On any given Sunday, convoys of cars can be spotted cruising at a frustratingly slow pace along China's quasi-country roads. With hazard lights blinking, and badges and flags proudly declaring brand allegiance, the urban-dwelling men and women behind the wheel are members of a rapidly expanding number of car owner clubs.
In the world's biggest car market, and in record numbers, the Chinese are taking to the road in scenes last witnessed during America's 1950s heyday for the automobile.
Today, organisers of the grandest, richest motor club of them all would dearly like to stop the gas-guzzling mainlanders in their tracks - and see them tune into the eighth Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
The success of today's event is crucial for the government-owned company that hosts the high adrenalin race in China, and for the F1 juggernaut and its sponsors, including new Shanghai title race sponsor, Swiss bank UBS.
All are desperately keen to see F1's popularity in the world's most populous nation pull out of the tail spin that has seen audience figures decline since the first race roared over the freshly laid tarmac in 2004.
After seven years of staging the marquee Asia event, the F1 fan base in this car- obsessed nation remains worryingly small.
The black hole into which China's car-adoring masses seem to disappear becomes apparent ringside, at the stunning Shanghai International Circuit, the US$350 million track designed to put China's premier glitzy city on the motorsport map.
