Car clubs urged to get involved with Ormskirk MotorFest 2013

THE organisers of a motorsport-themed extravaganza in Ormskirk are asking the region’s car clubs to help make this year’s event a success.

Aintree Circuit Club, which for the past three years has teamed up with West Lancashire Borough Council to host the Ormskirk MotorFest in the historic market town, is calling for members of car and bike clubs to bring their vehicles along and display them to visitors on Sunday, August 25.

If you're a member of a car club which wants to show off their cars at this year's event, you can fill in a special application form to get a club stand on the day by filling by clicking here.

The MotorFest’s organisers have also given the event’s website a revamp, to help give participants and visitors to the event more information about what they can expect from the both the displays and the parades around the town’s one-way system. Aintree Circuit Club is also calling for residents to volunteer as marshals to lend a helping hand to the event’s safety and logistics, and urged anyone interested in offering their support to get in touch.



To find out more about this year’s Ormskirk MotorFest and to find out about how you can take part go online to www.ormskirkmotorfest.com

Desire is brilliant, but what about the F-Type?

ANYONE remember that Peugeot 406 advert from absolutely ages ago?

You'll know the one I mean. A girl in the path of an oncoming lorry gets saved from certain death, M People's soultastic hit Search for the Hero gets belted out in the background, and there's lots of money shots of France's favourite repmobile to establish it's - to reuse Peugeot's wonderfully awful slogan - the drive of your life. Even though it hasn't been aired in an ad break since about 1996, it's up there with Bob Hoskins telling us it's good to talk and three frogs belching out the name of a light beer for sticking around in the old grey matter.

As for car adverts, there's only two others I can actually recall out of the thousands I must have seen over the years - the VW Golf ad responsible for getting my favourite song to number one in the charts (The Bluebells' Young At Heart, if you're intetested), and Vauxhall's efforts to make the 1997 Astra the star of a sort of automotive Apocalypse Now. That's it.

Jaguar, however, has now decided to take the art of car adverts to a whole new level; for the new F-Type a minute-and-a-bit of Britpop and a clever catchphrase wasn't enough. So they sent Ridley Scott, Damian Lewis and their new sports car to the Atacama Desert in Chile not to make an advert, but a movie instead.

 

Desire, the 13 minute short film they came up with, is surprisingy watchable even if you aren't a petrolhead - think Quantum of Solace crossed with trippy Seventies car chase hit Vanishing Point and you won't be too far off. Without wanting to ruin the plot, Damian Lewis plays a suave, Bond-esque delivery driver who has to deliver a new F-Type, but finds himself having to fight off would-be assasins and the searing desert heat.

The only problem is that, for all the Gladiator guru's best efforts, you're always aware at the back of your mind that Desire is an extended car advert, and that poor Damian always plays second to the car itself. There's one scene where he crams the cars Top Trumps specs into a conversation he's having with a gun-toting gangster - something I can't imagine 007 or Jason Bourne doing any time soon. I applaud Jaguar for pushing the boundaries with what's possible, but I can't help feel it might have been better off getting Ridley and Damian to do a sequel to Bladerunner instead.

Desire is, in its own right, a brilliant bit of automotive artwork, but it doesn't answer the biggest question everybody has about the F-Type. What's it like to drive?

Future classics - my top ten tips

SUPPOSE you’ve got motoring’s equivalent of Mystic Meg’s crystal ball. What do you reckon it’d reveal as being the classic car stars of tomorrow?

One of the most fascinating pieces I’ve written for Classic Car Weekly so far is a rundown of what the secondhand experts at CAP have chosen as their candidates for automotive investments, which is as intriguing for what didn’t make the cut as the 20 modern motors which did. Everyone’s got their opinion as to what’ll be the stars of shows up and down the land in 10 or 15 years’ time, and with the article done and dusted I can finally get a few of my own favourites off my chest...

1) MAZDA MX-5 (1989 – 1998) The fact no less than four of the Classic Car Weekly team have owned one – including Yours Truly – speaks volumes about this ultra-reliable, ultra-fun and, for the time being at least, ultra-cheap rear-drive ragtop. Consider my shoes eaten if this isn’t a mainstay of the classic movement in 15 years time.

 2) PEUGEOT 106 GTI/RALLYE (1997 – 2004)Brilliant fun, perfectly packaged and already becoming increasingly sought after by hot hatch hunters. In fact, it’s looking increasingly likely the MX-5-shaped void in my life might get filled by a 106 GTI. Should I? Shouldn’t I?

3) ROVER 75 (1999 - 2005) I’ve already written that Rover’s swansong is tomorrow’s P6, and I still reckon a well-looked example – or its sportier sister, the MG ZT – is as cheap as it’s ever going to be. There’s plenty on offer right now for under a grand, but give it a decade and good examples of these gentle giants will be sought after.

4) FORD RACING PUMA (2000) You could argue the little Puma is tomorrow’s Capri, in which case this is the ultra-rare Tickford (in fact, just like its turbocharged Capri ancestor, the Racing Puma is a Tickford creation). Prices are already much higher than the standard Pumas, but with the rarity of the Racing Puma and the loyal following it’s already attracting, there’s only one way prices will go.

5) RENAULT WIND (2010 - 2011)  I might have enjoyed the French firm’s Twingo-based two seater when it was new but the Great British Public didn’t, so while it’s a bit of a flop now its rarity should count in its favour. Quirky styling and fantastically simple flipping metal roof are bonus points on a car that, even now, you don’t see every day.

6) PEUGEOT 406 COUPE (1997 - 2004)Italian styling house Pininfarina worked wonders with the Parisian repmobile favourite to create a striking beautiful coupe. Best spec is the 3.0 V6 but 2.2 HDi versions are already proving popular with fuel-conscious enthusiasts.

7) FIAT COUPE 20V TURBO (1995 - 2000)As above, but with added Italian flair and loopy amounts of punch from the five-cylinder turbo beneath the bonnet. Any car that manages to make Fiat Tipo underpinnings look this good has got to be in with a shout.

 8) SUBARU IMPREZA TURBO (1994 - 2000) The original, four-door versions of the Scooby Pretzel are cheap now – you can, if you look carefully, pick them up for less than £1,500 – but it won’t be long before they’re being coveted as classics. Escort RS2000s, remember, were cheap and plentiful a long time ago...

9) BMW 8-SERIES (1990 - 1999) CAP’s list included no less than three BMWs, but they missed out this one, which price-wise is where the original 6-Series was 15 years ago. Not that I could afford to run around in a secondhand 850CSi, of course.

10) VOLKSWAGEN POLO G40 (1990 - 1994)  Only 600 imported into the UK originally and they’re rare, characterful pocket rockets now. Worth seeking one out for the addictive whine the supercharger makes. Plus, they go like stink.

Feel free, however, to disagree...

The full feature on CAP’s tips for future classic investments can be found in this week’s edition of Classic Car Weekly, published Wednesday, April 24.

VW Golf GTD - a Genuinely Tantalising Diesel?

IF you’re the sort of driver who wants hot hatch thrills without the annoyingly frequent stops to fill up then this new Golf could be a great contender for your cash.

VW are wryly saying the GTD badge on this latest version stands for Genuinely Tantalising Diesel and it’s easy to see where they’re coming from, because this £25,285 model offers up the same sort of punch and poise as its petrol-fuelled GTI cousin, but with an extra helping of economy thanks to it using a 2.0 litre turbodiesel engine.

Admittedly it’s not as fast as a Golf GTI – the dash from 0 to 60mph takes a second longer and the top speed is 142mph to the GTI’s 153mph – but you get more torque for when you’re overtaking, and more miles for your gallon when you’re not. Go-faster family hatches which fill up at the black pumps aren't exactly a new idea either - VW's sister brand Skoda, in particular, has carved itself a bit of niche when its Fabia vRS intially came along as an exclusively diesel-propelled pocket rocket.

With petrol prices forever threatening to surge past £1.40 a litre the torquey thump you get with diesels is becoming ever more tempting. Sure, you won't get the soundtrack or the rev-happy playfulness of the GTI, but you get mid-range wallop and the smugness of knowing you're winning on the economy front.

The Golf GTD, which commands a £310 premium over its predecessor, arrives in the UK later this year but is available to order now. Go to VW’s website at www.volkswagen.co.uk if you’re a grown-up boy racer frustrated by spiralling fuel prices.

Life On Cars changes gear

YOU don't have to be particularly eagle-eyed to spot that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a revamp.

What you might not know, however, is that Sefton and West Lancashire's favourite motoring blog has looked largely the same since November 2010, when I gave it a bit of a facelift to bring into the line with the various shades of blue that make up the house colours at The Champion.

You can, of course, still catch up with the printed column in the eight editions of the newspaper every Wednesday, but with all the other changes it only seemed right to give the blog a bit of a sprucing up, including bringing in a bit of red - oh all right, a lot of red - to match Classic Car Weekly and its equally scarlet logo.

But while the colour's changed and some of the pictures and stories might come from a little further afield, with CCW being a publication with national reach, the anecdotes of automotive misfortune, the tips for events in the North West and all the other things Life On Cars covers will continue.

So while you'll be seeing red with the artwork, hopefully you won't be seeing red with any of the articles!

Read more of David's motoring stories - including a full page report on his MGB GT - in the latest edition of Classic Car Weekly (published Wednesday, April 17).

Satnav Lady didn't do my laundry, but she did get me lost again

CHEAP washing machines have all but killed off the great British laundrette. That’s one of the conclusions I’ve drawn after an evening rediscovering the joys of satnav.

The impending drama of having to deal with an ever-increasing pile of dirty laundry prompted a drive pretty much the polar opposite of the ones I enjoy – instead of being given the chance to tackle the Buttertubs Pass in a hot hatch on a heady summer afternoon, I needed to navigate the mean streets of Peterborough, at rush hour. My motoring mission? Find, because I’ve yet to invest in a washing machine for Cambridgeshire home from home, a laundrette.

Normally, I navigate using my finely honed pub-based system but anyone familiar with Cambridgeshire’s contribution to the New Town initiative will know you can’t use quaint buildings called The Dog and Gun or The Golden Lion as pointers. Peterborough, not unlike Skelmersdale, is a confusing maze of roundabouts, slip roads and dual carriageways.

Out then, came the satnav app on my smartphone as my sole means of navigation to obscure postcodes which – according to a quick search on Google five minutes before I’d set off – contained the answers to my clothing cleaning conumdrum. It’s just a shame I’d forgotten why I don’t use satnav.

It’s useless.

At least twice Satnav Lady, whose slightly robotic voice leads to the presumption she’s the daughter of that equally synthesised woman who haunted Austin Maestro owners all those years ago, guided me off a dual carriageway, through a village for five minutes, before spitting me back out onto the same stretch of road. More worryingly, she would tell me exactly which turning I needed to take off the roundabout.... at pretty much exactly the point I’d start to power past it. Even an Audi Quattro, I’m almost certain, can’t corner that abruptly!

Half an hour into my ten minute journey, Satnav Lady proudly announces we’ve arrived at our destination – a grim looking suburban street where once, a long time ago, there proudly stood a laundrette. Mary Portas might curse the out-of-town shopping centre for killing off the high street, but I’m cursing Zanussi and Hotpoint for killing off the laundrette I’d spent so long looking for.

That’s why a drive around Peterborough, not at all distracted by Satnav Lady, turned into a drive around Peterborough where I wasn’t at all distracted by inspecting every shopfront for miles around to see if any of them were laundrettes. I discovered that Peterborough is home to the factory that makes Perkins diesel engines, IKEA’s distribution centre, and the strangest looking branch of Pizza Hut I’ve ever seen.

But, thanks to the combined efforts of a booming white goods industry and Satnav Lady’s hopelessness, I still haven’t found a laundrette.

David Simister is now saving up for a washing machine

So you want a secondhand supermini...

AN OBSERVATION about first cars. All the sensible people I know, having chucked away their L-plates, go for something sensible that’ll start up first thing on a frosty morning. The petrolheads don’t. 

There’s a lot to be said for making for your first car an automotive adventure in itself, which is why my first car was a 1983 Mini. Despite being held together largely with gaffer tape and string I loved driving it but even I’ll concede it wasn’t exactly an everyday car, because every day was a new and exciting way for it to entertain you with a breakdown. Whisper it softly, but during my first stint as a reporter in North Wales my “everyday car” was a borrowed Vauxhall Corsa! 

So I understood completely when a friend asked for a few car buying suggestions, not on some crusty old Sixties sports car, but a sensible, cheap secondhand supermini that’d actually be capable of getting her and her clobber up to a new job in Northumberland. She also bought a Mini as her first car, and while she’d rather sell her right arm than her pride ‘n’ joy I can understand why she’d want a more sensible automotive sidekick for the long trips to the North East. 

There’s plenty on offer - even in these days of spiralling insurance, it’s still possible to buy, insure and tax a decent set of wheels for less than a grand – but if it were my money I’d be looking at Peugeot’s 306, VW’s Lupo, Skoda’s Fabia and the earlier, funkier versions of Toyota’s Yaris. They’re all usefully younger than my trusty old Rover, should eake out a few more miles to the gallon and – by virtue of being younger – have plenty of life left in them. The Peugeot, in particular, would offer you more smiles per gallon too because it’s always been a fine handler – perfect if your other car’s an old Mini and you’ve got some Northumbrian country roads to play with. 

But, when it came down to sealing the deal, it wasn’t a 306 she went for, or a Yaris, Fabia or Lupo for that matter. In fact, she’d gone for the supermini you can pick up for buttons these days because everybody owned one and as a result there’s still millions to choose from. The supermini I’ve driven on countless occasions and always secretly enjoyed because it rides and handles so well. The supermini, in fact, that I passed my driving test in and which – had I not decided to go for that infernal Mini – probably would’ve been my first car. 

The supermini I’d completely forgotten about. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Ford Fiesta!