How to make a motoring journalist happy August 21, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Minutiae of cars , add a comment
Mad cars and people who are mad about cars? Makes for a perfect day.
So it proved this week when I was given a double dose of why-I-love-the-jobbery.
For Total 911 magazine, I write ‘classic road tests’. These are a modern-eyes drive in a classic Porsche, offering a retrospective look at just what made each special.
This month, it was the turn of the 964 Turbo 3.6. A rare car indeed: only around 1000 were built, and there are barely 40 in the UK. Finding one for the feature, in holiday-packed August, was, shall we say, challenging.
Turbo 3.6 owner Steve Armitage to the rescue. A Porsche nut, Total 911 fan, someone more than happy to help us out and, as he proved on the day of the shoot, an all round Good Guy to boot.
Male bonding paragraph: Chaps such as Steve make a great job THE best. He was helpful, trusting, listened to what we wanted and did his all to help us out. He did not treat us as a nuisance, did not forbid us doing things we suggested, understood we had a task list and made sure he helped us complete it.
We paid him back with a gem-like set of images, courtesy of Alisdair Cusick. Deal!
Model photoshoot
On gigs like this, it’s important as a journo to be as straight up as you can with the proud owner of the car. Respect is essential – fail to show this and you deserve moronic status.
Never forget, they don’t know you from Adam. It’s vital you thus eradicate any hint of cocky, arrogant, primadonnary. Pretend you’re on the other side instead. Pretend it’s your car.
When, though, it is reciprocated with the warmth our man Steve did this week – well, it makes every windswept moorland February photoshoot worthwhile. Nope, they’re not all like last week, but when they come around, how we savour ‘em.
Goodness, his wife even treated us to THE best toast at the start of the day. Lucky? You betcha!
Fingers crossed Steve now likes the feature…
+ Share your memories of highs like this…
+ … And let us know of any horrors you’ve had, too!
+ What’s been the trickiest car you’ve had to source for a shoot?
Ford clears the way for quick dealer profits August 14, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Minutiae of cars, Technology, What I learned today , add a comment
Ford Quickclear heated windscreen tech is something invented not for customer convenience, but to please the UK’s largest car dealer network.
Well, sort of.
History time: it’s been around since the 1980s, and was designed to make life easier on winter mornings. Drive away in seconds, instead of minutes, went the promo (remember the man with the Orion in the print ads?).
Whether that was actually possible in cars with chokes, choking on sub-zero temperatures, is a moot point, but the thought was there.
Actually, though, I reckon it was developed to be a dealer-pleaser, too.
Dealer hots
Ford has more than 500 dealers across the UK (and maybe loads more back in the day). Each may have, ooh, between 20 and 100 used cars sat outside to lure people in.
Enter one cold snap, and cue frosted-over windscreens for each. What will be obscured by such an event? Yes, the price sticker hanging from the sunvisor behind the opaque screen.
In terms of manhours, this represents a lot of expenditure (and a veritable deluge of moaning). How better would it be to slash (silence) this with just the press of a button?
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect plan. Not all cars would be fitted with Quickclear screens. The higher-margin posh cars would be, though (Granada Ghia X and the like). They’re the ones in which dealers would have most cash tied up, and which they wanted to sell fast.
Quickclear would ensure the risk of missing vital marketing opportunities were minimised. Cue dealers quickly clear(n?)ing up (ahem).
OK, I admit. Ford probably didn’t invent Quickclear to please its dealer network. There, I jest, with tongue in cheek.
But knowing how thorough the brand is, I don’t doubt the consideration could have helped push the tech through in the planning meet, or featured in the strategy document presented to the Board…
+ What other unexpected uses for car tech can you think of?
+ Do you know of any other ‘Eureka’ type car inventions?
+ Ford is market leader and has Quickclear: coincidence?
How BRDC links F1 to GOMW July 9, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Motorsport , 2comments
1966 was a good year for World Cup football but also a good year for F1-loving members of the Guild of Motoring Writers.
Ford, amazingly, built a chalet at Silverstone, for motorsport-nut F1 journos to drink tea and smoke pipes in. Yup, that’s how motor racing was, back in the day. Impossible to imagine it today – particularly on the chosen prime location, next to the Silverstone pit entry.
It was a sister hut to the Guild Chalet at Goodwood, where the annual GOMW Motor Show Test Day had ran since 1948.
If all this history sounds a bit bonkers, bear in mind some of the esteemed members the Guild’s had. Indeed, it was no less than the late 9th Duke of Richmond who, as GOMW President, set up the Silverstone hut. As a founder member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (busy guy), he also established the practice of inviting BRDC pals along, too.
The following year, the Guild Test Day was moved to Silverstone, and based at said hut. It continued there for years, before moving to Donington Park. (Incidentally, why is it not run today? Well, it is: aka SMMT Test Day…)
Today, the hut is history – nowadays, the BRDC base is situated there. A press barbecue hosted by the BRDC on the eve of the British GP gave me the chance to see how the site has been tranformed.
The BRDC building is a genuine landmark, way beyond anything the Guild had there back in the day. As I found on Friday, though, you can still get a cracking cup of tea there…
Look out soon for some views from the night!
Mini theory on two nation future May 23, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Technology, What I learned today , 3comments
MINI is expanding vehicle production abroad with the new Austrian-built Countryman.
The model is assembled by Magna Steyr in Graz, using a production line to be shared with a new small BMW crossover model. They will use capacity vacated by the BMW X3’s move to Spartanburg, US.
Controversial stuff? What about MINI UK? Is this MINI losing its British soul? Not a bit, argues MINI designer Gert Hildebrand. Rather, it is ‘a new family member.’
MINI will always remain a volume British-built car, he explained. ‘Its Britishness is at the very heart of it.’ And this future is going to be centered on Oxford – which now appears to have gained an official ‘profile’ within MINI.
‘The Oxford Family will always keep the core values of the car. The Countryman is a bigger brother, with which we can go further. We can develop things with it than we can’t with the Oxford Family.’ Hence, 5 doors, 4-wheel drive, VW Golf-like dimensions. All the things the Mini never offered.
Back to the UK though, Hildebrand constantly refers to the Porsche 911 when discussing the Oxford Family MINI. Which means the Countryman, and no doubt other variants too, will be MINI’s equivalent of the Porsche Cayenne and Porsche Panamera. (Lest we forget, the Cayenne is actually built by VW, in Slovakia…)
The differentiation extends to a completely different colour palette for the MINI Countryman: ‘Not a single colour is shared with Plant Oxford. This car must be optically different from the hatchback, to recognise its bigger brother status.’ Nothing like using colour for instant differentiation…
And for those who say the very idea of a non-mini MINI is anathema, Hildebrand references his favourite Issigonis car – the 1100. ‘That was related to the classic Mini, but was recognisably nothing other than an 1100.’ The 1100 was, of course, also designed – by Pininfarina – rather than defined by Issigonis.
‘With the Countryman, we have an historical joint to it.’ Rather this than some sort of spurious historical link to wood-laden Travellers…
+ Are you happy with the Oxford Family definition of MINI?
+ What are your first impressions of the Countryman?
+ Do you agree with Hildebrand’s interpretation of the 1100 link?
How Ford would have made a Rover
BBC comes up trumps for MG Rover April 5, 2010
Posted by richard in : History , add a commentMG Rover’s collapse is still painfully too fresh for some, even half a decade on.
That’s because it happened in modern netnews times. Where everything is real time. Everything is recorded. Nothing is lost. Nothing is delayed.
And, thanks to cheap memory, everything you read online is recorded, as it was, in perpetuity. Thus, nothing is forgotten. Raw emotions can be revived. distress can be regenerated.
Which takes us to the MG Rover saga.
I recently discovered on the Beeb, that there is a full, categorised, referenced and navigatable archive of the MG Rover saga, as it unfolded, day by day. It’s quite incredible.
Where can you find it? Well, I’ve only gone and linked to it for you: MG Rover on BBC News
It makes painful reading. The emotions may ease but the stark reality this presents will always be there. Making it a real forum for ‘what ifs’.
Reading it, how many alternatives can you see that would have saved MG Rover in its 11th hour? Do please share all…
How Ford would have made a Rover
Audi gets Ashes To Ashes at Geneva March 27, 2010
Posted by richard in : History , add a comment
AUDI is celebrating 30 years of the Quattro with an Easter Egg for journos.
Tucked deep in the press material all about Quattro is this car show gem – the Ur Quattro on display at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show.
Yes, it’s so Ashes To Ashes, it’s untrue! Thought the Beeb were over-egging the strip lights and brown? This proves they most certainly were not.
Had I been born 30 years earlier, it could have been me wondering why someone had left a load of flowers on the stand next to the car. Before oogling, then softly padding away on the plush carpet tiles (fire risk? Even I remember the famed Geneva Motor Show fog of cigarette smoke…).
Contrast this to a shot taken of the 2010 Audi Geneva Motor Show stand.
Much more like it? Indeed… but, hang on. Isn’t that 2010 Audi range-topping R8, err, brown? And isn’t the 1980 Audi range-topping Ur Quattro a peachy, modern shade of white? Ah, yes: the more things change…
What WOULD be great is to get some more retro shots of Geneva up on here. Anyone out there (nudge-hint, Guild pals and PR chums…) have any?
Is the Giulietta an Alfa Romeo Rover 75?
Citroen DS3 Racing past March 11, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Minutiae of cars, Motorsport , 1 comment so farWHY only 1000 Citroen DS3 Racings, I asked the Citroen man at the Geneva Motor Show.
Surely you could make it a permanent addition to the range, underlining its MINI John Cooper Works-challenging status?
The reason why, he revealed, was a blast from the past. It’s a mainstream maker’s homologation special. Like the Ford Escort RS 1600i, like the Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone, like the Mercedes 190 Evolution. And thus, for me, cool.
It’s even diverted off the production line for final finishing: Citroen Racing (for it is they) send the instructions to the production line men, who add on a ‘parts kit’ of bits that turn a standard DSport into a DS3 Racing.
Changes include:
• Stiffer springs, lowered by 15mm
• New-spec front and rear dampers
• 30mm wider track front and rear
• 4-piston brake calipers
• Drilled rear brake discs
• 18-inch alloys
• Wing extensions
• Carbon-fibre air diffuser
• Remapping software for EPAS and ESP (including ‘off’ button)
Chuck in an interior makeover and STRICT limitations to 1000 units, and you have something that won’t be cheap but will be exceedingly collectable.
It’s quick, too. The 1.6 THP turbo has, at 200hp, 30 percent more power, plus 15 percent more torque. Thank uprated components, tuned turbo and remapped ECU for this. Rortiness is provided by a special exhaust back box.
But what is it homologation for? Next year’s new WRC rules, that’s what. These stipulate more real world cars with front-drive chassis. Kimi Raikkonen will be driving one of these next year. We’ll be able to buy one before that.
Citroen, you’ve sold me: add my name to the press fleet booking list now, please..!
Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr
Renaultsport past to inspire turbo future?
Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers
Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr March 7, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Technology , 1 comment so farINSPIRATION comes in many forms. Today, for instance, down at the brilliant Goodwood Breakfast Club, a gorgeous Ford Zephyr was spotted.
That’s Ford Zephyr of Z-Cars fame – and, even cooler than that, was the sticker in the back… advertising Radio Caroline!
Music Radio fans of the 60s were proper tenacious in support for the pirate radio station that so riled the institution. It played great music, boasted emboldened DJs and was the real music industry’s never-miss must-listen.
Sound fami… well, indeed it does. But it was the fact this sticker was so proudly displayed that inspired.
Here, see, was public support for an under-threat radio station that music lovers loved.
What can it teach those who want to see 6Music saved? Well, to use yesterday’s car stickers like today’s Twitter and Facebook Twibbons.
By its very nature, DAB is a rarity in cars, but far more popular than many think in homes. Not to mention, of course, computers, via BBC iPlayer. Both are potential 6Music hubs.
Radio Caroline parallels and tips for 6Music campaigners ahoy, p’raps..?
Renault Raider is back March 6, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Minutiae of cars , add a commentRENAULT PR guys are insatiable car nuts, whose geekery for all things 1980s matches mine.
That’s why we were both clamouring over the Gordini Renaultsports at the Geneva show, and why I almost bowed down to them when they revealed a gem to me.
Special wheels on the Gordini Twingo and Clio? Complete with deep blue tint to the painted internals? The UK chaps have named them. What as?
Get this: Raider!
That’s as in Renault 5 GT Turbo Raider, the 1990 special edition that came with blue metallic paint and blue-painted alloys. Instead of naming the wheels after a French seaside resort or philosophical movement, the UK boys have raided (ahem) their history and gave me an excuse to drop a jump to a car many would kill for.
Heritage? The Clio Renaultsport Gordini oozes it. Already God’s own hot hatch, there will be fisticuffs in the MR office over who does the launch of this one…
Renaultsport past to inspire turbo future?
Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers
Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub March 5, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Motorsport , 3commentsVirgin boss Richard Branson takes to the F1 grid for the first time this year with his own racing team.
But it’s not the first time ‘his’ cars have been ‘in’ F1.
This, as you may suspect, is slightly tenuous. But for Indie/F1/car geeks such as, well, me, it’s curiously neat. And goes like this:
• Teenage Fanclub released a 1994 album called Grand Prix
• On the cover was a shot of a contemporary 1994 F1 racer
• That car was a Simtek
• Boss of the Simtek F1 team was Nick Wirth
• Nick Wirth now runs Wirth Research
• Wirth Research designed the new Virgin F1 racer
It may be a new team, but there’s heritage in that there Virgin setup, not to mention a good dose of jangly guitar musical brilliance. Sort of.
Question is, can you come up with a more brilliantly tenuous link between something random and F1 racing?
