How Things Have Changed: Rush Hour Traffic

I guess one of the things I wanted to record here were some of the epic journeys that driving has lost forever, with the advent of speed cameras, traffic calming and the increase in the sheer weight of traffic. This is one of those journeys which I suspect will never be possible again.

The first car I had was a Fiat 128. It was very green, very tempremental and indecently fast for a 1300cc engined car - especially in the hands of an equally green seventeen year-old with no understanding of speed limits and an absolute belief that the road was a racetrack with extra obstacles. At the time the Government had barely begun its drink driving campaign, so speed and speeding weren't that big a deal. For most traffic officers pulling over a young driver was essentially an opportunity to check your documents or issue a 'producer' if you didn't have them with you.

One of the regular journeys that car undertook was a run from Acton Town in West London, down to the Target Pub Roundabout, via Hangar Lane and the Western Avenue. A journey of seven miles. And whilst traffic wasn't anything like as bad as today, it will still a pretty sticky place to be come rush hour.

On the day in question, that little Fiat grew wings and despite being loaded with four strapping apprentices and not having seen the inside of a workshop since the day it was bought, managed to despatch those seven miles in a little under seven minutes. Rules of the road weren't just broken, they were annihilated; in modern Britain I'd have been locked away and the key not just thrown away, it would have been melted down and recycled into modern art.

That's a better than 60mph average speed through the streets of West London in rush hour in an underpowered Italian econobox. That particular feat will never be achieved again - not on four wheels anyway...

Is This The Ugliest Car Ever?

Porsche's history of universally glorious cars has been torn up over the last few years. First the Cayenne, which is a bit, ermm, strange looking, with its '911 being humped by a Range Rover' styling and despite its astonishing popularity - no doubt down to the badge on the nose - it still hasn't grown on me. But whilst the Cayenne is bizarre this thing is seven shades of ugly.

The Panamera (for such is the name of the beast) packs Porsche performance into the bastard offspring of a 911 and a AMC Pacer. It will carry you and three of your friends in speed and comfort with the added bonus of not being able to see the outside whilst you are sat inside.

I'm guessing that over in Italy they'll be ramping up production of the Maserati Quattroporte in response to the extra demand they'll see from people wanting to get as far away from this thing as possible.

Mclaren MP4-12C 'Woking'

So Mclaren is going to become a serious road car company? The MP4-12C (too much of a mouthful and so I'm going to call this thing the Woking as suggested by Car Magazine's Chris Chilton) is an interesting choice to take that ambition forward.

Unlike the amazing F1, which was the fruit of Gordon Murray's no compromise school of design, the Woking looks pretty bland for a supercar. The nose and canopy are pure Ferrari, the front mounted air intakes and grill are comical and the rear is very generic. In fact comparison with the new Ferrari Italia below shows astonishing similarities. Now its hard to start a design language with your first car and as Mclaren delivers stablemates this will probably fit the line-up well. Nonetheless Mclaren are looking to ship around 1000 of these annually - and charge people more than the Ferrari Italia for the privilege - which it will probably achieve despite its looks rather than because of them.

Competition is hotting up for what was only a sub 30,000 car market worldwide in 2007 (and probably less now, post credit-crunch) and with new Ferraris and Lamborghinis, plus the entry of Audi's R8 and Mercedes' SLS Mclaren probably won't find it a walk in the park joining the car making elite.

Ultima Sets New Nurburgring Record

The Nordschleife, Green Hell. The ultimate test of man and machine. For many years these 13 miles of hundreds of corners, blind entries and punishing gradients has been the final proving ground for manufacturers looking to boost the credibility of their performance models.

In recent years Nissan and Porsche have battled for bragging rights. There's a new kid in town though, Ultima, little more than a kit car company selling road legal race cars for track day use.

Michael Vergers took the Ultima around the 'Ring in significantly less than seven minutes - an astounding achievement which takes the record for the fastest ever lap.

I shouldn't imagine that the big two will take this lying down so I'm expecting it to be a busy time as they try to regain their crown.

Video of Verger's lap is available at EVO magazine, http://www.evo.co.uk

It's An Emotional Thing

There is a Mercedes advert which sums up the human-car relationship perfectly. A stream if pictures if ordinary people posing with their cars (all Mercs in this case obviously) is shown over a backing soundtrack. At the end of the sequence the strap line is 'Nobody poses with their toaster'.

I think it sums up our relationship with cars perfectly.

Everything about the car we drive in some way points to our make-up and the events which have shaped our lives up until this point.

And so it goes with our love of marques and models. Go to any old car show and you'll find clubs of people venerating some of the most dreadful pieces of tat - usually because it's old.

Who would imagine that in the depths of BL's industrial problems of the seventies that three decades later there would be people going misty-eyed over rubbish like the Allegro and Princess?

Or more bizarrely that the MGB, out of date from the late sixties would have continued to find buyers right into the eighties and be the cornerstone of several clubs with hundreds of thousands od members?

Whilst these people will tell you that they love their cars in fact it is the emotional attachment which they have to the image of that car which snares them. Perhaps the it's the car their parents owned, or the cool teacher in he school or maybe just some implied nostalgia for a Life not experienced, just seen on TV.

So what car do you drive and what emotional baggage does the badge on the nose carry for you?

My Driving Passion?

I guess before anything else there were cars in my life. Whether they were the toys that raced around my bedroom, the shiny new models that appeared at the London Motor Show or the racing cars that screamed around the circuits of the world for what seemed like interminable hours to a impatient young 'un. Before girls or football or technology or alcohol it was definitely cars. I'm going to try and tell you about my formative (driving) years, discuss some of my cars and car prejudices and reveal some of the 'epic' journeys only possible in the days before speed cameras and draconian driving penalties. I hope you enjoy...