Sticky little sucker

I get sent motoring products pretty regularly, a percentage of which are genuinely innovative and fill a gap in the market. The others? Hmmm…. the less said the better. So when I was offered the chance to try out something claiming to be ‘The World’s Strongest GPS and Smartphone Vehicle Mount’ I was intrigued. I hate suckering things on to the car windscreen, and the picture (above) suggested I might not need to anymore. When the device, the Exomount by Exogear, arrived it didn’t look anything special. But actually it is, and I have to say I’m rather impressed. Not only does it clamp to anything – window, dashboard or interior trim – it does so without leaving nasty sucker or residue marks behind it. It works with patented technology and as long as the surface is flat you should be fine. And not just in the car; it attaches to walls, doors, pretty much anything. The spring-loaded clamp is very solid and will take numerous different types of phone or sat-nav. Have a look at www.exogear.co.uk for more details.

The sat-nav with consciousness

It’s amazing how quickly we have come to accept and rely on the technology in modern cars. Getting into my VW Sharan test car, I turned on the radio, ignored the FM/AM options and went straight to the crystal-clear DAB digital channels (pictured). Before I set off I paired my phone with the built-in Bluetooth so I could make and take any calls hands-free. When I got stuck at the railway crossing on the way out of my village, the stop/start system killed the engine to save fuel. All well and good… which is why it was quite amusing when the sat-nav suddenly took on a life of its own. Despite not having a route programmed in – I knew where I was going and that I was going to get stuck in rush-hour M25 traffic, so what was the point? – the system suddenly decided to give me a verbal message. It helpfully warned me of traffic congestion ahead. Excellent, a system that can think for itself. The irony was I’d been slowly crawling around the northern section of my least favourite motorway at about 20mph for the previous 30 minutes.

A very talented young man

Aged 14 and taking my exam options, I was politely invited not to bother with Art. I had plenty of creative imagination, teacher Mr Perry told my parents, but lacked any sense of skill with a pencil to get it down on paper. So I am always in awe of people who can draw, particuarly to the sort of standard I saw on Tuesday. I was in Maranello, Italy for the results of the prestigious Ferrari World Design Content 2011, which brought together the world’s most talented young automotive design students, including some from London’s famous Royal College of Art. What they can do with a pencil – and then with some very fancy computer software, and then with a scapel and a block of clay – is genuinely inspiring. But it’s more than that; as well as being good at art they have the vision to pen something that’s unique and innovative. Congratulations go to a confident young man from Sussex called Henry Cloke, (above) who clearly has a very bright future ahead of him. Taking 3rd place overall doesn’t sound like a triumph, but there were 400 original entries and it's done his career prospects no harm at all. And well done also to the South Korean team from Hongik University in Seoul, whose reaction when their overall victory was announced brought a smile to many faces.

The crazy French

The words ‘car chase’ and ‘funeral cortege’ don’t often appear in the same sentence, and for good reason. But then again, I’ve never been to a funeral in France before, so maybe that’s just how they do it. The plan was for a convoy of cars to drive from the funeral parlour to the crematorium, a distance of perhaps 20 miles, most of which was autoroute. At the front was a converted Mercedes Vito van carrying the coffin of my good friend Colin. I was expecting something slow and sedate at maybe 40mph. Instead, as soon as we got on the autoroute, the Vito set off at a hell of a pace overtaking all and sundry. We mourners, in a mix of British-plated family runabouts a long way from home and hire cars, were struggling to keep up. I hit 95mph briefly in my rental Corsa just trying to keep the van in sight. It wasn’t exactly dignified, but I think Colin would have found it quite funny.

A bereavement means no posting today. There won't be one Thursday either. Normal service will return next Monday. Sorry.

App-solutely the way forward

Been writing a piece for Auto Express magazine this week about apps that car manufacturers have developed to promote their products. As I write at the start of the article, most have them and those that don’t say they will have very soon. What was interesting to me was that many of them are somewhat lacking in creativity and needless to say they didn’t make the final cut. Okay, I appreciate it’s important for an app to showcase what’s in the showroom – the model range, the optional extras, a car configurator, locating a dealer and booking a test drive – but a little more imagination beyond that wouldn’t hurt. Some apps do go the extra mile and I wasn’t surprised to find it’s the up-and-coming brands who are at the cutting edge of that. Hyundai has an app version of its boot-shoot TV advert, Skoda and Chevy have ice hockey and baseball games respectively, and Kia has a weird boxing thing with cats. Yes, really. Yet again these innovative brands with fast-improving cars are pointing the way forward.

A day to forget

What I loosely called “tomorrow’s jaunt down to central London” in my blog posting of this time last week turned into a bit of a nightmare. I set off at 6.15am and by 6.30am was at the back of traffic jam. There I stayed, staring at the back of a Ford Galaxy, for an hour and a half as a lorry fire had shut the A14 in Suffolk in both directions. I ended up diverting north to Ely and left my Mercedes SLK test car at the train station there to head into London. When I got back at about 7pm I’d got a parking ticket (pictured, above, which I’m appealing) and on the drive home my wife phoned to say the oven wasn’t working. Terrific. When I say the road was closed by a lorry fire, that’s not strictly true. It was closed by the local fire chief, who happens to be a good friend of mine. I ribbed him that he’d made me late, to which he replied that two other people had already moaned at him about the same thing! The HGV was apparently carrying car components, including pyrotechnic seat belt pre-tensioners which had started to go off. Part of the truck had actually blown all the way to the far side of the far carriageway, hence the need to close the road in both directions. Why do so many lorries catch fire? In radio traffic reports you hear about it far more regularly than car fires.