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Just occasionally a car will come along that will change the game completely, by providing a level of performance unimagined until that very moment. The McLaren F1 did it in 1994, and I very much suspect the Aston Martin Valkyrie will do it all over again in 2020. But there’s also the opposite kind of game changer, and, because our interest in them need no longer be merely academic but actually born out of experience, these are even more special. These cars are so rare that, in the 31 years I’ve been doing this job, I’ve seen just two. The first came three decades ago and was called the Mazda MX-5. The Alpine A110 is the second. The Alpine has an importance that stretches far beyond those svelte lines. Like the little Mazda, the Alpine is a car to make us stop dead in our tracks and question everything we have come to believe about how to make sporting cars. It took the existing narrative that said faster was funnier, grip was good and that size really mattered, and shredded it. My admiration for the board who were presented with A110 is boundless. The pitch would have gone something like this: ‘we want to make a two seat sports car that’s not very fast either in a straight line or around a corner, it’s going to cost a fortune to develop because it needs a brand new, bespoke platform and, because it only has a four cylinder engine and a brand without much recognition, we can’t even charge that much for it.’ And the suits sitting around the table would have to have gone: ‘yup, sounds good to us.’ You just don’t expect that kind of thing these days. Their hunch – that people would recognise talents that can’t be expressed in 0-60mph or Nurburgring lap times but which are no less real or valuable for that – proved entirely correct. Alpine have been making A110s as rapidly as they have been able ever since launch. What is not yet clear is where Alpine goes from here, but maybe as an outpost of Renault it will be happy just to continue making A110s. When Mazda hit the big time with the MX-5, it always expected the competition to respond in kind. In fact it has gone on almost unchallenged for three decades now, so good as to be impregnable. The A110 is fast gaining a similar aura around it. Long may it last.

Ingredients 250ml/9fl oz whipping cream 50ml/2fl oz milk piece paired orange zest 1 cinnamon stick, broken up ½ vanilla pod, split lengthways 1 chipotle chilli, split few cloves 1 tsp allspice berries, lightly crushed 2 blades mace ½ tsp peppercorns, lightly crushed 1 tbsp ground ginger 350g/12oz dark chocolate generous pinch of salt 100ml/3½fl oz syrup from a jar of stem ginger 1-2 tbsp rum, brandy or ginger wine (optional) To serve cubes madeira cake cubes leftover Christmas pudding or cake pieces of fruit, such as mango, physalis, mandarin segments or pears Method Put the whipping cream and milk into a saucepan along with the orange zest, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod, chilli, cloves, allspice berries, mace, peppercorns and ginger. Slowly bring up to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse until the cream returns to room temperature. Strain through a sieve into a clean saucepan. Break up the chocolate and it add to the cream. Melt the chocolate into the cream over a gentle heat until the chocolate has melted, whisking regularly and then constantly towards to the end until you have a smooth sauce. Transfer to a fondue bowl and leave to stand for 10 minutes, then if necessary, start reheating very gently with a tea light or fondue burner underneath. Keep an eye on this while eating as you do not want it to start over-heating – it will split. Serve with cubes of madeira cake, leftover Christmas pudding or cake, or any fruit.

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Next year will bring us an all-new, fifth-generation Mercedes C-Class; and we already know what a different prospect that car will be to the one it’s replacing. There will be no multi-cylinder engines this time, we hear (not even in AMG versions), as part of a bid to make the world’s biggest-selling Mercedes models do their bit to drive down the brand’s corporate carbon emissions. Sounds ominous to me. I wonder, in fact, how long it’ll be until we have another C-Class that represents such a titanic leap forwards for its maker as the ‘W205’ did; or that stands as such a potent symbol of success for a firm riding the crest of a Zetsche-era wave that propelled it beyond both Audi and BMW to become the world’s biggest-selling luxury car brand. The outgoing C-Class was a crowning achievement for its maker. When it appeared in 2014, it did what none of its forebears quite managed by so successfully miniaturizing the lavish ‘big Benz’ luxury character of its larger sibling saloons. It had big-saloon perceived quality, super-sophisticated onboard technology and greatly improved cabin space. To drive, it felt more comfortable and self-possessed as a refined, relaxed, mature choice in a saloon niche where its rivals squabbled over pre-eminent claims to ‘sportiness’. It looked great, too: every inch the boil-washed S-Class limo. When we sent out a BMW 3-Series to the European press launch on the Cote d’Azure, I wrote up the comparison – and it was one of the toughest verdicts I’ve written. At the time, as I remember, the Merc’s slightly agricultural 2.1-litre four-pot diesel gave the BMW’s better 2.0-litre just enough momentum to secure the win; but then that old engine was replaced as part of a mid-life facelift. And, boy, did it ever sell. Helped by local production and po[CENSORED]rity in the increasingly important Chinese market, the W205 was Mercedes’ biggest-selling model year after year. Even last year, with a brand-new A-Class hatchback and countless newer SUVs for company, it continued to account for every fifth three-pointed star sold anywhere in the world. Very few car-makers can claim they’ve had a more successful decade than Mercedes, it strikes me – and that success story has been fuelled pretty squarely by a car whose qualities probably aren’t praised roundly or highly enough.

Ingredients For the cheesecake 125g/4½oz bourbon biscuits 65g/2½oz butter, melted 100g/3½oz good-quality dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids 200g/7oz full-fat cream cheese 400g/14oz ricotta 75g/2½oz golden caster sugar 3 eggs 40g/1½oz cocoa powder 125g/4½oz good-qualty Christmas pudding, cooked, crumbled into pieces (optional) For the sauce 125g/4½oz good-quality dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids 125ml/4½fl oz double cream 15g/½oz butter To serve good-quality chocolate, grated cocoa powder, for dusting clotted cream, to serve Method Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/Gas 4. For the cheesecake, crush the bourbon biscuits into crumbs and place into a bowl. Pour over the melted butter. Press into a 20cm/8in spring-form cake tin to form the base. Place the chocolate in a bowl over barely simmering water and melt, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Place the cream cheese, ricotta and sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Next add the eggs, then the cocoa powder and the melted chocolate. Stir in the Christmas pudding, if using. Spoon the mixture onto the base. Place the cake in the oven and cook for approximately 45 minutes, or until cake is springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin. When cool, turn out of the tin and top with chopped or grated chocolate and a dusting of cocoa. For the sauce, place the chocolate and cream in a clean bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. When melted, whisk in the butter. The sauce must be prepared just before the cake is served, because it can't be reheated. Serve large slices with a big spoonful of sauce and a dollop of clotted cream. Dust the edge of the plate with cocoa.

Japan has hanged a Chinese man for the high-profile and brutal murder of a family of four, the first execution of a foreigner in 10 years. The man, Wei Wei, carried out the murders in 2003 with two accomplices. They fled to China, where one was executed in 2005 and the other sentenced to life in jail. Japan has more than 100 prisoners on death row. Fifteen were executed last year, including 13 members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. Death penalty: How many countries still have it? Japan only started to disclose the names of executed inmates in 2007. Between then and the latest execution only one foreigner had been named - a Chinese man hanged in 2009. Strangled or drowned Justice Minister Masako Mori said she had signed off on the execution of Wei Wei "after careful consideration". "It is an extremely cruel and brutal case in which the happily living family members, including an eight-year-old and 11-year-old, were all murdered because of truly selfish reasons," she said. In Japan, death row inmates are not told of their impending execution until the day it is carried out. Wei Wei, a former language student aged 40, had admitted carrying out the murders but denied playing the leading role. He and his accomplices had tried to rob the home of businessman Shinjiro Matsumoto in the city of Fukuoka. Mr Matsumoto was strangled, his two children strangled or smothered and his wife drowned in the bath. Their bodies were weighed down and dumped in Hakata Bay, the Asahi Shimbun reported. The Chinese man hanged in 2009 had killed three Chinese people he lived with in Tokyo. The increase in executions in 2018 was the consequence of a Sarin nerve agent attack on the Tokyo underground system in 1995 by Aum Shinrikyo, an obscure religious group that believed the end of the world was coming. Thirteen people died and at least 5,800 were injured in the attack.

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If charades isn't your thing - never fear. Try our veteran car boff Frankel's Christmas quiz. The following 50 questions are all from the world of automotive. How many can you get right? Answers at the bottom of the page. Andrew Frankel Autocar by Andrew Frankel 25 December 2019 If charades isn't your thing - never fear. Try our veteran car boff Frankel's Christmas quiz. The following 50 questions are all from the world of automotive. How many can you get right? Answers at the bottom of the page. 1 - What animal will you find on the badge of a Gordon Keeble? 2 - What was the name of Karl Benz’s wife? 3 - Which WW1 flying ace inspired Enzo Ferrari to use the prancing horse emblem? 4 - In which town and country were Porsches first built? 5 - Which two drivers put the equal greatest number of years between their first and last Le Mans wins? 6 - What do the two-cylinder 500cc of a Fiat 126 and the 4.5-litre V12 that powered Ferrari to its first grand prix win in 1951 have in common? 7 - Who founded Alfa-Romeo? Clue: it was not Nicola Romeo. 8 - What do the three points on the Mercedes-Benz star represent? 9 - What was the make and name of the first mainstream production radial tyre and on which car was it introduced? 10 - From where was the famed Aston Martin DB5 ‘gadget car’ from the film Goldfinger stolen in 1997? 11 - What was unusual about the Ferrari 166S in which Clemente Biondetti contested the 1950 Italian Grand Prix? 12 - What was unusual about the Kurtis Kraft that took pole position for the 1952 Indianapolis 500? 13 - Which car manufacturer also makes condiment dispensers? 14 - Which man was known as ‘the hyphen in Rolls-Royce’? 15 - What is the only car manufacturer selling cars in the UK whose name begins with a double letter? 16 - Who was the only woman to finish in the points in a world championship grand prix? 17 - Who was the first person to win a race in a car using disc brakes? 18 - What and where was the world’s first purpose-built race track? 19 - Which is the world’s oldest motorsport facility to have been in continual use? 20 - What role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights did then Aston Martin chairman Victor Gauntlett turn down? 21 - What is the unique claim to fame of Louis Chiron, after whom the Bugatti Chiron is named? 22 - Why in 1964 did Porsche change the name of its new sports car from 901 to 911 after just 82 had been built? 23 - What was unusual about Eddie Hall’s participation at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1950? 24 - What four companies do the four rings of Audi represent? 25 - What was unusual about the door bins of the Lancia Stratos? 26 - Where are the interior door handles of a McLaren Senna located? 27 - Who was the first person to travel at greater than 400, 500 and 600mph and where did he do it? 28 - What was unusual about Vittorio Brambilla’s victory in the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix? 29 - Which was the last grand prix not won by one of Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari or Red Bull? 30 - Which was the first production road car to use monocoque construction? 31 - Which was the first production road car to use independent suspension? 32 - Why did the 1939 Bentley Corniche fail to make it into production? 33 - What was unique about the engine of the Cizeta-Moroder? 34 - How many valves does a Ferrari F355 engine have? 35 - What was unusual about the Ferrari Tipo 116 engine? 36 - Which was the first production road car with a turbocharged engine? 37 - What was the name of Wales’s only indigenous production car manufacturer? 38 - What were cars produced at the BMW Eisenach factory called after WW2 when the factory was located in East Germany? 39 - What make of car was apparently driven by all Janis Joplin’s friends? 40 - What was the first car to come with anti-lock brakes? 41 - What was the only four-wheel-drive car to win a Formula 1 race? 42 - For what is Eleanor Velasco Thornton most famous? 43 - For what car was the engine of the Ferrari F40 originally conceived? 44 - In which song does the following lyric appear? ‘Told my girl I’ll have to forget her/Rather buy me a new carburettor’ 45 - Who is the only driver to have scored maiden F1 victories for three different constructors? 46 - Before what year is a car entitled to call itself ‘vintage’? 47 - What is unusual about the Citroën 2CV Sahara? 48 - What was the nickname of Ferdinand Porsche, son of Ferry Porsche and designer of the 911? 49 - For which two brands was the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix an F1 maiden win? 50 - In which year did Lotus dealer Caterham Cars become a manufacturer in its own right when owner Graham Nearn bought the rights to the Lotus 7? The Answers 1 Tortoise 2 Bertha 3 Francesco Baracca 4 Gmünd, Austria 5 Luigi Chinetti (1932-49), Hurley Haywood (1977-94) – 17 years 6 Both were designed by Aurelio Lampredi 7 Pierre Alexandre Darracq 8 Land, Sea, Air 9 Michelin X, Citroën 2CV 10 Boca Raton airport. It has never been recovered 11 It was powered by a Jaguar engine 12 It had a diesel engine 13 Peugeot 14 Claude Johnson 15 Ssangyong 16 Lella Lombardi. She scored 0.5 points in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix after the race was shortened from 75 to 29 laps 17 Stirling Moss in a Jaguar C-Type at Reims in 1952 18 Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, which opened in 1907 19 Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb, founded in 1905 20 KGB colonel 21 He is the oldest person ever to take part in a World Championship Grand Prix, coming sixth at Monaco in 1955, aged 55 22 Peugeot claimed the right to all three-digit numbers with a zero in the middle 23 He drove the race solo 24 Horch, DKW, Wanderer and Audi 25 They were shaped to accommodate a helmet 26 Above the occupants’ heads 27 Craig Breedlove, Bonneville Salt Flats, between 1963 and 1965 28 He lost control and crashed his car after taking the chequered flag 29 2013 Australian Grand Prix. It was won by Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus E21 30 1922 Lancia Lambda 31 1922 Lancia Lambda 32 A Luftwaffe bomb fell on the only prototype on Dieppe docks as it waited to go home 33 It was and remains the only transversely mounted V16 used in a road car 34 40 35 It had two cylinders 36 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire 37 Gilbern 38 EMW 39 Porsche 40 Jensen FF 41 Ferguson P99 in which Stirling Moss won the 1961 Oulton Park Gold Cup 42 She was reputedly the model for the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy mascot 43 Lancia LC2 Group C racer 44 I’m In Love With My Car by Queen 45 Dan Gurney: Porsche, Brabham and Eagle 46 1931 47 It has two engines and four-wheel drive 48 Butzi 49 Honda and Goodyear 50 1973

Sophie Skill, from Sheffield, spent days on life support after she swallowed a coin-sized button battery. Battery acid burned through her gullet (oesophagus) and into her lung, causing agonising pain and putting her life in danger. Doctors say her case is not unique - about two UK children a year die from swallowing batteries. Button batteries are used to power many gadgets and toys that will be opened as gifts on Christmas Day, experts warn. They can be found in gaming headsets, fitness trackers, some robotic toy bugs or fish, key fob finders and light-up yo-yos. Festive lights, flameless candles, TV remotes, singing Santas and musical Christmas cards and jumpers may also contain them. Shiny, silver button or coin batteries can be very attractive to small children. If swallowed, they can cause catastrophic burns and choking. Sophie's mum, Clare, is warning other parents about the dangers. She says she still has no idea where her daughter got hold of the battery from that she swallowed. Sophie was two when the accident happened. Clare recalls: "She was still breathing all right and crying. But she was really, really screaming. I'd never heard anything like it before." Clare immediately took Sophie to hospital and once the doctors there discovered what was wrong, they took the toddler to the operating theatre to remove the battery. Although Clare acted fast, the injury the battery caused to Sophie was severe. Clare said: "Within two hours it had already done the damage. They did an X-ray and found it had burned through her oesophagus and her lung. She had to go on a ventilator." Sophie, now six, made a full recovery after spending days on life support and weeks in hospital. Saliva in the body will react with the battery, creating caustic chemicals and so time is very much of the essence in these cases, say experts. Dead or flat batteries can still be dangerous and contain enough electrical charge to badly injure a child. Ashley Martin, from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, warned people to: Make sure that toys and other products using button batteries, such as small electronic devices, have lockable battery compartments Beware of items such as musical greeting cards, flameless candles and remote controls as the battery compartments may not be lockable Ensure that spare batteries are stored out of reach of children, and used batteries are disposed of correctly NHS England Medical Director, Prof Stephen Powis, said: "For toddlers, button batteries can look like sweets. "We want to ensure parents are aware of the dangers of these potentially lethal batteries. "The best way to protect children is simply by keeping batteries out of reach for children, and ensure that any toys that require the batteries are firmly locked into the battery compartment." If you think a child has swallowed one, seek medical advice immediately - take them to A&E.

At least 120 houses have been destroyed by fast moving forest fires in the Chilean city of Valparaíso, prompting a mass evacuation, officials say. The fires affected the Rocuant and San Roque hills and spread to two poor residential areas. All the city's firefighters have been deployed. Mayor Jorge Sharp said the fires had been started "intentionally". There have been no reports of any casualties. Strong winds and high temperatures were exacerbating the situation. Power was cut to about 90,000 customers in the area as a precautionary measure. Two schools were turned into shelters for the affected residents, who were forced to flee in the middle of Christmas Eve celebrations. How do you fight extreme wildfires? Mr Sharp said a state of emergency had been declared in the city, some 100km (62 miles) from the capital, Santiago, and that it was "obvious" that the fires had been lit deliberately. A video posted on social media showed a car next to where one of the fires started. Prosecutors were investigating the footage as well as reports from residents that cars were seen in the hills affected moments before the blazes began, Emol website reports. Chilean Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker visited the areas and admitted that the firefighters were struggling to contain the fires. Nearly 120 hectares (445 acres) of grassland have already been ravaged by the fires. On Twitter, President Sebastián Piñera said: "We deeply regret the fire that affects so many families in the hills of Valparaíso and especially on Christmas Eve." Valparaíso, in central Chile, is one of country's largest cities and a major port on the Pacific. It is also a po[CENSORED]r tourist destination in South America.

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