Remember 2008? A president called Obama, a chap named Lewis Hamilton winning his first F1 title, and meanwhile, the car industry worshipped at the altar of diesel. Tax breaks were built around its lo-CO2 habits. It’d conquered everything from the once exclusively-petrol Range Rover segment to the diminutive Smart ForTwo city car. And at Le Mans, Audi was on a three-year winning-streak with the R10 TDI: the first turbodiesel machine ever to come home first at the world’s most illustrious 24-hour race.

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