Anything goes - All Comments

re: White van man's never had it so good

trackdemon — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:38:17 GMT

Matt,

I think there might be a couple of lines of copy missing from the start of this piece...? ;-)

"Have you piloted the latest white-van-mans wheels recently?"

re: White van man's never had it so good

230SL — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:36:24 GMT

Sprinters are fantastic, I have driven them for years, the latest though is so quiet too.

Why should n't a tradesman have something comfy, if they are expected to drive at four in the morning and then do a days work when they arrive at 8, think they should be fitted with cruise control as standard though, they need something to make them more laid back.

Lucky that mums have n't caught on to them, they could fit a slide in the back of a high roof Sprinter and still use less fuel than a Range Rover.

re: White van man's never had it so good

JJBoxster — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:37:39 GMT

It's amazing the transformation that happens as soon as a petrolheaded white collar restaurant goer steps into the cab of a van.

You're immediately transformed into White-Van-Man foot down scampering about the urban landscape like you're DHL on urgent parcel delivery (boy do these vans belie their size and weight - they drive like go-carts, lots of fun;).

The trans-sation to Van driver includes wanting a Yorkie Bar, Red Bull and searching for 'birds' on te street-scape to whistle at.

Then you step from the Van and >kapow< your back to your pen pushing, car driving world.

There seriously needs to be some scientific research into the phenominum of socio-mutation that happens on that first step up to the vans driving seat because I simply can't describe how this transformation happens!

re: The hardest working 911 yet

loather — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:04:44 GMT

Duff by name, duff by nature:

"...including hundreds of laps at the Nordschlieffe."

You mean (Der) Nordschleife(Northloop).

re: The hardest working 911 yet

jl4069 — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:48:03 GMT

Nissan have finally shown Porsche that the Rear engine format has its limits. In fact Porsche past these limits awhile back with the previous gen Turbo which is the best handling Turbo ever. Porsche better get to the front of the class. The beetle is dying.

re: Pass the XF on the left-hand side

ordinary bloke — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:50:24 GMT

Interesting article. It has always seemed strange to me that manufacturers still produce models that cannot be converted to drive on the opposite side, so to speak.

Speaking of the new Jaguar XF, I actually saw one on the road on saturday, the first I've in the metal. It was driving in a queue of traffic heading towards Bicester on the A41 from the Aylesbury direction. I was a passenger in a car going towards Aylesbury and was just idly watching the cars coming towards us during a lull in the conversation when I noticed this smart looking dark green car, and realised what it was. It was in a line of cars including a couple of BMWs, a Lexus IS and some older smaller hatchbacks, and it was distinctive enough to stand out clearly among the other traffic, which must be a good sign.

re: There's hope yet for today's youth

Kee Law — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:46:15 GMT

i was talking to a bloke last week who did a thing called Scumball. this involved spending less than a grand on a car and taking it to the Ring. he went for an 800 quid Calibra DTM edition and managed 11 mins which was pretty impressive i thought!

re: There's hope yet for today's youth

NiallOswald — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:45:20 GMT

It's a good plan. The main thing is finding something in good enough nick that it'll take a bit of, erm, abuse and still be floggable for the best part of what you paid for it. Something with a long MOT is good too. Bank on replacing tyres and brake pads too - if I buy another 'track shed' those are two things I'd definitely pay attention to.

re: There's hope yet for today's youth

phenergn — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:29:03 GMT

I have thought like this for a while. A mate of mine and I like the idea of a track day but don't want to risk our everyday motors - an unscheduled meeting with Mr Armco would leave me ruined. I have been seriously tempted to buy £600 worth of motor between us to rag at a few track days over the summer.

We even got as far as looking what we could buy; a Clio 1.8, Alfa 147 2.0 cloverleaf and Calibra V6 were the top contenders. This post might make me revisit the idea.

re: There's hope yet for today's youth

NiallOswald — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:10:08 GMT

I did two trackdays in £350's worth of Saab 9000 (entirely unsuitable!) last summer - best fun I've had on 4 wheels, you don't have to spend loads of money to have a good time.

re: There's hope yet for today's youth

GreenDemon — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:58:43 GMT

A few friends and I are planning to drive around europe after A-Levels this summer and were thinking of dropping by the 'Ring but were not sure if it was wise to in my mk5 Fiesta 1.25 16v and my friend's M reg 16v Punto. Also what are the main things we would need to sort out to do so?

re: Saving the present for the future

DBT — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:05:32 GMT

Still no one seems to be able to tell me how to do this, so I can consider doing it with my current steed??

re: Pass the XF on the left-hand side

superstevie — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:16:09 GMT

Those crazy japanese! I drive a LHD smart roadster, and thats fine, mainly because its such a small car. But an XF isn't exactly small...

re: Pass the XK on the left-hand side

jerry99 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:52:16 GMT

They might have a point.

Nearly every right hand drive car I see today has the brake hydraulics setup for left hand drive and the pedal connected to them by a mechanical linkage across the car.

A few years ago most manufacturers moved the hydraulics across. Since ABS became near standard they don't because it would need two differnt wiring looms.

Although these linkages now work much better than the old VW Sirocco linkage they do not quite match having the hydraulics on the right hand side.

re: I want outriders

Kev88 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:23:21 GMT

I live a few doors up from you :-)

I stopped for a good few minutes on saturday to look at the DBS. The colour was amazing. My Puma is silver but that was SILVER! It's the kind of car that looks like it's doing 200mph when it's standing still. Simply gorgeous, although a friend of mine was disappointed it didn't come with a Daniel Craig installed.