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.

I’ve glanced at my traffic figures for the first time today. It’s the first time since the site launch because the site is still new and - if we’re honest - sorely underdeveloped. However, this didn’t stop quite a lot of you from visiting, did it? I mean, 31 RSS feeds? Why do you like me so much?

Either way, i’m overjoyed about this surprising good news, and it’s inspired confidence in me to do a lot more and become a lot more dedicated with this site. I’d like to thank you all for your attention to this website as it means quite a lot to me, perhaps more than it should. To show my appreciation i’ve decided to go ahead and fully develop the site into something that will truly merit a lot of attention, and have already drafted a list of changes that you can expect to see in place very soon. In fact, i’ll set a deadline. Let’s call it February 25th. It gives me a month or so.

The changes themselves? Well here’s what i’ve got in mind so far:

• First issue with the site is the appearance. I’m scouting for talented designers to design an original and visually pleasing website design. This means that the crappy red and black corvette design will be ditched. Any offers to help with this will be welcomed.
• A ‘classifieds’ section will be implemented so that users can advertise their cars on this site for a small fee. I already have a decent number of people interested in advertising here so this will be up very soon. Not only will the small fee get you your advertising space but I can help design and structure your advert, providing you give me at least one photo of your car and some information about it.
• Road tests. Oh yes. See, many of you are coming here after searching for cars like the VW Scirocco and the Jaguar XFR, and whilst I can talk to you about them all day long, I can’t yet tell you what they’re like to drive. Incidentally, i’ve had some suggestions about videoing the road tests and presenting them like you would a TV motoring show. I really want to do that but doing so requires at least two people, and if the result is going to look like the work of a blair-witch handicam then there’s no point. I can’t be proud of third-rate work. Again, any camera buffs willing to help will be greatly appreciated.
• Message boards. I’ve already got a couple of people interested in helping me develop one. This will allow us to sign up and air our thoughts and opinions about cars, motoring life and this website. Once it’s up i’ll also make it a base for which suggestions for the website can be offered.

Speaking of which, at this stage i’m still brainstorming. Got a helpful suggestion or want to volunteer or even become a part of the team? Leave a comment below and we’ll talk.

Again, many thanks for your interest. It’s inspiring.

The world-famous Detroit Motor Show is underway and a lot of new metal is being unveiled, ranging from green eco cars such as the Fisker Karma (A rival to the Tesla electric sports car, and ironically created by the same man who designed the Tesla) to red-hot metal such as Audi’s new and improved version of their already-stupidly-popular Audi R8. In this article we’ll start with the most important aspect - the Brits.

First person to point out that Jaguar is now an Indian company will be shot. Jags are British, regardless of paperwork. End of.

Big news from Jaguar. They didn’t unveil a new ‘car’ per se, so much as a new engine. They’ve developed a whole new supercharged V8 engine - a 5.0L glorious little beast - and said as an aside that they’re popping it into a brand new Jaguar XKR and an even-more-brand-new performance version of their XF, creating the ‘XFR’.

The XFR (pictured above) will - thanks to the new V8 and lots of high tech mechanical bits - produce a staggering 510bhp, with a 0-60mph time of 4.7 seconds. Of course, this would all make sense in the sports coupe Jaguar XKR, but the really big news is this XFR because remember - this is a four-door executive saloon. it’s got nice carpets, a gorgeous leather interior, and all the creature comforts you’d expect in something like an S-class mercedes. And yet this car will only be 0.1 of a second slower than the sports coupe, the XKR. So even if you have a wife and kids you can still have a car that will utterly destroy a lot of performance cars on the road today.

The engine is actually pretty clean too… by V8 standards. The Jag’s rivals would be the BMW M5 and M6, which produce less power despite having big V10 engines. They produce at least 350g/km of CO2 whereas the Jag’s engine is expected to produce less than 300g. So you can own a car like this and be comfortable in the knowledge that there is virtually no car in the same class as this that produces less CO2 per kilometre. Although those interested in a car this powerful really wouldn’t give a damn anyway, if we’re honest.

As evidence to support the comment I made above, Jaguar says both cars will get a ferrari-style electronic differential (mechanical bits in charge of the wheels) that can be set by the driver for their driving taste, including (and I quote): “easy drifting when the traction control is turned off”.

Yeah. I’d imagine with 510bhp and rear wheel drive, drifting would definitely be possible. See what I mean about their target audience?

You’ll have noticed the new styling cues that seem to have been inspired by (or copied completely from) the Aston Martin DBS, which is definitely no bad thing. New side skirts, alloys and bonnet vents. It trades the XF’s elegance for a more muscular and aggressive appearance. It worked wonders with the DBS and in my opinion it’s done the same job with the XFR.

Finally the bad news is the XKR version is set to cost £72,400 and will arrive in March/April time this year. But the XFR - which is at least as good as the XKR but slightly slower - will be less than £60k. Why it’s so much cheaper I don’t quite understand.

Where I live the surrounding carpark area is full of beautiful modern cars - new-style black Audi TT, BMW Z4, Golf R32, Mini Cooper S, and even a Vauxhall Monaro. There’s no getting away from the fact that they’re very good, nice cars. But by far the most beautiful car here, by miles and miles, and the one that stands out from the crowd the most? A black 1988 MkII Ford Fiesta 1.1L. It’s a classic - cream leather interior, metal wingmirrors, and the classic body shell and chassis similar to that of the classic Austin Metro. Furthermore the owner appears to have kept it in absolute pristine condition - no imperfection whatsoever. No rust, no paint fade, no flaking, not even a spot of bird shit. Even the paint finish is like glass - waxed and polished to a shine. It’s a nice car by itself, but made better by the obvious fact that the owner really has looked after it. I bet it drives as good today as it did when it was new too.

And look at me talk - I quickly brush over the nice, new cars mentioned in the beginning, whilst fawning over what should be an old banger. It’s made me think - are newer cars getting uglier? Why don’t we have any beautiful cars anymore? Think about it. Case in point can be the Ford Mustang. 1967 and 1968 saw the legendary ‘Fastback’ GT390 and GT500 models. What do we have now? A huge slab with wheels and headlights. Next case in point? Porsche. My family are classic Porsche enthusiasts and we’ve got a 924 Turbo and a 928-S, both in blue. We even had a white 944 Turbo at one point. But if you went to a dealership now, what can you get? A 911, a Cayman and a Boxster - all of which just look like variants of the 911 design (which is a great design - for a 911. Come on Porsche! Show some variety!) So why this change? Why aren’t cars built to look beautiful anymore?

My guess is this: Cost. Cars are far more expensive than they used to be, as manufacturers are abusing the general belief that buying a car is the second most expensive investment next to buying a house. This means fewer people are willing to buy new cars. In fact most car sales nowadays are second-hand cars, private trades being especially popular since the best bargains are found on sites like autotrader. This means that in order to cut their losses, manufacturers are trying to find cheaper ways of making good cars, and the easiest way to do that is to keep their designs low-budget and simple. Up-market brands such as Audis, BMWs and even some VW cars like the Phaeton and Scirocco do still use high quality paint and appear to have an expensive finish and look about them. But Peugeots? Citroens? Fords? Renaults? The paint is lighter and thinner, and that makes them look cheap. Or ‘affordable’ as manufacturers prefer to call it.

In terms of business, its the angel and the devil. The fastest selling car of all time was the 1960’s Ford Mustang - a very beautiful car and very well priced back in the day. But the best-selling car of all time - the car that sold the most units - was the Toyota Corolla. A simple car that had nothing particular about it other than it was cheap to buy. Unfortunately instead of looking at the fastest selling car and taking leaves out of the mustang’s book, manufacturers have opted for the best selling car simply because it’s a lot cheaper to make. So now we have millions of cars that aren’t too beautiful, and the prices of each car only really correlates to the brand name and how fast said car is.

My advice? Buy a beautiful classic and take good care of it, before there’s none left in the world.

You can be forgiven for feeling bored of hearing about ‘a new Focus’. Ford is guilty of churning out a new Focus or a new Fiesta as often as every two or three years. VW do the same thing with their Golf - the MkV Golf isn’t exactly a senior citizen yet it’s already been replaced by a new ‘MkVI’ model recently. But in actual fact this is a hallmark moment that adds another page to the book of automotive legends, because this isn’t just any old Ford Focus. This is the ‘RS’ model. Remember the old Cosworth RS and RS Turbo? They are legends and every boy racer has at least 10 posters of it on his bedroom wall. Wasn’t the best looking, but it was seriously fast and to this day one of the best cars ever made. Making a new addition to the ‘RS’ family would be like Ford and Shelby doing a remake of the legendary ‘Fastback’ Mustang, Ferrari doing a new model of their 250 GTO, or God making a new Jesus Christ. It’s a big deal.

As with all RS models, the big deal is mainly about power. It’s a ‘hot hatch’ so it’s front wheel drive. But it’s also producing “at least 300bhp”. That’s insane! It’s just 50hp shy of a Porsche 911! It’s generally accepted that 250bhp is the absolute maximum the front wheels can take before the car is destined to end up in the nearest hedge. Any more and you might as well ride on the back of a wild lion. However, Ford say they’ve conquered the ‘torque steer’ problems with a special suspension system which they call “RevoKnuckle” (how chavvy does that sound?) and a limited slip differential designed to harness the torque. It’s not all hot air either - Ford uses this car in rallying and rivals the legendary Mitsubishi Evo, and it’s expected to get from 0 to 60mph in under six seconds, putting it in territories of the Porsche 911 and Subaru Impreza, so it obviously works. Top speed will likely be electronically limited to 155mph, a universally agreed limit designed to keep Greenpeace from making our lives a living hell the manufacturers feel uncomfortable. The power and speed is hinted by way of that huge air vent. That’s for the intercoolers to cool the (presumably massive) turbo, and it sports a front splitter to help keep it pinned to the road at speed.

The other plus point is the price. This thing will supposedly keep pace with an Evo VIII or IX. When those cars were shiny and new to the world they were pushing £40,000, although dealerships today will sell you one for around £30,000. This is going to be slightly more than that VW Scirocco GT I talked about in an earlier article, sitting at around £20-25k. But then Fords always have been well-priced.

The good news keeps coming. That lime green interior won’t stay (that was unique to the concept model) and normal human beings can choose between a gorgeous ‘performance blue’ paintjob or white, whilst chavs and boy racers worldwide will no doubt opt for this eye-shredding green shown above. More colours are expected to follow, but these are just some pre-sale facts that Ford are teasing us with.

If you wear track suits and burberry caps, you really really want one. For the rest of us, i’d recommend a test drive first before you buy into Ford’s claims of harnessing the power. Otherwise if you’re the sort of person who thrives on cars with far too much power and love the thrill of using nothing but sheer driving talent and manliness to control it, then give your bank manager a call now before your bank collapses.

I was thinking more about that VW Scirocco and it inevitably made me think about the car industry in general. I think manufacturers have got their ideas confused. Instead of going with the ‘green’ and ‘eco’ trend, making cheap cars with only 3-cylinder engines that do 0-60 but only just, they should do something that would appeal to every single person with a driving license and even a modicum of pride: They should make cars with a luxurious, expensive and special feel, and sell them fairly cheaply.

Think about it - That VW Scirocco meets the criteria. The top-range GT model is pretty fast and just sitting in it is a nice treat, let alone driving it and owning it. And with the basic model at £18k and the GT model at £20k, it’s actually not that expensive as far as new cars go. A Golf GTi is slightly more expensive at £21k, and that’s considered to be an affordable hot hatch. Also it’s fairly economical - the diesel variants will manage an average of 40mpg (unless you rev the nuts off it of course) and the petrol ones will average around 30-35mpg too. It’s not going to save the planet, but it’s not going to lay waste to your wallet either. So really, it’s got something for everyone, and that’s exactly what car makers should be aiming for.

Let’s put it this way - in the past I would have never, ever considered getting a brand new car from a dealership. I’m easily the type of person who would get a second hand car in a private trade and save tons and tons and tons of cash in doing so. For example, you can pick up a good Mazda RX8 for about £8k onwards in a private trade, whereas a new one at a dealership will set you back about £22k. However, here I am, playing around with the ‘build your own Scirocco‘ part of Volkswagon’s website and generally planning a realistic time when i’ll be able to afford a new one with all the toys I want with it on finance (and with an estimated finance quote of £240 a month, it’s not like i’ll need to win the lottery either!). And it’s not just me - this car is quite a hit. Sales aren’t doing badly considering the economic recession, and general interest in this car is staggeringly high.

So why don’t other manufacturers pick up on this and do the same? Well the problem is, manufacturers have tried doing this for a while now and have failed. Peugeot for example made a terrible ‘GT’ model of their Peugeot 307. The main problem here is that it wasn’t very luxurious, wasn’t fast, and definitely, definitely didn’t have an expensive feel to it. As a result, not many people have bought it. You might think that’s because of the stigma attached to the ‘Peugeot’ name; a reputation for generally being a cheap and cheerful brand. But VW makes semi-expensive cars and they failed miserably with the Golf GT. It was better than the basic Golf, but inferior to the GTi model in every way. And the GTi model is only bought by petrolheads and boy racers (yes, there is a difference between the two groups) because, well, everyone knows that it’s a bit of a boy racer’s dream hatchback. Anything with ‘GTi’ in the name tends to be driven by chavs.

But this time, VW has cracked it. The new Scirocco drives really well, it’s not hugely expensive but feels like it is, and the GT model in particular is very comfortable and luxurious. My stepdad is very fussy when it comes to cars - you could only show off rare or expensive cars to him. His mate Cozzie has an Impreza and my stepdad scoffs at it, calling it a plastic toy. But i’m pretty sure if I showed him the Scirocco, he wouldn’t just like it - he’d want one too. Then i’d have to hate him for eventually buying a car I want!

Probably wouldn’t part-ex his Porsche for one though. Definitely not. =P

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