How do you get the more excitable members of the motoring fraternity revved up for a contest to prove their machismo? Easy: bring out a “green” version of their favourite children’s game, stand back and watch them go from nought to ninety in a nanosecond as they race to show how puerile, sorry, virile, they are.

The Eco Vehicles Top Trumps game has replaced statistics about engine size and horsepower with figures for lowest CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency. Marches Energy Agency, the charity that has helped to develop the game, says it is a “fun and entertaining way to educate youngsters. Kids love stats, and CO2 emissions are a more important stat these days than horsepower or number of cylinders.”

A bit dull, perhaps, but not worthy, surely, of the reaction of some motoring writers. “Classic schoolboy petrol-head game, Top Trumps, goes limp-wristed,” ran the headline on crash.net, while Fast Car Magazine – a website for men who have absolutely no issues with their sexuality (to prove it the magazine runs pictures of seminaked women next to the cars) – screamed: “High-octane card game goes gay.”

The project has been supported by Toyota and Honda and part-funded by the European Union, which particularly annoys the car nuts. “Top Trumps should never become a government-funded lesson in climate change,” writes Jon Quirk on Sky.com’s motoring section.

“They’re simply an outlet for people who like sports cars and stats in equal measure.” And who would never, ever overreact to a limited-edition card game sold only on eBay.

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