R.I.P. you legend. The racing world will never be the same.
Back for good?
During the 60’s there were 3 types of cars that you wanted. The Exotics, these were the Ferrari’s, Aston Martin’s, Porsche’s, the early Lamborghini’s and the Jaguar E-type. Then there were the “Great British Sports Cars” (I’ll get started on these in a minute, don’t worry, I’ve not turned polite, never in a hundred fucking million years), like the MGB GT, the early Lotus’, the Austin Healey “Frog-Eye” Sprite and the Jensen Interceptor. Then there were the US Muscle cars.
Now everyone wanted the Exotic’s, didn’t they? Well there were a couple of problems. They were hopelessly unreliable, extremely impractical and beyond ridiculously expensive. So they were well out of the equation, and the quote, “a man can dream” remains.
So you were left with a choice, the “Great British Sports Car” or the Detroit Muscle. Let’s start with the Brit (let the ranting begin!).
Ok I shall take my anti-patriotism out of the equation. This isn’t the biggest problem with these. They were unbelievably shite in pretty much every way. They would fall to pieces faster than a supermodel when she doesn’t get her way 24/7. They were beyond impracticable. You looked quite frankly stupid (with the exception of the Jensen Interceptor, then you looked like you were overcompensating for something else…). I mean you looked cooler than you did in a Morris Minor or a Beetle, but to be honest that isn’t very hard to achieve. On top of this you would be destroyed at the lights by the Detroit Muscles. Yes they did sound pretty good and I would rather like to own one, but the flaws are impossible to ignore.
Finally there is the Detroit Muscle. Ok they couldn’t corner with a single ounce of dignity, but when they look like they did, and sound like they did, and then went like they did, most people simply forgot this. Because of this they did insanely better than the “plucky Brits”.
But good things never last. Many died in the 70’s, and those that lived on simply turned into badges stuck onto mere shells, the spirit was gone. Yer they still had the nice big juicy V8’s, but even these were shadows of those we saw before. Everyone thought they were dead, but REJOICE! Unless your a greenie, in which case fuck off and sulk in your greenhouse you stupid twat! If your a human being on the other hand REJOICE! As they are back to there original form, a super stylish body, a uber powerful V8 and a price that you wouldn’t ignore, but are they back for good?
It all started with the regeneration of the Mustang, the worlds most famous Muscle car. The last gen, the one we saw in the bad days, was a very good looking car, a I have no doubt in my mind that it would be a good car to own, though maybe not over here in the shit-hole. It just lacked the Muscle car charm. But now things have changed. The new Mustang looks FANTASTIC, sounds FANTASTIC and goes like stink. Even when I saw it next to a Ferrari 360 whilst casually keeping my eye out for 4 wheeled beauties whilst on a trip to Brighton, I was drawn away from from the Ferrari to the Mustang, it just looked so good! To this day it just gets better and better, in the last couple days news was released that the new Shelby GT500 would get a 5.8 litre V8, stick that in your eco friendly pipe and SHOVE IT WERE THE FUCKING SUN DON’T SHINE!
After the Mustang the Charger and Challenger were revived, good old V8’s, stupidly fast, very loud. This made even more people happy.
Shortly following the Camaro was given a doing over.
All of these are very nice but are they hear to stay? Well let me put it this way, they are still growing, still improving. Only a few days ago the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 beat the Porsche 911 round the ‘ring.
Yes, they are hear to stay, yes, they are pissing off the greenies and YES I’m fucking happy! I feel this is a new age of the Muscle car, and I hope that they continue to improve and show the world what we have been missing.
The Muscle car is hear to stay, and the world is a better place because of it.
Keep driving. Keep living.
Sam C-H.
My true favourite car company.
Many people have asked me what my favourite car is, and the reply is simple, modern car is the Koenigsegg Agera and my favourite classic car is the Chevrolet Corvette (mind you the modern one is still very nice). But as for my favourite car company, I guess I never really thought that much about it, but I have realized who they are, and fortunately they still exist! Unlike Pontiac, GM, if you read this, bring them back, they were FUCKING AWESOME!
My favourite car brand are with out a doubt Ginetta. Now this is not a matter of “best of British” because A) I’m anti-patriotic and B) the engines they use are from Ford, hence they don’t fall to bits.
No, the reason’s I love this brand are much deeper and more important. However, there is only one that causes me to love them more than any other. They are the only brand who have lived by their philosophical underpinnings from the start, never deviating, everyone who works their knows what a Ginetta should be. Because of this they have been a complete success, to the point that the one time it was in trouble, it was saved by it’s fans. A company needs to spur a LOT of love for that to happen, it could have been snapped up by a big name Marque and have built a range of fucking SUV’s and city cars like certain Marques, I’m talking about you sorry lot Lotus, Bentley and Aston Martin.
It had been founded on the same principles as Lotus, the cars needed to be light and simple. This allowed for great acceleration and handling, rather than pure top speed. The brand was based on kit cars rather than a assembly line, this made the cars cheaper, to make and for us to buy. Whilst Lotus went mass market, spreading it’s influence far and wide, Ginetta stayed in the small time, not getting ahead of themselves. Lotus eventually landed in the hands of Proton, and now it pays the price, building a wide range of cars and straying far from Colin Chapman’s original theory. Of course Lotus isn’t the only brand I can use as an example, nearly al old brands have strayed, Ginetta being the only one’s who haven’t.
If Porsche didn’t build the Cayenne it would also be able to hold this. Ginetta treat their cars like Porsche treat the 911, always improving, never outright replacing. Because of this the cars have become some of the best on the market, even Autocar, who let’s face it, are pretty hard to please, the grumpy bastards, said that the new Ginetta car is fantastic.
Ginetta are the only brand who stay as they always were, this is part thanks to the fact they are enthusiast run. They may not be the biggest, but this just adds to their charm. I would choose one of their cars any day over a competitor.
Ginetta continue to this day to build fantastic cars and now pave the way for the next generation of young race drivers, whilst holding races for the more seasoned ones. They understand the most important thing about building a car, you must know what you want it to be, few other brands do this, and for this reason They will always have a place in my, and the motoring worlds hearts.
These are the best 10 photos the from cars and bikes I spotted whilst out today in Brighton. The bikes and the GORGEOUS Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 were parked when I saw them, so was the Corsa in photo 10, which is only here because that has to be the WORST body kit I have seen in a long time. The Mustang, Ferrari 308, Ferrari 360 and show stopping R8 (it was the only car to draw attention from that Lamborghini) were all on the move, technically making these action shots (I couldn’t give two fucks to be honest, just as long as they show the said car). Enjoy.
Keep a eye out for rare beauties like these (excluding that TASTELESS Corsa), they really will make your day.
Keep driving. Keep Living.
Sam C-h.
Stupid prices.
You don’t have to go far into the automotive world to realize that buying a car is not a spare change ordeal, even the Tata Nano is not a item that you can buy for the hell of it, unless your seriously rich, but doing that would just be taking the piss, stick to your Chelsea tractor! Indeed the automotive ownership would is scary to enter, but do some cars and marques just take the piss?
It is true some marques are renowned for being hard on the notes, Ferrari, Rolls Royce etc. But these marques specialize in exclusive car that offer much more than your boggo Ford. These are not the sort of marques that I’m am talking about, no, I am talking about instances that I can rate as the biggest piss takes in the automotive world.
The CityRover. I won’t start on how unimaginably shit this car was, I will start on how unimaginably over-priced this heap of crap was. MG Rover were supposedly buying Tata Indica’s for £3000, strapping a new nose and worse suspension on it then charging £7,000, that’s right £7,000, or 7,000,000 penny chews, though I think your dentist would rather have the car. A few other things made this one of the worst rip-off’s ever were that you could import a Tata Indica and still be better off after taxes and importer fee’s, this on top of the fact that you would be owning a better car as well, as the CityRover was with out a doubt one of the worst cars ever to brace the English roads, so bad that even Rover could be ashamed of it, and that takes some doing.
The Mercedes SLS. I said I wouldn’t touch on high performance marques, Mercedes make a lot of mid range cars as well so I should be ok. Now before I start I would like to express that I LOVE this car more than many cars costing 3x more or that go much, much faster. My only problem with this amazing car is the price, when compared to it’s rivals it simply takes a massive dump all over common sense. The car costs £168,395. At the moment you might be thinking “given how exclusive it is it will be worth it” but then you realize that the Porsche 911 Turbo S costs £125,865 and is just as fast. If you then turn round and say “the Porsche is too common” (in which case you can fuck off you pompous twat), then you should realize that a Ferrari F430 was £118,500, less now that it is no longer in production, and it is just as fast. I make no lies when I say that I LOVE the SLS, I love the looks, the noise, the power and the fact that you could call it vaguely practical (it is quite, no, very wide and those doors though very cool will not be much cop in a multi-storey, though it has a good size boot and is very roomy inside, yes I have sat in one). The only problem is that price tag, and I’m sad to say that it is a problem that many Mercedes have, and it is more than apparent in the SLS. It is a real shame that I have to put this car here.
The Lexus LFA. This is another heart-breaking placement here, it is a truly epic car that I feel will be insulted to be called a supercar, it is true hypercar royalty. The only problem is again the price. There is no nice way to say.. er, type this so I shall say.. er, type it quickly. It costs £339,500, and that’s for the standard one, if you want the Nurbergring Edition, you need to strap another £63,600 to that. Ouch. This problem is further drilled in when you look at it’s notable rivals, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and the Ferrari 599, it costs twice as much as them yet it is just as fast and just as noisy. They all develop more than 550 bhp, they all are exclusive and they will all make people gawk till their eyes pop out, so why it there such a huge price jump? I simply don’t know. I love this car to pieces, it is a complete monster and showed that Lexus can really make cars, yer they could always make very pleasant, very quite cars designed to make your lif easier, but this car shows that they can make something that will turn most Ferrari owners pants a variety of nasty shades, a bit like the colour of your average Morris Marina. It is a real pity that this problem exists, it stops this car from being truly great, it’s brilliant, but not truly great.
The Aston Martin V12 Zagato. This I’m not unhappy to place here, I don’t like this car, and this is one of the main reasons, the price. If you though the last 3 were bad, this is in another fucking league. The price for this car when it is released will be £330,000; yep that’s right, £330,000, or 3 Aston Martin V12 Vantages. This car is in the same price range as the LFA, but the LFA would run rings around it. Couple this with the fact that all you are paying for is fancy bodywork that makes the car look worse quite frankly (ok it’s still bloody gorgeous, don’t think I would ever compare it with the likes of the Pontiac Aztec or the Alfa Romeo GTV, I would need to have my eyes picked out by rabid gerbils for that to happen), and the fact that it will be more impractical because it is losing most of it’s creature comforts in the process. The only thing this has over the standard car is that it will be more exclusive, but if you own a Aston, that won’t be the top thing on your mind, if it is I suggest you look at a boutique car maker, and that’s genuine advice, not a joke. This can be applied to all Zagato cars, they really are overrated, and fucking overpriced. Aston, please break your stupid bond with these idiots, let some other company lose their reputation because of them, you know how to make cars that are so gorgeous that they stop society from working as everyone is just staring at them. This car makes me mad, but not as mad as the next one, prepare for a very long moan.
The fucking Range Rover. Regular readers of my blog (aka awesome people) will know that I’m not what could be called a huge fan of the Range Rover, I don’t like it that much, ok scrap that, I really fucking hate the pile of shit. One of the main reasons I hate it is because of the out of this would price. The CityRover costs a few hundred quid more than its rivals, about a 1/10 more. The SLS costs about 3/10 more than its rivals. The LFA costs 2x more than its rivals. The V12 Zagato costs 3x more than itself… now the Range Rover. The Range Rover costs £69,485, but that’s before the options list, a decent, in the loosest use of the word, Range Rover will cost £80,000+. The Range Rover’s main rival is not the Mercedes ML class, the BMW X5 or the Lexus RX, as they don’t fall to pieces, and don’t come with more patriotism and fashion credibility than anything vaguely car related. The main rival for the Range Rover is it’s little brother, the Land Rover Defender, a car that works better off road and costs, wait for it £20,185. That’s one quarter of the price of a “decent” Range Rover, for a car that’s better looking, more useful off road, and won’t be bought by a pile of complete tits (if you’re in Chelsea than that’s “literally” thanks to the wags). This brings me on to another woeful point about this piece of junk, the target audience. The only people who buy this car now are wags in Chelsea and money floundering bellends in Surrey, people who just want to rule over the road and forget how insanely impractical it is for everyone else when you can’t see past the car in front of you. The other reason idiots (trust me that’s the politest term for them) buy this car is to flash their money, driving round saying to everyone else “I’m richer than you, you common swine!”. Yer you heard my right, that’s what those twats are doing, using it as a money statement. It’s also a fashion statement, which is a huge problem in its own right. There is yet another problem with this car, it’s crap, it has build quality that is on another planet of crapness, it is official, Land Rover is the ONLY company that has a worse failure rate than Alfa Romeo, it makes Alfa Romeo look like a bloody Lexus in terms if reliability, and that’s BAD. Now let me ask you this, who on the face of the sane world would want to buy a car with more than a 50% failure rate? And don’t say wags and money flashers, they can’t be classed as sane. Back to the price, is it really worth it then? 4x the cost of a much better Land Rover Defender? No, I didn’t think so. You may ask “the Mercedes, BMW and Lexus will set you back similar amounts”, they weren’t fall to pieces though, and they look nice (the new Range Rover CAN be compared to a Pontiac Aztec or a Alfa GTV). This really is one of the worst cars in the world, and you know what’s worse? So many people say that it’s “Proper British engineering” Bullshit, it’s utter bullshit, more than 70% of the parts are lifted from BMW (how bad do you have to be at building cars to make fucking BMW parts unreliable? Apocalyptically would be a good answer). I’ll tell you what 2 things about this car are British, the badge, and that it sums up more that’s bad about British than any other item, it says were cheap (building it), we can’t build things properly, we’re suckers for fashion statements and that we like putting people down by driving around showing how rich we are. And the saddest thing, people are still buying them. Rover are gone, along with the shit CityRover, only 300 of the shitter Aston Martin V12 Zagato will be made, but people still buy the shittest of the lot, the biggest pile of crap to come out of our country since John Prescot’s last dump. This car makes me sick.
These are the worst deals in the automotive world, and 2 of the worst cars in the automotive world. But let’s not finish on a low note, and finish on a much higher one. The amazing Lexus LFA almost made its price tag reasonable yesterday, the Nurbergring Edition of the car set a new production car record at the Nurbergring with a truly incredible time of 7.14.64. There you have it ladies, gentlemen and now very annoyed EDL members after my Range Rover post, the “Librarian” of the car world, as a certain airhead called them, are faster than any Porsche, Aston or Ferrari.
The last paragraph was really to prove that I’m not just a bag of moans, If you agree then your awesome, if you disagree then I’ll let you imagine what I think of you right now.
Thank you for reading!
Keep on driving, keep on living.
Sam C-H.
Modern Mclaren, a company of anger with products of hate?
Some people would say that Mclaren nowadays are only expanding to have a pop at Ferrari, and for once, I agree 100%. Mclaren have no need to build a road car, they seem just fine with their own race funding, but they wished to expand, which is fine, we all do pointless things, Sebastian Loeb didn’t need to participate in the final rally last year, he had already won, but he did and won again, just for fun if anything else. My problem is Mclaren aren’t expanding because they want to do something pointless and fun, their expanding because their hate for Ferrari is so big that they want to take it off the racetrack.
The first Mclaren road car was the legendary F1, the 230 mph monster that smashed the production car land speed record. Now Mclaren needed to make this car for homologation purposes to enter the GT1 category and Le Mans, but in the process they decided “Let’s make our new car as fast as we can!” and they did!
Now there is a new Mclaren road car, the MP4-12C. Now Mclaren didn’t need to make this car, and they did, which is fine, but they decided “We could make a car that goes round the Nurbergring faster than the Porsche 956 and a car that’s faster than a Bugatti Veyron SS, but we’re going to make a car that is better than the Ferrari 458 by a tiny bit in every way to annoy them!”. Now this is wrong, this isn’t to expand the company, this is just to fuel a rivalry on the race track. Adding to this is how the car has turned out, it is conveniently about 3% better in ever aspect than the Ferrari, now if thats not to annoy the other manufacture then I don’t know what is.
If you thought that Mclaren were spite filled enough already, they then announced that they would enter sports car racing for the first time in a while. Again fine, but guess what they then do? They say “we could enter the top sports car racing tier and make LOADS of money, further our reputation and win a nice new trophy for Lewis and Jenson to pose by on press day, but we’re going to enter the lower tier that Ferrari are in to annoy them even further! We amaze ourself with our evil!” Now why would they want to enter the same class as Ferrari when it has no benefit to them what so ever? To have another stab at Ferrari, and because of this I hope their attempt at GT3 racing fails with abundant misery and that the drivers leave, they deserve better! And before I move on you might be saying “why are Ferrari in GT3 then if it’s the lower tier? The reason? Ferrari are linked by their owners, Fiat, to Maserati, who have a strong presence in the top tiers of sports car racing with their MC12, and Fiat don’t really want company rivalries do they? I seriously doubt it.
Mclaren started in 1966 and went through many years of being great competitors on motorsport, it is only in recent years that this pure hatred has developed and been released on the automobile industry. Bruce Mclaren was a legendary racing driver and a great competitor, not a man of hate, a man who would disapprove of the modern Mclaren. He will undoubtedly be turning in his grave over the latest Mclaren.
At the start of this I asked if Mclaren were truly a hate filled company who’s products exist only as a weapon against Ferrari. They are, and some. The new MP4-12C is nothing more than a product of hate, and even if I was to win euromillions tomorrow, I would NEVER buy this car.
Mclaren have some serious attitude problems to sort out, and until they do they are not a race team or a manufacture, they are no more than a bunch of petty irritants turning a great sport into an excuse for a stupid grudge.
The Mclaren groupie will no doubtfully be very annoyed about this post, but he, like all Mclaren fanboys can shove it, I’ve made my point and I now intend to bugger off before they bore the life out of me arguing about great British engineering. That’s it though, that’s my final point, Mclaren are great British fucking engineering, and there something wrong with them like every other great fucking British car company. There not shit, they just spiteful and sum up one of the worst thing about our nation, too much hate. They poorly represent Britain.
Thats your lot for now, thanks for reading, keep driving and if your reading this while your driving well done but one last point, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE FUCKING ROAD!
Sam C-H.
Death of a legend.
A few days ago I reported on a death of an icon in the car world, today I can reveal what perished that day was the Bugatti Veyron coupe. Yes i’ve said it, the Veyron coupe is dead, the 300th car has been sold, meaning an end to production. This is not the end of the Veyron however, as the Veyron Grand Sport (the targa top) is still in production at a starting price of £1,200,000. Let us look back at what made the Veyron so great.
The Veyron started life as a Bentley concept car sporting a W12 engine producing over 600 bhp. At the time if the car had gone into production it would have been the fastest car in the world, but the project was dropped and it died a concept. Some time later VW bought the rites to Bugatti and the project was born again.
The thing about the Veyron was it was not build as the fastest car in the world, it was build as the most ground breaking, 1,000 bhp, £1,000,000. It was also build as the ultimate car, unearthly fast, yet comfortable, it had air-con and a leather interior not to mention the suspension had enough give so that it wouldn’t turn your spine into a mixture similar to the results of a Jigsaw trap, it had incredible corning and track abilities despite weighing the best part of two tonnes, yet was usable everyday (not as much as a Focus, but as hyper-cars go it was excellent). It also held presence, everyone knew what it was and respected it, you would not be challenged to a race in it, but at the same time it was not offensive, it would not shock people like a Pagani Zonda.
The Veyron was a car with split personality syndrome. On the one side it was a monster, it could ripe your face off with it’s speed and throw your lungs out the window with its cornering force, Bugatti even went to the trouble of hiding the traction control switch, but don’t worry it does exist, I’ll leave you to find it if you own a Veyron though. That was the Mr Hyde, but there was also a Dr Jekyll side. The car was comfortable and very quiet at low revs. It was practical for a car of it’s type and wouldn’t offend people. It was the ultimate car for those who could afford it.
One thing the Veyron never did was make promises it could not forfill, it did not promise to be the most exclusive car on the planet, Bugatti said 300 would be made from start and I know that is not many, but in comparison the similarly priced Zenvo St1 stated they would make 15, later increased to 18 units. It also made no promises to be environmental, the car only achieved four miles to the gallon, not a lot. Finally it did not promise to make the creators pockets burst with gold, in fact it emptied them, though the cars were sold for £1,000,000 a piece, they cost an astronomical £5,000,000 a piece to build, meaning a total loss of £1,200,000,000.
The Veyron shocked the world with its ability, it pushed the boundaries of what was possible in a car, now many manufacturers produce cars with these sort of figures, but the Veyron was the one that set the ball rolling. Many would say it was the Mclaren F1 that did this, I don’t agree, the F1 was too ahead of it’s time, everyone else was not ready to follow in it’s footsteps. The Veyron got it just right, and moved the car world forward.
The Veyron is a perfect example of what can be achieved when we try, we didn’t have to build it, we could have said “no 1000 bhp and all the luxuries a car can have it too much, let us buy a shit little electric box with no equipment, a top speed of 50 and a range of 40”, but we didn’t, and I’m glad we didn’t, because if no humans ever did, we would still be living in caves.
I love this car, and I am deeply sad that it has died. It will be sorely missed, but we must look forward to the next world beater, and god that will be a good one.
Sam C-H
P.S. the 4th photo is of the Bentley Hunaudieres, the 1999 concept car that eventually evolved into the Veyron.
The new BMW 1-series M Coupe - bottom of the M range yet £40k, is it worth it, or will it be blown away by it’s competitors?
Many car reviewers have compared the new BMW 1-series M Coupe (let’s call it the 1M to make it easy) with the Porsche Cayman R. This is stupid, the Cayman R is more than £7k more and is a 2 seater sports car, designed to be as sporty as possible in all areas, or “mid-life-crisis” as my Mini loving sister would call it, the 1M is a 4 seater sports coupe designed to be used by everyone, it is sporty, but not impractical. I will compare the 1M with a much more likely rival, the Audi RS3 Sportback and two much less obvious rivals, the Mitsubishi Evo X and the Subaru WRX STI.
Facts. This is the paper for all the cars:
1M: 0-60 - 4.9 seconds, top speed - 155 mph (Beelzebub’s hand, a speed limiter), RWD, 2 door, 4 seat, starting at £40,020.
Audi RS3 Sportback: 0-60 - 4.6 seconds, top speed - 155 mph (the devil’s grip, a speed limiter), 4WD, 4 door, 4 seat, starting at £39,930.
Mitsubishi Evo X: 0-60 - 4.1 seconds, top speed - 155 mph (It’s a speed limiter, I can’t be bothered to think of something witty for it, it’s boring), 4WD, 4 door, 4 seat, starting at £29,699 though I will be looking at the top of the range model that starts at £36,799.
Subaru WRX STI: 0-60 - 4.9 seconds, top speed 155 mph (guess why), 4WD, 4 or 5 door, 4 seat, starting at £33,455.
Looks. The Mitsubishi wins here easily, it is a much better looking car than the others followed by the BMW, then the Subaru then finally the Audi, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder so this is your choice.
Price. When it comes to the basic model the Subaru wins by a mile, it is at least £3,000 cheaper than the others, but I can imagine that you will want to spec your car out a little bit, so I have gone through all of the cars customization sections on their respective websites (this was easy in the Audi and the BMW, they have 2 of the best I have ever used, sadly the Mitsubishi one is confusing and the Subaru one shows too few options). The Mitsubishi does have an “accessories” section, but it is a separate store and not part of a customization package, so sadly I cannot comment. The Subaru seems to have no options, I’m quite confused by this so will not comment. This sort of divides the cars into two categories, the more expensive German super-saloons and the Japanese rocket-ships. In the German super-saloons the BMW wins as a completely specced out car will cost you £47,405 where as the Audi will cost you £52,320, so once again if you have a Eco-nut other half buy the BMW for yourself and a Renault Twizy to shut them up. In the Japanese rocket-ship class the Sabaru still comes out on top.
Performance. I have never driven these car but from the performance figures the Mitsubishi is the car to go for boast a much better 0-60 time.
Package. For this category there can only be one winner, the Subaru, which from the website seems to show has no options, so must be the most complete package. The BMW and Audi are both the worst as they have a very large options list so getting the most out of your car means BMW or Audi getting the most out of your wallet.
Practicality. All the cars a very practical with big boots and 4 seats, but the Audi wins as it is a “sportback” model, aka an estate car. The BMW fails here is it is the only one to only have two doors.
Economy/environment. I don’t know why I’m bothering too type this, they all produce fairly high amounts of carbon and have fairly low MPG ratings, there isn’t a winner or a loser here, unless your buying one of these cars for low fuel consumption and low carbon emissions then you are the loser.
Image. Again the cars can be divided into two categories, the German business cars and the Japanese “get out of here you play boy racing prick!”. If you drive the BMW or the Audi people will think you are a business man/woman/kid (even though you shouldn’t be driving get back to school you truant little twat!). It doesn’t matter if your not the business type, people will look at you like you are. On the other hand if you drive either the Subaru or the Mitsubishi people will think your a 21-year-old show off looking to impress and get laid. Doesn’t matter if your a track day enthusiast with a family, it’s how it works, tough. This category is really decided how you want to be viewed. If you want to look like a fairly successful business person who doesn’t like to move slowly buy the BMW or the Audi, if you want to attract a LOT of attention from a LOT of people, mostly 21-year-olds, buy the Mitsubishi or the Subaru.
Conclusion. Image aside there can only be one winner, the Mitsubishi. It is the fastest and the second cheapest, it is also one of the most practical and the best looking (in my opinion). Image included and this is not a fair test, the Mitsubishi and Subaru are so much different from the Audi and BMW, it entirely depends on how you want to be seen. If it was my money I would go for the Mitsubishi Evo X.
All these cars are brilliant, but I feel that the Mitsubishi is the best value for it’s performance. In fact, the only car that offers more performance for it’s price range is the Nissian GTR, but that’s another story.
Thats your lot for now, it’s really late and I feel dead.
Thank you for reading. Keep on driving.
Sam C-h.
Maybach - was it worth it?
Maybach’s fate hangs in the balance after very small yearly sales, so before the outcome is announced I ask, was the revival worth it?
Maybach was first formed in 1909 and produced high end luxury vehicles for the elite. Only around 1,800 Maybach’s were produced between 1909 and 1940 before production was finished as war tore across europe.
After the war the factory was repaired but production never started. In 1960 the company was purchased by Daimler-Benz.
Maybach were revived in 1997 by Mercedes-Benz and soon started producing a top-end of the market luxury car called the 62 and a slightly smaller version called the 57. These were extremely exclusive cars both costing more the £300,000 each.
These cars were and unusual type, most high end cars are designed to not only be luxurious and drive like they are worth £300,000+ but also to look like they are worth that amount. Maybach’s do not look like they are worth £300,000, unless you are a real car expert you will not be able to tell the difference between one and a top of the range Mercedes S-class. These cars do not bring joy to the people who see them, they bring joy to the people who are driven in them.
What Maybach specialize in is making the experience of being driven in one the greatest possible. They achieve this by creating THE single greatest interior of a car, far superior to that of a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. That and the S versions of the cars both develop 612 bhp, only 15 less than a Mclaren F1. Oh, and they don’t have speed limiters, which Rolls Royce do.
Maybach have not exactly been a sales revolution with estimated sales of 1,500 since 2002. Because of this the future of the brand is unsure, but I feel the problem as usual is that the parent company (Mercedes) have gone ahead of themselves expecting the brand to sell in huge numbers. I feel that if Maybach were to cut their production to less than 100 a year this would open the doors to customers looking for much more exclusive cars. There is a niche in the market for extremely exclusive luxury cars designed to be chauffeur driven. This would also mean that they could charge higher prices and company would be much more likely to survive. Pagani and Koenigsegg both use the “small and expensive” strategy and both survive fine. Now I love Mercedes but I feel that they need to back off and allow Maybach to find their own business strategy rather than pressure them to increase production.
This is a fate that has fallen many manufacturers in the past and it is sad that this fate seems to have befallen Maybach.
However, this is not meant to be a business rant. I asked was the revival of Maybach worth it, and I think it was. 1,500 cars may not be a revolution, but for cars that are more than £300,000 each, that’s not bad. They may not sell as much as Rolls Royce or Bentley, but they sell.
Most of all I feel that there is car manufacture that could become a legend if it is allowed to become one. People no longer dream of Ferrari’s and Aston Martin’s as they have lost one thing, exclusivity. People dream of Pagani’s and Koenigsegg’s as they are the top of the game, the best, the most expensive and the most exclusive. Maybach could be dreamed of, they just need time without input from other companies to sort out their own path to success.
This is more of a plea than a post, Mercedes, if you read this, don’t pull the plug on Maybach, don’t let them die before they can shine.
Clash of the titans.
Everyone recently has been comparing the new Mclaren Mp4-12c with the Ferrari 458 Italia so I thought I would have a look and decide which one I think is best.
Let me put a point across first though, I have never driven these cars, and knowing my luck, probably never will. Because of this if you are reading this blog and trying to choose between the two to BUY, I’m probably not your best bet.
So, here’s a fans opinion on which one is best.
First and for most, the price. A lot of people who spend this sort of money aren’t really going to care about the price difference between them, but for everyone else this is important. The Mclaren costs £168,500 and the Ferrari costs £173,132. So the Mclaren is somewhere between £5,000 and £4,500 cheaper (I really can’t be bothered to work it out, I’ve finished my maths exams now). This means that if you have a eco-nut other half thats angry that you want to buy a supercar, buy the Mclaren then buy them a Renault Twizy to make them feel better and to make sure that his/her eco-nut buddies don’t hate them for having a supercar in the family, just you. The Mclaren wins this catagory.
Looks. Now you want your supercar to look good, and there is only one winner here. The Ferrari easily beats the Mclaren. Now I’ve never seen a Mclaren in real but I have seen the Ferrari and it is not far short of the Koenigsegg Agera for beauty. Even them comparing the pictures the Ferrari easily wins this.
Performance. Like I said I have never driven either of the cars, but I can compare them on paper.
The 0-60 times - Ferrari, 3.4 seconds, Mclaren, 3.1 seconds.
Top speed - Ferrari, 202 mph, Mclaren, 205 mph.
Power - Ferrari, 562 bhp, Mclaren, 592 bhp.
Power to weight ratio - Ferrari, 378 bhp per ton, Mclaren 455 bhp per ton.
So the Mclaren technically wins, but with the exception of power to weight ratio they are very similarly matched. It’s not really much of a win then. There is one other problem, the Ferrari is naturally aspirated and the Mclaren is twin-turbocharged. Now I’ll be damned if it has any turbo lag, Mclaren know what they’re doing, my main problem is that I feel that with all their technology they could have made it much faster with twin-turbos. For example they could have made the engine the same size as the Ferrari’s engine. I know this adds more wight but much more power. If anything the Mclaren leaves me a bit disappointed. Because of the I call it a draw on the performance.
So it’s 1.5/1.5 as we look at the last category.
Image. Both cars will attract a lot of attention from fans and a lot of eggs from eco-nuts and smug-mo-bil drivers. But there can only be one winner. The Ferrari. The reason for this is the badge. Ferrari have more than 60 years of racing pedigree AND road car pedigree. Mclaren has 45 or so years of racing pedigree but only 17 years or so of road car pedigree, and that’s only one model. Unless you are a car bore the Mclaren badge is a easy to to recognize as the Zenvo badge. All you will get from fans are “Hey nice Ferrari!”. After a while that’s going to get very annoying. You may think “Ah, but the eco-nuts won’t throw so many eggs as it’s not a Ferrari”, sorry to burst your bubble but the problem is thats eco-nuts and smug-mo-bil drivers don’t care what badge it has, if it looks sporty it WILL be covered in eggs. Ferrari screams great heritage, Mclaren screams the same thing as all british car company’s “we made a hash of things and this car will fall apart”.
Conclusion. The Mclaren is cheaper and technically faster, but disappointing given Mclaren’s ability and just how fast the F1 was. The Ferrari is much better looking and has a much better image. Because of these I would have the Ferrari any day.
As a final note much of this is my opinion, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some people won’t have a problem with the image. My opinion though is that the Ferrari is the car to go for.
Thats your lot for now I’m afraid, I now need to go and prepare for the argument that will inevitably happen when a certain Mclaren fan boy spots this post and disagrees with EVERY last point I have made here. Wish me luck, convincing him is like trying to complete AND win the Paris-Dakar in a G-wiz.
