Old Gold Top Gear
Nothing divides opinion quite like Top Gear. There are those who cherish the hour of entertainment on Sunday night and there are those who would rather shoot themselves in the knee caps in front of their family than watch the show. Then there’s another group who will watch it and then mutter a few grumbling words as the closing credits roll up the screen. Normally the mutterings will be bemoaning the fact that Top Gear is no longer a car show, merely an entertainment show. Some will go as far as calling for a return to the days when Top Gear occupied the 8.30 slot on a Thursday evening. The days of William Woollard, Sue Baker, Chris Goffey and Tony Mason. Or perhaps more recently, the days of Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Mr Clarkson himself. Read more 
Nissan’s crazy Juke-R
There’s a lot of waffle and bunk on the internet surrounding the Nissan Juke-R. For example, there’s a rumour that the bigwigs at Nissan HQ knew nothing about the concept and weren’t best pleased when news of its existence emerged from Europe. I suspect the story is the stuff of internet legend, but I rather hope that parts of it are true.
There’s something delightfully old school about the story. I have visions of a couple of chaps meeting in the bar after a work and, following a few of pints of Old Thumper, somebody makes the point that “we’re not using the GT-R enough”. A direct quote from Nissan. Read more
PetrolBlog’s New Year’s resolutions
If one of my new year’s resolutions was to be a little more structured with my blog scheduling, then I’m afraid I’ve failed miserably. If early January was a drought, then the last week could best be described as a flood. If you subscribe to PetrolBlog via email or RSS, then you have my apologies for the barrage of waffle.
But hopefully you’ll forgive me for this blog. I started writing it on December 31st and seeing as it’s now February 2012, I felt it was about time it had an airing. Especially when you consider the subject matter. Read more
Charlie Johnson’s Real World Dream Barn
Another Real World Dream Barn and I’m delighted to say that it’s the turn of none other than Charlie Johnson of Retro & Classic Cars fame. If you’re into old cars, I suggest you take a look at his site, but not before you’ve checked out the ten cars that will be fighting for space in his barn. It’s a rather eclectic mix. Nice one, Charlie.
It’s taken me a long time to gather these thoughts. And thoughts, even when published, may leave a certain amount of uncertainly in one’s mind once they’re live on PetrolBlog. The Real World Dream Barn involves a lot of thought, or so it would seem to me. Followers of my twitter feed will know that I have a habit of going through a number of cars throughout a day. Why? Well, once I’m distracted by something else that appeals, the first car mentioned is shoved to the back. Read more
The Pentillie Festival of Speed 2012
It isn’t often that my day job overlaps with PetrolBlog. In fact, I’ve deliberately kept the two things separate. The day job is a means that allows PetrolBlog to function, with PetrolBlog itself delivering a nice distraction away from the real world.
But sometimes it’s impossible to draw a definite line between the two. So when I was asked to get involved with the initial planning and marketing of the inaugural Pentillie Festival of Speed, I knew it would be of interest to PetrolBlog readers too. So, obligatory notices of my indirect involvement with the event out of the way, let me tell you more about it. Read more
Tom’s Real World Dream Barn
I’m delighted to say we’ve received another Real World Dream Barn. This time it’s the turn of Tom Cornish, aka @DrRectalExam on twitter. Don’t let his twitter name put you off, as is demonstrated by his dream list, he clearly knows a thing or two about cars and is well worth a follow. Over to Tom…
The Real World Dream barn is quite a challenge, but not one you’d moan about having. The £30k budget forces you neglect newer exotics, but the big upside is you won’t be hemorrhaging your money to depreciation. In fact it’s more than likely that you’ll find yourself making money on the cars here, not that you’d want to sell them. I’ve tried to approach this with logic, having cars I’d actually see myself using regularly. Read more
James Bond: Licence to park
Last week I was present at the launch of the new Bond in Motion exhibition at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum. It was a lavish affair, complete with champagne, celebrities and people who were generally dressed in much smarter clothes than I. Almost immediately I was greeted by the sight of Britt Ekland sprawled across the bonnet of an Aston Martin. Then, within a matter of minutes, I caught sight of Esther Rantzen, Colin Salmond and Eunice Gayson. I don’t recall Esther Rantzen ever being a Bond girl. Maybe she was in the concept film, Live and That’s Life?
Once the tour of the Bond vehicles was complete, I did my customary wander around the car park. You may remember that I spent a quite delightful couple of hours looking around the car park at the Goodwood Festival of Speed? Read more
PetrolBlog looks at Bond in Motion
Yesterday I was invited to the press launch of Bond in Motion, a new exhibition that showcases 50 vehicles in 50 years of James Bond films.
The exhibition, which opens on the 17th January 2012, is the largest of its kind staged anywhere in the world. What’s more, all of the vehicles are the originals.
Now you may be thinking that James Bond and PetrolBlog wouldn’t be the best of bed fellows and to be fair, you’d probably have a point. Indeed, when I arrived at the launch and noticed guests arriving by helicopter and a number of genuine celebrities, I began to wonder what I was doing there. Fortunately the sight of Richard Gunn’s delightful Austin Allegro helped me to feel at ease! Read more
Ask MajorGav and then take a SEAT
Back in November 2011, PetrolBlog was contacted by drummer Sam Jones who was looking for a new car. He wanted some advice and so we helpfully put together a list of ten potential cars that suited his ‘fun for £1,500′ criteria. At PetrolBlog, we’re the last people to blow our own trumpets, but we must say we were rather pleased with the shortlist.
Well clearly Sam prefers the sound of drums to trumpets, as he promptly ignored the advice and bought a SEAT Leon! Sensible chap. Read more
Alan’s Real World Dream Barn
Last year I had an email from a good chap called Alan. He’s a reader of PetrolBlog and does his bit to support the site on a couple of social media sites. He also took the time to drop me an email towards the end of last year, in which he neatly presented his ten cars for a Real World Dream Barn. How did I repay Alan’s loyalty? By not getting around to posting it, that’s how. I’ve offered an apology of course, but have stopped short of sending some Hobnobs up to Scotland.
Instead, without further ado, here’s Alan’s Real World Dream Barn. Once again, sorry for the delay, Alan. Read more
Happy New PetrolBlog Score
PetrolBlog is thundering headlong into 2012 and is fast approaching its second birthday. Of the 243 posts that have been written, there have been a number of reviews, at the end of which I try to reach a conclusive verdict on the car ‘what I’ve driven’. It’s a personal opinion of course, but I believe a conclusion should be drawn.
In 2010, I gave the Suzuki Swift Sport the title of PetrolBlog Car of the Year. This wasn’t based on a scoring system or any kind of scientific measurement, more an emotional attachment to a car that I fell head over heels in love with.
But as I started preparing the shortlist for PetrolBlog Car of the Year 2011, I realised that I perhaps needed something a little more scientific than my gut instinct. It ties in nicely with a piece I’m writing on what exactly is a ‘PetrolBlog car’? Some kind of scoring system would help matters tremendously. Read more
Merry Christmas from PetrolBlog
So here it is, Merry Christmas. Everybody’s having fun. Time to look to the future now, it’s only just begun.
Huge thanks to a certain Mr Holder for making the opening words for our traditional PetrolBlog Christmas message so much easier. We salute you, Noddy, even if we are growing just a little bit tired of your festive ditty now. Read more
Ask MajorGav: Sam bangs the drums
PetrolBlog has been contacted by a reader looking for advice on what car to buy next. After 21 months of existence, this is a first for PetrolBlog, although depending on how the advice goes down, it could quite easily be the last time it happens. Still, if it’s good enough for Honest John, it’s good enough for MajorGav. I’ll have to buy a hat.
But in the meantime, here’s the brief received from the reader.
For fog’s sake – switch them off
FOG.
It’s such a simple three letter word and yet, for so many drivers, it seems so difficult to understand. As sure as night follows day, you can be certain that as winter rolls around again, countless drivers up and down the country will fail to deal with the simple act of driving in the fog. Read more
Recession buster: Jaguar XKR-S
I’ve cracked it. Where countless politicians and economists have failed, I think I may have found a solution to the economic crisis. Forget quantitative easing, interest rates and house building, the one thing that can drag us out of the recession is the Jaguar XKR-S.
You might need to bear with me on this… Read more
Car Geek Alert: Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?
Don’t ask me how I stumbled across this Alexei Sayle ‘classic’ from 1982 as I couldn’t tell you. But it has to be said, the video is a retro and classic car fanatic’s dream. I’ve counted 22 cars that could or should be identified by an avid car geek. Some are easy to spot, but others are a little tricker as either the glimpse is fleeting or the car is masked by something else. After two viewings, I’ve managed to identify 13 definite cars. See if you can do better. Read more
PetrolBlog introduces ‘Tollfoolery’
My trip to Barcelona to test drive the new Suzuki Swift Sport didn’t go entirely to plan. A couple of Sat Nav ‘fails’ resulted in me spending far too much time on the ribbons of motorways that surround the Catalonian capital. If nothing else, at least I can provide a glowing report on Suzuki’s decision to add a sixth gear to the new Sport. It makes motorway driving a great deal more comfortable.
The knock-on effect of this was that I also managed to visit a total of seven toll booths. Just as well I had pre-paid tag sat on my windscreen. Read more
The Final Car
On the Beach is a post-apocalyptic novel by Nevil Shute. In it, Shute charts the final days of folk living in Melbourne, Australia – one of the last places on earth to remain free of radiation poisoning. Life in the northern hemisphere has been all but obliterated and it’s only a matter of time before the entire southern hemisphere suffers the same fate. It’s an immensely terrifying and heartbreaking book to read as Shute delves deep into the personal lives of the last few people on earth who witness the end of civilisation. Read more
Ton’s Real World Dream Barn
PetrolBlog’s Dutch correspondent flies over with details of his Real World Dream Barn. He’s clearly not afraid to bend the rules a little!
As you may or may not have not have read in my bio, for as long as I can remember, I’m not really much of petrol head, but all the more a Porsche head. So when thinking about a Real World Dream Barn, I could easily fill the whole list with ten Porsches and be perfectly happy. Or just buy a 959 and be done. Read more
PetrolBlog’s somewhat simple guide to Winter Tyres
Until last year, you’d be forgiven for thinking that winter tyres didn’t exist in the UK. But with the winter 0f 2010/11 bringing with it a dumping of snow for the third consecutive year, not to mention another bout of freezing temperatures, it seemed as though everyone was talking about winter rubber. A sudden surge in demand meant that stocks ran low and a fair amount of mix messages meant that there was a considerable amount of confusion surrounding the subject. Read more
