The Libyan national museum in Tripoli prominently displays an artefact of immense national significance and pride: a green Volkswagen Beetle the young Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi drove across the whole of Libya to rally supporters for the revolution that exiled King Idris I to Egypt.

And what's a more appropriate vehicle to drive but the people's car, when establishing the eccentric blend of populism, socialism and Islam the world got to know as The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (State of the Masses). The price of petrol then was a pittance; a journey throughout the fourth biggest country in Africa was affordable for a young idealist.