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The Carchive: The Datsun 280C
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So, it’s now Friday afternoon And it came not a moment too soon. Lets take time to explore, A car brochure from yore, While eating tinned pears with a spoon. It’s time for the Carchive, which this week means visiting Japan in 1980 to bask in the sheer magnificence of the Datsun 280c.
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That Difficult Second Album
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Car manufacturers have, for years, mirrored the pain suffered by rock groups when faced with the challenge of the Difficult Second Album. When Stone Roses released The Second Coming a huge number of Manchester rock aficionados cradled their heads in despair, crying “What have you done!?” into their Joseph Holt. How do you top a…
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Look How Good A Driver I Am!
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Increasingly often I find myself sitting in traffic transfixed by the mesmerising sequence you see in the image above. Yes, for a little while now, and obviously drawing inspiration from Ford products of the 1960’s, Audi have been fitting certain models with sequential tail indicator lamps. This, in itself, isn’t anything new. What is worth…
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Diecast Delights: A Shelby Cobra in 1:18 Scale
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You know, I’m not really a fan of the AC Cobra in any of its forms. I know that talk like that is enough to see me permanently ejected from The Man Club without any chance of readmission, but it’s just not my cup of tea. Many people other than Mr Shelby have cooked up…
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The Car Of Today?
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We can all agree that the first car to be truly relevant to the Average Man was the Model T, created to provide mechanised personal mobility to the masses, the very definition of a growth market. The Model T was definitely the right car for the time and could be ordered in a great number…
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The Carchive: The '73 Peugeot 404
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It’s Friday, and I for one think that it’s come about five days too late this week. So let’s unwind by pumping up the tyres on our bicycle of discovery and take a meandering trip trip along the rust-coloured avenue of automotive history. We’re heading to early ’70s France for this week’s visit to The…
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The Relentless Overcomplication Of Everything.
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So, I was in Milton Keynes in a new-generation C-Class. The Buckinghamshire “New Town” is essentially a controlled experiment in post-war urban planning which went viral, overcame its creators and expanded uncontrollably in every direction. It now resembles one of my earlier flirtations with Sim City- one of those times when I was so dissatisfied…
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When To Lose Your Identity Is To Gain Momentum
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My 800, as much as I adore every square centimetre of its lustrous silver body, is a bit of an embarrassment to the once proud Rover name. On Monday Hooniverse Asks broached the thorny question of whether the American auto industry was losing its identity. This made me laugh a little, and ponder the interesting…
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Tape The Highway: Obsolescence Embraced
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The standard fit “Concert” stereo head unit on my Audi is a technical marvel. Not only does it control a trunk-mounted mechanism that decodes any of six compact discs I choose to load, but it also receives and interprets radio signals. It also houses an all-electronic, logic-controlled cassette tape drive, which for a good few…
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You Can't Save 'Em All
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The sun came out on Sunday for long enough to trick my wife and I into venturing out for a nice long afternoon walk. Half an hour after leaving the house we found ourselves enduring storm force winds and impenetrable gloominess, but we pressed on nonetheless. Our path took us past our local fire station,…
