An MGB owner's view of the new MG Icon

THIS unusual offering is being hyped as the hottest new automotive offering at this week's Beijing Motorshow - but in terms of style it's straight from the Sixties.

The MG Icon might look like a sporty, small off-roader in the vein of say, Nissan's Juke but the concept car's British designer reckons it pays tribute to MG's sports cars of the Fifties and Sixties, particularly the MGB GT coupe which would have been a familiar sight on Britain's roads after its introduction in 1966.

Anthony Williams-Kenny, MG's chief designer, said: "The MG brand has a unique set of values and heritage and allows us to offer individual design values to our products. The MG Icon represents our vision of a modern MG and we feel that the small SUV canvas demonstrates MG’s capacity for progressive design with respect for its long heritage. "We have balanced familiar brand cues, such as the wide and powerful front end graphic interpretation and, as one would expect, with a strong focus on the unique MG octagon.

The MG Icon clearly demonstrates a progressive and soulful British spirit and has a lithe and powerful stance – its proportion harmonised by feature lines interpreted from MG’s iconic greats."

The car has already won an award for Best Concept from the Beijing show's organisers but as an owner of one of the original MG BGTs from the early Seventies I'm not so sure; details like the way the lights sit on top of the rear wings worked well on the crisp coupe, but on the Icon they look a little bloated and out of place, while the rest of the car seems dominated by the enormous rear wheelarches.

It's certainly challenging but it does at least doff its cap to the company's heritage, and is more obviously a descendant of MGs of old than the MG6 and the soon-to-arrive MG5 are.

Share your motoring stories with David Simister by sending an email to david.simister@champnews.com

Video: Aintree Race Circuit sprint day with Liverpool Motor Club

WITH the Grand National out of the way, scores of budding Jenson Buttons have taken over Aintree with a rather different sort of horsepower.


Today more than 140 keen motorsport fans took to the historic Aintree Race Circuit – which shares the same locations and grandstands as the legendary horse race – to take part in the first of a season of sprints and track days organised by Liverpool Motor Club.

Club chairman, John Harden, told Life On Cars: "We’re giving people value for money, and at a safe and historic venue that people like. We try not to be too officious, and try to help people whenever we can. People like it, which is why a lot of them keep coming back.

"We’ve got everything here, from roadgoing Minis right through to a Formula One-engined single seater racing car, and because it’s not fair to have something like a Mini competing against the big cars they’re all split into classes, so that all the drivers are competing against similar cars at similar speeds. "

 The Aintree circuit – which hosted a series of Grand Prix races in the 1950s and 1960s – saw an eclectic variety of vehicles putting in hot laps at the Grand National venue, including everything from a roadgoing Fiat Panda, Lotus and Caterham sports cars, and single-seater racing cars. The event’s organisers are keen to promote the events as a value for money way to enjoy motorsport at an historic venue associated with F1 greats including Jim Clark and Jack Brabham.

The club uses a shortened version of the original Grand Prix circuit for its sprint events every summer, with competitors driving past the jumps used in the Grand National in their bid to set as fast as time as possible in their respective classes. The venue is also used to hold track days, which allow keen petrolheads to put their cars through their paces in a safe environment. Liverpool Motor Club are holding a series of events at the circuit between now and September, including a track day on May 26, which are all open to spectators.

For more information about the club visit their website at www.liverpoolmotorclub.com. To watch the video simply click below...

Life On Cars is on Twitter

THAT'S right - you can now keep up to date with even more motoring news, thanks to the tiny little box of tweets on Life On Cars as of today.


For ages it's been the case that there are too just too many snippets of car-related news to squeeze onto even this blog, plus I have lots of general observations about all things automotive which are just too brief to merit a full-on article. Luckily, Twitter is on hand to help.

If you head onto Twitter make sure you follow @lifeoncars - and in return, you'll get treated to the good, the bad and the Ssangyong Rodius of what's going on across Sefton and West Lancashire. Including a rather exciting event tomorrow, as it turns out...

Feature: Institute of Advanced Motorists calls for younger drivers to sharpen their skills

WHY would I need to sharpen up my skills behind the wheel when - being Champion motoring correspondent - I'm already a brilliant driver anyway?

That's the exactly the sort of question the Institute of Advanced Motorists are hoping younger drivers will be able to answer for themselves when the driving organisation launches it next round of Skills For Life courses next month, which they're keen for younger motorists in particular to take up. Young male drivers - like me - are particularly at risk because we naturally think we're brilliant, even though the accident statistics and the cripplingly expensive insurance shows that isn't the case. Naturally, an advanced driving course isn't going to make you the next Sebastian Loeb but it will make a difference. I should know, because I've done it.

Simon Best, the organisation's chief executive said: “Young male drivers suffer from a lethal combination of overconfidence and inexperience. They don’t need curfews and other restrictions on their driving; they need to practice and gain driving experience safely.

"There are many paying thousands of pounds a year in insurance and killing themselves. The solution to this problem is to link driver training and insurance discounts."

 If you like driving you'll like the Skills For Life course - the observers know you can already drive, so it's all about honing your techniques and learning to spot the hazards early, so you can react to them nice and early with the need to panic. Best of all, there's absolutely no L-plates involved! I started my course in January and successfully passed the advanced driving test at the end earlier this month, so expect to venture out under the expert eye of a volunteer observer once a week or so, where they'll suggest techniques you can use to make your drive a smoother and safer one. Once you've done that, you take a senior observer out for a drive to show them how brilliant you are, and once you've managed that you take out a Class One police driver - in my case, a serving road traffic officer - and see if you can impress them as well. It's not easy, but it is rewarding when you get it right.

The course costs £139 which I know is a lot of money when you're young and skint but consider this; that's not only a lot cheaper than doing normal lessons on L-plates and doing the standard driving test, but the IAM operate their own insurance scheme which usually gives those who pass the test the chance to get cheaper premiums which recognise you're doing something to make yourself a bit safer. Because IAM graduates are 70% less likely to have a crash, they can afford to knock the price down a bit.

For a course that's focused around safety I actually really enjoyed doing it, because I really enjoy driving, but I reckon it'll pay itself off several times over in the accidents I don't have. The course might cost £139 but you can't put a price on staying safe.

Sefton and West Lancashire residents can take advantage of the next round of Skills For Life Courses, which start on Monday, May 14. For more information about the course, which costs £139, contact Ray Woods on 01704 538595.

Ford Racing Puma: A postscript

A COUPLE of Life On Cars readers - specifically, some of the petrolheads who joined me on my adventures in Wales last weekend - were disappointed with my reflections on the Ford Racing Puma in the last edition of The Champion.

Their main criticism was that my piece suggested the fettled Ford was the superior car when compared to the Rover Metro GTi and the Volkswagen Polo G40, which also ventured into deepest Snowdonia, and the MK1 Mazda MX-5 which I was driving. All four, of course, are fabulous cars in their own particular ways, and proved more than capable of handling the challenging roads and the worst weather Wales could throw at them!

Life On Cars, while striving to be factually accurate on all matters motoring, is always happy to hear your feedback. Get in touch via the usual Champion channels or by email at david.simister@hotmail.co.uk

The Skoda Rapid is the ideal Golf that's not a Golf

YOU'LL have all seen the ad's simplistic strapline by now. Why buy something like a Golf when you can buy a Golf?

Ironically, it'll become a much tougher question than you'd think when Volkswagen itself launches a Golf that's a bit like a Golf a little later this year. Only it'll be made by Skoda and chances are it'll be cunningly cheaper. We've got the Chinese to thank for the new Rapid - apparently, it's been designed with their booming market in mind - but it means that for the first time the Czechs have got a car that'll compete directly against the Astra, the Focus and the million other mid-sized hatches on sale right now. Oh, and against the Golf, the flagship of sister company VW's range.

Admittedly, it's got a slightly naff name in the finest Skoda tradition, because go-faster yoofs will realise it ain't as rapid as it says on the tin (note to Skoda: get cracking on the vRS version) while older readers might gag a little at the connotations of the godawful Rapid, a rally winning rear-engined oddity you could buy in the bad old days of Skoda being run by resentful communists in the old Eastern Bloc. But then again, Skoda also produces the equally odd-sounding Superb, which really is what it says on't tin, and the Yeti off-roader, which isn't at all abominable but is quite good on mountain terrain.

I haven't driven the Rapid yet - it goes on sale here at the end of the year - and the all important question of prices still hasn't been answered, but the signs are looking good. In fact, the car itself looks good; swipe the Skoda's badges and stick four interlocking rings on the grille and you'd swear it was a new Audi. Say what you like, but it's a fine looking thing.

While everyone else has been fretting about the environment or slimming down its range in reaction to the recession Skoda's been quietly getting on with making cheap, practical cars, which is why they're absolutely everywhere these days. Yes, I know that the Golf is the best-selling car in Europe and it's nice to drive and built like a bunker, but it's priced as though it's been made from unobtainium. The only reason you'd buy one over a Rapid is because you're either going for the Golf GTI (in which case I don't blame you) or because you're a bit sniffy about Skodas. Beneath the skin they're almost identical.

I've no doubt the Rapid will describe the speed it flies out of the company's showrooms but the big question will be whether it can topple my favourite something-like-a-Golf-that's-not-a-Golf.

The Ford Focus.

Why the Ford Racing Puma ruled the roost in Wales

TWO things surprised me in the wilds of deepest Wales, where a couple of car-loving friends and I ventured last weekend for a bit of full-throttle fun.

Firstly that everyone there, even when we had to ask for an extraordinary amount of help after a breakdown, is lovely. With the exception of a slightly surly barmaid in Aberyswyth each and every person seemed to bend over backwards for us - in fact one pub landlord, upon hearing we needed something to seal a punctured radiator, actually ventured up to his farm to fetch us some araldite. What a guy!

But the one lingering memory I'll have of enjoying the twisty mountain roads around Dolgellau and Llangurig won't be the relentless rain we had almost all weekend, or the stunning scenery. It'll be the Ford Racing Puma and the rally-bred buzz of its exhaust note. Most of you will have forgotten the Racing Puma even existed, overshadowed by the Escort Cosworth that went before it and the go-faster Focuses that followed.

Ford took a normal 1.7 Puma and gave it to tuning firm Tickford, who then rebuilt it from scratch at great expense, which is why it cost more than a significantly more powerful Subaru Impreza Turbo when it was new. As a result only a couple of hundred were ever made, meaning that it's not only spine-tingingly quick but incredibly rare these days.

Sure, its sharpened-up steering rack means it's a pain to park at Sainsbury's but in Wales it ruled the roost, even though it was up against my neat 'n' nimble two seater roadster, a Rover Metro GTi - don't laugh, it's much faster than you think - and a Volkswagen Polo equipped with a supercharger which cost more than the engine it was attached to. On the face of it, it's still just a Puma (which is itself a great little car) but it's only on really demanding roads that you realise where all the £23,000 asking price went. Every single component, from the splitter to the wildly flared arches, has been designed with devouring B-roads in mind.

It's a shame the Racing Puma's been almost erased from non-petrolhead memory, because it is a frantic future classic in the best fast Ford tradition. Oh, and the people of Wales all told us they loved it. See, I told you they were lovely...