AS citizens of mainland Europe get to grips this week with a new currency, Fleet News has identified an ingenious aid for UK company car drivers abroad who are struggling with the conversion of Pound Sterling to Euros.

By an amazing quirk, the conversion rate of Sterling to Euros is virtually identical to the conversion rate of miles per hour to kilometres per hour.

Thus, £1 is worth about 1.6 Euro, while 100mph equates to about 160kph. Likewise, £50 is worth about 80 Euros and 50mph is about 80kph.

So any driver baffled by continental currency conversions has merely to jump into his or her car and check the speedometer for a rough rule of thumb.