I don’t normally do personal blogs on this site, mainly because I fancy myself as being some sort of small-time motoring journalist than just a petrolhead with a blog. But I thought i’d talk about this to see if I can’t encourage like-minded petrolheads to do what i’ve just done.

I’m 21 years old and I love cars. LOVE them. But I don’t work on them. I don’t have a shed, and my mechanical knowledge only stretches to as far as knowing how to do basic maintenance and service on cars. I’ve always had an interest in how cars work though, but never had the opportunity to learn until now.

I’ve just bought myself a very rare, classic car. A dusky blue 1987 Mazda RX-7 FC. Absolutely gorgeous little beauty. It was designed to compete with Porsche’s 924-S in the ’80s, and whilst it was ‘only’ equal to it in the performance stakes, it was sexier, being longer, lower, and wider. Anyway, mine came with an aftermarket twin sports exhaust, which sounds aggressive and chavvy, but there are times when you just fall in love with it. Especially when a chav in a kitted-up Saxo pulls up next to you and revs up the kitchen blender he calls an engine. Anyway, 0-60mph in under 8 seconds, top speed around 140mph, and despite the engine only being a 1.3L, it’s a rotary engine, which produces the same sort of power you’d get from a 2.4L piston engine. The fact that it’s a 1.3L and has no cylinders or pistons, and is mounted right back in the chassis just in front of the dashboard, means it’s also a very light car. It’s bloody quick and corners like a mosquito.

All for £1000 including tax and MOT. Not bad for something in immaculate condition AND is as rare as it is. There’s not many left in the UK.

My point is this: after getting the car and using it for every day use, it’s 22 years of age has caught up with it. The passenger side window won’t open, for example. So i’ve bought myself a Haynes manual. These are fully comprehensive manuals that you can buy for almost any car nowadays, and they teach you how to maintain, repair, or even tune up pretty much anything and everything in your car. All the manuals are based on a complete strip-down and rebuild of the car. It even teaches you how to repair things that most mechanics wouldn’t even consider ‘repairing’, such as a dodgy gearbox. So I’ve been reading through that and just doing that has given me a fair amount of mechanical knowledge. All I need is a decent tool kit. And given the one or two niggly faults occuring in the car at the moment, it’ll help me repair things that would otherwise be an expensive trip to the local mechanic.

That, and I found out I can up the power from 150bhp to a massive 300bhp just by poking around in the engine, and there’s much, much more to be had out of it than that if I was willing to add a turbo kit and strengthen the gearbox. No wonder RX-7s are seen as Gods in the tuning world.

It’s a big deal for me because i’m not one of those guys that lives in a shed. I’m not one to get my hands dirty. And yet armed with this book and a decent toolkit I can repair pretty much anything in the car if (or rather, when) it goes wrong. And you don’t need lots of prior mechanical knowledge, or be able to understand long, complicated words. The manual is very easy to follow and everything is indexed. All you need is the confidence to get your hands dirty and to not be scared of taking your car apart.

I’d encourage others to do the same to be honest, because it made me realise that anyone can fix stuff in their car if they had some guidance (i.e. a Haynes manual) and the guts to take their car apart. You can learn so much from just one book, and ultimately you’ll begin to love your car more than you already do, because it’ll become very much ‘yours’, not just some car you drove off a forecourt.

Although i’ve got the added bonus of having a rare, desirable classic. You probably won’t get the same satisfaction with an old Peugeot!

This is the first glimpse of a new concept from Aston Martin. They’re calling it the ‘Cygnet’.

I so wish this was April 1st.

Unfortunately, we’re not kidding and neither are they. The Cygnet may well be a concept car, but there are plans to put it into production by next year. All of Aston Martin’s cars have had benchmarker rivals against which they competed. Porsche 911, Ferrari 360, Maserati GT, etc. This one is based around the Toyota iQ.

You might laugh, but it’s actually very sensible and a very difficult competitor for Aston Martin. As such, Aston Martin are doing things properly. That means no, it won’t come with their 4.0L V8, and forget about a 6.0L V12. Expect a 1.3L 4-cylinder engine. And whilst the expected price for this is obviously going to be a lot more than a Toyota iQ (which retails at about £10k), it’s very reasonable for a car with Aston Martin’s badge. About £20k. Double the iQ, but a hundred times more prestigious.

The Cygnet will have all the usual Aston Martin trimmings. You get their signature front grille, you get the bonnet vents from the DBS, AM’s alloy wheels, and even the Pirelli tyres custom made specially for Aston Martins. And of course, expect the interior to be very ‘Aston Martin’, loaded with plush leather and generally very luxurious.

So a small, nippy, economical Aston Martin for the same price as a VW Golf. There’s got to be a catch, surely? Well er, yes. If you think this is going to be a cheap ticket into Aston Martin ownership, think again - this will only be on sale to existing Aston Martin customers; the idea being that this is a small, economical city runabout so that Aston Martin owners don’t have to squeeze through City Centre in their big, showy, gas guzzling supercars.

This is not the first time this has happened. About a year ago Ferrari too made a hatchback based on the Fiat 500. It got the Maranello paint job, cream leather interior, etc etc, but was only available as a courtesy car for existing Ferrari customers to use whilst their real Ferrari was being repaired or serviced. What’s next? A Porsche based on a Smart ForTwo? A Corvette based on a Chevrolet Matiz?

I hope so. Because the good thing about this is one day we’ll see these exclusive cars on sale in an Autotrader mag.

A short history lesson: The VW Golf GTi is a legend. The MkII model - along with Peugeot’s 205 GTi - introduced to the world the concept of a ‘Hot Hatch’ in the late 80’s and early 90’s. A small, nimble car with enough performance to humiliate the £100k supercars on real-life country roads. Ford soon followed suit with various versions of Escorts and Sierra Cosworths, and so on. At some point during that time VW also created the ‘Scirocco’, which despite being fairly popular never really had the same kind of fame or reputation as the Golf GTi.

All of a sudden, along came a new VW Scirocco - the first for nearly 20 years. In their excitement, VW ‘accidentally’ made it noticeably better than the Mk5 Golf GTi, a car still revered as being the definitive ‘Hot Hatch’. Frankly, being ‘accidentally’ better than a Golf GTi is like ‘accidentally’ finding a cure for cancer, or ‘accidentally’ achieving world peace. It’s a huge deal. Anyway, VW realised they just kicked themselves in the nuts, and quickly designed the new Mk6 Golf and Golf GTi, deliberately making it even better than the new Scirocco so that VW could keep their flagship car. And ‘flagship model’ translates in human speak to ‘best of the breed’.

So, the new VW Scirocco R - a Scirocco bred by motorsport (a 24 hour Le Man’s-style racing series no less), with as much power as a Porsche Cayman and a pricetag matching the new Ford Focus RS. Once again VW has kicked themselves in the nadgers. In fact this car is so fast that you’ll never guess how they officially revealed the car. At a motor show? A press conference? No. Via a 24 hour racing series at the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany, highlighting this car’s awesome performance and motorsport pedigree. So after all that effort to make a new VW Golf relatively prematurely (the Mk5 is only a few years old, mind!), VW have just ruined all that by making a much faster Scirocco. VW’s only hope is that the much-rumoured successor to the Golf R32 is even better. Personally I hope not. I like the Scirocco too much.

The new car sports a more aggressive bodykit than the standard car, with angular new side-skirts and racey new bumpers, sexing up an already gorgeous car. Think of it as changing it from Hugh Grant to Vin Diesel, if you know what I mean. The ‘Donington’ alloys on the standard car have been scrapped for new ‘Talladega’ alloys, which I think is a shame as the Donington alloys were very attractive and very similar to the alloys on the McLaren SLR; a £300,000 vehicle.

There are also changes inside, too. The standard sciroccos had a dashboard that was very typically ‘Golf’ish, and the party pieces were those gorgeous leather seats based on those in the old 1980’s Scirocco (and indeed many other classic cars). This time they’ve gone for something much more modern and racey.

Those blue dials? They glow red when they hit the redline. A luminous ‘R’ logo sits at the base of each gauge. A revised steering wheel with an ‘R’ logo on the base, and a graphically enhanced computer system in the centre console. Even the seats (not pictured, sadly) are sportier and better looking than the old ones. This car does its best to tell you that this is a sporty, feisty, lemme-at-’em racer.

Power goes up from 200bhp to 261bhp, giving a 0-60mph time of 6.4 seconds and a top speed electronically limited at 155mph. Remove the limiter and you’re probably looking at 165-170mph. That’s Porsche Boxster acceleration, and Porsche Cayman territory if you don’t mind losing your driving licence. But actually it’s target is much more humble than Porsche. This is gunning for the Ford Focus RS, which has slightly more power, is a little faster to 60mph and has the same top speed. But the Focus also has a LOT more handling problems - all that power at the front wheels means lots of wheelspin and jerky steering caused by ‘torque steer’. This has none of that, giving you more confidence in both the car’s abilities and your own, resulting in performance easily matching the Focus RS.

Of course, everything I just said is all words. This car won’t actually hit dealerships until much later this year, going on 2010, so we won’t know precisely how good it is until then. But the silver lining is it gives our bank managers plenty of warning!

Last one to get onto the reserve list is a rotten egg…

I’ve been following this feud since it began at the Nurburgring last year. Nissan’s new GTR beat Porsche’s 911 Turbo’s lap time, which is hugely impressive for any car to do, let alone a Nissan. Porsche acted like brats, frankly. They accused Nissan of running the GTR on race-spec tyres, and even went as far as buying a GTR themselves and trying to achieve a similar lap time. They claimed to be 50 seconds off, and basically accused Nissan of lying. Nissan responded with photographs, video evidence and so on supporting their case, as well as offering Porsche special driving lessons for the GTR. That last one couldn’t have gone down well!

Anyway, as you can imagine the two companies haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye since, and Nissan has since gone as far as to declare Porsche their main rival. This became apparent when Nissan unveiled their successor to the 350Z, the 370Z. At the press launch, Nissan also put a Porsche Cayman on the stand and said “This is the car we set out to beat when we designed and built the 370Z”.

As an aside, this rivalry is dangerous for both manufacturers. It’s dangerous for Porsche because they’re a very up-market brand that is comparitively quite small. Nissan on the other hand is one of the biggest car firms in the world, producing what we’d consider to be common, everyday vehicles. Furthermore Nissan’s home country (Japan) is the spiritual home of car modifications, tune-ups and generally making a normal car eat supercars for breakfast. Porsche could be biting off more than they can chew, against a company with a far bigger budget and more tuning experience.

Conversely, Porsche’s cars are famous for their performance. A Porsche’s balance of handling and power is deemed by many to be unmatched by any other car. Add to the fact that none of their cars are built on a budget, and you’ve got cars that will not only thrash anything cheaper than them, but will all too often eat cars with much higher retail prices. Nissan could appear to be a bit like that short, cocky little bugger you find in a pub; always trying to pick fights with the bigger lads because he feels he has something to prove.

However Nissan has been trying to go more up-market ever since they made their new line of 4×4s, and would inevitably end up trespassing on Porsche territory. This fight was therefore inevitable. So round 2: 370Z VS Cayman

The first thing you notice with the new 370Z is that they’re really trying hard and have paid a lot of attention to detail. The roof line and other styling cues are based on their GTR, which is a good thing since that car was aerodynamically designed for maximum stability. Also, gone are the swathes of cheap plastic interiors. The 370Z sports hand-stitched leather, alcantara door trim, aluminium trim here and there and supportive leather sport seats, all in a bid to match Porsche in more than just the performance stakes.You could be forgiven for forgetting you’re in a Japanese car.

As for performance? Well I personally can’t talk about it as i’ve yet to drive either cars, yet many sources say that whilst the base-model Cayman is £10k more, it’s worth that much more if not more still when you take both cars out onto a winding backroad. The Cayman gives you the signature Porsche handling, sticking to the road on corners you wouldn’t expect it to. Meanwhile the Nissan’s more aggressive. The handling is impressive, but not in Porsche territory just yet. It’s a successor to the 350Z in the sense that it handles very similar, only without sticking the tail out quite as much. It grips more and drifts less, but it’s not perfect and it doesn’t beat the Porsche. It’s got a ways to go.

Also there’s the issue of badging. A Porsche badge brings with it a sense of respect from all petrolheads. Love them or hate them, all petrolheads acknowledge Porsches to be good, fast, up-market cars. The same can’t be said for Nissan. So in order for Nissan to erase the appeal of the badge, they can’t price their car at just £10k lower than the Cayman. Many people will happily pay the extra £10k for the reassurance of a brilliant, widely respected car with a quality and feel that’s rarely matched, rather than risk going for a Nissan just because a few journalists and Nissan bosses say it’s just as good. They need to come in at about £15k less. If the Cayman is £40,000, sell the 370Z for £25k.

The problem is this: In terms of performance, Nissan has already made some iconic cars. The Nissan Skyline GTR for example. Being upmarket therefore isn’t a case of putting your prices up, it’s about putting the quality up. If Nissan wants to beat Porsche, they need to keep their prices at Nissan prices, but raise their overall quality to Porsche standards. You beat a famous and respected brand by beating better than them, not by being equal, or aiming to be.

Give it a few years. Nissan’s prices tend to drop much faster than Porsche’s. Come back in two, maybe three years time and we’ll have this fight again.

The government has announced today that it will pay you £2000 to scrap your car in exchange for a brand new one, providing your car is 10 years old or older. Yay - that must mean we’ll see more new cars on the road and this will boost everybody’s standard of living, right? Well er, no. There’s a major problem with this.

First of all it’s clear that not one person involved with the planning and design of this scheme knew a single thing about the motoring world in the UK. The government see this as a really attractive and brilliant thing for us unwashed public because we’d love nothing better than a brand new car and have the government essentially pay us to buy one. It also appears that we can buy newer, better cars that won’t cost us very much money.

But anyone who has ever bought a second hand car and really looked hard for one will know this is actually quite a clever farce.

Let me put it to you this way - i’ve been browsing car markets for a while now and i’m currently looking at a low mileage, perfect condition convertible C4 Corvette for £6000. Meanwhile Mr Alistair Darling is waving a £2000 incentive in front of me, so I have the option of spending £6k plus the extra £2k on a new car, meaning I have a budget of £8k to spend on a new car. All very nice.

But what new cars can you get for £8k? Well you’re looking at Peugeots. And the good Peugeots cost more than £8k. Nissan Micra is another option. Ford Ka maybe? And then there are cheapo electric boxes such as… shiver… the G-Wiz. And that really is getting desperate.

So basically Peugeot, Nissan Micra, or Ford Ka. It’s either one of those, or flick the V’s to Mr Darling and buy a Corvette instead. Now you see my point.

Of course the silver lining in all this is that small, economical, base-model hatchbacks are getting quite cheap now. Even the basic of the base-models for the new Alfa Romeo MiTo is a fraction under £9k, and Alfa Romeos are really nice cars in terms of quality, style and design. So if you’re interested in a cheap, economical runabout you’ll be jumping at this new idea.

I think it’ll split the country down the middle in terms of the car industry. Petrolheads like me will keep our older cars and buy them at bargain prices and own them brimming with pride. Those who don’t care much for cars will love this new initiative and Mr Darling will be seen as a hero.

Well, at least it’ll get rid of the Nissan Sunnys and Ford Orions.

So the Government today has announced that they’re looking at a new set of ‘Road Safety Proposals’ in a bid to reduce the number of deaths on British roads every year. That sounds all well and good. I’m all for it, as long as it reduces road deaths. Good work.

Except they’re making a bloody hash of it already by starting in the wrong direction. Their main focus is a complete review of speed limits on the roads. 30mph limits could become 20mph, rural roads would be capped to 50mph, and so on.

To understand this, we need to clarify one thing: only a minority of road accidents (let alone road deaths) are caused by excessive speed. The majority of british drivers know that you cannot drive fast everywhere; there is a time and a place, and so the majority of us only drive fast when the risks are low, and only to speeds that are manageable should something unexpected occur.

So if it’s not speed that are causing these accidents, what is it? Well there’s a few. Those driving under the influence of drink or drugs (or both) is a serious factor. Other than that, it’s nothing more than good ol’ fashioned carelessness.

I’m a classic case in point. I’ll admit that i’m no angel. I’ll drive fast when and where the mood takes me, providing the conditions are right. I’ve done this since the day I got my licence. And yet i’ve only been in one accident. How fast was I going? I’d guess about 3mph maximum. It was at a roundabout, I saw a car in front move forward. I was checking right for traffic using the roundabout and had assumed that the driver in front moved forward to join the roundabout. So i let the car creep forward more and more until bang - right into the back of the Vectra in front.

I’ll put my hands up and admit I was a careless, blithering idiot. And I feel bad about it to this day. But it was ironic that out of all the times i’ve driven fast over the years, the time I actually have an accident was at a time when i’m concentrating the least.

And that’s a key point: When you drive at excessive speeds, you’re aware of the dangers and you concentrate more than you would at fairly low speeds. You look for hazards earlier. You’re focused entirely on the road ahead as well as the surrounding area. If you’re dithering about at, say, 40mph in a 60 zone (and there’s quite a few of you who do this), you’re almost bored. The risks are low, the journey is long, and your concentration begins to wander. And then one day a car pulls out from a junction in front of you and you ram into the side of it at 40mph, all because you just weren’t paying enough attention. And a side impact at 40mph is a lethal force; especially if the car that got hit was a small french hatchback that’s not really built for strength.

Of course, the government rarely speak officially of what causes accidents because they might upset the angry mothers and environmentalists who would have us believe that 90% of accidents are caused by excessive and dangerous speed. All the while traffic statistics are quietly released each year showing fewer and fewer accidents are caused by excessive speed.

I wouldn’t be very good at debating if I didn’t offer up an alternative solution for the government to use, would I? Then here goes:

Since we’ve already established that the main factors are carelessness and those unfit to drive, I have considered a few options that would directly tackle these issues. There’s no real way of tackling carelessness because nobody can be 100% focused 100% of the time. It’s just not realistic. However, you can test and retest things such as reaction speeds and general ability to drive. In countries such as Malaysia, drivers have to apply for a re-test in order to renew their driving licences periodically (in Malaysia’s case, it’s every five years). This makes sense, because your reaction speed and concentration levels when you’re 18 years old are going to be much better than when you’re 50 years old. it’s important that your ability to drive is still up to the legal standard, and yet those who are unfit to drive are never discovered until they either complain to a GP of a severe ailment (such as very poor eyesight) or when it’s too late and they cause a bad accident.

It’s also a good way of making sure drivers drive properly and don’t let bad habits get worse. ‘Coasting’ to junctions instead of actually driving to them, incorrect use of brakes, poor use of engine, poor use of signals and mirrors etc. If I had a penny for every time i’ve had a scare from a blithering idiot who couldn’t be bothered to use his indicators or mirrors, i’d make Donald Trump look like Donald Tramp.

Also despite being no angel myself, i’d be very much in favour of the government halving the number of points you’re allowed on your licence before you have to retake your test, providing they reduce the number of years the points stay on your licence from five years to three years. This not only punishes those who shows scant disregard for the law, but it also acts as a deterrant. The Police has already said many times that many drivers who acquire their first 3 points on their licence tend to receive a bit of a wake-up call and behave after that (myself included, I must admit), for fear of eventually losing their licence. If the point limit is reduced to six, that wake-up call will theoretically have twice the punch and more drivers will smarten up a bit.

As for those driving under influence: drugs is a difficult one because most drug-related issues are of the less-than-legal kind which no official authority has any apparent control over whatsoever. However, we can easily get many drink-drivers off the roads by having all pubs and other similar drinking venues operate a system that some nightclubs use - that is, you hand your car keys over to the cloakroom/front desk, and in return you get a voucher card of some kind, entitling you to hefty discounts on non-alcoholic beverages (which serves as the incentive to hand your keys over in the first place). Then when you go to collect your keys at the end of the night, the person in charge will assess if you’re fit to drive. Currently this assessment is based on appearance only, but they should really just breathalise everybody. If you’re unfit to drive, the venue keeps your keys for 24 hours until you’re in a fit enough state to drive, and in the meantime you’ll have to walk home. This means you’ll get fewer deaths by drink-driving because there’ll be fewer of them on the roads to begin with.

If this came into effect in every pub and club in Britain, the only drink-drivers left will be those who get drunk in their own home. It won’t remove the issue completely, but it’ll reduce the numbers significantly.

So let’s keep our speed limits at reasonable limits and focus more on actually dealing with the issues rather than using road deaths as a scapegoat to build more speed cameras to generate more revenue, thank you very much.

There has been a lot of talk among a number of manufacturers about making some new 4×4s - Ironic for an economic climate that sees the absolute death of them in terms of sales figures. Land Rover kicked things off with a new, eco-Land Rover (that will actually be badged as a Range Rover, for reasons unknown to us mere mortals). It’s called the Range Rover LHZ. It’s basically a Land Rover Discovery that’s shrunk in the wash, and whilst performance specs have yet to be confirmed, the party piece is this: it will only churn out a mere 150g/km of CO2. When you consider vehicles that produce 120g or less are tax exempt, that’s very, very good.

Personally, I was very impressed by this. It’s a huge leap for big SUVs that would spell the end for, well, every other competitor desperately trying to sell theirs. But it wasn’t met with entirely positive attitudes. Many people argued that you don’t go thinking about the environment if you’re set on buying a 4×4, and only avid petrolheads like us would even be aware that there’s a Range Rover that’s this economical anyway.

So, whilst ignoring these cries and building the new LHZ anyway, Range Rover have decided to build something very much ‘the other end of the spectrum’. But this time they’re not alone - BMW had just beaten them to the punch. So from Range Rover, we have a new Range Rover Sport. Doesn’t sound all that new? Ok. Fine. Have a 500bhp 5.0L V8 engine from the new Jaguar XKR.

Yep. A Range Rover with more power than quite a few Ferraris. That’s, er… scary. Wanna see?

503bhp, and 0-62mph in under six seconds. It will (and has) also lapped the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany in under nine minutes, which isn’t something a big SUV should even consider attempting, let alone actually go out and do. However, Range Rover is also offering a much more frugal 3.0L V6 model that produces half the power but much better fuel economy. Expect to see these models in dealerships sometime in the summer.

However, as mentioned earlier BMW have beaten Range Rover to the punch (just - a few days earlier!) with two new monsters from their high performance ‘M’ division - the BMW X5M and X6M. As you probably guessed, they’ve taken their X5 and X6 SUVs and given them the ‘M’ treatment (that is: more power, performance suspension, more power, and a menacing facelift. And more power).

And if you thought 500bhp in a Range Rover was crazy, BMW have topped that. 550bhp in both the X5M and X6M. BMW took the 4.4 litre V8 from the original X6, gave it two big turbochargers, and put it back into the X6 (and the X5 for good measure).

They have Range Rover beaten on performance, too. That extra 50 horsepower really shows, with a 0-62 time of 4.7 seconds, which is just as fast as the BMW M3 Coupe. Top speed is also the same as the M3 - electronically limited to 155mph. However, you can opt for the M-division’s ‘Driver Package’ that derestricts the cars, allowing for a top speed of a fraction over 170mph. Note the rather large gunshot wound in BMW’s foot.

There’s a major compromise though. The 500bhp Range Rover is claiming to achieve a fuel economy of 30mpg, which is quite impressive. The BMWs? 20mpg. And if you have the cars derestricted, you’re going to be lucky to get anywhere near that figure, especially if you plan on putting the performance claims to the test.

The really big question that’s screaming itself to us is this: Why? This is a period where SUVs are becoming socially unacceptable and sales are at a record low. As the environmentalists are now earth-shatteringly noisy, more and more people care more about fuel economy than anything else these days.

So like I asked earlier - is it a “Never Say Die” attitude, or just don’t know when to quit?

The British International Motor Show 2010 has been cancelled due to what appears to be sour grapes from the organisers.

The organisers say that it’s due to the economic crisis, which to me doesn’t seem too convincing given that they’re able to make the usual show investments, and 2010 is projected to be a better year for the economy than 2008 and 2009. The organisers have hinted at the real reason: competition and attraction.

The last show in summer ‘08 appeared to be quite a success. The Alfa Romeo MiTo, Ford Focus RS, Vauxhall Insignia and Vauxhall Corsa all had their world premieres at that show, and a fair amount of hype was generated, particularly for the Insignia and Focus. And aside from the usual ‘petrolhead’ attractions were events that even non enthusiasts would have liked.

However, this is an International Motor Show. That means it’s as big as those held in Paris, Detroit, Tokyo and Geneva, or is supposed to be. But in comparison it’s not. About half a dozen new cars premiered at the British Motor Show, but that’s nothing compared to the lists at Geneva and Detroit. In fact those motor shows are so big they tend to span almost a week long, as opposed to a 3 day event here (and the first day is for the press and VIPs only anyway). Also, the Motor Show tends to occur every two years, around summer time, which is a bad time because cars are usually launched at the beginning of the year or after the summer (which explains why Paris and Geneva get tons of new metal whilst Britain only got half a dozen). As a result, the media lose interest in the British Motor Show because by the time Britain has a Motor Show, most of the enigmatic new cars have already been unveiled and reported on at a different motor show, so the British show isn’t nearly as prestigious as a result.

So like I said, sour grapes. The organisers have felt a bit disheartened that their show isn’t quite as good as everyone else’s, so they’ve given up. Sorry, but I think instead of giving up they should dig deeper for a new set of balls and keep at it. Last year’s show still pulled in the crowds. I remember seeing all the metro trains at nearby stations being packed full of people all bound for the Excel centre at which it was held. The show’s turned from being a prestigious motoring event to a big event fit for a really good family day out - one that dads and sons will actually enjoy for once without having to carry their wife’s/sister’s shopping bags and pretending to be interested in whatever dreary crap they’re made to endure. And what’s wrong with that? Also for example, the Nissan GTR may well have been unveiled in Tokyo in october 2007, but it was really good for us members of the public to see it in the metal for the first time at last year’s show. The Go Karts and drifting experience was huge fun, and the unveiling of the Focus RS and Vauxhall Insignia were hugely coveted by people all over the world, which had to be good as far as media attention was concerned.

So like I said, what’s wrong with it as it is? It’s still raking in the fans, it’s still making a lot of money, and it’s still providing a brilliant summer weekend for thousands and thousands of people. If you don’t want to organise it, I would!

The Vauxhall Corsa is a common, everyday car. The Corsa VXR however is a taut, powerful, fast car that goes like a bat out of hell and stops hard thanks to massive brakes, sits low to the ground with sporty suspension, etc. It’s one of the fastest hatchbacks money can buy. So trying to make it even faster and even more powerful would be crazy. Far too outlandish a task. But if you did try and tune one up, what sort of demonic creature would you end up with?

Welcome to the Corsa VXR-R, courtesy of Thorney Motorsport. Yes, this is another case of a tuning/motorsport company working late each night playing around with their toys, but unlike a lot of the results, anybody can buy this one. You could even get one from a Vauxhall dealership if you ask the right people the right questions.

The exterior is as you’d expect - black paint job, some special-edition stripes, some aesthetic changes such as exhausts that would look good on a Lamborghini, bigger alloy wheels, pointier wingmirrors, etc. Not sure I like it though. The green-rimmed alloys are a bit much, but then the VXR was built to be outlandish and antisocial, so it’s only natural that the VXR-R would be even more so.

The most important thing with this car is the power. It may only have a 1.6L four-cylinder engine like normal Corsas, but it puts out a whopping 230bhp. In a car the size of a kleenex tissue box, that’s good for a 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 160mph. So if you drive a Porsche Boxster for its performance, you are going to look stupid when a boy racer comes flying past you in his Corsa, and you can’t keep up.

But don’t worry, you won’t be the only one. The BMW M3 has over 400bhp and yet is slower than this. Even the 572bhp Audi RS6 is slower than this. All because they’re bigger and much, much heavier.

Not bad for a boy racer’s hatchback. But then again this isn’t just some Halfords job on a cheap supermini. Thorney Motorsport have built this car from ground up, using indoor and outdoor circuit races as a constant proving grounds. They add parts to the car, they race it. If it wins, great, keep said bits. If not, go back, change some parts and come back. If ever there was a road car truly bred by motorsport, this is it. So naturally it will destroy most cars designed purely for the road, especially when driven by someone who knows what they’re doing.

The interior is actually quite tame given the nature of this car. You get sport seats as you’d expect, but the rest of the interior is very ‘Vauxhall’, if you know what I mean. It’s all nice enough, but not what you’d expect for a tuned-up racer designed to be driven hard. You even get lots of legroom in the back - something quite rare for fast cars.

Want one? You’ll need £22,495. But that said, this is a limited edition car by a motorsport team. You won’t be worrying about the options list because, well, there isn’t one. Given that the car I want costs £20k without any of the stuff I want in it (including leather interior) and about £24k with, I may well change my mind after this!

It all started with my stepdad Adrian, proclaiming that he has found a really nice Porsche 911 Carrera S complete with the Tiptronic semi-auto gearbox, for £10,000. I was really impressed and began a hunt for bargains for myself. Nowadays i’m actually addicted to doing so because i’ve found a number of highly desirable cars for not much money at all.

For example, want an expensive, top-end sports coupe? Then you can get a Jaguar XKR for around £8k onwards. High mileage being the only issues, which isn’t really an issue so long as you maintain the car regularly and look after it. Another example - one for the fans of the winding backroads - is the Mitsubishi Evo. On winding welsh B roads there’s simply nothing faster than an Evo. With the Evo X being £30,000 and the IX model still relatively new, the trick is to go for the Evo VIII. It’s better looking than the IX and has the same horsepower. Want one? Pick one up for £8k. In black too, if you fancy.

If the Evo’s not quite your thing but still want to blitz the backroads, there’s always the legendary Skyline R34 GTR. I found one in black with only 60k miles on the clock for £6000. And you can pick up an R33 model for half that.

Still want something with a bit of class and not something very Boy Racer-ish? How about a 2002 BMW M5 for around £8k-£9k, complete with that lovely 5.0L V8 and all that high tech luxury equipment? With speed that will tear your face off and yet a comfortable GT cruising mode that will soothe your fevered brow, you’re going to struggle to find a nicer car for the same money.

I’m probably shooting myself in the foot by telling you all about this because if you’re anything like me you’ll be phoning your bank manager tomorrow morning and will probably beat me to the best deals, but it really does show why the bottom is falling out of the car trade in dealerships. The case in the UK used to be that for a cheap deal you usually looked at old cars that were usually rusty old bangers. The best deals were usually nice cars that needed a bit of work on them. Nowadays though the cars aren’t that old and some of them are really nice cars, whilst dealerships are selling new cars for - lets be honest - a hell of a lot of money. A decent hatchback will cost more than £18,000. And a sports car for less than £20,000? Forget it. But the biggest problem is their roster of used cars. Because each car is checked, valeted and serviced by their in-house service teams they feel it warrants the ability to charge around twice as much for a used car compared to the price you’d pay if you bought one from a bloke in a private trade.

The problem with buying these bargains is you have to be really careful and know your stuff. You have to know what to look for when you go to visit the car. The big secret is this - it’s not hard to do so, even if you don’t know much about cars. You can usually find guides on the internet that will tell you exactly what to look for on specific models of cars, and more commonly a list of general things you should check on any used car you buy. If necessary bring a print-out of the guide with you, and if the owner refuses to give you permission to carry out said checks, walk away. Even if you really want the car, it’s not worth any amount of money if it’s just going to die on you.

Also, the best thing about private trades? It’s really easy to barter and haggle on the price, especially now the country is in a recession and every penny counts.

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