A favourite moment of 2004

I was sitting alongside Sebastien Loeb in his WRC championship-winning Xsara. He was showing me why he and his car are the best in world rallying. Frankly, it's not hard to see why.

Back to that house. We were at Chateau Lastours - a well-known WRC test site in the south of France. The road we were using wound its way down from a restaurant and shop - which sold the end product of the vineyards we were howling our way through - and past this house.

By the time we reached the building I was becoming accustomed to the speeds and brutal force the Frenchman and his machine were applying to the gravel beneath us. A long, lazy right-hander led us onto the straight. Flick-flick-flick and we're into top. Flat. As we pass the house I have time to take in a green front door and a face at the window.

Both were less than a couple of feet away. And we were travelling at about 110mph.

Bonkers.

A nano-second later, Loeb's tickling the middle pedal with his left foot. With speed barely diminished he aims the Xsara at a tree on the right. My side. Nice. Just as I'm expecting the world to end, the road drops down and the Xsara collides with nothing more than a few branches.

All the time, Loeb's look is impassive. He's at 70 per cent. I'm impressed. One hundred per cent.