Teenage dreams realised

On Friday, in common with around 50 of my colleagues, I was unable to resist the draw of the Heritage Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The attraction was that Jaguar was firing up a couple of examples of the iconic XJ220 supercar – at one stage officially the fastest production vehicle in the world – and offering hot laps round the test track. That in itself was the fulfillment of a teenage boy’s dream; the car is a world away from the refinement of today’s supercars and at 165mph the experience was far from smooth. The thing that made most impression on me was the quality for the interior. Sure, it’s all leather but what hits you between the eyeballs is the MkIV Ford Escort switchgear. Three crappy plastic knobs and surround for the ventilation controls, nasty square buttons for the things like the fog lamps. Cabin detailing just wasn’t on the radar of the car designers of the day. We’ve got switches so why spend money styling new ones? It shows how far we have come in the last 20 years – the reason for the event – and how much more today’s ultra-rich buyers expect for their money.

When's Skoda going to do another one of these?

Been doing some research for a book I’m contributing to, and found out something I never knew about Skoda. It used to have a convertible in its range – and a little cutey it was, too – and that was where the name Felicia orginated. Originally known as the 450, this two-door convertible – the only proper one Skoda has ever sold (let's ignore the aftermarket Rapid conversion) – was reworked and rebadged as the Felicia in 1959. The name is derived from the Latin for ‘happiness’. The drop-top came in two formats; the standard Felicia had a 1,089cc engine, but a more powerful 1,221cc version was launched in 1961 and badged the Felicia Super. The bench-style front bench seat could accommodate three, with further space for two passengers behind. Exterior styling was broadly similar to the Octavia, which also debuted in 1959. It just goes to show that even when it was a budget volume brand for the Soviet Bloc’s aspiring classes, Skoda knew a thing or two about auto design.

Vital to our lives or just a gimmick?

I was flicking through the pages of Auto Express this morning over breakfast. The magazine has recently had a redesign and one of the new innovations is QR codes linking to video content on the website. Want so get “up close and personal with the new Mondeo at its world debut in Detroit”? Take out your smartphone, scan the code with the QR reader app and it links straight through to a YouTube clip of a journalist talking about the car on the Ford stand at the recent US motor show. Last week I wrote a story for a industry magazine about dealer marketing initiatives and QR codes cropped there, too. Include the black and white squiggle in a newspaper advert and readers who scan it get details of an offer on fixed price servicing. QR codes are becoming an increasingly frequent part of our lives. People like scanning them because it’s quirky. Is it a gimmick that will fade in popularity with time? Not sure. But did you know they started out as a motor industry invention? A Toyota supplier invented them about 15 years ago to track stock moving through the factory production line. Now they’re everywhere and you can even create your own. Scan the one above to see what I mean.

Motorhomers breaking the law?

One of the more left-field titles for which I write irregularly is Motorcaravan Motorhome Monthly (MMM), and this week I’ve been doing some digging into the issue of towing cars. We’ve all seen motorhomers dragging a city car along behind their vehicle as local transport for when they arrive at their destination. I’ve always assumed that it’s legal – the owners must have checked it out – but it turns out it’s such a grey area as to be almost black. The bottom line is that the regulations, as defined in the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 and subsequent amendments, never envisaged this situation and it’s never been tested in court. The issue is to do with braking; when towed, the car is considered to be a trailer and that opens a whole can of worms. Specifically, it’s to do with brake disengagement when reversing. As for touring and towing in Europe, Germany and the Netherlands say they will tolerate it but that technically it’s illegal. Everywhere else says anyone caught doing it will be pulled over and told to unhitch the car. That might make for an interesting holiday if you and your partner are driving separate vehicles.

A reborn 205? The designer thinks so

Spoke to Gilles Vidal last week, design boss at Peugeot, who was talking about the new 208 supermini that goes on sale in the summer. He explained he was hoping to bring back the passion customers felt for the 205 when it was launched back in the mid-Eighties. Vidal told me: “What was amazing about the 205 was that it was quite fresh in terms of design and everyone was happy with their own version. It’s quite iconic in that. The 208 has the potential to be basic, popular and premium all at the same time.” Shaving some weigh off is going to help with the dynamics. On average it’s 110kg lighter than the 207, and up to 173kg on some versions. Vidal also explained about the psychology of steering wheel size. The one in the 208 is smaller than the one in the RCZ, which is a sporty car. From a design perspective, he can get away with it because the driver doesn’t need to be able to see the instruments through the steering wheel anymore. In the 208 you see them over the top instead. “The physical feeling is different because the wheel is smaller. You get good handling in cities but people also associate smaller steering wheels with sportier handling,” Vidal added. It will be interesting to see if the 208 can tempt people out of the Citroen DS3 and MINI.

Worthy car of the year winner?

The morning after the night before and feeling considerably better than I have on many such occasions following the annual What Car? awards bash. I’ve discovered the solution. Drink less. The biggest night in the UK awards calendar by some distance, it’s a great networking opportunity for a freelancer like me. With more than 1,000 industry people in one room – The Great Hall at The Grosvenor, Park Lane – it’s a not-to-be-missed chance to catch up with old contacts and make some new ones. Taking the top honour was the VW up! city car which has yet to be properly launched in the UK and which I’ve yet to drive. Hoping to get a go in the next few weeks. It means I can’t really say if it’s a deserving winner, but I was surprised to see not a single mention or nomination for the Range Rover Evoque. Perhaps the Land Rover team were as well, given the number of big guns they had wheeled out for the event.

Driven: Vauxhall Corsa VXR Nurburgring Edition

Spent some time over the weekend in the Vauxhall Corsa VXR Nurburgring Edition. With just over 200bhp pumping out of the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine, it’s quite the hot hatch. It will hit 60mph from a standing start in 6.5 seconds and has a top speed of 143mph. The steering is wonderfully direct and to use the old motoring journalism cliché, it corners on rails. Sadly the downside to all this is that the ride is very firm. And I mean very firm. On the well-maintained tarmac of a circuit – such as the legendary one in Germany where much of the car’s bespoke suspension set-up was developed – I’m sure it’s fantastic. But on the ageing concrete of the A14 dual carriageway and rural A-roads of Suffolk it quickly got tiresome. I ventured on the B-roads and quickly decided that was just too much for my stomach to handle. At £22,295 it’s a lot of money for something where the enjoyment of driving is so compromised. One other thing; the car looks great from the outside, and the interior has been well dressed up with sporty styling features, but it’s hard to hide the dated design behind the cabin.

Smallest ever Jeep on the way?

Happy New Year blog-followers! Hope you had a good break. By the lack of activity over the festive period, you can gauge that I did. So back to business. At the previously mentioned Fiat Panda launch, boss Sergio Marchionne was asked about plans for Alfa Romeo and Jeep, now part of the wider Fiat Group portfolio. He replied that both have international appeal, but that “Jeep is the only brand I don’t have to explain to anyone”. That’s because everyone knows what Jeep is and what it stands for – authentic off-roading, aggressive styling, etc, etc. Marchionne then went on to raise the prospect of a B-segment Jeep, which is a fascinating thought. It would be smaller than anything the firm has done before – the Compass (pictured) and Patriot are C-sector – and a way of tapping into the trend for downsizing. My problem with the idea is two-fold. Firstly, Marchionne needs to get the C-segment sorted first because both vehicles were sales flops in Europe. Second, how do you make an authentic B-segment Jeep? The brand has always been about having that go-anywhere appeal. Design a small off-roader with the necessary technology and it will too expensive to compete with class rivals, but build one that can’t scale rocky crevaces and people will shun it because it’s not a proper Jeep. Tricky situation.