The next big thing?

Matt-finish paint.



Last week I wrote about a special edition of Mercedes’ CLS, which was offered in matt platinum paint. At the time I wondered if it would be the start of a new trend. Now Lamborghini is also offering four matt-effect paint finishes it looks like it could well be the start of a new trend.

It is hard to say how these colours will look in the metal but the Lamborghinis on the Detroit Motor Show stand look pretty stunning. The paint appears to have a sheen, an effect more like a satin paint than a true matt. The Italians don’t say anything about the paint’s practical qualities but the ever logical Germans claim that Mercedes’ matt paint is “highly scratch and dirt resistant”.

What neither firm mentions in its press release is how you’re meant to polish matt paint!

Hopes for 2009

Looking forward to the New Year one wish is for sense from the government on speed and speed limits. Given that excessive speed is not the biggest threat to life and limb on the roads the emphasis on speed seems misguided to say the least. There must be a more enlightened approach. Some sort of understanding that on the open road bad driving and inattention are the problems while in urban areas it might make sense to include speed along with not concentrating as the risks. On the open road let’s have Police watching for dangerous behaviour in both marked and unmarked cars but no more camera vans and visible cameras only at known danger spots if speed over the posted limit is the root cause of the problem.

It would certainly make a change from being offered ever more inventive ways to enforce limits.

Weekend part 2

While I was down in Somerset I took the trouble to visit the Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford. Established by John Haynes, of workshop manual fame, the collection is wonderfully diverse and covers everything from the dawn of motoring to the present day.

My description could make the museum sound somewhat disorganised and lacking in purpose. It is, in fact, very nicely laid out with cars in sensible thematic groups.

You enter the main part of the museum through the “Red Room”, where every car is painted the same colour. The idea, allegedly, is that by having a lot of cars with near identical paint the visitor can more clearly consider line, form and proportion.

From Haynes Motor Museum

There are bubble cars but about the smallest “proper” cars are things like the Renault 4CV, Fiat 600 and this Honda.

From Haynes Motor Museum

It was nice to see three iconic Citroëns together, a Traction, D-series and SM.

From Haynes Motor Museum

Other double chevron cars included a lovely little 5CV.

From Haynes Motor Museum

As well as the corrugated shed that is the evergreen 2CV.

From Haynes Motor Museum

If you prefer your cars low and impractical there is the utterly gorgeous, early De Tomaso Pantera.

From Haynes Motor Museum

Or if you like luxurious grand tourers there is a Ferrari 400i.

From Haynes Motor Museum

The Ford Cortina is more down-to-earth. In fact this is the most basic 1.3-litre, two-door version of the mark four ‘tina. Funnily enough there is a dark blue car of exactly the same type (2-door, 1.3) local to my home. I wonder how many others there are?

From Haynes Motor Museum

A mark-three Ford Fiesta surely belongs in the car park and not behind a velvet rope. This is one of the experimental Fiestas fitted with a three-cylinder, two stroke engine.

From Haynes Motor Museum

I found this Bristol 403 impossible to resist. Sleek and spacious the Bristol was incredibly advanced for its day, with integrated bumpers mounted on rubber to absorb impacts, bonded in rear window and impressively low aerodynamic drag. With a 100bhp version of the BMW-derived two-litre, six cylinder engine the 403 could exceed 100mph. It could also carry four people, plenty of luggage and had decent ventilation. All of which makes it easy to understand why it was priced to compete with Aston Martins and Bentleys.

From Haynes Motor Museum

All of which can only give a taste of the breadth of the collection. If I get the opportunity I’ll post more photos.

Weekend away

I travelled down to Somerset to visit a friend for the weekend. Lovely part of the world, but transport links down there are a bit variable. I didn’t quite realise that the M32 dumps you right in the middle of Bristol. At least it wasn’t difficult to get through the city and on to the A37. The A37 looks like a main road but it winds up and down through villages and the speed limit keeps changing. Then again there was plenty of mist and fog so going fast wasn’t really an option. For a while radio 3 entertained me, first with a concert from the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra of Paul Hindenmith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of themes by Carl Maria von Weber and then a programme about the Goliards, medieval musical satirists. The only problem was that I felt I should concentrate on the road and not the radio so the instrument was switched off. A sobering reminder of the importance of concentration was delivered a while later when I crawled past an accident, evidently caused by someone pulling out of a side road when there was someone approaching on the main road. Shortly after that, rising out of the mist, was the almost surreal sight of a massive pair of (probably) Lucas P100 headlamps, flanking the grille of a 1930s car. Probably an Alvis or Lagonda all I could make out were large wheels, sweeping running boards and the hood irons of the convertible roof. A car like that looks as though it belongs in the fog although I’m not sure I’d fancy being the driver. A moments contemplation on the crude heating and ventilation arrangements, not to mention - very probably - cable operated drum brakes with no servo followed.

Oh and as I drove I saw signs for both Bath and Wells. Can I be the only person who sees those two place names and thinks of Blackadder’s famous baby-eating bishop?

Changing seasons

Just a quick update, not motoring related but something that occurred to me tonight.

I know plenty of people moan about winter but I have decided that I love cold winter evenings. There is something wonderful about escaping the stuffy warmth of the office for the cool, freshness of the evening. And little things like the comfort of wrapping a thick scarf round your neck or walking more briskly to keep the cold out.

I'm pretty sure that C.S. Lewis (one of my favourite authors) had plenty to say on the subject of the weather and seasons. There is something satisfying about the combination of constant change between winter and summer and the fact that it is a regularly repeating pattern. Lewis even created characters who enjoyed the weather possibly as a lesson to remind the reader that you cannot change the weather so you are as well to enjoy it and so, with life, there are many things that we cannot change so the only thing we can change is ourselves to try and smile in the face of adversity. Not always easy, not always possible, but I'm sure a positive outlook is more useful than a negative one.

Watching Top Gear

I'm afraid I can't resist the charms of BBC television's Top Gear. Today they are testing the Dodge Challenger, which I have a massive soft spot for and seeing one on the move on the small screen just makes it look even more appealing. Actually seeing it is only half the story, hearing it is even bigger. It makes me wonder how the Challenger drives and how it would compare to the Ford Mustang. The 'stang was crude but both effective and entertaining but it did have competition suspension and incredible, racing brakes, not to mention a supercharged engine. Maybe I should drive one of the racing tuned Challengers that Chrysler offers in the USA only to people with racing licenses.

FIA Madness?

There seems to be a lot of fuss made about Ferrari pulling out of Formula 1 if plans to introduce a standard engine for all teams come to fruition. You can’t blame them, I imagine old man Ferrari would spin right out of his grave I the F1 team used an engine that came from outside Maranello. What interests me is that there are members of the public who think that standard engines are a good idea as it provides a more level playing field for the driver’s championship.

You can see where they are coming from, there are plenty of one-make championships but is there any way of being certain that the chap who is best in Formula Ford is a better driver than the fellow who can master a TVR Tuscan (not that I imagine Tuscans race anymore but I recall they sorted men from boys when they did)? A standard car does not tell you who the better driver is, only who is best in that car!

Unless there is room for parallel driver and constructor’s championships; one weekend drivers race in standardised cars and the next week they race for team glory in cars that suffer the least possible regulation on their construction. What I have in mind is similar to an idea advanced by my friend Simon. The schedule of race fixtures is known and the length of the race is also known before the start of the season and aside from a stipulation that the top six finishers must complete the race distance (if it is 70 laps all finishers must do 70 to score points) and the fact that the cars must fit in a notional box (say, 14-feet by 6-feet by 4 feet tall). Everything else would be left to the imagination of the designer.

It should make for an interesting grid, especially if all the teams do something different; so we see front and rear engines, enclosed bodies and open wheels, moving and fixed aerodynamic surfaces, small, medium or large engines with or without forced induction and possibly exotic fuels that may or may not need replacing every couple of laps. I think it would be a cross between the heyday of Can-Am racing and the Wacky Races – I’m certain that for anyone who loves engineering it would be a lot more interesting than the current season!