And the gold medal for car-making goes to…

That's your lot for the next four years then.

The 2008 Olympics are well and truly over and if nations are being judged purely on the number of Golds they’ve won (rather than their TOTAL medal count) China is the outright winner by a country mile.

The victorious host country was followed by the USA in the runners-up slot, then Russia which scraped-in in third place. Britain was fourth, followed by Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France, Ukraine, Holland, Jamaica, Spain, Kenya, Belarus, Romania, Ethiopia, Canada and Poland...in that order.

But when it comes to the Top 20 car-producing countries on the planet, the picture looks very, very different.

Japan is the undisputed winner, producing almost 10 million cars per year. Germany is next with over 5m, followed by the USA which builds around 4.3m annually. China, South Korea and France are not far behind, each producing between 3 and 4 million cars per annum. Spain makes over 2 million a year. And comparing like with like, the annual car production figure for Britain (or to be more precise, England which is the only part of GB where vehicles are built) is 1.6m.

Next come Canada (1.4m), Russia (1.0m), Italy (700,000) and Poland (500,000), according to the latest available figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Australia (350,000), Ukraine (170,000) Netherlands (100,000), Romania (75,000) and Belarus (23,000) are next in the car-building league table. Jamaica, Kenya and Ethiopia, for the time being at least, don't manufacture cars.

But don't go running away with the idea that Britain is the eighth largest car producer in the World. Brazil is already ahead of GB, and India, Mexico and others are closing in fast, determined to squeeze Britain out of the top ten.

Also, Britain is now only the 16th largest commercial vehicle maker on the planet behind USA, Japan, China, Canada, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, France, Turkey, Germany, India, South Korea, Italy and Russia, but just ahead of South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia and Argentina.