Oct 2018 – Driven To Write

A Tale Of Two Cars: Mazda 3 2.2D 150

Due to certain circumstances, this author was granted the chance to successively experience two up-to-date (rental) cars up close. The resultant findings led to conclusions not just regarding the (de)merits of each vehicle, but the modern automobile in general.

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Just a few days after having returned the rental VW Tiguan, it was time to head back to the counter for yet another go at the Rental Car Lottery. After my partner and I had turned out to be less than smitten with VW’s core SUV offering, I had – again – made an attempt at guessing what fate the car rental’s key cabinet would have in store for us this time around. My (figurative) money had been on the VW T-Roc. Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Cars: Mazda 3 2.2D 150”

The Man Who Listened Quite Carefully To Things

The standard of the world. That’s what they called Cadillac. Details like this ashtray console in the rear passenger door would be the kind of thing supporting the idea of Cadillac’s general excellence…

You could land a helicopter on that surface. It has its own cigar lighter and is also home to the electric window control. Apart from that it’s made out of metal too: some pieces are cast and some are stamped. The effect is to make one wish to Continue reading “The Man Who Listened Quite Carefully To Things”

The Quintessence : (Part Nine)

The XJ6 was and always will remain the quintessence of Jaguar.

“All I try to do is make nice cars…” (Sir William Lyons)

Throughout its history Jaguar have produced faster, more visually arresting, more technically dense cars; indeed, more commercially successful cars (and with over 400,000 units built over three distinct series the XJ was successful), but it’s debatable whether they ever produced as complete a car. A forward looking design which transcended its convoluted gestation, last-minute revisions and troubled career to become something which far outweighed the sum of its parts.

It’s difficult to Continue reading “The Quintessence : (Part Nine)”

This Should Have Never Happened For Years

1.4 million Opel Rekord E models sold, dear readers. This one is still running though maybe not for so much longer.

Nothing new under the sun, is there? When the current generation of Opel Insignia appeared, it upset me that there was a false pane in the side-glass. Since then I noticed the previous Mazda6 came very close to the same supposed sin. If we go back to 1977 we find the Rekord D1 where the last element of the apparent DLW is a black panel or fake pane.

I can´t decide if Opel’s Mark Adams was nodding in the direction of the Rekord or if he missed a trick by not taking a small extra effort to Continue reading “This Should Have Never Happened For Years”

Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – 1977 Ghia Megastar

Driven to Write’s chevron-shaped codex gains a new entry.

Megastar I (c) http://www.allcarindex.com

It’s possible to argue that by 1976 the world of car design had attained peak-wedge, exemplified by William Towns’ startling Aston Martin Lagonda. The projectile-shaped luxury saloon so defined the dart theme, there was really nowhere else it could be taken, not that this prevented the likes of Marcello Gandini and others within the design community from trying. However, as evidenced by subsequent efforts, the returns were rapidly diminishing.

But while change was in the offing, the 1977 Geneva motor show was business as usual, with Ford-owned carrozzeria Ghia displaying a striking wedge-shaped saloon, dubbed Megastar. Created to Continue reading “Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – 1977 Ghia Megastar”

When Hope And Joy Only Make Things Feel Worse

After a long hunt in the pages of the word wide web, I found little clear evidence of green-painted cars. Then I saw one in reality. From Mercedes no less. And they have discovered other colours too.

The colour is Elbaitgreen. Under real sunlight it is a bit lighter than the colour shown in the image, almost yellowish or ffinchy. Also, the transitions from light to dark are smoother than on the picture. That might be to do with the metallic particles in the paint. It gives the car a luminescent and vibrant character.

Amazingly it seems not to be an option on the cheapest A-Classes in Germany and I looked at all seven versions. Out of nine paint options, only one was a proper colour, Luscious Tangerine Pink**. Germany is also denied the rather nice Canyon Brown colour which you can see if you Continue reading “When Hope And Joy Only Make Things Feel Worse”

A Tale Of Two Cars: VW Tiguan Allspace 2.0 TSI

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It’s been ages since I last used the services of a car rental company. But with the better half having recently parted ways with her Mini and my own Jaguar having remained in storage for this year’s driving season, we were left with no choice but to Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Cars: VW Tiguan Allspace 2.0 TSI”

Conservative Values

Before the revolution came this final flowering of traditional BMW expression. It’s possible they never quite surpassed it.

As BMW themselves fondly state, the Three-Series represents the beating heart of the Bayerische Motoren Werke brand, and as such, they have (until comparatively recently at least) managed its evolution with some caution and no little care. Certainly throughout its earlier iterations, it remained a conceptually faithful evolution of the ur-Dreier, the epochal 02-Series, which the E21 Three supplanted some 42 years ago. Continue reading “Conservative Values”

In Capricorn’s Orbit

Since the day’s other article was a little on the short side, I felt like I’d treat to you to one of my sightings on a recent visit to Sweden.

The same year Honda dazzled us with the NSX and Lotus revealed the Carlton, BMW dazzled us with this mediocrity. I had forgotten that 1990 was such a special year. Continue reading “In Capricorn’s Orbit”

Wolseley’s Hot New Cleo Rs!

It sounds like “Clio” and shares every dimension with the Clio but Wolseley’s new small car contender is a design triumph, says Wolseley’s chief of design.

The resemblance is there right down to the very fact the Cleo vRS has a Wolseley badge perched on a diamond-shaped plinth on the car’s front grille. A similar diamond-recess on the rear boot holds the famed “W” symbol too. So, yes, it looks a bit like a Renault Clio. How shall we understand the design? “With this virtually unique car we have redefined the meaning of sporty practicality,” says Wolseley’s design chief Cristo Palumbo-Colombo. “It’s practical and sporty in a completely new way. It’s not compromised at all.”

Later he said “Every line is accurately placed and provokes in the viewer a sense of awed humility. Or an indefinable sense of joi de vivre – that is about the happiness of living, about satisfaction with one’s existence because every aspect of one’s life is so lovely. The Cleo’s stance is creative, surprising and original. The proportions can Continue reading “Wolseley’s Hot New Cleo Rs!”

The Quintessence : (Part Eight)

In the spring of 1975, the XJ finally went on sale in coupé form, but the timing proved somewhat inauspicious.

From the point of inception, it had been Jaguar’s intention to produce the XJ in two door coupé form. Indeed, not only could it be argued that this was XJ4’s original design intention, but during 1967, Jaguar’s North American distributors stated that they were only interested in a 2-door body style. But with the saloon-based XJ4 programme already a good 18-months behind schedule, and other BLMC programmes being accorded priority, Pressed Steel (PSF) ceased development of the coupé body entirely.

With XJ6 production getting under way, this remained the state of affairs in 1969. PSF were in no position to expedite matters and with demand for the saloon so high, all hands were set to Continue reading “The Quintessence : (Part Eight)”

The Road to Zero

…is paved with good intentions. But where is it leading us?

Recently, Driven to Write held a metaphorical Bunsen burner to the feet of BMW development supremo, Klaus Fröhlich in the wake of some rather petulant comments he made. On this basis, you might be minded to Continue reading “The Road to Zero”

1976 Renault 5 GTL Review

This looks very much like an authentic period review of the 1976 Renault 5 GTL by revered motoring writer Archie Vicar.

_{The text first appeared under the headline “Another New Renault” in The Amman Valley Chronicle and East Carmarthen News, June 5, 1976. The original photographs were by Douglas Land-Windermere. Due to the effects of xylophagic fungi, the original images could not be used.}

Renault, Renault, Renault. This firm does try hard and is to be commended for its efforts to keep up with trends sooner or later. That means they are once again on the “hatchback” bandwagon, or staying on the bandwagon in the case of the 5 tested here today. The 5 appeared on the market in 1972 and the firm is sticking with the formula of front-drive and a hinged opening panel on the rear of the car in place of a proper separate boot.

It remains to be seen if British buyers can Continue reading “1976 Renault 5 GTL Review”

Should We, Can We Rewrite The Poems In Sintra’s Heart?

Badges are extremely important details on a car. Take them away and a wholly disproportionate amount of identity vanishes with them. So what are Skoda doing by deleting their arrow logo?

Prompting this story is the announcement (here and here and here) that Skoda are having a stab at a more obvious competitor for the Focus, Astra, 308 and, I suppose, Golf and whatever it is Citroën offer in this class (I can’t visualise it).

The promotional copy from Skoda is hard to take very seriously: Continue reading “Should We, Can We Rewrite The Poems In Sintra’s Heart?”

So Much Water, So Close to Home

The ‘first ever’ BMW X7 is amongst us and isn’t it just swell?

There are increasing concerns for the wellbeing of storied carmaker, Bayerische Motoren Werke following recent revelations that the marque has been diagnosed with a virulent and potentially incurable form of hydronephrosis.

This is a condition where one or both kidneys Continue reading “So Much Water, So Close to Home”

Definition Point

We profile Ford’s 1998 sector-defining Focus.

While something of a singularity, the advent of a defining car can only truly be acknowledged once a decent period of time has elapsed. The Ford Motor Company has created a number of cars which have in their way, helped define their respective eras, largely due to ubiquity and popular appeal. Nevertheless, the number of truly outstanding European Ford car designs are fewer in number.

The 1998 Focus is the most recent of them, recalibrating not only what a C-segment car could look like, but how it could Continue reading “Definition Point”

The Theme From “Salazar’s Hatstand”

Why not wander over to the US market to inspect activities thereover? Well, why not?

Even as the death of the saloon car is debated (Ford and FCA are giving up in the US), Nissan has flung piles of succulent, cold cash at a new entrant in the medium-sized saloon sector, offering us its new Altima. The engine changes are baffling in that displacement and output relations are upside down. The 2.5 has been utterly (95%) overhauled and the 3.5 V6 is now out, replaced by a 2.0 compression in-line four that uses less fuel and can Continue reading “The Theme From “Salazar’s Hatstand””

The Quintessence : (Part Seven)

A revised XJ appeared in late 1973, just in time for the sky to fall in.

At the 1973 Frankfurt motor show, Jaguar displayed the facelifted Series II XJ series, billed in the launch material as “the logical evolution of British Leyland’s most coveted car.” External revisions were largely confined to the nose treatment which lent the car a fresher appearance. The revisions were made partly with one eye to the XJ’s duration in the marketplace, but mostly in accordance with increasingly stringent US regulations. Continue reading “The Quintessence : (Part Seven)”

Pour Forth The Vinho Verde

Changan were advertising for jobs in their European design centre. Who are they? What do they make? To find out I went looking. I found a car painted green too.

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Since I don’t acually know anything at all about Changan and I know more than almost anyone else about most things, I figured you, dear readers, might likely appreciate this rapid trot through a list of cars from Changan. It’s a long one. I may not be able to deal with their 9-car range without causing this article to Continue reading “Pour Forth The Vinho Verde”

Offending Article

BMW’s latest G20 3-Series iteration has already caused no end of offense, but it appears the affront goes beyond the visual.

“The BMW 3 Series Sedan represents the heartbeat of the BMW brand and the epitome of sporty driving pleasure in the premium midsize segment. Exuding dynamic design, agile handling, exceptional efficiency and innovative equipment features, it takes the signature characteristics of a BMW and turns the volume up several notches.

Precisely drawn lines and strikingly contoured surfaces mark out the exterior, which showcases the brand’s new design language. The interior also has a clear, modern and sophisticated design. The new-edition 3 Series sees BMW building above all on the sporting tradition of the best-selling car.” (BMW Press).

You would expect BMW’s PR representatives to Continue reading “Offending Article”

Quiet Please For The Giant Of Coimbra

Ever on the look out for items overlooked by the mainstream media, DTW has been out to land these stories for your delectation.

Recaro´s “seating tomorrow” concept: source

The focus today is on seating and fabrics. I found out that Adient, Johnson Controls and Recaro are part of the same group; Zedtex is an Asian supplier to OEMs and if you want a fabric like a Hermes scarf it seems you must Continue reading “Quiet Please For The Giant Of Coimbra”

Viking Burial

The stillborn Rover P8 remains a fascinating technical fossil, but should the cause of its demise be laid entirely at Jaguar’s door?

P8 in pre-production prototype form. (c) AROnline

Lost causes exert an undying fascination: The Beach Boys’ original Smile LP, Orson Welles’ allegedly destroyed original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons. These and others like them, while unrealised (or unfound) live on in our collective imagination, unsullied by inconvenient reality.

In 1965, the Rover Motor Company was a successful independent carmaker, producing well-regarded luxury saloons and a range of highly capable off-road vehicles. However, its flagship P5 saloon was dating and lacking the resources to replace it, Lode Lane’s developmental head, Charles (Spen) King, working under the guidance of Peter Wilks proposed a modular range of cars to be derived from a single base unit. Continue reading “Viking Burial”

A Plate of Cozido a Portuguesa, Please.

Today I thought I would take another peep into the world of paint. Blue, blue, electric blue…

These kind of things don’t go out of date so quickly so I’ll commence with the over-arching story that in 2017 BASF predicts that blue will be a trending colour. “Blue continues to gain strength as an automotive color,” Paul Czornij, head of design for automotive paint supplier BASF’s Color Excellence Group, said. “It has a calming effect and a strong correlation with natural things.”

Czornij expects the colour to Continue reading “A Plate of Cozido a Portuguesa, Please.”

It Wasn’t Called Porto Seguro When Cabral First Saw It

Driven to Write once again challenges readers with a small and largely harmless puzzle.

The year is 2010. This time I am gathering quotes concerning one manufacturer. Who do you think it might be? If this item does not Continue reading “It Wasn’t Called Porto Seguro When Cabral First Saw It”

The Quintessence : (Part Six)

As Jaguar steadily broadened the XJ6’s appeal, the headwinds kept coming.

In 1968, when XJ launched, Jaguar was, in addition to future XJ4-derived models, seeking funding for a number of new product lines. These comprised of XJ21 – a V12 powered GT on the E-Type platform, XJ17 – an all-new compact 2+2 coupé and XJ27 – a large luxury coupé based on XJ4.

While Jaguar’s own deliberations saw XJ21 abandoned, BLMC product planning policies meant XJ17 was also culled, with Lord Stokes decreeing that Jaguar would no longer Continue reading “The Quintessence : (Part Six)”

Lead Us To The Fifth Empire, Oh Sovereign Sebastian

Extremely recently I noticed a Renault Grand Scenic. It’s a big and imposing car. So is the Espace. Is there any real difference between them apart from the price tag and the Espace’s motorized glove drawer?

Maybe the Espace is simply an advanced form of brougham, much like the poor old Opel Senator: a Rekord with a different nose and tail. If the similarity of the Megane Scenic to the Espace is too small maybe people simply must Continue reading “Lead Us To The Fifth Empire, Oh Sovereign Sebastian”

Selling the Cat (short)

In 1972, Jaguar didn’t need to convince buyers of the XJ6’s virtues, but their BLMC masters had other ideas.

Marketing a car like the Jaguar XJ6 shouldn’t have been the most onerous of tasks. Demand for the car was enormous and the biggest problem facing prospective customers was getting hold of one. To some extent, Jaguar dealers were essentially order-takers and fulfilment houses. So while the rationale behind this print ad from the spring of 1972 appears somewhat ill-wrought, it isn’t as confused as the execution itself. Continue reading “Selling the Cat (short)”

Micropost: One More Model Cycle Left for Some ICE Cars

Denmark announced a few days back that ICE cars would be banned from sale by 2030. That’s 12 years or roughly not enough model cycles…

A car launched in 2018 might be replaced in 2025 leaving a short product cycle to recoup investments. That makes the period around now the last point at which it will be worth bothering to engineer for ICE engines. The UK has, not surprisingly, gone with a cut-off for ICE engines of 2040 but I think that if this change-over happens at the planned speed, the UK will change over faster than 2040. (Whether or not it´s part of the EU, EU policy will affect the UK).

We have been discussing here how manufacturers can Continue reading “Micropost: One More Model Cycle Left for Some ICE Cars”

Really? I don’t think so

The 2018 Paris Mondiale car show exhibition had many interesting new exhibits being exhibited. Certainly the most ultimate was the Packworth Sportsline AGM WolseleySport Wolseley 34/12.

The Packworth Sportsline AGM WolseleySport Wolseley 34/12 is essentially a standard Sportsline AGM WolseleySport Wolseley 34/12 with lowered, up-firmed suspension, re-calibrated air-conditioning controls and engine-mount vibration dampers which are rated up. This hikes the power output to 312 bhp and lowers the 0-60 time to under 20 seconds (4.3 seconds to be precise).

The car has a bespoke leather gear lever gaiter, a deeper dished steering wheel along with special Packworth carpets and a standard Wolseley 34/12 dashboard (Packworth hates the Sportline dashboard). Pete Packworth explained that what Packworth does to build a Packworth Sportsline AGM WolseleySport Wolseley 34/12 is to Continue reading “Really? I don’t think so”

Paris Bites

Taking a turn through the eerily empty halls of the 2018 Mondial de l’Auto with Auto Didakt’s Christopher Butt.

It had been this author’s intention to attend this year’s Paris motor show, but a variety of factors conspired to prevent this. It was however of little consequence, because as the weeks counted down, it became increasingly clear that given the sheer number of non-attendees at manufacturer level, one wouldn’t Continue reading “Paris Bites”

What You See When You Look There Instead of Up

Vietnamese company Vinfast have shown their Lux A2.0 saloon and AS2.0 sports utility vehicle at the 2018 Paris Mondiale. The styling is attributed to Pininfarina who did it real quick, you know.

“The design direction of these first two cars was influenced by the Vietnamese people through a public vote. This has enhanced the sense of national pride in these products, which pay homage to the country’s natural beauty. The design development for the production cars was undertaken by legendary design house, Pininfarina, giving the cars Italian design flair and sophistication,” says the corporate press kit. The part which caught my eye was this: Continue reading “What You See When You Look There Instead of Up”

Rapid Pain Relief

Tense nervous headache? Too many Vierzylinder schnappes? Take one of these white pills…

There is only so much ugliness anyone can take at a sitting and since as we have seen, the Bayerische Motoren Werke are now so firmly into the arena of the revolting, it is my belief that there simply isn’t any point in dignifying their efforts further.

Amidst the dreary, the predictable and the outright offensive this week, one finds one’s consolations where one can. Because there are pinpricks of light to be found. Peugeot’s lovely, if impractical eLegend concept, Suzuki’s refreshingly simple utility vehicle in miniature and Škoda’s latest Vision RS concept. Continue reading “Rapid Pain Relief”

Micropost: Two BMWs

BMW have presented the G20 iteration of their long-running 3-series saloon. Autocar very kindly put images of the new car (blue) up against the outgoing car (not blue).

2019 BMW 3-series and the outgoing car: source

Last night as I was writing my comprehensive and thorough report on the 2018 Paris Mondiale, it occurred to me that I might do a new/old comparison of the car. I also considered doing a short design review. I didn’t because I had the intuition it would be rather too much work to say anything about something so slight. Continue reading “Micropost: Two BMWs”

To Lisbon, Pedro – Brazil Is In The Past

And that obviously means it’s the Paris Mondial 2018. DTW takes a closer look at some of the offerings.

There appears to be a dearth of new cars this year. Fiat have nothing much to show for themselves. Lancia are again not presenting anything new and nor are MG, Hillman or Rover. Hybrid variants, re-showings of electric cars, tuned models and some facelifts make up the bulk of the products being touted for our delectation. It’s rather telling that I had to Continue reading “To Lisbon, Pedro – Brazil Is In The Past”

The Quintessence : (Part Five)

Manufacturing was Jaguar’s fatal weakness. It would become XJ6’s undoing.

Browns Lane production tracks. (c) curbside Classic

Through a combination of genius, skill, misfortune and at times, sheer good luck, the Jaguar XJ6 proved to be precisely what the market realised it wanted. Offering all the glamour and visual allure of the E-Type in a four-door package, customers quickly discovered it fitted their needs very nicely indeed. The trouble was obtaining one.

When Lyons sanctioned the model, he set production targets of a thousand cars a week. This would have amounted to slightly over 50,000 cars per annum, a figure Jaguar wouldn’t meet until the 1990s, and certainly one the XJ-series never came close to meeting – for a whole host of reasons.

The first of these manifested itself as Jaguar struggled to ramp up XJ6 production in the advent of the car’s launch. The XJ bodyshell was built at PSF in Castle Bromwich. Made up of hundreds of small pressings, the XJ shells were designed this way, firstly to Continue reading “The Quintessence : (Part Five)”