Volkswagen Passat: Hurry up and W8
I guess I should have seen it coming. No sooner had the Land Rover arrived and my thoughts began turning to the next car to join the stable. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted with the current line up. The Box of Frogs is fast becoming an invaluable tool for the daily trip to the office and I’m gelling with it to the point that I can’t ever see myself parting with it. It is so small it will probably end up taking up one of the spare rooms. Then there’s the uber Audi, which is now looking forward to a period of semi-retirement and some much needed pampering. Cosmetically and mechanically she needs a light makeover and I’ll probably end up spending more than the car’s actually worth. But that’s what being a petrolhead is being about – rationalism doesn’t come into it. Finally then, the Landie, which is already becoming an essential part of family life. Every family should have one. Read more 
Car confessional: Part 2
A couple of weeks ago PetrolBlog became an automotive confessional (see http://bit.ly/99tb4T). A chance to share automotive guilty secrets and release the pressure from the shoulders of an avid petrolhead. I was clearly expecting a barrage of abuse and cries of “you’re not fit to wear the badge”. But something else happened, I was instead greeted with cries of “me too”. I was also quite literally inundated with one email that offered an alternative guilty secret and one which the sender was clearly unable to admit to in public. To you sir, I say go let it out. Better out than in. A problem shared. Etc, Etc. Read more
An open letter to Lancia
MajorGav, PetrolBlog, The Interweb, UK.
Lancia, Fiat Group Automobiles Corso G. Agnelli 200, 10135 Torino Italia24th June 2010
Dear Lancia,
Today was Alfa Romeo’s 100th Birthday. A day of real celebration for petrolheads around the world. A chance to applaud a back catalogue that contains many a great car. The beautifully ugly SZ. The elegant 164 Cloverleaf. The touring car inspired 155 Silverstone. The tin-wormed challenged but brilliant Alfasud. The Giulietta. The GTV. The Montreal. I could go on, but you know the score. We forgive the reliability issues and the questionable build quality because deep down, an Alfa Romeo makes us feel happy. And we like that. Read more
Try something new today – Sainsbury’s V8 Land Rover
I’ve never been that turned on by cars that were once owned by a famous person. The fact that a chap called Kieron Dyer once owned a BMW that’s up for sale on Auto Trader doesn’t make the car more appealing to me. Quite the reverse in fact. I recently saw that Janet Street-Porter’s old Chrysler PT Cruiser was up for sale. It took all my willpower and strength not to reach for the phone to book a test drive. I also read that I could buy a BMW 5-series once owned by a young lady called Chantelle Houghton. Unfortunately I do not know who Ms Houghton is, so I can’t even judge if her being a previous owner is a good or bad thing. But without any question, it doesn’t make the car more appealing. Read more
Car Confessional: Part 1
We all have guilty secrets. A few skeletons in the cupboard. Some embarrassing facts that are best left in the head. Nothing too sinister of course, just the kind of information that can taint an otherwise blemish-free record.
Take me for example. I happen to think that A-ha’s The Sun Always Shines on TV is one of the best songs of the 80s. Not that I’d admit that on a publicly accessible website such as this. Nor would I admit to having Cliff Richard’s Devil Woman nestled somewhere in the depths of my iTunes library. That would be a foolish admission. Read more
80s Cars Around The World
The inspiration…
It only took five minutes to come up with the idea, inspired by watching Top Gear’s brilliant Vietnam special, which I finally got around to watching in June 2010. In doing so, I finally caught up with the rest of civilisation. When you combine the likes of the Vietnamese, American, Romanian and Bolivian specials you discover the blatantly obvious – there are some epic opportunities for a bloody good drive. Life’s too short to confine yourself to the B3081 or Snake Pass. Life’s equally as short to do the driving in just a handful of cars. Read more
England’s Football Roads
So here we are on the eve of one of the world’s greatest events. An event that only graces our calendar every four years and as such needs to be cherished, with every second harnessed for the greater good. Read more
