I can't name the bloke concerned, or reveal the precise location of his high security office suite in North America. But I can tell you he’s a trusted senior employee of world renowned accountancy firm, KPMG.

This man is doing serious number crunching at the minute. Within a week or so, he’ll be carefully placing the names of six cars into six envelopes that will be tightly sealed ahead of a security van ride to Manhattan. Next they’ll be opened on stage at the 2017 World Car Awards (WCA) prizegiving ceremony which opens the New York International Auto Show on 12 April. As WCA is independently rated as the number one automotive awards programme on the planet, this is a big deal. The biggest.

After the Oscars fiasco (involving a different accountancy firm, PwC), KPMG is keen to avoid a similar envelope-opening debacle at the World Car bash in NYC. Me too, not least because I’ll be nervously tearing open one of those envelopes on stage, prior to announcing whether the Audi R8 Spyder, McLaren 570S or Porsche Boxster/Cayman wins the 2017 World Performance Car trophy. Modest Porsche insists it’s just grateful its humble entry-level models are being “recognised” in the same supercar league as the considerably more expensive R8 and 570S.