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Elliot Florio has been waiting rather a long time to own a supercharged, two-door '55 Chevy 350 sedan.

"I'd been looking for one for what felt like forever," he says. "Since I was 19, in fact. Finally, I bought this one a few weeks ago from a guy in the owners' club. I'd waited months for him to offer it for sale. He'd had work done to it, and it finally came my way."

An hour or so before we met, I'd followed the old Chevy, finished in Primer Gray, along the A3, hoping it might be coming to the car meet. I was impressed by its braking power when the owner slowed for the exit, but then the car disappeared with a low rumble from its exhaust. And now here it was again.

"I took a wrong turn," explains Elliot. "Yes, the brakes are good, aren't they? Originally they would have been drums, but they've been replaced with discs, which really bring it up short. Old Chevys are popular with drag racers, so it has a stronger front end from a '74 Camaro, a back axle from a '72 Camaro and a four-speed manual gearbox. The supercharged, small-block, 350-cubic-inch V8 produces 400bhp and has a lot of grunt."

When I first saw it on the A3, something else that impressed me was that sinister, hunched look the Chevy has and which is typical of old US muscle cars. "It's a copy of the car in the 1971 cult film Two-Lane Blacktop, where two street racers, driving a '55 Chevy 150 drag car, challenge locals to race them," explains Elliot. "Mine has hydraulic brakes and steering, while theirs probably didn't, but it's just as hairy and a bit back-endy in the wet."

The Primer Gray finish looks and feels a little rough, but there's no rust. "It's all good underneath, too," says Elliot. "Unfortunately, at the front the inner wings have been cut out, so on wet days like today water gets all over the engine bay. However, it means there's a lot of room to work in.

"Most spares are easy to come by; everything is online. There are even sites that just deal in parts for '55 Chevys. It and the '57 are still very popular - people love the shape. If they can't find exactly what they're looking for, owners fit Camaro parts instead."

This Chevy is not Elliot's first American car. He's owned Mustangs, Pontiac Firebirds and Model Ts. He says: "I grew up in the motor trade and love American motors. They're mechanically very simple, and they're different enough here that everyone looks at you as you drive by. At home I have a regular 1923 Model T sedan, but I had to sell my Model A hot rod to buy this Chevy, which cost me £25,000."

Elliot's daily driver is another American car, kind of: a Ford Focus. That said, he's barely touched it since acquiring the Chevy, which, come rain or shine, but mostly rain, he drives nearly every day. Insurance costs him £300 with Adrian Flux. "I can live with that," says Elliot.

"Considering how much car you get, how plentiful and reasonably priced parts are and what a great experience it is to drive one, a well-bought American car is a lot better value for money and easier to own than many younger European classics."

Remember when new electric cars were all huge, had a motor each end and bristled with more complexity than you could shake a stick at?

Well, the Skoda Elroq, our favourite electric car on today's market, is emphatically not that and is all the better for it.

Of course, the version we've chosen does have the bigger '85' battery and the meatiest, albeit single, 282bhp motor to drive its rear wheels, which pushes the price closer to £40,000 than the £32,000 where the base model starts.

But there's a pleasant simplicity about the whole car that goes with it being based on the Volkswagen Group's now well-developed MEB EV platform, just like the Volkswagen ID 3 and Cupra Born.

That big battery means you get a cool 350 miles of range and normal driving means 300-320 of this is honest-to-God available - at this time of the year, at least.

The Elroq 85 can turn a 0-62mph acceleration run in 6.3sec, which makes it fast in 4.5m-long crossover terms. If you're the type who gets into impromptu roundabout or motorway on-ramp jousts (we don't recommend it), you will find you have a strong hand, its quick response being just as useful as its ability to gather speed.

Yet it's the Elroq's cosseting ride and quiet cruising that is its strongest suit. This is a thoroughly enjoyable car to drive calmly. The suspension is supple and just about perfectly damped. It absorbs ripples that would annoy in other cars, yet its body remains mostly unruffled in all but the most lumpy conditions. Try hard and you can induce a bit of body roll, but it's a fool's errand.

The car is composed and the steering and accelerator response make it unfailingly easy to drive. This is one of those subtle EV mile-eaters: quiet, smooth, effective.

Skoda took quite a bit of time to launch a decent array of EVs, preferring to learn from others who wanted to rush to market. There could hardly be a better advert for the patient approach than the perfectly positioned, everyday-life-enabling Elroq.