Fast forward to classic car insurance...

Prestigecarinsurance.com offer fantastic savings on classic car insurance first and foremost. We are the people's champion, miles ahead of the competition and always the first on the starting grid when it comes to the best prices allied to the best service. So, one of our journalists picks up the story of another maverick fighting his chosen corner.

A curious motor insurance fan from Middlesex writes to ask us;

"What happens if you were to strap a camera to the business end of a Ferrari and drive said vehicle at speeds of up to 180kilometres an hour through a major cities thoroughfare at dawn?"

To which we took the time and considered response required to noting - you'd probably get arrested, taken down the local nick, beaten to an inch of your dreadlocks and thrown in a urine-stained cell. Unless of course you were in Paris . In 1976. And then it would be called a Gendarmerie. And still you would have managed to sidestep a guided tour of such an establishment. Well, you would if answered to the name of Claude Lelouch.

Over the years there have been some great films involving cars, for example Bullitt, French Connection, and the Italian Job. Then there have been even greater films involving even greater cars, such as gone in 60 seconds, the fast and the furious, and almost anything directed by Cubby Broccoli which found Roger Moore's name in the credits. And of course, forgetting, Herbie Goes Bananas. And then there are quite simply iconic masterpieces. The type that number one. We of course refer to the practically mythical 'C'etait Un Rendezvous'.

'The maddest, most controversial driving film ever made' - Maxim magazine.

'The most incredible piece of little cinema I have ever seen..has to be seen to be believed' - Porsche World.

'It's the extremely political incorrect recklessness of Rendezvous that both attracts and offends' - The Daily Express.

'The most terrifying adrenalin you are ever likely to see..its only nine minutes long but if you can take more than that without wetting yourself then you're a better man than I am..the stuff of legend' - Classic American.

Revered by a generation of car chase connoisseurs and, until only recently discussed in hushed tones, the short, but seminal film has the sort of preserve of a Masonic secret. The sort of legend that gathers momentum due to its lack of availability to the masses. In essence it wholeheartedly captures a time and spirit that couldn't be further removed from today. Anti-establishment undoubtedly, deeply politically incorrect, make no mistake, yet for all this, overflowing with something of a primitive passioner as the French refer to it. Basically, just about everything the bureaucrats of today stand against. Never before has a story committed to celluloid left so many question unanswered.

Questions like;

"Was the films director Lelouch arrested when it was shown?"

"Who actually drove the car, Lelouch, or, as some thought - F1 driver Jacques Lafitte?"

"Was the car really a Ferrari 275 GTB?"

"And..just how on earth de he manage it?"

So, as hinted at in the intro, the premise of the script, (if you wish to call it that) was this..

...French director Claude Lelouch had 300 metres of film remaining at the end of a production, and wanted to put it to good use. After recently speeding across Paris to make an appointment on time, he decided to use, and in some way, graphically embellish this simplistic idea. To literally harness the sheer adrenaline of such an otherwise mediocre event, and to showcase it on celluloid. So he did just that; strapping a camera to the front of the car, plotting a route and, at roughly 5am, going for it. The streets weren't closed. It wasn't exactly some publicity stunt, but he did employ the services of an assistant, armed with a 'walkie-talkie' to position themselves outside the gates of the Louvre. As driving past this famous Parisian landmark, you have no view as to the exit. Or for that matter, those exiting of anyone passing. Especially not at 180 kilometres an hour. Minutes after Lelouch finished this ultimate 'joyride', his agitated and cursing assistant informed him that the "piece of shit had stopped working at the start of the take". Reassuring in hindsight.

Accepting visions of a twilight Paris and the continual sound of the roar of an unbridled engine, timed with the glorious screeching of tyres, it's a film that's hampered by neither dialogue, soundtrack or lighting. A film that seeks to make a mockery of law and order. And successfully achieves this with compelling ease. A hand full of near misses (supposedly 2 people, a couple of buses and a Mini) later and he's got it 'in the can' so to speak, the most reckless, most irresponsible film ever caught on film, and therefore in the same sentence, the most genuinely exciting one you'll ever bear witness too.

Legend would have you believe that some time after the event the Paris Chief of Police took Lelouch to task about his 'movie', and endeavoured to read him a long list of many offences committed on his journey through France 's capital city. Followed surely by his rights. Fortunately for Lelouch, (unfortunately for road safety campaigners at the time) the chiefs children were big fans of the film, therefore letting him off with a supposed large smile etched on his face. The sort of policing that should be commended according to all us here at prestigecarinsurance.com, but not necessarily elsewhere.

The last word goes to Richard Symons though, a documentary film maker and Rendezvous fan who had managed to trace Lelouch in recent years and persuade him that what ought to be his career-best work needed to be re-released for a new, thrill-junkie populated market. Symons adds though; "The thing is, God forbid, if he had killed someone, then the film would quite rightly be buried and never heard of and he'd be cast out. But he didn't. He did it, and he pulled it off".

Indeed, the stuff of motoring legend. So it has become available, finally, so my advice to a Playstation-generation, bereft of real action thrills and spills, is to track this cinematic 'piece de la resistance' down. Slam it into your DVD player and press the button marked 'play'. Over and over again.

Repeating a task for pleasure. Something we do a lot here at prestigecarinsurance.com, who offer the cheapest prestige car insurance cover out there, repeatedly, taking chances, and seizing the opportunity to bring back to you, our avid viewers, and the best prices in the land. Time after time.