How much do you want to sit in here?

LIFE, contrary to the cliché, doesn't begin at 40. It begins at 25.

I excitedly reckon this because as of tomorrow it will be exactly twenty five years since I made my first car journey (although whisper it quietly it was in a Volvo 340) on March 1, 1986. There's lots of things that make it, to my mind, an anniversary worth celebrating.

I can, for instance, take out cheaper car insurance. I can rent things that aren't vans. Best of all, it means I can afford to own an old sports car for the first time, which is about to go through its MOT.

Unfortunately, my other half isn't looking forward to March 1 because I'm having another British sports car delivered to the Champion offices. The 2010 Lotus Elise. And I didn't arrange it so I could use it as a birthday treat. Honest.

What you or I see when we see an Elise is the classic sports car of the future, the finely-fettled drivers' tool which saw Lotus reinvent itself as a master of all things lightweight following the flop that was the front-wheel-drive Elan. What my other half sees, on the other hand, is what you see above; two thin, rock hard seats perched low in a noisy car with next to no visibility at all, accessible only once you've scaled those ridiculously wide sills.

I keep trying to explain to her that sports cars like this - and the even less comfortable Caterham Seven, which I've also squeezed myself into on a couple of occasions - are supposed to be raw and cramped, which she's accepted on the strict proviso that I pay for the osteopath she visits afterwards. Perhaps the only answer is to persuade Lotus to launch a "passenger version" of the Elise, with the driver's side stripped out for thrills and performance and the passenger's retrimmed luxuriously for frills and pampering.

The prospect of an Elise, two conveniently-booked days off and some nice weather is enough to send me into a bout of childish excitement, which is why by the time this week's Champion drops though your letterbox I'll be blasting the Toyota-engined screamer along a mountain pass in the Lake District.

For me, it'll be seat-of-the-pants thrills. For my long-suffering other half, it'll be a pain in the backside.

Anything we can do, the Italians can do with more style

FASHION, food, fine art and prime ministerial sex scandals. Yup, the Italians do just about everything not only better, but more stylishly than we Brits can.

It's the same for cars, because they've had a hand in shaping more cars than you'd probably imagine. Ever owned an original Golf, a Peugeot 406 Coupe, a Lotus Esprit or a Daewoo Matiz and wondered why they're strangely good looking? It's because they've all been sculpted by the automotive artists of Italy, even though the manufacturers in most cases would rather you didn't know about it. All cars with a flair you can't get from any other country, and that's before I get onto the endless procession of Ferraris, Fiats and Alfas.

Take Turin-based Bertone, which last week launched a tantalisingly tempting glimpse of what the next Jaguar X-Type should look like. Anyone who read my article on the old E-Type last week will already know I like my Jags, but the stunning B99 concept car couldn't have been further from the Mondeo-in-drag X-Type if it tried. It's just a shame you'll never see one at your local dealer.

Some show cars, like the Audi TT, do make it from motorshow to motorway almost unchanged, but they're the exception rather than the rule. It's much more likely you'll get something like the Porsche Boxster, which looked a bit like an Art Deco spaceship when it was first shown off in 1993, but what we actually got three years later was completely watered down.

The B99, if anything, reminds me of the Series 3 XJ6 from the late Seventies, which is what happens when you give an already elegant executive saloon to the Italians to play with. It's like sticking James Bond in an Armani dinner jacket - English, obviously, but with a hint of delicate Italian flair.

It's just a shame I reckon Jaguar - a company with a long and proud history of not putting concept cars into production - probably won't make it. Pity really, because they've not really got an excuse not to.

We as as species have longed cracked the conumdrum of making cars work properly, which frees our talented engineers and designers up to stop so many of them looking so derivative. If we can get Italy, the most stylish nation on Earth, to help us out, then we should.

Life's too short to drive a boring car.

Prepare to fire up the... MG 6

AN ICONIC name from Britain's motoring past is making a comeback - and no, it's not the old sports car currently in the Life On Cars garage either.

The MG 6 is the first all new car from MG, now in Chinese ownership, since the MGF sports car of 1995, but the latest model's a five-door hatchback which the company's hoping will bring a bit of upmarket cachet to the small car sector.

“This is a milestone day for the iconic MG brand and for the UK automotive industry. MG has begun the international launch of an all new model that has been designed and engineered here in the UK, for the global automotive market.”

“Currently we only build and sell the mid-engined MG TF sports car here in the UK, but we can now look forward to expanding the range of MG products,” Guy Jones, Sales and Marketing Director for MG Motor UK said.

MG is a fondly remembered name with British car lovers, and is best remembered for its MGA and MGB sports cars of the Fifties and Sixties, the MG Metro and Maestro hot hatches of the 1980s and more recently for taking on Mazda's MX-5 with its mid-engined MGF.

But the company, as part of MG Rover Group, went into administration in 2005 and is now owned by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Cooperation, who revived the badge on the MG 7, a revised and sportier version of the Rover 75, and the the MG TF, the latest version of the longstanding sports car. The Rover name, which was passed onto Ford by previous licence holders BMW, is now owned by Tata as part of its Jaguar Land Rover group.

The new model, a distant relation to the old Rover 75, is currently built by MG's owners in China but will be made in the UK later this year, and is powered by heavily updated versions of Rover's K-Series engines. The 6 is also expected to be followed by a smaller supermini, the MG 3, later this year.

It's a brave move into a tough market for MG's owners, but with a prestigious badge and patriotic appeal on its side the company might just pull it off.

On its way soon...

THE Life On Cars magazine is back!

Regular readers might have been getting a bit bored with seeing adverts for Issue Three of Life On Cars which - despite being dated as a 2011 issue - was a bit of a festive special, celebrating the best cars of last year.

Well almost, with the most I can reveal at the moment of the forthcoming fourth issue being this preview of the front cover. The whole thing will be available to read on here by the end of the month. But with 2011 in full swing and months of warm, petrolhead-friendly weather on the way, it's the right time for the next issue.

If the magazine's anything as good as the gorgeous E-Type cover - which I reckon is my best design effort yet, beating even the jigsaw look of the Car of the Year edition - it should be as much of a cracker to read as it is for me to make it. Fingers crossed!

If you're not familiar with the original three issues, which were published last July, last October and last December, click here or visit the Magazine section.

Life On Cars now on ChampRadio

IT'S here! It's now! It's got jingles and an American chap doing voiceovers! The Life On Cars radio show is back!

Regular readers might remember the first two pieces I recorded for the radio spin-off of this blog, but they were unedited interviews to give a flavour rather than the finished product. That's why I'm pleased to present the polished final product, which thanks to some music and an American chap (who I've never met) doing the voiceovers sounds a lot better.

Click above to hear the latest special edition I promised earlier this week, focusing on the glorious Jaguar E-Type, and if you scroll down you'll hear the final versions of pieces I recorded with guests Gareth Jackson and Katie Massam.

So sit back, enjoy the show and let me know what you think....

Life On Cars episode one, featuring Katie Massam

Life On Cars episode two, featuring Gareth Jackson

Ten years older

IT'S a makeover challenge even Gok Wan couldn't master. How do you take an already evocative classic and make it mouthwateringly inviting?

What you see above is the interior of my MGB GT, which despite being in the middle of a restoration and in need of a good hoover and clean is still an appealing place to be, like the carriage of a steam-hauled train on a heritage railway. You just don't get touches like the fonts on the chrome-ringed dials or the Mota-Lita steering wheel on a modern motor, which is part of the reason why I love sitting in it.

But give the interior over to an automotive makeover expert and it'll end looking like the one you see below, which a mechanic mate mentioned after spotting it:



Believe it or not, these are both cabins of the same model, but the owner couldn't have made it more different if he'd tried. Every single panel and patch of trim is interchangeable with the interior of my own, humbler car, but unscrew the MG octagon badge from the steering wheel and you'd swear you were in a Jag or a Bentley. It's an inviting, sumptuous place to be, and all the owner's done is replace the carpets, dash panels and trimmings with something that wouldn't look out of place in a Riva Aquarama.

It actually transforms an already stylish, unapologetically Seventies cabin into something straight out of the Sixties, and I love it. The finished result is as beautiful as a blank cheque, but I wouldn't do it simply because my wallet won't stretch far enough.

Would you?

The key to really enjoying your next car

EVEN though it's unlikely I'll ever drive the Huayra, the latest unaffordable, unpronouncable supercar from automotive pornography purveyors Pagani, I'm fairly certain of its best feature.

The key, it seems, to this millionaire motor is the key itself. It's actually a carefully sculpted scale model of the Zonda supercar's replacement and the latest proof that a long-held theory of mine is actually true; that the keys for your car are so much more important than being just tools to start it up each morning.

Take the Suzuki Swift Sport I've just spent a week with. This cracking little car is one of the best hot hatches on sale today, as you'll read elsewhere on Life On Cars, and - being both a riot to drive and small, cheap and kind to the environment - the perfect car for Cameron's Britain.

It's just a shame that the apologetic slab of plastic that serves as a key, distinguished only by the company's ‘S' logo and two plipper buttons, gives you no clue to the character of the car itself.

My Rover's even worse, because while there's no car logo to give away what you drive, people would guess it's something cheap and plasticky because that's exactly how the keyfob is. A regal and refined old car, with distant allusions to the glorious P6 of the late Sixties, has been ruined by a rubbish key.

Aston Martin keys, on the other hand, are beautiful crystal affairs, which you place carefully into a crevace in the dashboard as though it's a plot device from an Indiana Jones film, but you don't have to own a supercar to get yourself a superkey. I have, for instance, never been a fan of the current Vauxhall Corsa, but it does at least have in its favour a beautifully made key that's strangely enjoyable to use. This is important consumer advice, honest!

Admittedly the key is just one of a mountain of parts used to make your motor, but I reckon more manufacturers should follow Pagani's lead and show a bit more flair with it.

Now, if only I could tell you whether the Huayra is as good as its key...

The E-Type experience

YOU wait ages for an E-Type Jaguar, and then two turn up at once!

That's the way I felt last week after I wrote a piece celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic Sixties sports car, which ended on the sad note that I'd never driven, ridden or even sat in one.

So I couldn't believe when not one, but two Life On Cars readers rang up to offer me the chance to do something I've wanted to do since the age of ten, and finally get up close to the classic car everybody lusts after. This, for a car nut like me, was a dream come true.

You don't even have to be remotely interested in cars to understand why everybody wants an E-Type - all you need to do is take in the shape, which first stunned the world way back in 1961.

Hesketh Bank reader Nigel Spry, who brought his bright red 1970 E-Type to the Champion offices last Friday, reckons it's the head-turning looks that make it such a memorable motor.

"It's the shape, pure and simple, and it's so elegant," he said.

"Yes, it's a car you can drive in any weather, and the performance was remarkable for its day, but the reason all the pop stars and footballers bought them in the Sixties was becase it's such a beautiful shape. It just hits you."

Although I wasn't allowed to get behind the wheel myself for insurance reasons, just strapping myself into the passenger seat and looking at the wooden steering wheel, the delicate rocker switches and that gorgeously curvaceous bonnet reminded me the car was something special. As soon as the Jag's straight six engine fired up, I couldn't help but smile.

I'd have been happy to leave it at the blast along Southport's streets in Nigel's glorious example of the elegant E-Type, but when Bispham reader Tom Melia got in touch to offer me a ride in his, I couldn't refuse. One E-Type ride is a dream come true, so surely two in the space of a weekend is just being greedy!

"It's a really nice car drive, really responsive, with great lumps of power. You could almost liken it to a four wheel motorbike," he said of his 1968 E-Type Coupe.

"Even the young kids wave and give you the thumbs up when you go past them in it. Everyone sees the shape and smiles, because it's just so different to anything else out there."

With prices for decent E-Types starting at around £25,000, I can't see one ending up in my garage any time soon but I can at least tick off one of the boxes in my list of things I've always wanted to do. For a car that turns fifty next month, the E-Type is as fabulous as it ever.

It's the best birthday I've ever celebrated, anyway...


Check out Life On Cars and the Champradio service later this week for a special E-Type edition of the Life On Cars radio show.

Fire up the... Suzuki Swift Sport

Ever wanted to own your very own sports car but never could because you'd struggle to get the kids, the shopping and your suitcase in the back?

Well anyone familiar with the letters G, T and I will already know you can, because ever since the hot hatch was invented in the late Seventies it's been showing the family man the sort of full-throttle thrills he'd normally miss out on. Whether it's the Golf GTi of the Seventies, the Peugeot 205 GTi of the Eighties, or the Renault Clio Williams of the Nineties, chances are there's a go-faster shopping car from your generation that proved you can pack both a big punch and a big boot.

Fast forward to 2011 and Suzuki's Swift Sport, yours for a smidgen under thirteen grand, brings the familiar formula bang up to date. Although it's based on the outgoing model rather than the new range brought in last year, it mixes funky styling with sporty touches like a rear spoiler, alloys all round and bucket seats on the inside, and definitely looks the part if you're a keen driver.

With the same practical touches and easy-revving nature as its slower siblings in the Swift range, it's a doddle to drive around town. It's a shame the boot doesn't offer the room of larger rivals like the Fiesta or Corsa, but it's very easy to get comfortable inside, with plenty of space front and rear. But you can do all that with a normal hatchback, which is why to see the Sport in its element you have to get off the housing estates and onto the hills, like the Yorkshire Dales.

Take it to somewhere like the Buttertubs Pass, one of Britain's toughest driving roads, and you'll see exactly where the Sport shines. Out here, its handling is as impressive as much more expensive sports cars like Mazda's MX-5, and the 126bhp engine eggs you on into every corner, giving you all the confidence you could ever ask for.

After tackling the Buttertubs I could have pulled over, but I carried on, heading right through the Dales and across the whole of Cumbria, simply because it's a car you never get tired of driving. It's never anything less than a giggle from behind the wheel, and when you do decide you've had enough fun for the day the price and practicality prove plenty to smile about.

Forget your posey, pricey sports cars - get yourself one of these and get into the countryside. This is one of the best hot hatches you can buy today.

As published in The Champion on February 16, 2011

Prepare to fire up the... Peugeot 508

PEUGEOT'S 508 is looking to pounce straight into the saloon territory dominated by Ford's Mondeo and Vauxhall's Insignia when it arrives in the UK later this year.

As the replacement for both the 407 saloon and estate range and the bigger 607 executive express, the company's got a lot staked on its stylish new arrival being a hit, and if it's anywhere near as successful as its predecessors you'll be seeing a lot of them on motorways and in business parks in the next few months.

With the saloon version starting at £18,150 and the estate, dubbed the SW, at around a grand more, it's priced on a par with the 407 it replaces but comes with more toys, like a start/stop system, and multi-link suspension which the company reckons will make it comfier and more fun to drive.

It'll follow in the footsteps of a string of saloons which have particularly proved a hit with company car drivers, starting with the 405 in 1988, the curvier 406 in 1996 and the sharknosed 407 in 2004, but the bigger, more luxurious 607's proved a slower seller, with the executives it was aimed at opting instead for the prestige of its BMW, Mercedes and Audi rivals.

Luckily the 508 looks the part, being the first model to try out the company's new corporate style, which you're likely to see on the car's smaller sisters in the next few years. Smooth but not oddly-proportioned, it's definitely easy on the eye.

Replacing two cars at once in one of the toughest parts of the motoring marketplace is a brave move for the French firm but the RC Z sports coupe, which Life On Cars tested last year, showed that the company is still more than capable of pulling a winner out of the bag.

The Life On Cars Radio Show, episode 2

The Life On Cars radio show is back!

This time, Birkdale-based enthusiast and fellow MGB owner Gareth Jackson has taken the hot seat, offering his thoughts on everything from the freshly launched Kia Picanto to the fearsome Ferrari FF.

You can check this week's episode out by clicking on the link below to see what guest Katie Massam and I think of a whole host of cars, and you can check out all the other broadcasts on the "Radio" link on the blog.

You can also get involved, if you've got an opinion about cars and don't mind having a microphone thrust in your face, by getting in touch.

Enjoy...

A tribute to an automotive icon

LIGHT up the candles and stick on a silly hat, because an icon of the automotive world is about to celebrate a momentous anniversary. One of my favourite cars of all time is approaching its fiftieth birthday bash.

Next month Jaguar's E-Type, which first wowed the world in 1961, will be almost exactly twice as old as I am, meaning it was long gone when I was young and impressionable and carefully nurturing my love of all things cars. I should have lusted after something faster and more modern from my own childhood, like an Aston DB7, any of TVR's offerings or even Jaguar's own XK8, but I didn't. At the tender age of ten all I wanted was an E-Type.

Not that our fifty-something's going to get off that easily, of course; read any of the classic car mags and you'll be well versed with all the E-Type horror stories that abound, like the cramped driving position in the early models, the 1960s reliability, the heart-stopping (but not car-stopping) brakes and the increasingly ugly styling modifications, spurred on by the ‘elf ‘n' safety conscious American market. Most notoriously of all, the only E-Types that would actually do the car's claimed top speed of 150mph were the souped-up ones lent to the press. It wasn't quite the bargain Ferrari-bater Jaguar made it out to be.

But this isn't a car you justify by numbers, particularly if you're looking at the £50,000 pricetag for a good one these days. The reason why I've always wanted an E-Type is because....well, just look at it. This isn't a car that's been designed for anything so boring as going to the shops. It's a rolling work of art that's been sculpted to go as single-mindedly fast as possible, like a 1950s jet fighter. Sure, I can think of lots of cars that are better all-rounders, but none that are anything like as beautiful.

I can also think of plenty of cars that come close to matching the E-Type on looks alone but, judging by a new top ten of my best looking cars of all time that you're free to comment and improve on, don't quite match the cat from Coventry:

1) Jaguar E-Type: For all the reasons listed above
2) TVR Griffith: The closest thing you'll get to a modern E-Type
3) Citroen DS: Looks like a Fifties spaceship, but that's a good thing
4) Austin-Healey 100: The best-proportioned small sports car of all time
5) Ferrari 458 Italia: The best looking new car on sale today
6) Mini Cooper S (original): Well, it had to be in here somewhere
7) Audi TT (1998 original): I hate the TT for lots of reasons, but it's still stunning
8) Ford GT40: In Gulf racing colours please
9) Land Rover Series One: An 80-Inch in Bronze Green is as stunning as the scenery it belongs in
10) Alfa Romeo 156 Sportwagon: Because estate cars can be beautiful too

So it's unfortunate that I blow the metaphorical candles on the E-Type's birthday cake out on a sad note, because I've never driven, ridden or even sat in one. To this day the closest I've ever got to Jaguar's greatest achievement is staring at one as it passes in the street.

Calls from E-Type owning readers to the usual Champion telephone number, please...