CanadianDriver was invited to a media preview of General Motors’ show display at the Detroit Auto Show, and they can report that quite a few new cars will be unveiled.

The cars include the eagerly awaited Chevy Camaro Convertible, a new Chevrolet Aveo, an extensively revised Malibu, production versions of the Chevrolet Spark (Pictured above) and Orlando, a high-performance Buick Regal, and a GMC version of the Chevy Orlando, which will be called the GMC Granite.

The Camaro Convertible will be just that, a Camaro Convertible. Don’t expect any changes apart from the roof.

The new Malibu was unexpected. It’s been only three years since the car underwent a complete revamping. The mock-up on display showed that the bodywork will be more sculptured, the metal will have crisper edges, and there will be larger wheel arches and a raised rear deck.

The Aveo gets bigger for its update. It was designed in Korea, but will be produced in several plants around the world for different markets. The North American market will have it built in the US. There will be hatchback and sedan variants.

The production Chevy Spark won’t be far off from the concept (Pictured above). It was designed for the youth market. The interior will get a unique gauge cluster with an enormous tachometer and digital speedometer mounted to the steering column.

The Orlando won’t be far from its concept either. It is based on the Aveo. It will get seven-passenger seating and a four-cylinder engine. GMC’s version of the Orlando, the Granite, is being called an “urban utility vehicle”, and will be the smallest GMC ever made. It is targeted at a younger market than the Orlando. It will have to compete with the likes of the Honda Element, Kia Soul and Nissan Cube, so it should be a funky looking car. Autoblog predicts that a Denali version should be on the way.

The high-performance Buick Regal is something I’ve been really hoping for. Most of its performance parts will be taken from the Opel Insignia OPC/Vauxhall Insignia VXR. The Regal, including this high-performance model, supposedly called the GS,will be built in Europe for the 2011 model year, but production will be moved to Oshawa, Canada for 2012.

Lastly, Jalopnik got invited to this event as well, and they noticed on the floor plan that there was a car called the “XTS Showcar”. This is presumably the concept Cadillac previewed a few days ago. A while ago, there was a closed media event where General Motors previewed some cars, and one of them was a concept called the XTS and it was supposed to succeed the STS/DTS. So maybe this is what we’ll be seeing. Alex noticed that the car has 4-doors in the preview picture, making this even more likely.

Sounds like General Motors will have a very interesting lineup at the Detroit Auto Show.

Source: CanadianDriver via Autoblog and Jalopnik

By far the most commonly spotted Insignia model on the road is the 2.0CDTi.

The A20DTH engine leaves the factory with a healthy 165bhp and combines good fuel economy too.

However both these areas can be enhanced.

An example of the CDTi came to us recently for an EDS software remap.

Power is lifted to 200bhp, torque increases to 350ftlbs

The Drive-by-wire electronic throttle is improved with a sharper response time, the Rev limits are raised and on long runs you will see improved fuel economy too!

Software is available for both Manual and Automatic transmissions.

Regal Autosport recommends Millers Oils Diesel Sport 4 fuel additive to maximise Performance and Fuel Economy.

To book your Insignia in for a software in please contact us on 02380 558636.

Shopping on the list, I accompanied a friends around Vauxhall’ s answer to salvaged architectural antiques and curiosities… Lassco!

What a supprise! I have a new favourite shop! There are three floors of everything you can imagine including amazing stained glass panels, huge glass tables, old lamps and chandeliers as well as the odd vase. Here are a few I snapped. Please have a search through this awesome collection of glass.

http://www.lassco.co.uk/

Enquiries, Dominque Goodwin: +44 (0)20 7394 2100

& the address should any of you be inclined to check it out for yourselves

30 Wandsworth Rd, Lambeth, London SW8 2LG, UK

Imagine if cars made shoes, would that mean they have the ability to walk without slipping, cushion your toes if your trip or shine lights on the floor at night to show you where you’re walking. I wish they would because lately in this weather walking has been an utter disaster. It would be nice to have a shoe that comes with all safety features of my Vauxhall. Essex has been wet, icy, and snowy, and was far too dangerous to go shopping last weekend, even in my Uggs i was sliding all over the place. Perhaps cars should make heels and save us women from some battered knees and huge heel replacement bills.

General Motors has always been a big car company.  Soon after its founding in 1908 with the Buick division, they acquired Oldsmobile, then Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, Rapid Motors and Reliance Truck, and later Chevrolet. So, it’s no wonder that their strategy has always embodied the “bigger is better” mantra, expanding to new divisions to fill perceived holes and purchasing rivals when they felt the price was right.

But as we all now know, this strategy was not necessarily the right one. Focusing on the current divisions owned (or recently sold/shuttered) by GM, here’s how I feel each division should be handled.

Chevrolet:  The blue-collar brand with the blue bow tie.  This division should be GM’s bread and butter, directly competing with Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda.  These cars should be everyman’s vehicles; reasonably priced with the features that the public expects out of their vehicles.  Reliability and value should be the focus of the Chevrolet brand.

Cadillac:  “The Standard of The World” needs to put up or shut up with that phrase.  It was true 40 years ago, it’s not anymore.   That being said they have a competent lineup with some exciting product, and if they can move past the “bling” era of Escalades and come out with some cars that are truly world beaters, they could be The Standard again.

Buick: I’m not sure anyone outside of China really cares about Buick anymore.  The new Lacrosse is a great car cursed with a poor brand image.  Were it up to me, Buick would become a division in China only.  The LaCrosse would be mildly re-skinned as an entry-level Cadillac, giving it the name to truly compete with the Lexus ES350.

GMC Truck: I have often wondered, what is the point of GMC truck?  Every vehicle they sell (or ever have sold) has an identical vehicle sold by Chevrolet, just with a slightly different grille.  So, I ask, why would you split the sales of your full size truck, a very competitive segment, in half?  I don’t think there are that many people who absolutely prefer one brand’s grille over the other.  GMC Truck should go back to what GMC Truck used to do: Commercial trucks, medium duty and above, leaving the light duty and SUV categories to Chevrolet to cover.  Who knows, a “unified” Chevrolet Silverado might just give the Ford F-150 a run for its money.

Saab: GM Purchased 50% of Saab in 1989 and purchased the remaining 50% in 2000.  I’m still trying to figure out why. The second 50% was likely in response to Ford’s purchase of Volvo in 1999 and the Daimler-Chrysler merger in 1998.  Saab never had the reputation Volvo or Mercedes have, so it still seems like a superfluous purchase to me.  All I’ve ever really known of Saab is that they like to put their ignition in a funny place.   I’ve ridden in a couple 9-5 and 9-3’s over the years as my girlfriends grandparents are Saab owners, and they’re comfortable cars and well featured, if a bit small and expensive.   The Saab name has value, maybe not as much as GM would like to get out of it, but some money is better than no money.  The sell strategy should stay.

Saturn: The division that was to revolutionize GM when it was launched in 1990 became the butt of many jokes about GM’s badge engineering strategy 10 years later.  The original Saturn SL and SC’s were fantastic cars.  Well built, and reliable, I have quite a few friends still running ones that have seen more abuse than any car should.  But the Ion which replaced it was a piece of junk, and each vehicle that came after it was something you could get at any other GM store.  Oddly enough that strategy changed slightly towards the end; the Astra was a rebadged Opel, and your Saturn store was the only place in the US you could get one.  Decent car, but too little, too late to save Saturn.  The name doesn’t have the history to carry it back to glory, so I think the sell strategy should stick around.  Like Saab, GM should take what it can get.

Hummer: Can you think of any brand that rose and fell faster than Hummer?  A victim of a sudden change in consumer taste due to insanely high oil prices, Hummer’s name is now synonymous with the excesses of the early 2000’s, global warming, and needing to compensate for something.  I’ve never been a huge Hummer fan; probably because I grew up in a Jeep household and own a Jeep myself.  I’ve found them too big and lumbering to be truly useful off-road, although the H2 I drove on a GM test loop in Las Vegas did better than I was expecting.  Selling Hummer was the right move, as I don’t think it will stop being the climate change whipping-boy anytime in the near future.  GM should use what it learned with Hummer to produce some Chevrolet SUV’s that can better compete with Jeep and Toyota; that means take the good from Hummer and put it in a smaller package.

Pontiac:  Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been calling for their demise for years.  Good riddance.  Although I would have sold the brand off.

Daewoo: GM purchased Daewoo, a Korean car manufacturer, in 1999.  GM had worked joint ventures with Daewoo prior to this, resulting in forgettable products such as the 1986 Pontiac LeMans.  Daewoo sold its own line of cars in the US briefly in the mid 90’s.  Nobody, other than my neighbor who owns one seemed to notice.  GM bought Daewoo for their small car expertise.  Considering the reputation of Korean auto manufacturing at the time, that seems like a joke to me.  Daewoo seems to be about 15 years behind Hyundai and Kia in product quality, and GM had two much better small car partners in Suzuki and Subaru, not to mention the NUMMI venture with Toyota.  All GM seemed to buy from Daewoo was their problems.  Sell it; maybe Hyundai would be interested.

Holden: Some of the coolest GM North America products in the past few years have come out of Holden, but nobody seems interested in them other than car enthusiasts.  They sell very well in Australia, and have done well for decades making good cars on a shoestring budget without much help from GM central.  These are your inside-outsiders who need to be promoted up to corporate to spread that knowledge around.

Vauxhall/Opel: I put these two together because they sell the same cars in different European markets.  They’re doing well, and make some great product that unfortunately costs too much to be viable in America.  Both are necessary to GM’s image as a global car maker, and should not be sold.  While the cars themselves are too expensive for North America, they pilot quite a bit of technology that GM can use globally.

Thats it for now.  A smaller, leaner GM is the GM of the future, shedding any divisions that it doesn’t need.  My next few blogs will focus on business level strategy for each brand and their models.

This is the most important part of the nominees list. This where the the Car of the Year nominees are listed. It’s not the longest list of nominees, but choosing should be hard, as all the contenders are quite good ones.

Car of the Year

Yes, this is the big one. The best car of the year. This must excel in everything. It should be able to satisfy the little child in you, while taking you shopping and your children to school safely and comfortably. Price shouldn’t be too high either.

Volkswagen Golf: Great looks, plenty of practicality, comfortable and it’s good fun, especially in GTI form.

Mazda3: The new small Mazda is based on the Ford Focus so it drives brilliantly. It’s also cheaper than the Ford, it’s built with the same quality and it looks good.

Vauxhall/Opel Astra: As they did with the Insignia, Opel/Vauxhall broke tradition (one more time) with the new Astra, giving it a modern design.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class: Alex isn’t a fan of the styling but the new E-Class offers a very complete package combined with classic Mercedes quality.

There you are then. All the nominees are now out there. We’ll be working on picking out the best of the best to bring you the winners. We’re already running into arguments, so it won’t be easy and we can’t predict when the winners will be released.

The following Corsa C is a car that has climbed it’s way up the scale from regular run-around to a 200bhp street sleeper.

The Z14XEP powered car was originally brought to us by the customer wanting a modest power increase in the form of the Dbilas flowmaster and intake manifold. This saw power lifted from the factory figure of 88bhp to a more than healthy 115bhp at the flywheel.

After a while, this increase just did not cut the mustard and the dbilas upgrade to the full turbo kit was organised along with a Bastuck cat back exhaust to mate up to the Dbilas downpipe.

With the kit installed and software mapped to suit the car made a strong 180bhp on the Regal Mustang Dyno.

The “Exclusiv” trim level and standard appearance right down to the factory alloy wheels has generated a lot of second glances and embarrassed a number of cars, both on the road and during visits to Santa Pos and Shakespeare raceway.

However, even 180bhp, the power was not deemed to be enough and the lightweight, revvy little 1.4T Corsa C and the car was booked back in to us for even further improvements to bring the motor up to our full “Stage II” specification.

This consisted of:

* Bottom end rebuild consisting of Low Compression Pistons & Steel Con-Rods.
* Upgraded Turbocharger to Stage II spec.
* Large Front mount intercooler.
* Front mounted air to oil cooler radiator.

In addition to the engine performance enhancements the brakes were also upgraded from the OE 256mm items up to 280mm EBC Turbogroove rotors and Corsa VXR EBC Redstuff pads to improve braking while still allowing the use of the factory alloy wheels to upkeep the Street Sleeper approach.

Here are a few pictures of the engine bay and cooler setup:

The car is currently in the final stages of being run in and it will be back at the end of this week/beginning of next for a full power run and we are expecting to see 200bhp! We will post the Dyno Sheet when the car is back in.

The Flowtech manifold upgrade with included software is £1085.

The Stage 1 Dbilas turbo kit is priced £4500.

Stage 2 upgrades are priced on request. Please let us know your individual requirements and we can put a package together to suit.

The above parts are available for many more of the “z-series” engines, so even if you do not own a Z14XEP motor specifically we will still be able to assist.

Please call us on 02380 558636 to discuss any of the above options.

Continuing with Car of the Year nominees, here’s the second part. Family Car of the Year and Cheap Car of the Year are here.

Family Car of the Year

This is where we choose the ideal car for people with big families. Lots of space is an absolute must.

Fiat Doblo: Looks great, seats plenty of people, and it’s quite economical as well.

Toyota Sienna: The looks are a bit iffy in some places, but it promises sporty handling with a comfortable ride, great interior, and plenty of room.

Volvo XC60: A good looking car with a great, spacious interior. Very safe as well.

Vauxhall/Opel Insignia Sports Tourer: New Vauxhalls/Opels have said good bye to their old, conservative, ugly ancestors and buried them in the middle of nowhere. As a result they now make good cars and this good looking estate Insignia is one of them

Dacia Duster: A funky looking car with plenty of space, promising a low price tag.

Citroen C3 Picasso: Funky Citroen looks, with plenty of practicality and a reasonable price.

Cheap Car of the Year

These are cars for those of us who don’t want to, or simply can’t, spend too much money. Price range we set is 25,000 CAD and under.

Renault Twingo: A nice looking car with good handling and interior. Comes in a fantastic Renaultsport trim too.

Ford Fiesta: Ford has launched the new Fiesta hatch in 2008 in Europe but not in North America so we actually found an excuse to nominate it as it is a very, very good supermini.

Volkswagen Polo: This small, German hatchback has actually won the European Car of the Year Award but that’s not important as now it faces the most important test ever: Will it be our Cheap Car of the Year?

Former Chester City striker Paul Taylor

Former Chester City and Vauxhall Motors striker Paul Taylor will make an astonishing move to Belgian giants Anderlecht in January.

Taylor, 22, born in Liverpool and a former Manchester City trainee honed his skills at Vauxhall, scoring 17 goals in their 2007-08 campaign in the Blue Square North. His good goal scoring record attracted many admirers and eventually Chester City, then in League Two, signed him initially on loan with a view to a permanent transfer worth a five figure sum.

Taylor’s career then hit the rocks when he failed a drugs test whilst at Chester. The striker’s sample had traces of cocaine in it. Chester released him and he was given a six month playing ban.

When his six month’s were up Taylor made a surprising career move. He signed for R.R.F.C. Montegnée – a former Bradford City feeder team – who play in Belgium’s 5th division. Their new English manager Paul Topping had heard about Taylor and decided to snap him up. He became the club’s top scorer and his class clearly shone through.

In late November the Belgian press began to report that several Belgian First Division clubs, including Standard Liège and Anderlecht had shown an interest in Taylor. Taylor spent a few days on trial at both clubs and now Anderlecht have confirmed that Taylor will be joining them on January 1st.

So it looks like Taylor – who has always had bags of ability – has finally put his demons behind him. And when he is playing for Anderlecht in the Europa League, those cold nights at Rivacre Park will seem a long time ago.

Few local party fundraisers attract three members of the House of Lords, even when one of them is the host, but (Lord) Chris and (Lady) Ann Rennard opened their house in Stockwell this evening for a soirée in honour of Vauxhall’s LibDem PPC, Caroline Pidgeon, GLAM, at which the star attraction was former Liberal Democrat leader (Lord) Paddy Ashdown (whose London base is in Kennington) – and at which the Party President, (Baroness) Ros Scott, was also present. Paddy was eloquent over the cocktail sausages about the three challenges he believes are facing Britain: financial, international and existential. Perhaps the last needs a little explaining, before people run for their Jean-Paul Sartre: in other words, the environmental threats to our planet. As world leaders haggle over climate change-related targets in Copenhagen, the Conservatives under David Cameron are trying to paint themselves green, but unconvincingly so, in Paddy’s opinion. He also, for what it is worth, thought Gordon Brown will go right through to May, rather than risking a March general election. Either way, there will be many thousands of leaflets for activists to deliver in Lambeth and beyond. 

Link: http://vauxhall-libdems.org.uk

Well more a sort of slide than a launch, but given what Vauxhall have been through this last year or so, it was inevitable I suppose. The reason why I singled this presentation out was not because it was slick and swift in it’s execution, but because the idea behind it used the digital media well and fused (rather than integrated) with other medias, taking the ATL idea and instead of just providing matching luggage it actually enhanced the idea and dealt with an extremely awkward and unhelpful launch schedule.

Essentially the ATL idea was based around a special agent of some sorts sneaking around taking photos of the car in testing at some X files like base in the Black Forest. This gave us a good territory to play with but it was the media schedule that was going to be the problem.

As with a lot of car launches they wanted to try and keep the car under wraps for as long as possible. Initially the timing plan looked almost impossible, but once the idea started to develop we noticed that this timing plan actually helped us. The main problem was the April car show where the car was going to be revealed. So we had to start in February without being able to show the car at all. After April we could use the car, but the ATL would not start until August, so we had to some how keep the concept alive until then.

So when we started we couldn’t actually release any shots of the car, however there were some new technological developments that they felt gave the car the edge that we could use if we wanted to.

‘Hackers’ are basically are the support group for the guy that we see in the TV commercial. If he is Fox Mulder, then these guys are the ‘Lone Gunman’ individuals. So the during the initial phase these guys hacked into the much protected Insignia database and stole technological information about the the Insignia and leaked it into the digital ether, using various tricks, codes, trails and disguises.

Come the show the car is launched in all it’s glory, however, on the last day these guys steal the car from Earl’s Court (giving Vauxhall their news worthy PR stunt) and go on the run. While on the run they set up an online TV station from the car and use the guise of being on the run to take it on tour around the country so people could come and see the car a certain secret locations.

Unfortunately, as I intimated at the beginning, this launch plan didn’t go to plan, mainly to to the fact that a lot of the technology they were so proud of was not going to be ready in time for the launch.

>see hackers

Remember this?

Well, after many hours of cruising (and scraping) I decided it was time for a tune and an electric fan to help the old girl into the 30+ mpg club.

Out with the old fixed original fan…

and in with the new… I’m not the most savvy when it comes to wiring and electrics, so wiring in a fan and it actually working was a result!

With that done it was tune-up time; old-skool style!

Gas tester plugged in the back

Color tune up front

If you’ve not seen one before, it’s a spark plug with a viewing window in it so you can see the colour of the combustion: White-ish = lean, Rich Blue = Stoich, Rich = Orange.  This is retro tuning at its best!

Here’s a pic of it running looking down the viewing tube:

Runs much better now!  Should be less juicy too.

General Motors has declared that Opel/Vauxhall is in need of a minicar, something to compete with the Ford Ka and Peugeot 107.

Opel released a minicar concept called the Trixx five years ago, but it never made it to production. Many, many manfucaturers are in the minicar market, with more to come, so a move like this was expected eventually.

General Motors also mentioned that they were considering a battery powered electric car. There were reports a couple of months ago that they were considering teaming with Reva (Makers of the awful G-Wiz) to make an electric Chevy Spark, so that might be what they’re talking about.

Source: Autoblog

More of the same can be found here.

Car’s, car’s are fantastic! I love them.  I’m not the sort of petrol head who has he head under the bonnet, apart from one car… more about that in a bit.  But I do enjoy a good car, and a good car to drive.  I love the fun of driving, hearing the engine roaring as you accelerate past the granddad in the Rover 200 going 60mph on the dual carridge way.
I love the way they look, the way they feel, and the way they sound.

I passed my driving test January 7th 2004, I was at college at the time, well, technically I was at home as I was still on christmas holidays.  But college is a time of adventure, and excitement, you go to a classroom in normal clothes! NORMAL CLOTHES! and passing that driving test is a big deal, it automatically makes you want to drive everywhere.  I often followed the bus to college, then drove around for 10minuets trying to find a space, but I didn’t care, because I had a car, and those losers on the “pikey waggon” were jealous because I didnt have to pick up screaming kids… with their babies in push-chairs.  It took me three attempts to pass, but I was proud to say that following my stupid mistakes on the first two attempts, I had 2 minor faults on my third and final test.  Anyway, onto cars…

The First – 1986 Nissan Micra (aka scrap on wheels)

However much I loved having my car, this was by a long shot, not my first choice. “We will buy your first car Antony” I believe was what my parents said.
had I known it was going to be a Micra, I maybe would have saved some money and bought that DB9 I had my eye on.  Ungreatfulness aside, it was a car, it was        transport and it was mine, independence finally!.  What I had noticed though was my sister had it before me, and then my mum before her, and a random uncle from Australia bought it as a run about when he was over here for a month.  Anyway, it was a 900cc engine, light and agile as I proved when I took it to savenake forest and somehow did a few doughnuts in it… on the wet grass and with sheer terror in my eyes and my mates inside not sure whether to laugh or cry.
This particular car I had for about 2years, I remember driving to my first proper job in it, in shirt and tie, in what can only be described as scrap metal with wheels.  I got that job, and due to difficult parking by stupid mothers watching their childrens school play they half blocked me in the carpark, me, being tired on a Friday, got fed up and just squeezed on through, I heard a crunch, an almighty crunch.  I shit my pants.  I looked out, no damage on the stupid mother parker’s car… didnt notice anything on my car either, I smiled, and drove home.  My folks were out shopping, they came in and said “Antony, why is there a gigantic dent in your car?” “hmm” I thought outloud, whilst inside my head was saying “shitty shit shitterson!” “I dont know, what side is it on?” “Passenger side” “That bloody ass! there was someone parked right close to my car, they must’ve dented it as they got out or somthing”.  To this day I’ve not told them, I just hope they dont read this blog.

This car met its end however, driving it to Bristol Zoo as I’d never been down the M4 with some friends, I forgot it was a 900cc and felt embarrassed when I was overtaken by a lorry… I went a little to fast for the rev-counter popped the head-gasket and she laid in a bed of smoke, shortly followed by a heap of scrap metal whilst I pocketed £20 for selling it to the scrappy.  May she rest in peace.

The Project – 1972 MG B GT (aka Passion wagon)

This was, is, and always will be my baby.  My dad restored a 1971 MG Midget, he joined an MG  Club, I went with him to shows, I saw my first ever MG B GT at the age of 12 and from that day I said “I will have one of those, I will”.  Surely enough, at the age of 17, I got one, I finally got one.  For a bargain of a price too, FREE! yes, thats right, I got my 1972 tax-exempt 1.8ltr MG B GT for free.  It needed work, a lot of work, I’d say in-total I spent about £2000 on it, which isn’t much considering what was done, countless man hours from myself and my dad, shivering in the garage with only a welder for heat, and cups of tea being made and turning ice-cold the moment they went through the garage door threshold.  However, throughout my learning to drive, she was slowly getting to be ready, ready for her debut.  I couldn’t wait.  Then, one day, as I pulled up from college my dad was just putting the petrol cap on and handed me the keys… “Give it a go” he said… From sticking that long skinny key, into her ignition for the first time I remember it clear as day… *cahchunk, cahchunk* “Give it some gas!” my dad yelled over the noise … *VAAAAHHHHRooooooooooom!!!* she sounded a treat, such a nice meaty sound, the sort of sound that would put fear into the hearts of vikings.  It was a glorious moment hearing her engine for the first time.  She was such a fun car to drive, being that low to the road, however it’d be a while before I could afford the insurance on it, £2000 was my initial quote, I had to sigh, admit defeat and put it in my dads name and be a named driver.

I drove this car just for the sheer hell of driving, I’d set out “I’ll be back when I’m back” I’d shout to my folks “Where are you going?”  “Where ever the road takes me” I’d say back.  The thrill of going around the corners of country lanes with the window down, the sound of the engine coming through the window… floor… everywhere, it was fantastic, people stopping to watch you pass, other MG drivers flashing and waving as we passed, it was a sort of “Oh congratulations, you got rid of all the rust too… still have orange snot?”.  I think my favorite thing to do in this car, was because it was clearly a classic with the chrome bumpers, was when being overtaken (only because I’d let them) by chavs in their Nova’s, I’d re-over-take them, whack the over-drive on and absolutely fly past them, I’d often try to see their reaction in the mirrors and occasionally I’d see the look of “eh? me not know what happened”.  Classic.  There was also numerous troubles with this car too, being old, it broke down, luckily I had a fairly adequate knowledge of what to do.  Most of the time it required a phone call, but not always.  If it wasnt for spare parts in the car, I think it’d gone a bit faster.

One memorable problem I have from this car, was filling her up on a cracking Thursday morning for my drive out to Ramsbury where I worked at the time, £40 I put in, drove to work, got out, sniffed the fresh country air… not this time… what greeted me was not tweeting birds, but the smell of petrol, quite strong-smelling petrol… I looked under, and sure enough, a pretty much constant flow of fuel coming from my tank, I look back up the road, and sure enough, a trail all the way back to Sainsburys filling station (I couldn’t see that far but I guessed).  I pop my head in the door “I’m here, but I gotta go, I have a slight leak on my fuel tank, and would rather it doesnt blow up… by slight, I mean stream.” They were a pretty cool bunch and said thats fine, I drive home, syphon out the rest of the fuel by sucking it through a garden hose, which is never nice.  Get my sister to drive me to Bristol to buy a new fuel tank, and get back fit it, check all the seals, cross my fingers putting fuel back in, and thats that it’s a car again.  £170 it cost me in fuel that day.  Wasn’t best pleased.  But I forgave her straight away.  I could talk for hours about this car, I really could, I had to stop driving her for a little while as I wanted to do some further work on her, I never fully got around to it, I bought the next car reluctantly during that off time, and then when she was ready, she rode the roads again up until November 2008, when I very very very very reluctantly sold her as I couldn’t afford to get her how I wanted her to be, I had neither the time nor the money, plus she didnt like cold mornings.  I put her on eBay, and got an unsatisfactory £1700 for her, she’s now with some rich dude just outside London along side a bunch of other classic cars, I hope she’s having fun.  I miss you.

1997 Rover 200 – (aka The Inbetweener)

Those eagle-eyed readers will realise that in my opening paragraph I said about granddads in rover 200’s… well, this was nothing different.
Sadly in 2005, my Gramps died of cancer, my Gran, she couldn’t drive, so had his car sat in the garage, not doing much at all.  She was looking to sell it, and I was looking for an inbetweener car whilst the B was being tarted up.  I decided that I would buy this car from my gran.  It’s a diesel, big 2ltr engine in it, when I first sat in it, from having the B, first thought was it feels like I’m in a bus, there is so much windscreen here, second thought after turning it on, reversing, and using the steering wheel was “Crap, I think somethings wrong with the steering?! it shouldn’t be this easy should it?”  silly Antony forgot that new cars have power steering didnt he.  That was a novelty for the first two weeks, then it wore off.  Much like permanent marker pen after a drunken night around a mates and waking up to find it all over your face.  That’s another tale.  Anyway, I don’t have anything fantastic to say about this car, it was white, it used diesel, so it sounded like a tractor, and tractors look cool.  Once the B was back on the road, I then sold it to my mum, who still drives it to this day… she’s getting old you see, we’ll get her on the worthers originals soon.  I then went back to the B as stated previous till November 2008.

2003 Vauxhall Corsa  – (aka Robbin)

This is my current car, its nice, its small, its cheap tax, economical, I read reviews, I looked at top gear, I checked insurance quotes, I searched auto-trader, I bought it.  Now red was not my choice, I wanted a black one, because black is cool.  Red, not so much, not a fan of red cars, but 1 previous owner, low mileage, and a competitive price, I would be foolish not to go for this car.  It was the replacement of my precious MG B GT, and I wanted it to be a good replacement, I feel I made a good choice, it’s not the car I want to stick with for ever though, it’s a good drive, its nippy off the lights as long as you have the right gear and the clutch ready to go.  It’s fairly sporty looking, and I like the interior.  What pisses me off though is that it’s cost me more bloody money in its first year than any of my other cars, including the MG B GT.  For the first MOT I got for this car, I got a full service to keep it up to date, £100 but worth it if it’ll keep the value of the car up when I come to re-sell, £40 for the MOT… I get a phone call “I’m afraid it’s failed the MOT, the steering rack is wearing out on one side, you can either get it replaced by Vauxhall just the side, or for another £60 you can get the whole thing replaced today by us as the other side may wear out come next MOT”  “How much?” “£400 including the service”  “Fuck me” was my response.  Luckily we got it down to £330, but it’s still a lot of money.  But other than that, it’s a nice car to drive, and the works been done now, so if in a year you want to buy it, look me up!.  It’s a nice car as I’ve said, I’ve done a fair amount of driving in it, but I don’t get that sense of driving from it, now Im used to it, it seems sluggish, no real power there when trying to over-take, its got pace, but it just takes a while to get there.  Brilliant car for someone with a low student budget who wants a nice looking car etc.  Ooh, it also had its window smashed when I was at a gig, playing.  Nothing taken, just smashed for shits and giggles by little shitty shits.  So really, this car isn’t very lucky for me, I don’t mind driving it, but I don’t get a real buzz whilst driving it.  Thats where the future comes in…

The Future – Mini Cooper S

This is my car of the future, once I finish uni, and have been in my job a few months, I am getting one of these, I’ve always liked the Mini, from the old classics, to the new style as seen here.  The Mini Cooper S (MCS), is not only a sexy piece of car, but it also goes like the clappers as standard, with a bit of extra tuning and a few tweaks, you can get around 200bhp! A friend who I met via an MMO (Star Wars Galaxies) owns a MCS, he has been working on his for a couple of years now, and this year, it was voted Mini Cooper S of the Year 2009, it looks fantastic, he’s done basic mods on it, not making it look tacky or chavy at all, it looks like a Mini still, but goes like a bat out of hell.  I want to do something similar with mine, I love everything about them look wise, and they always seem to perform well, I just want to drive one and own one now.  I have that same craving for one that I did with my MG B GT, and I know that craving hasn’t failed me before, I want it, I need it, and I will get it.  It’ll be my hobby, my car, what I want, every other car I’ve had, people have said oh yes, thats a good car, get this one over the one you really want (other than with the B), I will listen to advice, but if it’s not exactly what I want, Im not getting it.  I don’t want another red car as long as I live, red cars seem bad luck and cause expense, and need a lot of polishing to stay looking nice, white cars, yes I decided on that colour for the B, but only because it was her original colour.  For my MCS, she’ll be mine, all mine, what I want… and I’ll be happy… next job after that, my own place.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my blog here, I enjoyed writing this one, I know its pretty epic, and progressively less written about each car, but I tried, you gotta give me that much… right?

December 5 – Vauxhall Calibra

Yes, I know it’s a fancy Cavalier. Shut it. I like it and it’s my blog so I get to tell you what I saw.

Technically it wasn’t today, but it was after midnight yesterday so that sort of counts. I’m in London at the moment which opens up a whole new world of vehicle-viewing opportunities, and yet this is the thing I remember. Given that I also spotted Mercedes Grösser, twentysomething Volvoes, Volkswagen campers and odd Japanese imports, perhaps it is worth unpackaging why it was the Calibra that sprung to mind when I went to pen tonight’s blog posting.

It was 1990 or thereabouts when the Calibra came about. There was a Vauxhall showroom at the end of my grandparents’ street – not the ones that owned the Panda, the other set – and my grandfather had an arrangement with one of the salesmen whereby he would be given the old posters at the end of every quarter for his eldest grandson’s bedroom. I’d vaguely looked at the pictures in Auto Express and seen something like it on Top Gear, but nothing had grabbed my attention quite like the A1-size, laminated image that was delivered to my house in a sturdy cardboard tube. It was a landscape view of a black Calibra sporting low-profile alloys hugging a series of S-curves along a rocky coastline, with the text ‘Once Driven, Forever Smitten’ stretched out below the photograph in underlined Times New Roman on a white background. It may have been a Vauxhall, but it looked danged cool.

It still (in my mind at least) looked cool when the deputy headmaster of my high school rolled up to work in a silver, H-registration variant six years later. He was a middle-aged chap, the kind who liked to drive with one arm resting on the door trim and the window slightly wound down to allow cigarette smoke to exit the vehicle. You know, the kind of fellow who likes to proceed at speed and not wash his car so that it collects a fine layer of dust, and occasionally snatch a look at himself in mirrored windows when the situation permits. If this car could still grab my attention when it was six years old, a little shabby and being driven by someone who taught me physics, it must have been doing something right.

And the folks at Opel must really have produced something worthwhile to ensure I still noticed the design in the middle of London on the way home from the pub at the tail end of 2009. ‘Bugger me, that’s a Calibra,’ I muttered to myself as I passed one of the later, R-registered examples. It’s a handsome vehicle, with its large lights and broad grille giving it a stern expression and it’s equally cumbersome tailgate configuration suggesting that it wasn’t ever really built to be in fashion, let alone out of it. There’s something about this Opel/Vauxhall’s shape that suggests all it ever set out to achieve was doing exactly what it said on the tin – a two-door, curvy coupe that won’t look totally dated in a few years’ time – and to my mind it has achieved that.

It’s just struck me that the vast majority of cars that I’ve talked about so far are ones that bring back some kind of memory from my childhood, and I very much doubt I am alone in that respect. We may look at things in the cold light of 2009 going on 2010, but as we do so we inevitably bring narratives and ideas from the past into play, even if these are only the bits we selectively choose to remember. As our society moves tries to move towards more sustainable futures from automobility, it could become ever more important to pay attention to these stories as we seek to understand how and why people come to value cars so much in the way that they do.

I’m not in any way saying the Vauxhall Calibra is a beacon for the future or a vital piece of automotive history, but for today I’d like to think it for getting me to reflect about what I love about cars and why I think the way I do. Thank you, glorified Cavalier.