Interesting idea from John Simister in The Independent

The Independent may no longer be producing a weekly motoring supplement but it still producing some decent motoring content. Road tests from John Simister are a particular highlight, John has been testing cars professionally for over 20 years and knows what he’s talking about.

Recently the Renault Laguna estate came under his scrutiny and he was somewhat critical of the modern trend towards nose-heavy car styling. The problem is that a lot of cars have their engines mounted ahead of the front wheels. To conform with regulations the engines must be surrounded by sacrificial crumple-zones which pushes the front of the car further and further ahead of the front wheels.

It is possible to make cars that follow the established mechanical layout and conform to the regulations for occupant and pedestrian protection, Audi do it well and Citroën did a magnificent job with the C6. On the whole, however, it is a bad idea both in terms of styling and engineering to have so much of the car ahead of the front wheels. Simister suggests,

“One of these days a mainstream car maker is going to take a deep breath and reconfigure its front-wheel-drive powertrain so the driveshafts run in front of the engine instead of behind it, but until then, cars are condemned to be ungainly.”

Which reminded me that Jim Randle, formerly head of engineering at Jaguar, suggested the best driveline layout for high-speed stability was front-wheel drive with the engine mounted behind the driven wheels. It is a layout that probably wouldn’t suit a small car, even though the Renault 4 and the original Renault 5 used exactly that layout. It does recall some of the greatest old French cars including the Renault 16, Citroën SM, DS and the father of them all the Traction Avant. It is an idea long overdue a revival.

Well, it was fun while it lasted

About the only thing that made every Tuesday for the last 4 years remotely worthwhile was The Independent’s motoring section. There was always something interesting to read, whether it was motor show coverage, celebrating unusual classics (who else would do a feature on the SEAT 600?) or the weekly cycling column. Sadly the motoring section is no more, which is a bit of a blow for me as I was hoping to write a few more pieces for it. All I can hope is that while this door has closed (for now) another will open.

In print - A view on the Honda CR-V

A week or two back I drove the new Honda CR-V as part of The Independent's regular motoring feature, The Verdict. It was a welcome opportunity to try something new and I was interested to see how it compared with the original CR-V which I drove some years ago. There isn't much I want to say about it at the moment - I'd rather you read the review I wrote for the paper. My comments are near the bottom of the page.

One thing I did like and appreciate was the (optional) reversing camera, which was activated when reverse gear was selected and gave a wide-angle view from the back bumper on the sat-nav screen. For a long time I thought having a camera would be useful for reversing but I've never actually tried a car with it before. It works very well and I think it is more useful than parking sensors.