SMMT Day 2011

I headed to Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire with the Redline magazine team during the week for my first experience of the UK motor industry’s annual one-day test-drive fest for journalists. The ominous weather forecast played out exactly as promised, but still didn’t put a dampener on the day – it just meant you had to dash from car to manufacturer stand to car and back again rather quickly to avoid getting soaked to the skin. Inevitably, I didn’t get around to everything on my ‘to-drive’ list, but still managed to sample a sizeable selection of what was on offer. So without further ado, it’s time to hand out some utterly subjective and arbitrary awards…

Control

“In today’s cars, YOU are the power behind the wheel. For the good driver, the feel of the steering wheel in his hands and the response of the car to the touch of his foot on the accelerator mean real pleasure. He can project his thoughts ahead to prepare for the foolish moves of the poor drivers, and he is ready for defensive action against them. At the same time, the good driver enjoys taking a curve smoothly, speeding along open highway, and being in full control of his car at all times.”
- Margaret O. Hyde, writing in ‘Driving Today & Tomorrow’ (1965)

A Bittersweet Trip to Silverstone

This time last year, if I had wanted to visit Silverstone, I was looking at a flight to Luton or Birmingham airport and a 30-minute drive in a hire car, or else a ferry crossing to Holyhead and a four-hour slog down the motorway to Northamptonshire. 2011 has brought big changes, though, and thanks to a new day job, I now live just under 90 minutes’ drive from the ‘Home of British Motor Racing.’ This is set to open up a raft of possibilities in the year ahead, and one of those possibilities presented itself to me through the medium of Silverstone’s Twitter feed last Thursday afternoon: a last-minute, half-price offer on their ‘Nissan GT-R Thrill’ driving experience.

The Death of Engine Diversity

As the 21st century marches on, few would argue with the notion that we are closer to the end than we are to the beginning of the internal combustion engine’s life. These days, new electric-car concepts seem to be appearing at a rate of about one a week, R&D departments from Trollhätten to Tokyo are engaged in a furious effort to develop ever-more efficient battery technology, and local and national authorities are falling over themselves to make the incentives and infrastructure that will lure the average consumer into an electric vehicle a reality. Electrically motivated vehicles can indeed be a blast to drive, and there’s no denying that this is a particularly dynamic and exciting time for the global car industry, but as we approach the twilight of the internal-combustion age, I can’t help but lament the slow but steady reduction in the variety in what you find under the bonnet of a modern car.

Two Bulls – One Field

When Sebastian Vettel first appeared on the F1 radar back at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, I, like many other observers of the sport, took an instant liking to the then-20-year-old German prodigy. Possessed of the endearing combination of sublime natural talent and a laid-back, self-effacing manner, Vettel instantly made a name for himself by becoming the youngest-ever F1 points scorer, thanks to his eighth-place finish at the American race while substituting for an injured Robert Kubica.

Speed Read: ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ by Steve Matchett

Writing about cars well means reading about them a lot, and the shelves at home are groaning under the weight of volumes about all aspects of motoring and motorsport, waiting to be assimilated. I thought I’d start writing brief reviews of the titles I read, but as I am not currently in the favour of any publishing houses out there, it will not necessarily be the latest new releases, just whatever I come across in the shops, both new and secondhand.

A Salute to Some Old Soldiers

What do the Peugeot 505, the original Toyota Supra and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class have in common? The answer is, they all entered production in 1979, but, amazingly, one of them can still be bought brand new. It’s the G-Class, or Geländewagen, of course, and it has just been re-introduced to Mercedes-Benz’s UK model lineup for the first time in 10 years. The G is a proper toff’s off-roader of the old school, the German equivalent of the original Range Rover, and it has a proper military heritage to boot. Upstarts like the BMW X5; Audi Q7; Volvo XC90; and the G-Wagen’s own Stuttgart stablemates, the ML- and GL-classes, were not even a twinkle in their manufacturers’ eyes when the G rumbled into life in 1979. Despite the fact that it’s now over 30 years old, its classic, utilitarian and ever-so-slightly menacing shape has far greater appeal than that of the bulbous cars-on-stilts that these days can constantly be found clogging up our school and shopping-centre car parks.

World Championship Sportscar Racing Returns to Silverstone

Drivers often have race victories snatched from them by forces outside their control, but those of us who follow the international motor racing circus can also be affected by the unanticipated. The weeks leading up to the Silverstone round of the new-for-2010 FIA GT1 World Championship were marked by widespread disruption to commercial air traffic in north-western Europe, and as the date of departure crept ever closer, I became increasingly nervous that my trip to the UK could fall victim to the ominous volcanic ash cloud that was making life a misery for so many. As it turned out, flight schedules returned to normal several days before I was due to leave, but Mother Nature had more mischief up her sleeve in the form of heavy rain forecast for both days of the meeting, which also incorporated the opening rounds of the FIA GT3 European Championship and the GT4 European Cup.

New Beginnings In Silverstone

It has been a tough couple of months, what with trying to keep two cars on the road (and track!) while on short time in work, fighting a soul-destroying battle with bureaucratic incompetence to claim legal entitlements and putting up with everything Mother Nature can muster, from deep freezes to volcanic clouds of doom. But things are looking up.

Cars and Art and Cars as Art

In just a few short weeks, I will be departing for France to attend the 78th running of the Grand Prix d’Endurance, aka the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours. This will be my second visit to the great race (my first was in 2003) and, this time around, I’m hoping to partake of the full Le Mans experience, attending practice and qualifying and staying at the track for the duration of the race, something that wasn’t possible on my first visit in 2003. One thing that I will be seeing for the first time at this year’s event is a BMW Art Car. The Bavarian manufacturer has announced that its latest car-as-canvas project will be one of the GT2-class BMW M3 racers taking on the might of Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar and others in the hotly contested production-based category.