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Footballers’ rides at Stansted

Dan Trent writes:

Footballers eh. Nothing if not predictable in their car choices. Proof? Arriving at the private Inflite terminal at Stansted en route to the SEAT Alhambra launch this morning there was no room at the inn for the motoring hacks. Instead ranks and ranks of BMW X6s, Overfinch Range Rovers, Bentleys and other exotica, most bearing aftermarket wheels of some description of a diameter of 20 inches at least.

Yup, had to be footballers. Unless my fellow hacks have suddenly developed a taste for bling.

Footballers it was, Tottenham’s as it turns out.

And boy are they shameless. Surprisingly there were just a couple of supercars – an Aston DBS and a Lamborghini Gallardo – and a couple of Bentleys. The rest? SUVs, the bigger and more ostentatious the better. No fewer than nine Range Rovers, four of them Overfinch versions. Three X6s, one with a pretty outrageous Lumma widebody kit and carbon bonnet. Standard X6s being usually so shy and retiring of course. And an AMG G-Wagen too of course, on stupidly big wheels, natch.

My interest in football is such that I’m afraid you’re on your own if you want to try and match the cars up with the players who own them. But feel free to speculate!

More pics below…

Dan

  

 

 

 

 

 

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Why would you turbocharge a Murcielago LP670 SV?

Dan Trent writes:
I mean, why? After all, it’s got 670hp as it is. What possible reason could there be for adding a couple of turbos and boosting power to over 1000hp? Here’s one:
  
American turbo nutters, we salute you!

Dan
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Links:
Revealed: Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV
Underground Racing Murcielago twin turbo conversion
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The Jaguar the mafia couldn’t kill

Dan Trent writes:
There must be so much valuable knowledge crowded out of my brain by useless intel stored in there about cars. That’s the only explanation for the little alarm bell that went off in my head when I saw this red E-Type Jaguar at a ‘bring your own car day’ organised by the grand sounding Guild Of Motoring Writers at the weekend. I should have known my Clio wasn’t really going to cut it. But I gave it a scrub up and took it along anyway.

But what about that Jag? Well, as it happened I’d just days before been reading up on The Italian Job. And as soon as I saw the red E-Type I thought "that numberplate looks familiar…" and, sure enough, it turns out this is one of the three fast cars intercepted by the mafia as Michael Caine’s gang heads over the alps to Turin. The black E-Type coupe gets its roof stoved in. The Aston Martin DB4 Volante – "Yours? Pretty car…" – gets chucked over a cliff. Relatively speaking the red Jag gets off lightly, a mashed bonnet and broken windscreen the extent of the damage.

And this is the car! The owner of 30-odd years was only too happy to discuss the car’s fabulous history – it raced before appearing in the film – and he reckons it’s probably one of the only known survivors from the film. Suffice to say, I had to fire up the DVD when I got home. Any excuse!

There were some very cool cars around too and a diverse range of stuff. Like this Ferrari 355 parked alongside VW PR boss Paul Buckett’s 80-year-old Rolls Royce.

I was liking the fact it was parked next to a weathered old tractor too – nice contrast!

Here’s our very own Peter’s Lotus Elan too. Dinky!

Dan
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Volvo V60: press conference howlers

Dan Trent writes:
Ah, the car launch press conference. At its best a chance for clued-up execs to offer the nuggets of information above and beyond the how much/how fast/how green facts and figures supplied in the press pack. At its worst a pointless half-hour recitation of the above, delivered via an interpreter and delaying the all-important rush to the dinner table.

Volvo, however, went a bit leftfield for the V60. A stage, by a pool outside a flash Italian hotel. Thumping heavy metal to underline the point Volvo has – yeah! – kicked off its Birkenstocks and done got attitude. Or something like that.

On strides a suited gent, eyebrow cocked in a knowing manner. “Hi. I’m Dominic. And I’m going to spend the next 10 minutes of your time telling you about [insert Clarkson-esque pause and meaningful look around the bewildered audience] …the Volvo V60.”

Dominic then, clearly reading straight from the cue cards rather than some in-depth knowledge of the V60, held court, telling us such wonders as the V60 feels connected to the road by its steering wheel. Which is always good to know.

The façade slipped slightly when he fluffed his lines and referred to the V60’s saloon brother as the S-Sexy but that was an understandable Freudian slip given the alarmingly graphic pictures he’d have passed in the foyer of our ‘art’ hotel.

Dan

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Links:
First drive: Volvo V60
First drive: Volvo S60
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Racing the Le Mans champs

Ian Dickson writes

The buzz of Le Mans is coming to Silverstone on Sunday September 12 with an epic 1,000km, six-hour race around the new-and-improved track.

The usual big names will be there, including Audi’s Allan McNish who took the second spot at this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans.

To launch the forthcoming race, the organisers set-up a spectacular one-hour endurance kart race where amateur journalists were paired with legendary racing drivers including Anthony Davidson, Darren Turner, Rob Bell, Nigel Mansell’s sons and eight-times Le Mans winner Tom Kirstensen.

As luck would have it, I was partnered up with Tom, and while he made a great effort to get us up into seventh place, I didn’t quite have the skill – or low weight – to keep us there, eventually finishing in 11th place.

Of course, I blame the fact it started to rain down hard on the Daytona circuit at Sandown Park for my misfortune… what was embarrassing was how many times the same pros lapped me!

If you want to see the Le Mans giants race at Silverstone you can book tickets here

In pictures: Le Mans 2010
The world’s fastest ambulance
Audi wins at Le Mans
Behind the wheel of the Audi R15 TDI
The buzz from Le Mans

911 GT3 RS splashes out

Dan Trent writes:
So, ‘our’ 911 GT3 RS has just been collected. And, for the first time since it arrived on Monday, it’s stopped raining.

Given that it runs on scarily bald looking Michelin Pilot Cup Sport tyres you’d have thought this would be time for wailing and gnashing of teeth at fate ruining what should have been the ultimate drive in the ultimate 911.

Actually no. As I discovered when I did a rain-soaked lap of Wales in the standard GT3 these supposedly scary, bite you if you blink hardcore 911s are actually surprisingly usable in the wet. Check out this clip from the aforementioned Welsh roadtrip if you were in any doubt!
   
Two things help. First, the inherent mechanical grip these cars generate is simply incredible, come rain or shine. Second, there’s so much communication through the wheel and the seat of your pants you can feel how much grip there is, or isn’t, which removes a huge degree of the fear factor. It’s not foolproof and I did have a couple of slithers in yesterday’s torrential downpours (yes, I’m glad RS Porsches now have stability control…) but as long as you’re not being an idiot (see above) the GT3 and RS are so honest in their responses there’s a kind of natural comfort zone in which you find yourself.

Like the GT3 though it takes a while to feel entirely at home. Again, I started out tense, wired and more than a little nervy. And then, without really noticing, found I was relaxing into the seat, my grip on the wheel had relaxed a tad, my elbows had dropped and I was actually driving it properly. God it felt good!

And then a man came and took it away. I couldn’t care less that the sun’s now shining!

Dan
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Links:
911 GT3 vs Clio Cup
"I’m taking the day off"
Around Wales in a GT3
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