The website of Adam Sloman, motoring journalist.
Archive for January, 2010
When the world turns upside down
Jan 29th
- Our daughter
January 24th 2010.
The day my life changed forever. The day I became a Daddy. So, to celebrate the arrival of our baby girl, I thought I’d list some of my favourite family cars!
1. Mini Countryman/Traveller/Clubman Estate
- The mighty Mini Traveller
The Mini may have brought family motoring to the masses, but since I’m a dog owner, I’d plump for the original Mini’s estate variants.I owned two long-wheel base Minis and loved them to bits. All the fun of the Mini saloon, but with an extra foot or so tucked behind the rear seats, there’s loads more room for Mum, Dad, kids and the dog. A cracking car and an ideal family car.
2. Citreon C3 Picasso
- Funky and French-the C3
I’ve blogged before about my love of Citreon’s mini MPV, and not just because of the Ghostbusters TV ad that accompanied the cars launch. For one, the C3 Picasso looks great, and proves that smaller MPVs needn’t be frumpy. The HDi would be my choice, as it offers superb mileage, which is always important when you’re running the kids around. Being a Citreon it’s cheap to buy too.
3. The MkI Ford Cortina
- One of many great Ford family cars
Ford have been responsible for loads of great family cars, the Sierra or current Focus, for example. The original (1962-1966) mkI Cortina, was, in my opinion, the first truly great Ford family car. Being a Ford, the ubiquitous hot variant wasn’t far away either with the superb Lotus Cortina winning rallies and becoming a saloon racing legend.
4. The Renault Espace
- The Grandad of all MPVs
Vans have been around since there have been cars, but it was Renault who came up with the seemingly obvious idea of putting windows in the sides and seats in the load bay to create the original MPV-the Renault Espace. Sales were initially slow, as the idea took a while to catch on. Things picked up, and the French manufacturer never looked back and over twenty years later the Espace is still a staple of Renault’s range.
Family cars are becoming more exciting and varied all the time, with all most all the major players offering a car to fit every walk of life. No doubt as our daughter grows our needs will change and our MG will be too small. It will be interesting to see what we end up with!
At last-a rally championship worth watching!
Jan 21st
Skoda on the Monte
All hail the might IRC! Since the World Rally Championship has become the equivalent of Scottish football (Loeb winning six titles in a row, anyone?) my interest in the series has continued to die off.
Thanks be then for the IRC. The Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Featuring a wide range of cars from Honda Civic to Subaru Impreza, IRC cars are simpler than the Group N WRC cars (and therefore cheaper and more manufacturer friendly) with two litre engines and simpler four-wheel drive systems.
The IRC also features some world-famous events, long since lost from the World Rally Championship, like Monte Carlo, which is happening as you read this (19-23rd January).
Best of all, there’s live coverage on Eurosport, unlike the WRC being tucked away on Dave between QI and Top Gear.
The IRC’s official website can be found here.
List my rides
Jan 18th
For no real reason, other than I feel like it, I thought I’d list all my previous cars.
Hey one day I might even tell you a bit more about them, depends how bored you get!
- 1987 Mini City E
- 1984 Mini Mayfair
- 1978 Mini 1000
- 1979 Mini Special
- 1987 Seat Ibiza System Porsche
- 1988 Mini Mayfair
- 1985 Ford Fiesta
- 1984 Mini 25
- 1978 Mini Clubman Estate
- 1980 Mini 1000
- 1972 Mini 1000
- 1985 Mini Mayfair
- 1987 Mini Mayfair
- 1984 MiniMetro
- 1983 Mini 1000
- 1986 Mini City E
- 1973 Mini 1000
- 1980 Mini Clubman Estate
- 1979 Mini Clubman Saloon
- 1989 Vauxhall Cavalier
- 1991 Rover 214
- 2001 Renault Clio
- 1992 Rover 216
- 1992 Rover 214
- 1991 Rover 214 3 door
- 1993 Mini Cooper SPi
- 1985 Mini Chelsea
- 2001 Peugeot 206
- 2001 MG ZS
Not bad for someone who’s been driving for ten years! I just wish I’d taken photos of all of them.
I just can’t decide if I like
Jan 16th
The new Ford Focus.
Funny face-The New Focus
I just can’t help thinking there’s something not quite right about that front end, and I think I know what it is. It’s the coloured struts either side of the number plate.
Like the Chevrolet ‘belt’ on the front of the Cruze, it ruins the front end.
Ford’s press-release speaks about ‘kinetic design’ saying:
‘Taking kinetic design to the next level
The two models share a sporty and dynamic character, marking the next evolution of Ford’s acclaimed kinetic design form language. The kinetic design approach uses bold vehicle designs to capture the feeling of energy in motion, so that cars look like they are moving – even when they are standing still.
With its striking front end, sleek profile, dramatic rising beltline and athletic stance, the new Focus clearly telegraphs the rewarding driving experience that awaits customers when they take to the road.
This dynamic quality is reinforced by the distinctive design of the interior. The new Focus has an extremely modern, cockpit-style interior, with the stylish centre console wrapped around the driver and providing outstanding access to the vehicle’s major controls and display panels.
A key element of the interior is the quality of craftsmanship. The cabin’s bold and contemporary graphics, the sculptured shape of the soft-touch instrument panel and the choice of superior trim materials all help to give occupants the feeling that they are travelling in a premium-class car.’
For the first time in it’s history Ford has managed to design a good looking Focus saloon, too, with the bigger-booted brother looking much more natural than previous models, even if it does seem as big as the old mkI Mondeo!
The 2011 Ford Focus saloon
If we’re honest, all Ford seems to have really done is upscaled it’s excellent Fiesta, and grafted on a stylish rump for the saloon. Like the Fiesta, the quality inside the car has improved too, and the released interior shots show a very high quality, high spec cabin.
2011 Focus cabin
With Vauxhall’s latest Astra recently launched, a the VW Golf continuing to set the standard in the sector, the new Focus will aim to knock the VW off it’s perch when it launches in early 2011. If it continues to offer the sort of driveability previous Focus’ have it’s bound to succeed, funny front grille or not! Now come of Ford, when’s the next RS going to launch?
2011 Focus hatchback
My Salute to…
Jan 14th
Recently I’ve been thinking an awful lot about my first love. No, not the young lady (who shall remain nameless) that I spent five years of secondary school fawning over with little result, but rather the first car I ever owned.
My Mini. My Mighty Mini.
My first Mini-gone but never forgotten
I fell for the Mini at an early age, I must’ve been around 6 or 7 and I remember my Brother in law taking me around the back lanes of East Devon in his white hill-climb Mini. The car was insanely quick, and it seemed to handle like my wheels at the time, a red pedal go-kart! I was hooked, and when the time car and I wanted a my first car, I wanted a Mini like Charlie’s. Through contacts at a local Mini specialist, he helped me find that car and soon enough it was mine.
My first Mini was a cracking car. Winnie, as I soon named her, set me back £850 back in 1999 (I paid an extra fifty quid for the white Cooper style roof) was, to me, the perfect car. At 17 fuel was cheap, and earning £300 a month doing cleaning meant I had cash in my pocket, and petrol in my car.
Over the next year and a bit I tinkered and tweaked the little Mini City until it gained a set of Cooper stripes, wide minilite style wheels, ‘Austin Cooper’ badges and a dummy filler neck. An old blue Mayfair gave up its seats to replace the brown vinyl she came with (although they were soon replaced by a set of bargain Cobra bucket seats!), and a custom made MDF dash must have given an extra 20-30 BHP, minimum.
I went everywhere I could with Winnie, London to Brighton, The Riviera Run, Mini In The Park, all over country. People said I’d never make it, but not once did the car ever let me down. The same couldn’t be said when my brother dared borrow her, she’d cough, splutter, and sometimes just stop-she knew it wasn’t me driving her, and she wasn’t happy about it!
As with many things in life, fate intervened.
One evening, on a journey I need not have made, a fox leapt out in front of the car, I swerved, stupidly, to avoid it. A Fiesta coming towards me made me turn back hard, putting Winnie and me, into the hedge. With wheels buckled, and the subframe bent, the insurance company was quick to write off the then 13 year old Mini.
I was car-less once again.
Still, Winnie may have been my first Mini, but she certainly wasn’t my last! 17 others followed, but I’ll bore you with those another time.
