Foreword to Welsh Motoring Writers’ yearbook  

I’ve always liked cars, which may perhaps be a dangerous thing for any minister to admit to.   Notwithstanding, I do like cars and in my constituency town of Ruthin one day last summer, I saw a car that was – to my wholly subjective eye – utterly beautiful.  It was a 2003 Peugeot 406 coupé, a model that had previously, inexplicably, escaped my notice.   I spent several minutes walking around it, admiring the purity and elegant simplicity of its lines.  It was, according to a discreet badge low on its flank, a product of Farina, the Italian design house responsible for some of the most exciting models of such exotic marques as Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, as well the more interesting offerings of such home-grown names as Morris and Austin in pre-British Leyland days.   It was just a mass-produced car, but it was gorgeous. That’s the thing about cars: uniquely among machines,...