Sublime Supercar Slayer…

A Very welcome addition to the fleet, the New BMW E60 M5.

This car has to be every Ferrari owners worst nightmare. You can imagine it now, the ‘Barbie and Ken’ couple in the Rosso Red F360 Spider, the lift of the sunglasses, that glance over the shoulder at the traffic lights…The recognition of those M5 side vents…That ‘oh no’ feeling kicks in…’I could be made to look seriously silly right now’. A competitor that really is a genuine wolf in sheeps clothing. A civilised understated executive hack, capable of over 205 Miles Per Hour and has recored figures as low as 4.1 seconds during its 0-60 mph sprints (Road & Track magazine ‘06). With figures like these, things could indeed look bleak for Mr Ken.

What’s in a number?

The 993 911 evolved from the 964 in the early 90’s and in a relatively short lifespan of only 5 years turned into the 996 which begat the 997.

Knowing your Porsche 911 is very much a numbers game and although ‘911′ was its given number at birth, it is the internal factory code that we mostly use to describe a particular model. Nothing wrong with that of course. There is probably no other car ever produced that is more referred to by its ‘undercover’ number than the iconic 911.

When Ferruccio met Enzo…

So the story goes Ferruccio Lamborghini, who made tractors, told Enzo Ferrari his clutches were rubbish. Enzo got miffed, punched Ferry on the nose and sent him back to ploughing his potatoes. Mr Lambo decided that the only way to get even with the man who was building the most charismatic cars in the world was to ….and the rest is history as they say. 

Pretty Purrfect!

The Series III XJ seems to have it all. It’s a real Jaguar that perhaps forever will symbolise the ’space, pace and grace’ principles of Sir William Lyons. The beautiful flowing lines of car design that have made Jaguar so unique and admired the world over.

When the XJ40 appeared in 1986 with its awkward angular looks it seemed that Jaguar had decided that square shoulder pads were the future - to be fair ’Dynasty’ was the hit TV series at the time. Although why the Jag design team thought that large glass bricks placed either side of the iconic chrome grille would appear more attractive than the traditional round headlights is a tad mysterious. At least they made a welcome comeback on the X300.

BMW 750iL Very ‘Individual’

The following article was written by Ian, our resident 7-series afficionado……….

………….”This is an amazing car. I’d hoped the admiring glances I received when driving were for me, but alas, no they were indeed for the car, and rightly so. The E38 has considerable road presence, even today, some six and half years after production ended.  

This particular car was owned by BMW for the first six months. During its time with them the car bore the registration number 750IL. A perfect complement for such a fine vehicle. This is an ‘Individual’ model which makes it not only very rare but also just a little more special.

The Car is The Star

Funny how some film directors either get it dead right or dead wrong when it comes to casting the part for ‘car of the future’ for their latest mega-buck movie.

Take the car featured in Alex Proyas’s ‘I,Robot’ for instance. Audi were given a brief to provide a super-cool sports car for super-cool Will Smith and along came the RSQ. The designers at Audi quite likely had this car doodled for some time before the film but happily a bit of product placement would do wonders for the up-and-coming R8 that the world has gone gaga for today. There had to be some adjustments in the design of course because no self-respecting auto artist would include wheels on a car that was to be driven on the ‘roads’ of 2035. It seems that we will be riding along on balls instead. Hmmm.