Oct 2016 – Driven To Write

Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Four

In the last of this series, Jim Randle describes a Jag with a jinx, XJ40’s presentation to the press and outlines his principles for suspension design.

Jim Randle. Image: Auto Didakt — Jim Randle. Image: ©Auto Didakt

During Jaguar’s brief period of independence, senior management were tasked by Chairman, Sir John Egan to spend time at dealerships, selling cars, meeting customers and seeing issues first hand. Randle was a keen adherent of this policy, holding the record for the most cars sold in one evening. I wondered if he identified himself or chose to remain incognito. Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Four”

Theme: Film – Undriven

People who love both cars and films love car movies, right? It’s not quite as simple as that, though.

ryan-gosling-drive-007 — Photo (c) upc.at

A life without films and cars would be a terrifying prospect to me. I’d have to spend whatever spare time I’ve got cooking and eating, both of which are pastimes with inherent limits in terms of the worthiness of their pursuit. Continue reading “Theme: Film – Undriven”

Theme : Film – Director!

At a pinch, you might find some old footage of Donald Stokes selling buses to Cuba, or Len Lord playing golf, but one car industry boss had a richer celluloid catalogue.

Jensen Director — Image from Richard Calver – http://www.richardcalver.com

The only new car launch I have attended was in 1969. It took place in Harrods, and all I knew was that it was to be a Jensen. Jensen had introduced their Interceptor and FF three years previously, so I wondered what this could be. A four door version? A mid-engined sportster? A convertible? I was intrigued. Continue reading “Theme : Film – Director!”

Theme: Film – Comic Relief

Is there a “car film” car enthusiasts can all agree to like?

Those of us who love cars belong to a broad church. The 1997 Glanza driver is unlikely to enjoy the same movies as the pootler in his perfectly restored 1932 Ford 8. Some of us worship at the altar of pistons and power while others genuflect at the shrine of good looks.

My holy grail has always been big coupes, but surely there is room for us all (well maybe I’ll draw the line at modified cars). There’s never going to be a film or even a genre to suit everyone. My tuppence worth (you’re probably going to get about 48p if you keep reading) says I would have put Bullitt in a notchback and I really don’t like movies where the car is the star.

What really works for me is a movie with well cast cars that are credible and complement the story being told. Perhaps comedy is where we might find some agreement amongst ourselves. Continue reading “Theme: Film – Comic Relief”

Micropost: Swedish Pick-Ups

These two pick-ups were parked in Fristad, Sweden.

Skoda based the pick-up on the 1994 Felicia, itself a development of the 1986 Favorit. Continue reading “Micropost: Swedish Pick-Ups”

Theme: Film – National Lampoon’s Vacation

Usually cars in films are a background detail. Occasionally they have a more important role.

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For the 1983 cinematographic production “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, a Ford LTD Country Squire was transformed into a Wagon Queen Family Truckster. The production designers could almost have taken a stock car as it was, so grotesque had some American vehicles become by the time the film was in production. Continue reading “Theme: Film – National Lampoon’s Vacation”

The Big Ask 4: The Carisma’s Stablemates

In our final instalment we look at the Carisma’s showroom companions in Mitsubishi’s dealerships. What were they?

According to Car magazine’s GBU, all of them belonged in the Chump section. The Colt cost least, at just under £10,000. Another three thousand bought you a Lancer with one engine available. You’d need to offer roughly another one and a half thou more to drive off in the Galant 1.8 Si which had a 1.8 litre four, a 2.0 litre four, a 2.0 litre V6 and a 2.5 litre V6. The Sigma came as a saloon and an estate and the price of entry was nearly double that of the Galant: 30K in old money. Continue reading “The Big Ask 4: The Carisma’s Stablemates”

The Big Ask -Third Attempt

Remarkably unremarkable. It’s not much of an epitaph but it’s probably better than ‘Born in Sittard-Geleen’*

There’s always something irritating about an object which fails to live up to the promise of its name, which is one of the reasons the Mitsubishi Carisma annoys me. To be honest, I’d have preferred to have maintained a Carisma-free silence on the subject, but since we’re doing this as some mad thought experiment, here we are.

Continue reading “The Big Ask -Third Attempt”

The Big Ask – A Second Try

This is the third of five items today which look more closely at a rather special car, the …. um, whatsitsname.

It's no goog, I still can't see it - image ; migatuning.com — It’s no good, I still can’t see it – image : migatuning.com

Imagine yourself stranded on that hypothetical desert island. With nothing else, you start playing intellectual games. Game 56 is carving in the bark of a large tree the name of every car that you can remember. Will you ever, even if you live for 1,000 years, come to the Mitsubishi Carisma? Continue reading “The Big Ask – A Second Try”

1995-2004 Mitsubishi Carisma Paint Options

In its nine year career, the Carisma had a range of colour options.

The launch colours of 1995 were bright and included a popular metallic bronze. As the century drew to a close monochrome predominated. The 1995 dark metallic green is hard to show in a colour chip so I presented a larger image. In general dark green is an unflattering colour which is why it is not often seen. The green tends to read as black in many lighting conditions. Not shown is the vibrant IKB colour of the middle years. Continue reading “1995-2004 Mitsubishi Carisma Paint Options”

The Big Ask

This item begins a special one-day series devoted to the Mitsubishi Carisma. During the series we will look at the car from a variety of angles. First, the overview…

The story of the 1995 Mitsubishi Carisma serves as a sterling example of why timing, as much as the product, influences a car’s chances at the showrooms. A lot of the criticism fired at the Carisma takes aim at the car’s lack of visual drama. While it is true the Carisma didn’t break new ground so much as smooth it over, to think that the car’s carefully conservative appearance is the reason for the lacklustre performance is to miss the sharper point. Read on to find out several rather surprising things about this cherishably overlooked car… Continue reading “The Big Ask”

Because They Could : The Oldsmobile Toronado.

DTW comes to the Half Century for the Oldsmobile Toronado, a 1966 example of which was supposed to be the 100 millionth GM vehicle. Did they really keep count that carefully? What about Johnny Cash’s Cadillac?

1966 Oldsmobile Toronado - image : momentcar.com — 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado – image : momentcar.com

Personal Car? That would be my Nissan Cube. However there is also a ‘Personal Luxury Car’, a US category comprising gargantuan, two door cars, such as the Sixties Ford Thunderbirds, which I suppose was shorthand for the head of the nuclear family’s gross personal indulgence. I admit to a liking for most of the personal luxury cars from that era and, looking at GM’s offerings, I would be hard pushed to choose between a ‘67 Cadillac Eldorado, the outrageous, ‘71 boat-tailed Riviera or an original Oldsmobile Toronado. Continue reading “Because They Could : The Oldsmobile Toronado.”

“A Tangible Experience of Modern Beauty”

Mercedes presented the X-class yesterday. It’s a pick-up. Launched in Stockholm, no-one knows why. Anyone?

The relevant facts are these: the Nissan NP300/Navara and Renault Alaskan will be pinned under using the same underpinnings. The X-class is not a concept though they talk about it as if it is and as if it’s not. It might not be sold in N. America. Apart from South Africa it won’t be sold in Africa. And not Japan either. Or. Continue reading ““A Tangible Experience of Modern Beauty””

Forthcoming

Tomorrow, Driven to Write is pushing aside all other issues to deal with a single car. It’s the Big Ask:

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Our writing team will offer their deep wisdom and cogent analysis of the times and fate of one of Europe’s most discussed saloons from the recent past. Above is a small indication of what will be presented in the course of this unique day. As a sample, the car had a 1.9 litre common rail diesel engine among those offered during its nine-year run. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow to find out just how the Big Ask was answered…

Fastback Flashback

We attempt to remain aloof to the Rover SD1’s visual appeal, but like the car itself, we fall at the final hurdle.

When it comes to legacies and reputations, has sufficient time elapsed to talk about the Rover SD1 without falling into the usual narrative tramlines? It’s a tricky one isn’t it? After all, the big Rover remains a deeply likeable car with much to commend it. Yet at the same time, although it never quite attained Lancia Gamma levels of toxicity, it became the living embodiment of British Leyland’s genius for snatching defeat from the cusp of victory.

It’s easy to Continue reading “Fastback Flashback”

Theme : Film – Cop Out

DTW fearlessly exposes the possibility of widespread corruption in the TV Police Force.

It's been going on for ages : 1960s Los Angeles Homicide Police Captain Amos Burke and his unmarked car. — It’s been going on for ages : 1960s Los Angeles Homicide Police Captain Amos Burke and his unmarked car.

Film-makers are sometimes depressingly conservative, sometimes surprisingly ambitious. One particular bit of audaciousness is the conceit that you can take a book that took 2 years to write, that would take 2 weeks to read and boil it all down to a 2 hour movie, maybe less. Without that juicy rights cheque, how many authors would let that happen? But despite this, there are screenwriters who make a reasonable fist of the job, creating at least a shell of the original, or maybe a pared-down alternative.

One of the difficulties in doing this is the representation of a character. A novelist can spend several pages, using the protagonist’s inner thoughts, in order to give the reader a pretty good idea of who they are. In a movie you can’t Continue reading “Theme : Film – Cop Out”

Thirty Times ’40 – Jonathan Partridge Interview – Part Two

In this second part of our interview with Jonathan Partridge, XJ40’s foibles come under the spotlight.

Image: Jonathan Partridge/Jaguar Heritage — Image: ©Jonathan Partridge/Jaguar Heritage

If Partridge views XJ40 with a degree of ambivalence today, it’s partly that his team dealt with the bulk of negative customer feedback firsthand, and on early cars, it didn’t always make for very edifying reading. “A lot of features were good, you know: corrosion protection, anti-lock braking yaw control, the rear suspension, [but] then the whole electrical thing with low current earth line switching and all the micro-computers was ambitious and at the end of the day I guess they over-stretched themselves. Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jonathan Partridge Interview – Part Two”

A Picture for Sunday: An American in Sweden

A recent tour in the country between Gothenburg and Trollhättan, reminded me how much Sweden there is the NE of the US but also how easily American cars sit in the Swedish landscape.

The photo shows a Buick Electra 225 two door, four-window hardtop coupe (the 1961-1964 body). It also shows a 2005-2014 Saab 9-3 estate. The image captures two enthusiasms of the Swedes: their own cars and the cars of the US. Continue reading “A Picture for Sunday: An American in Sweden”

Forthcoming: The Big Ask

On October 27th, Driven to Write’s team will be focusing its intelligence with laser intensity on a single car, four articles in all, a festival of focus.

Here is a small taste of what is in store. It stretched 4451 mm from nose to tail and had a five-speed, manual transmission.

A-Traktors

An A-traktor can only go at a maximum speed of 30 km per hour. They are used by Swedish drivers between the age of 16 and 18, before a full drivers license is permitted.

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These two are based on Volvo 700-series cars. On the black car note the very small load-bay, another requirement of the class. Continue reading “A-Traktors”

A Picture and Some Questions

A while back I alleged that, if nothing else, the mainstream saloon had more visual variety than that found among C-class family hatches.

A recent bit of news concerning Volkswagen’s Phideon saloon led me to put that in with seven other medium sized cars. See how many you can identify. How different are they? And which one stands out? Doesn’t the Phideon look a lot like a BMW 5-series proposal? Can you tell which one is the Phideon?

[Photo sources: Autocar, caranddriver, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, Renault]

Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Three

In part three, Jim Randle speaks candidly about what was possibly the XJ40’s most controversial aspect – its advanced electronics system.

Image: Auto-didakt.com — Image: ©Auto-didakt.com

It’s been suggested in the past that Jaguar were over-ambitious in attempting to introduce electronic controls into XJ40 when this technology was still in its infancy, but Jim Randle points out a key precedent. Preparing XJ-S prototypes in the early 1970’s, he produced a carburettor and an electronically controlled version for comparison purposes, making the following discovery. Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Three”

Lynk & Co 01 Design Analysis

Yesterday Lynk & Co launched their new car, the 01. As predicted it is a CUV.

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We are beside ourselves with pleasure in being able to offer a design analysis to help you understand just what you are being confronted with. Continue reading “Lynk & Co 01 Design Analysis”

Forthcoming: The Big Ask

Simon Kearne, the editor, has asked his team to apply their minds to a single car worthy of this combined firepower.

mystery car

To that end we will be clearing the decks of all other subjects on one special day: October 27th, 2016. The car in question had, among its range, a 1.3 litre four cylinder petrol unit with 16 valves.

Stolen Thunder – 1986 Rover CCV Concept

Intended to signpost the crucial 800 saloon, Rover’s CCV concept could be said to have eclipsed it entirely.

1986 Rover CCV concept. Image: arrse.com

Why Austin Rover chose to display CCV at the Turin motor show a matter of weeks before the launch of their highly anticipated Rover 800 saloon seems a curious one in retrospect. For although it gained them a good deal of column inches and the approbation of the design community, it also ramped up anticipation for the new saloon model – which was dashed slightly when the 800 was revealed later that year. Continue reading “Stolen Thunder – 1986 Rover CCV Concept”

Theme : Film – DTW Recommends

DTW recommends some of its favourite films.

BORDERLESS LIMITS : When feisty Australian ex-lifeguard Lindi Jackson (Nicole Kidman), on holiday in Europe after her marriage break-up, gets mistaken for a British businesswoman and offered the top job at French car maker Citroën, it looks like a recipe for mayhem. However Lindi vows that she will make a success of the ailing firm by introducing the element most missing from today’s cars …. FUN! But it’s never going to be plain sailing. As if the stuffed shirts in the boardroom and the constant harassment from a weird bunch calling themselves Citroënistes isn’t enough, Lindi is visited by the ghost of André Citroën (a tour de force characterisation by Johnny Depp). After a hilarious bunch of wacky misunderstandings, Lindi and André form an uneasy alliance, but will they be able to put the joie back into the chevrons? DTW VIEW : Absolutely Chucklesome! Great Fun! Continue reading “Theme : Film – DTW Recommends”

Ashtrays: 1984 -1998 Saab 9000

DTW is almost nauseously thrilled to be able to present this successor to the legendary Saab 900 ashtray.

A lot is revealed about the Saab 9000 merely by inspecting its ashtrays. The driver and front passenger can use a smoothly-actuating drawer-type unit with a capacity of nearly 200 mls. It’s very well situated and easy to open and close. In the back we find that Continue reading “Ashtrays: 1984 -1998 Saab 9000”

Theme: Film – What Happened To The Most Important Car In Movie History?

There may be more famous examples of car casting – yet no other automobile has ever played as significant a role, in the real world as in the movie realm, as a black Mercedes 450SL.

The name of the man we actually need to thank/blame for the 1980s as we know them isn’t Ronald Reagan, but Ferdinando Scarfiotti. Even without grotesquely overstating the cultural importance of cinema, few would argue about the value placed on style and glamour during the decade that gave us the power breakfast, braces and big hair/shoulder pads/mobile phones.

Continue reading “Theme: Film – What Happened To The Most Important Car In Movie History?”

Far From the Mainstream: Donkervoort

Today we peer again into the world of marginal car makers. In this instalment we deal gently with Donkervoort.

There are 15 Donkervoort cars advertised at mobile.de and above, a 1981 S8 is the cheapest at €19,950 with a mere 52,000 km up. Next is a similar roadster from 1988 for €24,000. A 1998 2.0 Zetec-powered D8 costs €36,000. From 2001 an Audi-powered D8 costs nearly €50,000. So, who are Donkervoort? Continue reading “Far From the Mainstream: Donkervoort”

Thirty Times ’40 – Jonathan Partridge Interview – Part One

As we continue our XJ40 commemorations, we examine the car through the prism of sales and marketing with Jaguar Heritage’s Jonathan Partridge.

Image: Jaguar Heritage — Image: ©Jonathan Partridge/Jaguar Heritage

There’s more than one dimension to the back story of any car. Up to now, we’ve concentrated primarily on the ’40 from an engineering perspective, but today, we examine the car’s legacy with Jonathan Partridge, former Product Strategy Manager who over a lengthy career at Jaguar, oversaw the marketing strategy for a host of saloon programmes, culminating with the 2007 XF. He is currently Vehicle Collection & Communication Manager with Jaguar Heritage at its Gaydon nervecentre. Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jonathan Partridge Interview – Part One”

A Photo for Sunday: Honda S2000

Look at that. It has simple, distinct forms and great proportions.

2001 Honda S2000 — 2000 Honda S2000 in Silkeborg, Denmark.

Honda revealed to the world the S2000 as a present to itself, celebrating the firm’s 50th birthday. It belongs in a class of cars that motoring journalists ask for, receive with mixed feelings and then fade away with little fanfare. On paper, the car is one for serious drivers: it had a technically interesting engine (four cylinders, VTEC, 2.0 litres), rear-wheel drive, a rifle bolt gearchange, fine balance, excellent steering and outstanding looks.

There’s no fat on the car visually or actually. One would have thought that on looks alone it could have done for Honda what the MX-5 did and still does for Mazda. Yet it didn’t do much at all apart from Continue reading “A Photo for Sunday: Honda S2000”

Far From the mainstream: Chatenet

Since 1984 the French firm Chatenet have been selling a tiny number of tiny cars.

At the moment there are 35 of these cars for sale. What do we find if we

Continue reading “Far From the mainstream: Chatenet”

More Pressure On the Middle Market

Sources such as this, this, and this and this are painting a sketchy picture of a new midprice brand to sit, lie or crouch between Geely and Volvo.

Good luck to them, we at DTW cynically murmur. The story is not brand new but the launch date of October 20th is. Recent additions to the brandscape include Qoros, Borgward and DS and for two of them things don’t look so rosy. In the last decade China Brilliance had a go selling cars in Europe and that did not end so well. Existing middle market brands are not all thriving: Honda, Mitsubishi and Mazda struggle to support a full range. Rover and Saab have departed this turbulent world. Lancia teeters. Ford and Opel have difficulty with their more expensive vehicles. So, what sort of price bracket are Volvo and Geely going to be aiming for? Continue reading “More Pressure On the Middle Market”

Theme: Film – Grime

Not the 1978 film directed by Werner von Fassbender, but the stuff that accumulates on the car.

Even if you leave a car in a nice dry underground carpark, dust eventually settles on a car’s bodywork. In urban areas the dust is a mixture of exhaust particulates, pollen and vegetable matter such as pollen and leaf fragments. We breathe this stuff in all the time.

During summer when the humidity is on the low side, this dust usually remains mobile. As winter settles in and air temperatures drop, the air moisture tends to Continue reading “Theme: Film – Grime”

Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Two

In part two, Jim Randle talks about the challenges facing Jaguar’s styling team, and skewers a few more holy orders along the way.

Possibly the toughest hurdle Jim Randle and his engineering team faced with XJ40 was finding an acceptable style for the car. The twin imperatives of reducing complexity and drag inducing features while retaining a recognisable Jaguar silhouette led to years of indecision and delay, but who was actually responsible for the eventual car’s style? Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part Two”

Point of (in)Difference – 2006 Volvo C30

Different is good – right? Try telling that to Volvo.

Image: sundaytimes — Image: Sunday Times

In the push for growth and profitability, conformity rules. The market isn’t habitually keen on niche cars and tends to reward bravery by studiously ignoring it in favour of something more conventional. Volvo played it safe with the C30, but not in terms of positioning, concept or indeed style. Continue reading “Point of (in)Difference – 2006 Volvo C30”

Micropost: When Will Global Electric Car Sales Exceed Those of the Golf?

Automotive News reports on the future of the electric car here. And the Guardian explains how it is here.

In 2016 there will be 2 million electric cars on the roads, says the Guardian. And in 2030 electric cars will predominate in the world’s major cities. If it’s hard finding a petrol station in London now, it will be nigh on impossible in 2030. I wonder will they have special parking places for petrol cars with their own little recharging posts?

Another milestone for electric cars is when their sales exceed the production of the VW Golf. Annual sales of the Golf are 930,000 units. In 2015 annual sales of electric cars was 740,000 units. Those 740,000 units are divided among many manufacturers. Someone is taking a bath on this at the moment.

Art of the Estate

The Estate Car seems to have lost favour though, in many ways, it never was in favour.

404-avengersintime-blogspot-com — Peugeot 404 Break – image : avengers-in-time.blogspot.co.uk

The Estate Car was the car you bought when you had so many obligations and so much responsibility that you couldn’t afford to indulge yourself with the car you really wanted. Its name, of course, like its US equivalent the Station Wagon derives from the upper echelons, but even there it was just a tool to carry around steamer trunks, whilst the important people were often carried in the back of something grander.

After that, if you couldn’t afford servants to do the lugging around for you, you bought an estate for your own use instead – a lumpy, unloved workhorse. Continue reading “Art of the Estate”

Something Working in Denmark: Citroën CX 25 Prestige Automatic

Something rather wonderful in Copenhagen

The recent announcement of the CXPERIENCE (Auto Express wrote it thus in capitals, who am I to argue?) and the various speculative articles about the future or otherwise of a car like it to fill the gap being left by the C5 (assuming it is still being produced?), reminded me that I had ‘snapped’ this recently. Continue reading “Something Working in Denmark: Citroën CX 25 Prestige Automatic”

Cross Town Traffic

Guess what’s driving new car sales across Europe?

Now 331.8% more popular. Image: mazda.ie

Recently we looked at the sales performance for the European premium midsize segment for the year to June, which threw up little by way of surprise to say anything of delight. So today in hope of better fare we’re focusing on the broader European sales figures for the year to August, courtesy of left-lane.com. Despite recent political turmoil across the region, the underlying trend continues to be upwards (for now at least) and unsurprisingly, the usual suspects remain locked in the top spots – notwithstanding some gratuitous rearranging of deckchairs. Continue reading “Cross Town Traffic”

Theme – Film: The Mystery of Inspector Morse’s Car

This piece relates not to a film, but to a TV series translated from a collection of detective books. Hopefully readers will allow me a little latitude.

morse-jag — If that were my car, I would not be happy with even John Thaw placing his foot on the number plate.

I think most people know that (Chief) Inspector Morse was originally the owner and driver of a Lancia, not a Jaguar Mark 2 (or was that really a Daimler?). Having read most of the books by Colin Dexter many years ago on the back of viewing a few of the TV episodes (pre-kids, one had time to waste like that), a few thoughts were stimulated by the changes wrought by the TV production company in its literary adaptations. Continue reading “Theme – Film: The Mystery of Inspector Morse’s Car”

White Convertible Thing, Not Sure What it Was…

… because I couldn’t see the badge.

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The badge is placed on the upper surface of the boot. It probably really ought to sit on a vertical surface so people can read it with less trouble. You can get all the glorious details on the car here. I notice it’s a fairly light car (just over 1000 kg) so I suppose the 1.4 litre engine is able to haul it about. The other thing I noticed is what looks like Continue reading “White Convertible Thing, Not Sure What it Was…”

Micropost: 1997-2003 Mercedes CLK Cabriolet

Today I am throwing stones at the CLK cabriolet.

The part I want you to notice is not the front-end treatment which is intended to make one think of the E-class saloon (W210, for anoraks) which was on sale from 1995 to 2003, about eight years too long. Look at the A-post’s brutal truncation. A nicer but perhaps more costly way would have been to run the A-pillar into the header rail as per, for example, the Mazda MX-5, shown below. I sometimes think that Mercedes do things which aren’t so pleasing and imagine it’s okay because nobody will be looking so critically at their output. Continue reading “Micropost: 1997-2003 Mercedes CLK Cabriolet”

Honda’s Odd Policy

For reasons unrelated to cars, I had reason to visit a Honda showroom.

While I waited to talk to the salesman who busily spoke to a real customer, I had had a short look at the interiors of all the cars on display. I discovered that Honda don’t fit rear central armrests to any of their cars: the Jazz, the Civic, the HRV or CRV. Those cars that might have had them, the Accord and Civic saloon are not on sale in Denmark. Their range is still unbalanced: the Civics, two CUVs, a city car and a billion euro supercar. That last one sits very uneasily in a range devoid of a cheaper roadster, a saloon and an MPV.

Continue reading “Honda’s Odd Policy”

Exquisite Corpses

Ever wondered why so few XJ40s remain on the roads? One word: scrappage.

Image: The author — Where XJ40s go to die. Image: Driven to Write

I stumbled across this place on the outskirts of Romney Marsh in 2014 – the largest and most depressing collection of Jaguars I’ve ever witnessed. And while hundreds of decrepit Jags of every stripe were littered about the place, there were entire compounds full of condemned XJ40’s – part (it would appear) of the 2009 government stimulus package aimed at propping up the motor trade in the wake of the financial crash. Continue reading “Exquisite Corpses”

A Photo for Sunday – Uwe Bahnsen

Today, we present a photo of a stylist – in at least two senses of the word.

Director of styling, Uwe Bahnsen. Image: Cardesignnews.com — Ford’s Uwe Bahnsen. Image: Cardesignnews.com

You may wonder why Ford’s Köln-Merkenich stylistic output throughout the 1970’s and early ’80s was so assured? If you do, look no further. Continue reading “A Photo for Sunday – Uwe Bahnsen”

Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part One

To mark the 30th anniversary of XJ40’s launch, we speak exclusively to former Jaguar Engineering Director, Jim Randle.

If the XJ40-series’ legacy represents a series of lasts, then chief amongst them is that it remains arguably the final mainstream British series production car to embody the single-minded vision of one man. Because if a car could embody the personality and mentality of its creator, then XJ40 is Jim Randle, whose stamp is all over its conceptual and engineering design. Recently Driven to Write spoke exclusively with the father of the ’40 to re-evaluate the final purebred Jaguar saloon. Continue reading “Thirty Times ’40 – Jim Randle Interview : Part One”

Ford Cortina Mark IV at Forty. Time for a comeback?

The BMC Mini and the Ford Cortina represented two contradictory strands of the British character.

Ford Cortina 1.6L – image : newoldcar.co.uk

Soon after its release, Ford, notoriously, took apart a Mini and realised what BMC hadn’t worked out, that each car sold would lose the company money. It wasn’t going to make the same mistake. Ford Germany inherited the abandoned front-drive ‘Cardinal’ project from the USA to become the Taunus 12M, but Ford Britain were having none of this fancy stuff and its ‘Archbishop’ (ho, ho) project was very, very conventional. But what the first (Consul) Cortina did offer was a lot of up-to-date looking car for the money. Less well recorded is that BMC, returning the favour, bought a new Cortina, took it apart and were appalled at the bodyshell’s lack of torsional stiffness. But even had this fact been publicised, it’s unlikely that it would have affected the Ford’s success. Continue reading “Ford Cortina Mark IV at Forty. Time for a comeback?”

Estate of Arese – 1986 Alfa Romeo 75 Sportwagon

Missing Links and lost causes – in search of Alfa Romeo’s elusive estate.

1986 Alfa 75 Sportwagon. Image: Alfaroma.it

The recent announcement by Alfa Romeo’s Harald Wester that the Italian manufacturer has no plans to introduce an estate version of its latest Giulia saloon was hardly a shock, given that the forthcoming Stelvio crossover will henceforth fulfil that role, being to all intents and purposes a jacked up Giulia hatch. As we know, the European market for upmarket estate cars is shrinking to the crossover contagion and what is left of it is dominated by the German hegemonic trio and Volvo, so it probably makes little sense now for FCA to throw good money after bad. Continue reading “Estate of Arese – 1986 Alfa Romeo 75 Sportwagon”

Theme: Film – Incognito

I am sure that this has been the title of some film at some point, but I have a broader point to make.

bdinttss — Benedict Cumberbatch in 70’s cool, upstaged (again?) by his co-star

My one-time step father used to work for the Met Police and frequently came home in squad cars of an incredibly nondescript nature – a brown Hillman Avenger, a yellowy beige Morris Marina, etc. You may be getting my drift (incidentally, having been Hendon trained, he was quite adept at creating his own drifts, but that is another story). Continue reading “Theme: Film – Incognito”