Dec 2020 – Driven To Write

Anniversary Waltz 1970 – Help the Bombardier!

“They’re trying to kill me”, Yossarian told him calmly. “No one’s trying to kill you”, Clevinger cried. “Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked. “They’re shooting at everyone”, Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone”. “And what difference does that make?”

Alan Arkin as Captain Yossarian in a still from Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Catch-22. Image: rob’s movie vault

“History did not demand Yossarian’s premature demise, justice could be satisfied without it, progress did not hinge upon it, victory did not depend on it. That men would die was a matter of necessity; which men would die, though, was a matter of circumstance, and Yossarian was willing to be the victim of anything but circumstance.”

Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel, Catch-22 characterised the blind terror, numbing futility, banality and sheer mindlessness of war through the eyes and experiences of a US Air Force bombardier who becomes grimly determined to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 1970 – Help the Bombardier!”

Boxing Day

Looking as if it has driven straight out of a Syd Mead rendering, the Brubaker Box’s base is as ubiquitous as it is humble.

Curtis Brubaker was a car designer who had studied auto design at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design. Working in GM’s advanced research group, in 1969 Brubaker left GM to establish his own design company in Los Angeles; still providing design consultancy work for GM but now also for Volvo, Ford and a few Japanese car manufacturers. He also formed part of the design team for the famous Learjet.

During a trip to nearby Newport Beach, Brubaker could not help but Continue reading “Boxing Day”

Old Red Wine

We mark the passing of a much respected British engineer.

Don Hayter (second from left) marks the completion of the half-millionth MGB at Abingdon. Image: Hemmings

Don Hayter, was born in Oxfordshire on 24th January 1926. His father, a retired policeman, took up a job delivering MG TF Midgets from Abingdon to the docks for export. Meanwhile his son had shown not only aptitude but a flair for technical drawing. Upon leaving Abingdon school, he took an apprenticeship with the Pressed Steel Company at Cowley working on aircraft such as the AVRO Lancaster during the war, progressing to bodywork panels for Jaguar’s XK120 and the ZA Magnette.

Don had taken up an offer from then Feltham-based Aston Martin Lagonda as a draftsman in the early fifties with a return to Oxfordshire when AML upped sticks to Continue reading “Old Red Wine”

Festive Teasers 2020 – Odd Man Out

Four giants of the automotive industry – which is the odd one out, and why?

David Bache (1925-1994) – Styling chief at The Rover Company and BL Cars Continue reading “Festive Teasers 2020 – Odd Man Out”

Anniversary Waltz 1960 – Here Come the Big Jets

Faster is not always better.

Convair 880 at take off. Image: Airliners.net

There remains some debate as to when the Jet Age truly began, but to put it in aviation parlance, 1960 is generally held as being the point of v-max, this being the speed above which take-off must be attempted. The kerosene-fuelled era of widespread commercial air travel was unsurprisingly synonymous with the United States, even if Britain’s De Havilland largely pioneered the commercial jet airliner with its elegant if doomed 1952 Comet. All-comers however would be overwhelmed by the irresistible rise of the Boeing 707 and McDonald Douglas DC8, soon to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 1960 – Here Come the Big Jets”

The DTW Bumper Holiday Quiz – Answers (Part One)

The solutions to our Christmas Day edition of the DTW Bumper Holiday Quiz are as follows…

Gratuitous DTW-centric image. (c) auto-mobil-forum.de

Continue reading “The DTW Bumper Holiday Quiz – Answers (Part One)”

Past Forward

Misunderstood and derided by many, the Chrysler PT Cruiser was a brave if misconceived attempt to bring something different to the automotive landscape.

The PT Cruiser should have been a Plymouth, had that failing marque not been put out of its misery by Daimler-Chrysler in 2001 following the 1998 Merger of Equals of the US and German automakers. Chrysler’s traditional entry-level brand had fallen into a serious decline in the last decade of the 20^th Century. Its limited range largely comprised badge-engineered variants of other Chrysler group products, including the Voyager and Grand Voyager minivans, and the Neon compact and Breeze mid-size saloons, all of which were comfortably outsold by their Chrysler or Dodge branded stablemates.

The only distinctive and unique model marketed under the Plymouth brand was the Prowler, a wildly styled retro two-seater convertible harking back to the 1930’s hot rod era. This was very much a niche offering and only 11,702 were sold over a five-year period from 1997 to 2002. However, its undoubted appeal led Chrysler product planners to Continue reading “Past Forward”

Festive Teasers 2020 – What’s the Car?

An actor, a small city in Wisconsin, and an item of bespoke door furniture. Together they link to a well-regarded luxury car which spanned three decades of the 20th century.

What’s the car?

Sir Roger Moore, British actor (1927 -2017) Continue reading “Festive Teasers 2020 – What’s the Car?”

One Small Drive For Mankind

Andrew Miles documents a space oddity.

A pleasant Saturday evening drive ahead. (c) Thisdayinaviation.com.

As a professor of ignorance based within the university of life, complex issues such as remembering which side the fuel filler flap is on (even with the pointy arrow!) can, dependant upon time of day, prove vexing. How on Earth therefore does one Continue reading “One Small Drive For Mankind”

Season’s Greetings

It’s happened again.

seasons greetings

It’s that most special time: one where we find ourselves asking, where the loving hell the year went, why am I wearing a paper crown on my head, and why isn’t there any sherry left in this bottle? Even more to the point, what exactly is Gorden Wagener doing in my kitchen, and what will it take for him to leave? So many questions…

Some of you might Continue reading “Season’s Greetings”

The DTW Bumper Holiday Quiz (Part One)

Because there are only so many times you can watch Gone With The Wind or Frozen without losing the will to live, DTW instead offers you an opportunity to test out your knowledge of all things automotive. Good luck and no Googling!

We will Continue reading “The DTW Bumper Holiday Quiz (Part One)”

Big Things

Some cars are bigger than others.

On the occasion of the current Fiat 500’s introduction at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007, nobody could miss the enormous 500 replica that dominated the FIAT display; it was an impressive showpiece and even included a huge ignition key. Both the front and rear wheel could slide away to allow actual 500’s to be driven in and out. The giant 500 was certainly a bold, eye-catching idea, but Fiat was not the first to Continue reading “Big Things”

Anniversary Waltz 1950 : Do Not Try To Understand, Just believe

Keeping death at bay.

Jean Marais in a still from Jean Cocteau’s Orphée from 1950. Image: Taste of Cinema

Death travels in a Rolls Royce landaulet accompanied by a pair of leather-clad motorcycle outriders. The portal between the living world and the afterlife is fluid and open. Reflections come fraught with risk. Death herself; beautiful, irresistible in her terrible inevitability is nonetheless prey to similar failings as us mortals. Reality pivots amid clever reverse projections and rippling looking glasses – Jean Cocteau’s visionary 1950 movie Orphée retells the myth of Orpheus and his journey into the underworld, set amid the landscape of post-war France.

The aftermath of hostilities was a desperate time across Europe; the old ways could no longer continue, given how the continent had been altered by war. For Alfa Romeo it marked something of an existential crisis. The coachbuilt cars they previously specialised in were no longer relevant, and with Portello being forced to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 1950 : Do Not Try To Understand, Just believe”

End of the Line, End of an Era

DTW marks the last of the traditional American body-on-frame sedans.

1995 Ford Crown Victoria (c) favcars.com

The Ford Crown Victoria and its Mercury and Lincoln siblings were the last in a long line of traditional body-on-frame full-size rear-wheel-drive sedans that were for decades a defining feature of the American automotive landscape. They were simply engineered, but tough and reliable cars that were perfectly suited to the wide variety of private, commercial and institutional roles in which they served.

Today we will Continue reading “End of the Line, End of an Era”

Tangerine Dream

The name is Bug. Bond Bug…

A wedge of Lancashire cheese from the garden. Image: Ruotevecchie.org

The town of Preston, Lancashire gave the world Arkwright’s dark, satanic mills; the town at one point becoming an engineering focal point for the entire North West of England. One such intrepid character being Lawrence (Lawrie) Bond (1907-74) who brought the minicar, amongst a host of other engineering feats to fruition. In similar fashion to Colin Chapman, Bond was obsessed with weight and the saving thereof; his original 1949 3-wheeled minicar 2/3 seater tipping the scales at a mere 310lbs (140Kgs).

Britain’s odd motor tax laws, which allowed for a three-wheeled vehicle to Continue reading “Tangerine Dream”

Accessorize!

DTW celebrates an endangered species.

A veritable treasure-trove (c) checkpointautostores.com

Around forty years ago, when I was eighteen and the proud owner of both a newly minted driving licence and my first car, they were to be found on high streets and in shopping centres across the country. I’m referring to car accessory shops, those wonderlands of shiny treasures, not to be confused with their dour and distant cousin, the motor factors.

Motor factors were austere, gloomy and slightly intimidating places where almost nothing was on display. The merchandise was instead piled high on tightly packed aisles of steel shelving at the back of the store, guarded by a slightly grumpy guy who stood behind a chipped black Formica counter.

Continue reading “Accessorize!”

Insight in Hindsight

Honda’s 2010 CR-Z was not without precedent. Quite the contrary.

Of all the mainstream Japanese carmakers, Honda have perhaps the longest track record of going about things their own way. Yes, one can point to someone like Subaru and suggest an element of stand-alone behaviour, but while Fuji Heavy Industries has for the most part cleaved doggedly to one central idea, one never quite knows what Honda is likely to get up to next.

Take the 2010 Honda CR-Z: A compact 2+2 hybrid coupé was not the epicentre of automotive orthodoxy ten years ago, the intention being to create something of a halo model to help nudge customers towards Honda’s more prosaic range of Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) petrol-combustion hybrid drive models. But not only was the drivetrain shared with the concurrent Civic Hybrid and stand-alone Prius-baiting Insight model, so too was the platform, in this case with a sizeable chunk excised from the centre section.^[1]

The CR-Z also arrived with a palpably strong sense of déjà-Vu, insofar as more observant Honda watchers were likely to Continue reading “Insight in Hindsight”

Badge Budge

A corporate identifier can speak a thousand words – especially in court.

Recently, Citroën has taken Volvo-affiliated Polestar to court in France claiming that the new manufacturer’s logo is not only too similar to the famous double chevron, but also the more recent DS logo – and in their home country at least, Citroën has been successful, as the judge ruled partly in favour of the French car manufacturer.

The court stated that while potential customers of either brand were unlikely to confuse the two it did rule that it was probable that Polestar could Continue reading “Badge Budge”

A Long Goodbye

Mitsubishi Motors is a fading presence in the European automotive landscape and could soon be consigned to history. DTW remembers better times for the marque and surveys its current state.

A shrinking presence: 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV: (c) mitsubishi-motors.com

Since the turn of the millennium, Mitsubishi Motors’ European sales have been in slow, if erratic, long-term decline. The high point was reached in 1999, when Mitsubishi sold a total of 205,009⁽¹⁾ vehicles and achieved a market share of 1.34%. In 2019, the comparative figures were 144,670 and 0.92%. The decline would have been more precipitous had it not been for the L200 pick-up truck, which has since 1978 been the bedrock of the company’s sales, and the 2012 Outlander PHEV, which carved a distinctive niche for itself as the first plug-in hybrid SUV.

Over the past two decades, the company has been rocked by two major scandals. The first broke in 2004, when it was revealed that Mitsubishi had been covering up vehicle defects including failing clutches and brakes and leaking fuel lines, refusing to issue recalls for these systemic problems. The company was forced to recall and rectify over 160,000 vehicles, forcing Mitsubishi group companies to Continue reading “A Long Goodbye”

Welcome to the Machine : Part Two

The shock of the new manifested itself in more ways than style alone.

When Jaguar introduced the XJ-S in the autumn of 1975, the surprise many observers felt was not only visual, but also conceptual, perhaps closer in format to that of an American personal luxury coupé than anything Jaguar themselves had produced up to that point.

But Jaguar’s Sir William Lyons, the man who was to Continue reading “Welcome to the Machine : Part Two”

Beautiful Vision – Evolution of the Jowett Javelin – Part 10

Keep Mediocrity at Bay

Throughout the 20^th century, Britain produced many remarkable – in some cases world-changing – internal combustion piston engines. Unfortunately for the everyday motorist on the street, most of them were to be found in aircraft, ships, railway locomotives, motorcycles and even a few racing or luxury cars.

Even in the post-WW2 era, all-iron in-line engines were the staple offering for the British Big Six, side valves were still commonplace, and the RAC horsepower rating system cast a long (stroke) shadow over cylinder proportions even after Britain introduced a flat tax rate. Such engines were not particularly powerful, nor even efficient, but were trusted by the motor trade and buying public, and were forgiving of unsophisticated and imprecise casting, machining and assembly methods.

Into this cautious, conservative, yet somewhat confused land came Palmer’s flat-four, designed and developed in wartime. Continue reading “Beautiful Vision – Evolution of the Jowett Javelin – Part 10”

Another One Bites The Dust

DTW recalls BL’s last stand: the 1980 Austin Metro.

1980 Austin Metro. (c) voiture.motorlegend

Friday, 8th October 1980 was the day. The car: most commonly referred to as Metro, others ADO88 (Amalgamated Drawing Office – from when Austin and Morris tied the knot in ‘52) with only those in the know as LC8. Forty years have now passed since the car hailed as Blighty’s answer to the inflow of foreign imports was launched. We deal here with the Metro’s tentative first twelve months (amidst some background) of being.

Any story concerning British Leyland inevitably must invoke the company’s changes of name and ownership, not to mention the impossibility of not mentioning crippling strikes, poor workmanship and the demise of the domestic car industry. Peeling back (most) of the bad apple nevertheless reveals a passion for this new project to succeed.

With experienced hands Spen King and Charlie Griffin at the helm, the Metro plan got off to a better start than most. Perennially cash strapped yet astute at finding talent, Griffin stipulated strict guidelines: larger than the original Mini, smaller than the competition, do not Continue reading “Another One Bites The Dust”

Going for a Drive

The author regrets an increasing antipathy towards a pleasure that was very much a part of his earlier life experience and remained so until recently. There are, however, grounds for hope and optimism.

I have been driving for over forty years. In that time, the automotive landscape has changed in ways that were simply unimaginable when, as the proud owner of a newly minted driving licence, I took to the road in my first car, a second-hand VW Beetle.

Owning a car gave you freedom to Continue reading “Going for a Drive”

Breaking Bad

The Pontiac Aztek… explain.

If there is one car in the past two decades that has, above all others, defied rational explanation, it is surely the Pontiac Aztek. Launched in 2000, this vehicle, which can be described retrospectively as a mid-sized crossover, was met with gasps of amazement and incredulity by potential buyers, rival automakers and pretty much everybody else not directly involved in its development.

There was nothing much wrong with the concept of a crossover and, in some ways, the Aztek was ahead of its time, but why General Motors decided to Continue reading “Breaking Bad”

But Will It Do the Washing Up?

DTW reader, Dave Fisher matches wits with a recently purchased (previous generation) Honda Civic and finds himself coming a distant second.

The question one asks on entering a car such as this – a 2016 Honda Civic Tourer – is whether it is more intelligent than its owner. The car can certainly do many things its owner cannot, but if that means it’s more intelligent is a moot point. Many a dog would agree with the car, especially because, with its rear seats down, the car could easily swallow three or four Great Danes. And if you want to give Mr. Honda another three hundred pounds for a wee gadget, you can mount two bicycles (front wheel off) inside. Very clever.

The entering is the tricky bit, you are forced to Continue reading “But Will It Do the Washing Up?”

Original Sin

Ten years on, are we ready to forgive yet?

In most creative spheres, there are only so many ideas to go around. Easier then to blend and repackage the pre-existing, a familiar gambit amid the mainstream arts, and especially so in film. We’re all familiar with the putative movie pitch: “It’s Love Actually meets Inception, but, the twist is, everyone’s really a werewolf“, and so forth. After all, why go to the trouble of being original, when its easier to reimagine someone else’s idea.

To many observers the Nissan Juke came across in a similarly contrived manner when it debuted in 2010. A confection of wholly contrary styling features more or less co-existing in an uneasy truce, it was not what anyone would Continue reading “Original Sin”

LocoDiscoBox (16+)

What have you planned for the festive season?

What’s the first thing you think of when considering gearboxes? Have you parked in gear? Does the manual action satisfy your taste? Is that a dog-leg set up? Why won’t the automatic change when I want it to? Where’s my Lego set? That latter, more pertinent point being what led to Renault seeking out a new way of changing gears. Settle in, pop it into D and grab your Lego Technic manual.

Christmas 2010 and we find Renault’s Nicolas Fremau, Powertrains and Hybrid expert, ordering boxes of Denmark’s most prodigious export. Not for his son, either. Fremau hit on the idea that the plastic cogs along with connecting rods could form the potential of a real world use gearbox for use in the coming hybrid/ electrification vehicles. The holiday period allowed him to Continue reading “LocoDiscoBox (16+)”

The Eloquence of Life

“He who has not seen the road, at dawn, between its two rows of trees, all fresh, all alive, does not know what hope is.”

This phrase, translated from French by Georges Bernanos is but one of several accompanying the evocative images in the beautiful and highly sought-after Citroën DS Décapotable brochure. These poem fragments are also virtually the only words to be found in the booklet, which represented a hitherto unseen and fresh way of publicizing a car, thanks to the combined creative genius of artistic manager Robert Delpire and photographer William Klein.

The DS, convertible or otherwise, was of course not just any car (and Citroën not just any carmaker) so the fact that the stars aligned so perfectly to Continue reading “The Eloquence of Life”

Marginal Motoring

DTW’s Daniel O’Callaghan remembers the once fraught and risky business of buying a second-hand car.

Before the introduction of effective consumer protection legislation and manufacturer backed Approved Pre-Owned schemes, buying a used car was often a fraught business. At the bottom end of the market, the stereotypical used car dealer operated out of a Portakabin plonked in the corner of a pot-holed lot in the dingier parts of our towns and cities. The recently (and soon to be again) vacant lot was decorated with gaudy flags and bunting to distract visitors from the cheerless and grim surroundings. The salesman was a matey and overly familiar geezer, superficially affable, but with an unsettling hint of menace should you Continue reading “Marginal Motoring”

French Polish

DTW makes the case for the Peugeot 404.

Regardless of whether one is discussing art, cuisine, kitchen appliances, or indeed motor cars, definitives are tricky things to quantify. In the field of automobiles, applying such measures to specific marques comes fraught with even more difficulty, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that one ought not Continue reading “French Polish”

Because They Could

Few unique car designs hail from Ireland. Fewer still as thorough as this. Bruno Vijverman investigates the story of the DAWB.

As the name implies, the Ulster Transport Museum in Cultra, Northern Ireland harbours a variety of modes of transport. Trains, trams, airplanes, bicycles, motorcycles and of course cars are on display. Among the exhibited cars, one stands out as a unique showcase of what could be achieved when a determined cohort of men set out to make their dream car, and were not prepared to Continue reading “Because They Could”

Surrogate Twins

GM Europe had a reputation for building solid, reliable but resolutely uncharismatic cars. In an attempt to shake off its fusty image, the company turned to Lotus.

2001 Opel Speedster (c) autoevolution.com

The 2000 Opel Speedster and Vauxhall VX220 siblings owe their existence at least in part to one of the many financial crises that have regularly threatened to engulf Lotus Cars over the course of its lifetime. General Motors had owned Lotus outright from October 1986 to August 1993. It had inherited the front-engined Excel 2+2 and mid-engined Esprit, but recognised that both these ageing designs, while selling steadily in small numbers, had limited potential for growth. Instead, it decided to Continue reading “Surrogate Twins”

A Matter of SMantics

Separated by two decades, and a good deal of ideology, we trace the seemingly improbable; the similarities between Honda’s 1990 NSX and Citroën’s 1970 SM.

For a short period of time during the close of the 1980s, it did appear as though the Japanese auto industry were poised to, as the UK’s Car Magazine rather hysterically headlined in 1988, “tear the heart out the European industry.” The reality behind this seemingly overnight transformation was quite naturally, anything but; Japanese carmakers after all, have never been in the business of impulse.

By mid-decade, the land of the rising sun had learned about as much as they felt they needed from the established players and were confident enough of their abilities, particularly from a technical standpoint. Furthermore, it had dawned upon the leading Japanese carmakers that European and US lawmakers were unlikely to drop the punitive barriers to unfettered trade; not when the domestic producers were incapable of competing on quality, durability or increasingly, sophistication.

The only route for Japanese carmakers was to Continue reading “A Matter of SMantics”

Doisneau’s All Seeing Eye

A slice of contemporary automotive life through the lens of an artist.

citroen

Principally known in his later years, alongside better-known contemporary Henri Cartier-Bresson for his photojournalism work, Robert Doisneau captured on camera the working atmosphere of the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt during their pre-war peak in the mid 1930’s. Drawn to the camera aged around sixteen, Doisneau was so shy he preferred to Continue reading “Doisneau’s All Seeing Eye”