You might expect a 80-year-old to have a Volvo in his garage. Volvos are the septuagenarians of the car world: long-lasting, unadventurous and often found at garden centres or National Trust properties.
But Paul Newman is no ordinary 80-year-old. And his Volvo is no ordinary Volvo. It has a Cosworth race-bred V8 engine dropped into it. "It's a funny Volvo," he admits. "It's an old 950, last of the rear-wheel drive estate chassis. It is hotted-up a little bit." Like a Ferrari is a warmed over Fiat...
The engine in Newman's Volvo is the size of a small piano and makes considerably more noise. Based on a Ford racing engine, it pumps out 400 horsepower (about as much as a Ferrari).
Newman sits on a velour couch in the back of an Airstream motorhome trundling down a road somewhere south of Ensenada, Mexico. He is en route to the start of the Baja 1000 desert rally down the length of southern California.
Newman, who has been racing for 33 years, is about to drive a buggy over sand dunes and rocks at motorway speeds over part of a 1000-mile course which the fastest cars complete in just 16 hours. But from the look on his face you'd think he was about to drive his Volvo to the shops at home in Westport, Connecticut.
Since he first raced aged 47, he has nearly won Le Mans, tested Indy cars, run an Indy team and even when he hits 80 still plans to keep racing his 670bhp Chevy Corvette. A few hours in a bucking bronco of a dune buggy does not phase the star of The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
"If fact I think we filmed Butch Cassidy down here somewhere," says Newman, lifting his dark glasses for a peer through the window at the passing spaghetti western vista of cacti and cloudless skies. "Anyway I'm looking forward to the race. It's really the last of the great motoring adventures. I did the pre-run (test) a few weeks ago. It was great fun. I was amazed at the cars' ability to absorb bumps. They are just amazingly durable. The only thing is my back is not [feeling] too good, but we'll see how it goes. I'll just try to make sure that I don't hit any thing. But I'll have a guide, sitting there with a hammer and if I do something [rash], he will just hit me in the privates."
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Next: A tax-friendly escapade 
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