Opinion owners of cars
There haven’t been many people in this industry to whom I warmed more immediately than Victor Gauntlett, whom I last saw in 2001, 10 years after he left Aston Martin’s chair and about 18 months before his death aged just 60. Victor was many things, well-to-do, ebullient and funny among them, but so too was he modest, kind and had a brain sharper even than the cut of his tailor-made suits.
It’s a funny thing, memory. Time passes, and we often look back with fondness to a moment that will trigger a passing smile. It can be the smallest thing too, and different for all of us. For some reason, smells are powerful triggers for me. I had one hit me like a hammer some ten or twelve years ago, that reignited a passion, left dormant too long. Oil burning on a hot exhaust. Not an attractive smell, I know, but sometimes the most memorable are not the most pleasant!
Ford SVT’s original hot rod pick-up from the Nineties still measures up, says Evans… Ford’s big announcement recently was the launch of its all-electric half-ton pick-up. As seems to be practice these days, the Blue Oval is dusting off iconic emblems from the past and applying them to new battery electrics, in the hope that these vehicles will win some street cred. And after the Mustang Mach-E last year, the new electric F-150 is called, wait for it… Lightning.
Now that hybrids have joined Jaguar’s line up – including the E-PACE featured on – I’m reminded that the concept of a Jaguar powered by an internal combustion engine working alongside an electric motor goes much further back. In the late Eighties, Jaguar created an advanced engineering group under engineering director Jim Randle’s leadership. Its remit was to look at advanced vehicle engineering in all its forms, but particularly powertrains.
Back in the early 2000s, Volkswagen didn’t just dip its toe in the luxury saloon market with its flagship Phaeton, it knocked the ball well and truly out of the park! BIG JOBS THROW BACK For this month’s throwback we revisit the legendary Volkswagen Phaeton; a refined and uncompromising car that marked VW’s intrepid step into the early 2000’s luxury automotive market. But the Phaeton was no mere dipping of the toe into the high-end pool; it was a bold leap that saw no expense spared.
There is no AMG C63 in this test, and hence for the first time in as long as we can recall, a sports saloon shoot-out hasn’t been overlaid with the furious, bassy score of an AMG V8. And, in case you haven’t heard, there will be no more AMG V8s, not in C-class saloons at any rate. The more expensive models will survive. For now.
As Ted the Jack Russell and I were on our usual walk last night, we were about a hundred metres from the local social club when I was suddenly hit by the smell of an old bar. Despite having lived in this village for over twenty years and walking a dog past this spot just about every single day during that time, it was the first time I ever really noticed the smell.