is the 133 hp Gordini Twingo, which Evo reckons is rather brilliant.