Unless you believe the landings were faked, in which case it might be the only example of an earthling driving a car with titanium-studded wire-mesh tyres in a Hollywood studio.

For the purposes of this article, let us give the Americans the benefit of the doubt, despite apparent proof on ufos-aliens.co.uk that some live viewers of the first landing saw a coke bottle on the surface of the ''moon'' and it was edited out of all replayed footage.

The lunar rover vehicle, or LRV, was actually four separate units. Three went to the moon, the last was stripped for spares when it became obvious the Apollo program was to be cancelled.

LRV001 went up on Apollo 15 in July 1971, the next two (imaginatively named LRV002 and LRV003) followed in 1972 on the last moon missions ever, Apollo 16 and 17.

Quickly dubbed ''the moon buggy'', it mixed some interesting technology (four-wheel-drive and four-wheel steering, for example) with some quaint touches, such as a tiller to steer with.

This tiller was in the centre so both astronauts could drive, and do so with thick gloves on. It also controlled forward and reverse drive, and the parking brake.

Weight on the moon is one-sixth that on Earth, but engineers still needed to cut kilograms from the LRV. Apart from anything else, they had to transport the LRV on the rather cramped lunar module. Hence the all-up Earth weight of only 210 kilograms.

On arrival, the astronauts pulled it out, unfolded it and did a bit of simple assembly. The frame was aluminium alloy tubing. The seats were webbing, the wheels had aluminium hubs and the wire-mesh tyres had titanium treads for grip on the soft, dust-covered lunar surface.

Velcro seatbelts and toe-holds held the two astronauts in place as they roved in search of geologic samples and places to conduct experiments.

Between them, the LRVs travelled only 90.2 kilometres.

Part of the reason was fear of breakdown. The stipulation was that the astronauts never drive so far away that they could not walk back before their suits' four hours of oxygen and cooling water ran out.

The LRV was just over three metres long and could carry more than twice its own weight. Stylish it was not. That odd umbrella thing on the front was an aerial to transmit photos. Fortunately, air resistance was not a problem.

Each wheel had its own electric motor, supplying 190 watts.

The metric speedo went up to 20km/h. Top speed was quoted as 13km/h, although one astronaut managed to crank it up to 18km/h downhill to establish a new moon speed record (well, it would been, if he had been timed by a neutral observer over a flat kilometre in two directions).

Design on the LRV started in the mid-1960s. The contract to build the vehicle went to Boeing, with Chrysler the only major car maker to submit a tender, although General Motors' defence department ended up supplying the motors and those strange wheels. Boeing did what all government suppliers do and ran madly over budget.

If you divide their $38 million final bill by four, that is $8.5 million a piece, before you add NASA's contribution. That was when you could buy a Ford Pinto for $2000. Not that you would want to.

Unlike the astronauts, the LRVs had a one-way ticket. They are still up there, although probably in pretty poor shape after sitting out in all those 100-degree-plus days and minus 150-degree nights.