The Jag seems to have caused a difference of opinion.   Mr FM, whose automotive transport choice starts and ends with LandRovers (and I can't say I blame him - I love my Discovery too) was not uncomplimentary about the car per se... but did feel it an old man's car.    Hmmmph.

He took it upon himself to run an Blog Poll on my new motor...the results of which can be found here.  

I will remain unrepentant and enjoy the smooth ride, understated elegance and monster grunt.   For the record the car has no pipe holder, did start today and has does not have the Conservative Club, or Golf Club address programmed into it's Sat Nav.

I just pray it will be reliable, or I'll be eating humble pie for the next 12 months.

I may keep you posted.

Once the seed of automotive change is sowed in the fertile ground of my imagination, there is just no holding back.

Fear not though, dear reader, lest you be concerned I have reduced the fleet size by two - I have simply traded one for a another.   But before I spill the beans on the latest acquisition, I do need to set the scene.  

A couple of weeks ago I went to test drive a Mazda RX-8.   Consistent with my new policy of wanting to own interesting / iconic / unique etc. cars, I thought this would be fun and also a more comfortable way of effecting my weekly commute.

Fabulous car.   Superb handling, quick, rev-tastic rotary engine spinning up to 9,250 rpm, well made, very comfortable and surprisingly spacious.   Wacky rear suicide doors and a fully loaded spec meant it was very good value.   Big Mike accompanied me on the test drive and we popped in to see Panther on our way - wanting to play on the lanes of the Lambourn Downs - purely in the interests of seeing what it could do you understand.

We were impressed.   Clearly so was Mrs Panther as we received a text not 5 hours later confirming she had been down to the same Mazda garage and bought one!   Panther himself suggested that next time I take a car for a test drive I don't include their house on the route.   (Mental note to self:  test drive Porshe next time ;-)

Anyway, what of my interest in the RX-8?   Well.... still keen, but.... and it's quite a big but.   My other choice was a Jaguar XK-8.   Nice coupe, good looking, comfy, quite quick, although a bit older.   And I needed to drive one to be sure before I put my money on the Mazda.

I first drove a standard XK.   Oh dear.   What let down.   Slow, stodgy, dull witted handling.   A real disappointment and clearly not for me.    The salesman said that I wanted something a with a bit more 'go' and that I should look at an XKR... but the only one he had in stock had a black interior - which is a no go for me too.

But they did have an XJR.   Pacific Blue, Champagne leather and with a fully stamped up main dealer service history.   And it is quick.  370 BHP.   390 lbft of torque.   5.3 seconds 0-60mph.  Faster than my 911.....

And it is mine.   Deal done, pick it up later this week.

Sorry to see the MINI go, but overall whilst I enjoyed it, it was too bouncy for my commute, where I would prefer something sporting, but more comfortable.   Gratuituous pic below: 

This week has seen the announcment of plans to interfere with that which needs no interference.   Both are motoring related and extend beyond the concrete landscape of the urban wasteland, into the real world.

The first, by some bunny hugging save the planet eco weenies is a proposal to impose punitive taxes on the bigger polluting 4x4's in order to discourage their use.   I know the tax was upped by his Wasteship earlier this year, but even Dr. Millipede confirmed on Radio 4 yesterday that it was not really going to make a difference.   We all knew that, but then, as this is all to do with tax raising rather than behaviour altering, it came as no surprise.

This latest wheeze suggests annual licence fees be increased to... wait for it... £1,800 per vehicle.   That is a 650% increase.   So, in reality, those who need a 4x4 for their work with either pay up - or there will be an expensive to operate and police exemption scheme, wasting even more money - and those who don't need a 4x4 will pay because they can afford it.

Queue a complete failure to address global warming, but a nice little earner for No.11....   more »

Sad to report that the 911 has been sold.   Sob.  A sensible decision given our immininent move and wish to do a bit of cost control.   Made a little easier after I wrote the cheque for the gearbox repair and service.   I focussed on that as I signed the contract to sell.

Which included a commitment to buy.  Pictured below resplendant in Electric Blue paint, is a MINI Cooper S.   Not as quick as the Porsche, but still lots of fun.   The daft extra lights and go faster stripes are being removed and I should have the car on Thursday.  

Will likely be unable to resist sharing with you how good it is to drive....

A survey carried out for Swiftcover.com, an online insurance compancy has concluded that speed cameras are the least effective way of improving road safety.   The cameras, which last year reaped revenue of more than £114m in speeding fines, were ranked at the bottom of a list of initiatives aimed at reducing accidents.

More than half of drivers questioned (54%) thought cameras encouraged people to drive more erratically and almost three quarters (71%) thought they made motorists less aware of hazards on the road, therefore increasing the risk of accidents.

Swiftcover questioned 2,000 motorists, asking them to rate various road safety initiatives. The most popular was speed-activated flashing warning signs telling drivers they have exceeded the limit, followed by variable speed limits, speed bumps and “keep your distance” chevrons. Cameras were 10th in the list.

But top for revenue.    Coincidence?    Nope.   Just proof that road safety is not the real priority.

After an early start on Sunday, getting cars ready for a little drive out to a pub for lunch, the weather let us down by raining hard on the way there and forcing us to do an emergency pull over and roof up job.  Always fun.

After a splendid lunch marred only by the staff's initital refusal to offer us dessert as they were closing the kitchen in 5 minutes (... we suspect due to the footie) we went on a little drive down to Pewsey Vale and back up towards Marlborough.

Now my old Midget has a dodgy fuel pick up (well that's what I think it is anyway) and it always runs out when the needle get to 1/4 full.   Given this knowledge you would expect I would have the wit to carry a spare fuel can, perhaps even with some petrol in it.

So anyway, the inevitable happened and we left the car at the side of the road and Big Mike and I roared of in the Aston in search the needful.   Red face for me then.

It was still raining when we got home so consequently an hours lethargy in front of the telly was in order.   Somehow we managed to watch the World Cup.   England vs. Ecuador.  Now I will freely admint to not being an expert in matters of the round ball game, but as a slothful spectator, in the mood to be entertained, I was wholly underwhelmed.   What a load of dross.

And looking at the picture of Becks on the front page of most of the newspapers this morning, you'd have thought we'd won the Jules Rimet outright.

Even in the eyes of this armchair incompetent, we need to try harder, after all; England expects.

So, at last all can be revealed.   Big Mike has traded out of his Bentley and up to a Roller.   Oops, sorry, that should be 'Royce'.  

We said the Bentley had altogether more sporting pretensions and did rather look the part... while the Royce is - how shall I put it? - somewhat less subtle?

His riposte was in two parts - at first reminding us that deep down he is still from across the Atlantic and therefore does have an errant predeliction for such styles ... and second that this was no ordinary Royce.   No sir.  It's one of only 50 RHD turbocharged Royces ever made.   A Flying Spur.  And it has its' own number to boot.

All other doubts fled my mind Wednesday night, when for a brief moment he put his foot down.   There is not the instant flight and flat scream of my 911, merely the briefest hestitation before 2 tonnes + of a nearly 20 ft long car lunges at the horizon very quickly indeed.   Noise remains incredibly muted, with just a whiff of induction rush to remind you that under the bonnet the oily bits are getting real busy.

I can see why he was smitten - it's a beautiful car.   Add to that a rich ebony black paintwork (I'm sure it had a fancy name, but basically, black is black right?) and a cream hide interior that cost about 20 cows their coats.  Their sacrifice was worth it.  It's long wheelbase and even the back seats recline....

Big Mike's new motor outside Fabrizio's in Clerkenwell.   The owner of the scooter we nearly crushed while parking, offered us £8,000 for the car.  Cash.  Right.

What a great rally.   And a particularly good one for newcomers like us.   First, the result.   We were 16th (out of just over 100), third in our class and won the team prize overall.

The car performed faultlessly, the weather was perfect and teamwork in the car spot on.

I'll post some pictures later and a bit of a write up on each day if I get time.

Still grinning!
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We arrived last night after an easy run from Wiltshire, mainly on the A and B roads.   The weather remained dry and clear and roads and scenery were wonderful.   This is why we do these events.. just getting here was special.

On checking the tyre pressures before leaving I noticed the front offside was a little low - confirming my suspicions that we had an issue with that tyre.  Outside Bala we spotted one of those local tyre shops, not one of the big chains, and decided to stop and see if they had any spares.   They did not, but did change the valve stem and clean the surface rust of the rim which was the cause of the abrasion and hence the leak.  Sorted.

The young man in the workshop had a very strange accent... his radio was tuned to an interesting and incomprehensible Welsh station and I asked if he spoke Welsh.   On reflection that was somewhat stupid, but his answer surprised me more.  Not only did he speak welsh, but he said he rarely spoke any english:  hence the accent.   Later in the day I learned that much of the local accent is derivative of  a Viking language, left here many centuries ago... and that indigineous DNA can be traced to certain fishing villages in Norway.

Seems there's more to Llandudno than I first thought.

Drivers and Navigators briefing in an hour, then a practice run, Scrutineering and registration.. should be a busy day.

It is said the reason Ferruccio Lamborghini created the orginal Miura in 1966, was because he did not like Enzo Ferrari.   Apparently Lamborghini owned a Ferrari and complained that the gearbox was noisy.   Enzo allegedly responded by suggesting he stick to making tractors – which had made him a millionaire - and leave the manufacture of sportscars to Ferrari.   Ferrucio was a tad miffed so decided to have a go himself….

 

Whatever his motives may have been, it’s a great story, an amazing car and it rewrote the rule book for supercars for ever.   Sure, GT’s can have engines at the front, but to be a sportscar the motor has to be in the middle.  OK, or the back in the case of the 911, but that really is the exception that proves the rule.

 

In dazzling orange or lime green, the original Miura epitomised the swinging Sixties, with black eyelashes around its headlamps matching the false lashes of skinny, white-faced models.  Twiggy's manager, Justin de Velleneuve, bought the one above (with her money) to squire her around London's night spots.   One of my friends bought said car a couple of years ago as an investment.   I could barely get in - god knows how you would actually drive one - let alone park it, it was awful.   But it looked amazing.  

The Muira also set the standards in scary supercar handling. Super-fast, its screaming quad-cam V12 engine was mounted across the back; that mass would pull the car into lurid oversteer if you lifted off in a corner and the sharp nose would lift at speed as air got underneath it.

And now, as retro is the new new, it is being reborn.   This new version sports a barrage of aerodynamic splitters and winglets to keep it on the ground. So will it be less scary than the old model? Bentley's chief engineer, Uli Eichhorn, thought so. "I don't think we know how to make a car that handles that badly any more," he grinned.

True, but you still know how to make them gorgeous!

 

I think I need another lottery ticket.   Or two.

As an introduction to rallying, this was some baptism by fire. Many thought the tests very hard - some too hard - so they withdrew from the tougher night sections, finding them very rough on the cars. And when you see some of the beautiful machinery in the car park ...   more »

In the introductory bumf for Jonathan Palmers Bedford Autodrome motorsport venue it says:

The Motorsport Sensation at Bedford Autodrome. Guests drive every high performance car. They experience one of the most thrilling memorable days of their lives and they will love it.

Rarely do you read marketing blurb that on ...   more »

LJK Setright, who died last week aged 74, was one of the most inspiring motoring – or should I say engineering - enthusiasts of our age. One of the world's foremost and most distinguished motoring journalists he was also one life’s great characters.

His numerous publications included histories of Rolls ...   more »

Regular visitors to the blog will have been assailed with various automotive related tales for some time now. Rest assured this situation will continue, even though the fleet is nearly complete. For now that is.

The sensible family car arrived on Friday in the form of a Jaguar X type ...   more »

The 911 has been here a month now and I finally got round to taking her to the local Porsche Centre to have a couple of things done post shipping. The windscreen has a slight leak - supposedly fixed in Hong Kong but not - and the central locking is ...   more »

I am reminded of an old joke which, as with all good jokes, starts with two men in a pub:

Fred: I bought the wife a jaguar last week...
Bill: Really? Bet that was expensive, was it worth it?
Fred: Oh yes, it bit her head off.

This is of course incredibly unkind - I will suffer for it later - but is a neat introduction to our latest sensible car acquisition. OK, make that only sensible car acquisition.. well apart from the LandRover that is.   more »

We've finally resolved the car issues. Vectra sold. 911 arrives UK on monday. 323 sold to our estate agent (justice?) and the MX-5 was loaded yesterday. Looking forward very much to driving her in Wiltshire.

Have been impressed with the shipping agent in Hong Kong; Barwill. They've been on top of the documentation all the time and even sent me pictures of the cars loaded on board.

The MX-5 is sitting in front of a bus and a lorry. Hope it's a smooth ride to Yokohama!

I hate to admit it, but the girls are right. There is nothing like a bit of retail therapy to put a smile on your face. Even better when indulgence is with the support of ones spouse. Better still when it involves motor cars.

And so it was that yours ...   more »

Have to admit I've long since stopped being an avid follower of the Ecclestone circus and many more will share my view following this weekends disaster at Indianapolis. F1 really did need to conquer America to be a truly global event (and of course to tap into all those sponsorship ...   more »