Fire up the... Toyota Prius

TOYOTA'S Prius at ten years old, is a global icon of the world's biggest car company, beloved of eco warriors and Hollywood actresses alike, and the first car you're likely to think of when it comes to saving the planet or saving at the pumps.

It is the hybrid.

Unfortunately, that means a quick science lesson. Hybrids are, as the name suggests, motors which use a mix of petrol and electricity to get you moving, with the
Toyota's 1.8 litre lump doing the sterling job of not only moving you about, but also helping to charge an electric battery, which in turn helps with the duties of swooshing along silently in traffic and in low speed parking manouveres.

Cast your eyes over the latest version, the third generation of the car, and it's definitely a love or hate job. Some of my passengers were instantly put off by the unusual proportions but to my mind it's the best looking Toyota hybrid to date, ditching the dowdy looks of its predecessor in favour of some crisp detailing, like the edgy headlights and alloy wheels.

It's the same story on the inside, which looks more like the cockpit of a spaceship than a rival to the Golf or Focus. The dials are replaced with a brilliantly bizarre computerised screen in the middle of that deep dashboard, and the gearstick is a minute, translucent blue affair which you'd swear has been nicked straight off a gaming console.

You have to forget the too-light steering and slightly stodgy handling and concentrate instead on learning the low speed coasting this car loves to get anywhere near the 70 miles to the gallon the Prius can and will do. There's even a game you can play to make it more fun; choose the animated display of the car's energy consumption on your car's Starship Enterprise display panel, and see how long you can get it to run on just electricity.

The Prius is also almost certainly a better bet than the rash of electric-only cars coming later this year, because after 100 miles on a longer trip you'll still be saving the planet long after the ‘leccy-driving do-gooders have run out of battery power and ground silently to a halt.

It's not an exciting car, but it is an impressive one.

As published in The Champion on January 26, 2011

When Top Gear used to have facts in it

THE chap at the bar, despite being someone I'd never met before, turned to me and went all car enthusiast on me.

"Where's your Mini, then?" he asked, deducing that as I was in the pub with mates from the local Mini owners' club, my notoriously fickle example would be outside in the car park, rusting quietly.

"Sold it. I've got an MG now," I responded, expecting that to be that, but a glint in his eyes somehow revealed I wasn't getting off that lightly.

"What sort of MG?" he asked.

"An MGB," I said, smug in the knowledge that the MGB, of course, is a proper MG, crafted centuries ago by stout chaps in the actual Morris Garages factory in the good old days. Not for me some Rover 25 with a Halfords bodykit. Unfortunately, I still wasn't going to be let off that lightly.

"What sort of MGB?"

Now usually I'd panic at this point because - as regular readers - will know, I'm a fully committed car enthusiast but not one who actually knows anything about how cars actually work. This could be a proper grilling from someone who actually knows how carburettors work. This could be embarrassing.

Luckily, the night before, I'd watched an old Public Information Film, which usually cover things like the Highway Code and why not to fish next to electricity pylons, but in this case it was an old Top Gear clip I'd found which might as well have been called Things you should know if you're about to get grilled by an MGB enthusiast. For once, I've actually learned something!

I'd like to lie and show you this clip I found on YouTube for the benefit of everyone who has even a vague interest in old sports cars, but really it's for the benefit of my dad, who despite knowing a trillion times more about cars than I do admits even he's got gaps in his knowledge of Britain's best selling roadster.

What's more, it's from an episode of proper Top Gear from ye olden days, so you get the idyllic image of an enthusiastic bumble through the countryside and some facts.

So there you have it, Mr Man at the Bar; I own a '72 GT in Harvest Gold with the 1.8 litre, BMC B-Series engine, four speed box with the desirable Overdrive option, Webasto sunroof and Rostyle steel wheels.

What's more, it's nearly finished and there's a summer of blasting it down country roads in the sunshine just a few months away. I can't wait.

Sorry, Mr Cameron, but £1.30 a litre is just too much

A MAN I interviewed for a piece in last week's Champion was preaching to the converted. His message? That the price you're paying at the pumps has GOT to come down.

I've known for ages that the cost of petrol and diesel has been ridiculous bordering on extortionate, but after a friendly natter with Mike Heybourne, a man whose business is getting people to where they want to go, I can't hold my breath on this one any longer. Something's really got to be done about the price of fuel at the moment.

If you're older than, say, ten, you might remember that way back in the year 2000, a band of truckers and cabbies got very cross with the price of diesel, blockaded the nation's fuel depots and swiftly brought the nation to a halt. Their beef was that a litre of diesel cost 85p. Now, a decade on, it's nudging £1.40.

Lots of people I've spoken to reckon it's only a matter of time before the blockades and go-slows are back, but I honestly don't think they'll make much difference ten years later. Those protests, and the ones against the war in Iraq and rises in tuition fees, let Governments know that people were cross. But they still went ahead with their plans anyway.

David Cameron's “fuel stabiliser”, which lowers duty as oil prices go up, and vice versa? I wouldn't hold your breath on this one, especially after Danny Alexander, a fellow member of the Coalition, said the Government wouldn't “sacrifice income willy nilly” to help motorists already being made poorer by a string of cuts they've made elsewhere.

Nor do I think the Government's preferred alternative - the long line of electric cars being launched this year - is any good, partly because the majority of the UK's charging points are in London and partly because electric cars are slow, expensive and stupid. Until I can get in one and drive it to North Wales, like I did with the cars in last week's Champion column, I'll still need a normal car - hybrid or not, they still have to burn things that died millions of years ago - anyway.

A normal car, I'll remind Dave Cameron next time I pass him riding his bike with ministerial Jag in tow, is really expensive to run at £1.30 a litre.

Lexus should be so lucky

SUPPOSE you're a car company renowned for making your motors big. Quiet, endlessly reliable and full of eco-gizmos, naturally, but still big.

You then do something that's been in vogue with big car makers for ages and launch a small one, but you don't want to be embarrassed by it looking so, well, small. Need to make it look a little larger? No problem. Just hire a pintsized popstar to promote it.

That's the impression I got today after looking at the pictures accompanying Lexus' genius idea of getting Kylie Minogue to promote the CT 200h, who in return will get the Japanese company to sponsor her 2011 tour. Nothing wrong with that - Seat is, after all Shakira's latest collaborator - or Kylie herself, whose particular brand of not-at-all-inspired-by-Daft-Punk dance electropop actually sounded brilliant on her last album. But she looks tiny next to that car!

Belinda Poole, Lexus director, explained the tie-up by saying: "Kylie is the perfect ambassador for Lexus and the new Lexus CT 200h."

"Kylie has the energy, style and exceptionally popular public profile that will reach directly to customers new to the Lexus brand."

Readers old enough to remember Kylie in her gold hotpants days will already know she's done this sort of automotive promotion work before, when Ford scored the PR coup of the Noughties by getting her to pose with the StreetKa . To this day I still won't drive a StreetKa because it's the first image that springs to mind when anyone utters the phrase "girly car", but it and Kylie were made for each other, because it's as sprightly, good looking and stylish as she is. More importantly, it was small and actually looked as though Ford had tailor-made it just for her.

Putting Kylie next to the CT-200h doesn't work because the evidence presented above doesn't make it look bigger - it just makes her look smaller, and despite my best efforts I can't help conclude she's still the more stylish of the two. With the StreetKa, it was a partnership of equals.

To this day, I cannot picture Kylie Minogue driving anything else.

The north west's motorsport stars of the future

A LITTLE Lewis Hamilton from Westhead is proving so successful he's now taking part in a tougher series of races designed to help his talent go full-throttle.

Ben Deeming (pictured above, front left) might be just seven years old but he's already tipped to be a motorsport star of the future after grabbing the lap record in the Formula Bambino at the Daytona kart track in Manchester - and to keep up with him and his racing rivals the track's managers have revised the race series to ensure it keeps up to speed with their talent.

“The quality and continual improvement they have shown has surpassed any of our expectations. It is rare to see children this young posses such drive, ambition and dedication,” said Nick Hughes, general manager.

“They are qualities we want to continue to nurture, not put on hold, hence the changes to the Formula Bambino structure.”

Ben Deeming became one of the stars of the Formula Bambino series, which was instigated in 2009 and is aimed at youngsters aged between five and seven years old, after he took a lap record at the circuit and impressed much older and more experienced racers with his pace behind the wheel.

In a series of changes aimed at nurturing the youngsters' talent further still Daytona has introduced a brand new points-scoring championship with leaderboard and podium presentations included, with racing is conducted solely against each other’s lap times and any overtaking is controlled by track marshalls ensuring optimum safety for the Bambinos on the 450m adult track. Only Bambino drivers who have advanced through all the introductory levels are eligible to take part.

“Daytona has given kids like Ben the opportunity to take part in something that’s exciting and that allows healthy and safe competition at this age,” said Jeff Deeming, Ben's father.

“Ben has grown as an individual as he takes lessons learned on the track into his everyday life. It’s fantastic to see and something we will continue support him and Daytona.”

For more information on Daytona Manchester’s Bambino Karting visit www.daytona.co.uk/venues/manchester/juniors or call 0161 876 0876.

The Life On Cars Radio Show

WHILE I could have used the new MP3 dictaphone in The Champion office for something vaguely useful, I've used it to record a show about cars instead.

As part of a venture for ChampRadio, the paper's new online radio station, I offered to do a recorded version of the banter you're probably used to reading on here and in the back pages of a certain local newspaper. It's essentially a follow up to what I did with Dune FM - the last show was in June last year - but with a more of an emphasis on new cars on their way to a showroom near you.

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.

Until then, enjoy...

Prepare to fire up the... Ford Focus

IF you or I got reached the grand old age of 100, chances are we'd probably celebrate with a bottle of bubbly and a telegram from the Queen.

But Ford of Britain's chosen to mark the centenary of launching a massively successful motor car for the people - the Model T - by launching another massively successful motor car for the people. If the third generation of the Focus isn't on every high street in the land by the end of this year, I will do a Champion report on me eating my words.

You only have to look at the sales figures to know why I can confidently predict how fast the new Focus will sell; in 2010, the blue oval sold no less than 77,804 of the old, outgoing model, meaning in terms of new car sales it was only beaten by the Fiesta and Astra, both of which are much newer models.

First launched in 1998, the Focus proved a sales hit after proving you don't have to be a car bore to appreciate a hatchback that's a hoot to drive, as the crisply-engineered first generation definitely was. The second generation might not have had the edgy styling of the original but it moved the game on again in 2004, meaning the all-new Focus has a tough act to follow.

Starting at £15,995 for the 1.6 petrol Edge model, the new Focus is promising to use smart technology in its battle to win back the hatchback sales crown from the Vauxhall Astra, including digital radio (DAB), Bluetooth and USB connectivity, voice control of key convenience features, Thatcham Category 1 alarm, Ford Easy Fuel (to prevent misfuelling), front, side and curtain airbags, ESP, ABS and Isofix child seat attachments.

It'll also include the company's new Torque Vectoring Control, which it says will make the Focus follow in its forebear's fun-to-drive footstesps, and an ST hot hatch version is expected in showrooms soon after the more basic models.

So many happy returns, Ford of Britain, and I look forward to seeing the Focus just about everywhere over the next few months.