However, it's fair to say the two cars weren't just sent off to the local Cumbrian Dent Wizard. The two 2006 Focus WRC cars entered by Dutch privateer Peter Van Merksteijn and Norwegian teenager Andreas Mikkelsen would have been completely refurbished and sold, in that phrase eBay so frowns upon, 'as new'. Even the ones that get virtually demolished in crashes.

"We build between 10-12 cars per season and have just sold ten 2006 cars," says Mike Stuart, customer liason manager for Ford's rally arm M-sport. "Because of the way we rebuild them, even after the biggest crash you can find, we can salvage the car."

That half a million (which, in the case of Mikkelsen, was coughed up by his dad) also gets you a host of spares and a hotline to M-sport engineers. On the Sardinia rally, the two privateers will also rent mechanics and spares from M-sport, saving them the cost of bringing their own. "You'd need between £300,000-400,000 worth of spares, and a lot of teams just can't afford that", says Stuart. "This way they pay for what they need." So careful with those rocks, Andreas.

The way it works with Ford is that the top team of Latvala and Hirvonen will use a car for a year, then the following year that car is recycled for use in the Stobart (where Matthew Wilson has a seat) and Munchis teams. Following a ground-up rebuild the entire lot of two-year-old cars are then sold to bring a useful £5 million back into the operation. Not that M-sport are making anything on them. The new cars, says Stuart, cost "considerably more" than half a mil.