Blogs

  • Who says nobody likes a Smart Arse?

    <font face="verd">I saw this on the back of a Smart Fortwo in St. Albans the other day. It made me chuckle, anyway.</font></p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/WhosaysnobodylikesaSmartArse_A8EB/SmartArse%5B1%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="164" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/WhosaysnobodylikesaSmartArse_A8EB/SmartArse.jpg" width="240" border="0"></a>

    7 February 2008
    Anything goes

  • Just another extraordinary day in the life of an Autocar road-tester

    </p> Right now I am sitting in the back of a big black Audi A8, being chauffeur driven from Gatwick airport to my home in Hove. I've spent the last two days in Florence driving the brand new Bentley Brooklands. A chap called Peter Robinson is at the wheel, and though he’s no relation to the Peter Robinson whom I used to know and love working with at Autocar, he seems like a decent enough sort of bloke. Who can drive an A8 precisely how it was intended. Fast and smooth, just how you’d like to be driven at the end of a long two days away.</p> </p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/Justanotherextraordinarydayinthelifeofan_AB5B/_DAF5983%20copy%202%5B3%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; border-right-width: 0px" height="182" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/Justanotherextraordinarydayinthelifeofan_AB5B/_DAF5983%20copy%202_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" width="275" align="right" border="0"></a> This is not normally my kind of world. This is not normally the kind of thing I do. This driving of £230,000 Bentleys and then being chauffeur driven home is, you imagine, usually the preserve of the highest of high flyers. And today I’ve had a taste of their world.

    6 February 2008
    Tester’s notes

  • Honda's new S2000 is a safer bet on a slippery bend

    </p> The new, improved Honda S2000 isn’t much different from the old one in look, sound or spec, except that they’ve changed the suspension again to make it more predictable on a track. The 1999 original would understeer until you got close to the limit when, abruptly, it would do the other thing too quickly for a normal mortal to catch. There were improvements in ‘04, but they weren’t the final answer.</p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/HondasnewS2000isasaferbetonaslipperybend_F440/S2000%5B3%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="185" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/HondasnewS2000isasaferbetonaslipperybend_F440/S2000_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" width="280" align="left" border="0"></a> So when we learned that the new ‘08 version had been given the further modded&nbsp;chassis from the Japanese S2000 Type-S, our first priority was to try it on a track. As it turned out, Honda had a bunch of cars at Brands Hatch, so we came up with a series of tests which would establish once and for all whether this was a car you could trust on the limit.

    5 February 2008
    Tester’s notes

  • Lost the roof; lost the point

    </p> Can somebody explain to me why anybody would want a convertible Noble? Clearly Steve Rubie-Todd could, as <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/230854/">he founded Salica – a Bristol company that has just started offering a conversion kit for M12s</a>, and he has "long wanted a convertible Noble".<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Losttherooflostthepoint_E80F/M12GTOT2.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 5px 10px; border-right-width: 0px" height="174" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Losttherooflostthepoint_E80F/M12GTOT_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a> What's the point? There's a point to a 911 Cabriolet because people like to pose in them, but surely the only reason you buy a Noble is because it's a brilliant, high performance sports car. Sure, they look dramatic, but no fashionista would buy one because they look good outside the Dorchester. Don't get me wrong - I like convertibles. I love the Aston V8 Roadster, and I would recommend the Mazda&nbsp;MX-5&nbsp;to anyone wanting a fun, affordable two-seater. I also think folding hard tops are a brilliant idea -&nbsp;I would even consider buying one. Unless they're hindering an otherwise&nbsp;great sports car from being great, what's not to like? But none of it makes sense if you're basically chopping the roof off a racer.

    4 February 2008
    Anything goes

  • Word from a conspicuously fragile-looking glasshouse

    </p> Ah, the joy of another Monday morning environmental heart-starter, delivered this time by the BBC News website. In this case it's a column from former oil company boss, and the possessor of most spectacular name-and-eyebrows combo I've ever seen, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (right), who reckons that anything incapable of doing 35mpg should be banned. </p><a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/Wordfromaconspicuouslyfragilelookingglas_D53F/moody%20stuart%5B3%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; border-right-width: 0px" height="185" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/Wordfromaconspicuouslyfragilelookingglas_D53F/moody%20stuart_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" width="280" align="right" border="0"></a> Debate on this kind of thing is all to the good. But I'm wondering why I'm being lectured by a man who previously ran Shell, one of the world's largest oil companies. </p>Sir Mark boasts that he drives a hybrid. For which, congratulations (although I bet I could better his mpg in a Kia Ceed diesel), but he singularly fails to mention how many times he travelled the globe using Shell's spectacular fleet of corporate jets

    4 February 2008
    Green cars

  • &quot;It will take a personality of Alonso's status to squeeze this filthy behaviour out of F1...&quot;

    </p> Fernando Alonso needs to make a public apology on behalf of those disgraceful, so-called Spanish "fans" who subjected Lewis Hamilton to a barrage of obscene racist taunts at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya last week. Not because it was Fernando's fault, you understand, but because it will take a personality of his status to ensure that this kind of filthy behaviour - so often a feature of Spanish football in recent years - is squeezed out of the F1 spectator areas before it takes root.<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/racinglines/WindowsLiveWriter/ItwilltakeapersonalityofAlonsosstatusto_A50E/_H0Y3447%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="186" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/racinglines/WindowsLiveWriter/ItwilltakeapersonalityofAlonsosstatusto_A50E/_H0Y3447_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="left" border="0"></a> I would also urge the FIA to publicly insist that if the track operators do not take some stern measures, then the Spanish GP on April 27 should at the very least be run behind closed doors if not cancelled completely. The 23-year old British driver was subjected to obscene taunts from the grandstand as he continued his preparations for the new season at the wheel of the new McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 ahead of the first grand prix of 2008 in Australia on March 16.

    4 February 2008
    Motorsport

  • Guilty pleasures

    </p> Guilty pleasures. When it comes to cars I’ve got plenty of them. In no particular order here goes: <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Guiltypleasures_FB50/612Scaglietti%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="157" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Guiltypleasures_FB50/612Scaglietti_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a> My favourite Ferrari is the 612 Scaglietti (200mph and four seats, yes please), I really like the Skoda Roomster, my favourite luxury saloon is the Lexus LS460, I love heated seats, I’d rather have an auto ‘box (except on serious sports cars), anything with a three-cylinder engine always gets my vote, I find myself hankering after the new Citroen C5 and Renault Laguna Coupe, I’d rather have an Aston V8 Roadster than the coupe and I think that the Ford S-Max is probably the best car on sale in Britain. I’m sure that there’s plenty more but tell me yours first…

    1 February 2008
    Anything goes

  • Would you buy a car from an MP?

    </p> Probably not, if the last few weeks news stories are to be believed. Peter Hain mislaid an amount of money that would buy you a pretty high end Mercedes, or decent Aston for that matter. Then there is Derek Conway (who I never knew existed until this week), who hasn’t been entirely transparent about&nbsp;his parliamentary expenses; they would keep most of us taxed and insured for the best part of a decade or two. The trouble is that MPs receive some very generous allowances for their travel, which distances them from the everyday reality of transport costs that we have to deal with. That’s why they don’t seem as receptive as they should be about our plight when it comes to road and fuel taxes.

    1 February 2008
    Anything goes

  • Super-estates: yes or no?

    </p> I'll say now that I'm a fan of the super-estate class. Having spent a few days in an M5 Touring, I can honestly say that I would love to indulge in a 500bhp estate if I had the need for a comfortable family run around, and the money to fuel a car returning 16mpg. <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Superestatesyesorno_B6B1/AudiRS6%5B3%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="167" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/anythinggoes/WindowsLiveWriter/Superestatesyesorno_B6B1/AudiRS6_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" width="240" align="left" border="0"></a>That's because I'm a self confessed performance-car addict, and would nearly always choose the fastest or best handling model available in any range if money were no issue. But that's not reality. Reality is that the M5 Touring costs £66k, and a 535d Touring costs £20,000 less. The new Audi RS6 Avant has brings this into focus. It has a 5.0-litre, twin-turbo V10 putting out 572bhp. Remove the limiter and you'll see 200mph in an estate.

    31 January 2008
    Anything goes

  • A front row seat at the COTY 2008 awards

    </p> The chief architect of Fiat’s remarkable turnaround, CEO Sergio Marchionne, last night collected the Fiat 500’s latest and biggest accolade so far, the 2008 Car of the Year trophy, awarded late last year after a&nbsp;landslide vote by 58 leading motoring journalists in 22 countries across Europe. </p><a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarconfidential/WindowsLiveWriter/AfrontrowseatattheCOTY2008awards_FD5C/5003.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="186" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarconfidential/WindowsLiveWriter/AfrontrowseatattheCOTY2008awards_FD5C/500_thumb1.jpg" width="280" align="left" border="0"></a> In a ceremony organised by Stern, the German COTY sponsor, in a large Berlin classic car centre, a relaxed Marchionne, wearing his characteristic navy sweater and open-necked shirt, introduced the 300-strong audience to&nbsp;ten key members of the 500’s creative team from the stage, and claimed his “biggest contribution was to believe these people could build a great car in&nbsp;just 19 months.”

    29 January 2008
    Confidential

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