Pretty DS4 promises much

CITROEN'S brand within a brand has just got bigger after an eye-catching new model was officially announced earlier this week.

After attracting rave reviews with the DS3 earlier this year the French firm has decided to expand its lineup of luxurious DS models with the DS4, which it says blends sporty coupe style with hatchback practicality and an involving driving experience.

“The DS4 brings an alluring mixture of premium design codes and a bold approach to automotive styling, with an emphasis on driving pleasure and advanced vehicle architecture,” the company said in a statement earlier this week.

“It is a model with a multitude of talents, effortlessly responding to a broad range of owner needs, while enhancing the appeal and vitality of the motoring experience.”

Its smaller DS3 sister has already attracted rave reviews following its launch earlier this year including being proclaimed as the world's coolest car by Stuff magazine.

The DS4 definitely looks the part - check out those Alfaesque hidden door handles - but it'll be sometime next year before we'll know whether the DS brand is a one hit wonder or not.

Read the Life On Cars review of the DS3 on here later this week.

Blitzing the Buttertubs

LAST week, I went to Britain's highest pub. Or did I?

The Cat and Fiddle, at the top of the eponymous and much sensationalised mountain pass, does a great pint, but it's not the only bar claiming to give you the highest altitude for your ale. Depending on how you measure it, you'll have to head instead to Yorkshire, more than eighty miles further north, for the Tan Hill Inn.

In all honesty, I'm not really that fussed as to which one's highest - it's not as though they're next door to each other - but having battled the hairpin bends and tricky turns to reach both, I'd say it's the Tan Hill that feels higher. Come here on a wet day and it's a wild, desolate wildnerness offering views right across the Dales towards Cumbria.

Better still, it's more fun to get to, because it's in a part of Yorkshire which remains delightfully deserted even in the middle of a Bank Holiday weekend. If this were the Cat and Fiddle Run, my rear mirror would be filled with bikers and my windscreen with camera vans, but in this captivating corner of the Yorkshire Dales there was nothing. Just mile upon mile of empty roads.

The Tan Hill is well worth tracking down if you're ever up there, but I wasn't all the way up in Yorkshire for a beer. Nor had I taken a Renault 5 via Ribblehead because I wanted to revive memories of racing the Settle express towards Carlisle. Nope, I was here for the Buttertubs Pass.

I could try explaining its appeal, but someone off Top Gear's already done a much better job. Here's Jezza:



P.S: He's definitely got the right idea doing a drive this challenging in an Escort Cosworth. If only...

Top Gear - how hard can it be?

THIS week, I give you the nation's favourite tame racing driver. Some say he's a Formula Three driver and that if he reveals his identity in an autobiography, he'll be going to court.

All we (officially) know is he's called The Stig.

The nationals' ongoing fascination with Top Gear's mystery man in the white racing overalls shows not only how big the Beeb's biggest programme is in 2010, but just how far the show - something its creator claimed would be getting back to basics this year - has moved away from being the pokey motoring show I grew up with.

Like the many millions of you who watched the last series being its usual outrageous self on Sunday nights, I still think the show's rip-roaringly funny, defiantly different and, in the case of the magnificent Senna tribute piece, serious and poignant when it wants to be. But the things that made me love it in the distant old days of, oooh, the Nineties, are long gone.

In case you don't remember, Jeremy Clarkson was part of an equally entertaining triple act with smarmy used car expert Quentin Wilson and the now Fifth Gear frontman Tiff Needell, who doubled up as the closest thing they had to a tame racing driver. They were funny too, but while giving voiceovers on Vauxhalls you might have actually bought at the time.

Sure, some of the pieces were depressingly dull but one of my own favourites from 1995, where Jeremy Clarkson refused to say anything about the Vauxhall Vectra he was testing, would never happen on the current show. In a world of bizarre challenges, supercars and visits by Tom Cruise, they wouldn't have time for a Vauxhall Vectra.

The very different show you get a decade on isn't something I'd ever want Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow to tamper with - and it'd still be just as entertaining whether you knew who the Stig was - but I reckon Auntie's created a gap for another show closer to the Top Gear I grew up with. There must be millions of people out there who want to know whether a Vauxhall Meriva is better than a Skoda Roomster. Get some talented TV presenters, stick them on BBC Four and make them say something interesting about cars each week.

The BBC are missing a trick!

UPDATE: Andy Wilman, the producer of Top Gear, has thrown his opinion into the mix...

Fire up the... Mazda MX-5

MAZDA'S little MX-5 is still full of the magic which helped make it the world's best-selling sports car, more than 20 years after it first went on sale.

The rear-wheel-drive roadster might be in its third generation but it's still proving popular because it offers you only the basic thrills you need to have a ball on Britain's back roads, meaning that once you get behind its cute looks it's still an absolute joy to drive.

There are roomier, comfier cars out there but if you drive simply because you enjoy it you can’t go far wrong with an MX-5, particularly if you’re the sort of person who deliberately takes the long route just so they can go over a remote mountain pass on the way.

If anything I reckon it’s actually better than the old British sports cars it's so often accused of mimicking, because unlike them the MX-5 actually works and means you can spend your weekends in the countryside, rather than the garage. Just make sure you share the driving with whoever you take along for the ride, otherwise they’ll forget it’s a driver’s car and start going on about the interior being too cramped, the boot too small and the ride too firm.

It’s also got the same problem most convertibles have when it comes to roof-up visibility, but I reckon the Mazda’s folding fabric roof is easier and faster than the metal most of its rivals come with. You can have metal origami as an optional extra, if you insist, but while you get added security it’s slower to shelter you and it weighs the little lightweight roadster down.

While it does have just the two seats it’ll still do everything you’d expect a £20,145 car to do, and although I wasn’t expecting it in something so single-mindedly sporty it was great to have toys like cruise control, a CD autochanger and a Bluetooth system at my fingertips.

But you’ll forget all of them on a cross-country blast, because even when it’s not its birthday the Mazda’s partying, and you’re always invited.

Read more about the MX-5 in the next issue of GR8Life Magazine, due out next month.

Champion exclusive: Ormskirk to rev up for Motor Festival

ORMSKIRK could be going full-throttle next year if a festival celebrating all things motoring is given the go-ahead by councillors, The Champion can exclusively reveal.

West Lancashire Borough Council confirmed yesterday (August 24) that members of the council's cabinet are set to discuss a proposal for a celebration of classic cars, tentatively called the Ormskirk Motor Festival, which will take place in the town centre next year if it is given the green light.

“West Lancashire Borough Council is considering hosting a Motor Sports Festival in Ormskirk town centre in 2011. It is hoped that the event would feature static displays of classic and performance cars in both Coronation Park and the town centre along with a parade of vehicles,” said a spokesperson for the council.

“The proposal is at a very early stage and will be discussed by members at the cabinet meeting on September 14.”

It is not known at this stage what form the festival will take, but would feature both classic cars and motorsports vehicles from both the past and present, and would feature both static displays and a parade through the town centre.

The idea has already been given a warm welcome by members of the cabinet, including Derby ward borough councillor Adrian Owens, who believes the inagural event could prove to be a big success.

“We have already had an informal briefing on the proposal as cabinet members, and I think it would be a fantastic event to bring to Ormskirk,” he said.

“To see veteran and classic cars going through Ormskirk would actually be a good use of the town's one-way system. The event would be a welcome boost to Ormskirk as a market town, and I can see traders and residents benefitting if it goes ahead.”

The proposal is expected to be discussed at the council's headquarters in Ormskirk at its next cabinet meeting on September 14.

What do you think of the idea? Contact 01704 392400 or email David Simister at david.simister@champnews.com

Steak and chips with a helping of full throttle

HARDKNOTT, Hartside, Horseshoe, Llanberris and Buttertubs.

Punch any of these into Google followed by the word "Pass" and you're going to be rewarded with roads that straddle Britain's most scenic corners, and offer you sharp twists, hairpin bends and driving challenges that about as far from congestion on the M57 as Jeremy Clarkson does from an inoffensive analogy.

You could stay in and watch Secret Britain but I reckon places like these are what weekends are for. I love a great road as much as I do a great car.

In fact, the only one which I hadn't done is the one all too often dubbed as Britain's most dangerous; the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton. The Cat and Fiddle Run.

Believe the scare stories and what you probably imagine is what you see in the Youtube clip above, and that to properly enjoy the road, named after the pub perched 1,690 feet above sea level at the very top, you need a Kawasomethingorother, balls of steel, and a camera clipped to your bike. Lethal stuff, if you read The Daily Mail.

Alternatively, you can take a Peugeot 308 RC Z, a couple of mates and an empty stomach, which is exactly what we did on Saturday. I can now exclusively reveal that a) The Cat and Fiddle does a cracking rump steak, b) The A537 is a real drivers' road, and c) you don't have to a biker to get the best from it.

In fact, if anything I reckon it'd be more enjoyable from behind a car, because while you'd have fun trying to hit the 50mph average speed limit - enforced by everything from roadside vans, Truvelo cameras and aerial police units - in a car, you'd have to choose between yawning and a hefty fine if you wanted to put a big bike through its paces properly.

If you want freedom when you're behind the wheel, forget the A537 and try somewhere really desolate, like the Buttertubs Pass in North Yorkshire. But if you're on the way to Buxton and fancy trying your egg and chips with a hint of oversteer, The Cat and Fiddle's well worth the drive.

Fire up the... Skoda Yeti

SAY what you like about Skoda's strange choice of name for its latest model, but this is definitely one Yeti worth tracking down.

Having already won over rough ‘n' rugged off-roader types with the Scout four-wheel-drive version of the Octavia estate it was only a matter of time before the Czech car company came up with a real mountain goat of a motor and this, a distant relation to Volkswagen's Golf and Audi's A3, is the result. Cute and challenging at the same time.

Clamber into the cockpit and you're definitely not in the driver's seat of a jacked-up hatchback or an MPV with countryside styling cues; if a Land Rover Discovery went on the Atkins diet, chances are this is what it would feel like. Even though the version I drove stuck to powering just the front wheels everything about the commanding driving position, the view along the bonnet and the defiantly diesel noise the 2.0 TDi engine makes screams pure off-roader.

That's the reason why you're not going to find hot hatch handling when you head into the corners a tad too quickly, but both on the backroads and out on the motorways the Yeti performs impressively enough. It's just a shame that with some of the sillier options the version I drove cost almost £22,000, which I'd rather spend on the optional four-wheel-drive system and make it truly capable over tricky terrain.

Almost everyone who came across the Yeti loved it for exactly the same reason; if you have a dog and enjoy going for walks in the muddy countryside, you're going to struggle to better the Yeti without resorting to much more expensive machinery.

Clearly the writers of Auto Express do, because they've just made it their car of the year.

Buy a Yeti and your Labrador is going to love it. Luckily, so will you.

As published in The Champion on August 18, 2010

Peugeot 308 RC Z: the best looking car on sale today?

THE waiting is almost over.

Given that I’m a grown up and a journalist, I should be expected to view everything in a calm, cool, clinical – some might even say cynical – way, but this week’s one of those rare occasions when I’ve reverted to child at Christmas mode in giddy anticipation of something I’m genuinely excited about.

The Peugeot 308 RC Z.

If you’re wondering why I’m counting down the days – two, in case you’re interested – until my date with the slinky coupe then just stop reading, scroll back up to the picture at the top of this post and just look at it. Disagree if you like, but I think it’s a thing of beauty.

I’ll let you into a secret; I’ve already driven one. In all honesty, it wasn’t the most exciting thing I’ve ever driven but the difference between it and the Peugeot 308 CC, its technical twin, was profound. Hunkered down to the ground the RC Z handled beautifully in the half hour I had to try it out. But what mattered more was that I’d bagged half an hour at all.

At the Millbrook test day in May it was the only machine I had to queue to get a go in, despite the likes of Ford’s Focus RS500, Honda’s CR-Z, the Rolls Ghost and the entire Bentley range on offer for the other writers from across Britain to go and play with. Not that I was bothered standing around, because it meant more time to take in those delicate curves and the double bubble roof.

Style is subjective, so feel free to tell me I’m wrong. Unless you count the Aston Martin V12 Vantage, the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Mercedes SLS – all supercars from the rarefied stratosphere of motoring – I cannot think of a new car that’s as satisfying simply to look at.

For all I know it could be a holiday romance, and in reality be crummy to drive, cramped to sit in and hopeless when it comes to handling a week’s worth of shopping. But I’m actually aching to find out how good it is in the real world, because it’s one of the most eagerly-anticipated cars of the year.

I was going to say this is the prettiest Pug since the elegant and cruelly forgotten 406 Coupe, but in my childish bout of excitement I’m going to go further and say it’s probably one of those exotic-yet-attainable style icons you get once in a generation. E-Type, Citroen SM, Fiat Coupe, Audi TT, RC Z. It’s got a ring to it, don’t you think?

Whatever happens, Wednesday can’t come too soon.

Video Report - Woodvale Rally 2010

WORRY not if you missed last weekend’s Woodvale Rally, because as promised here’s a special video report straight from the event!

Although it’s being primarily hosted on The Champion website and has been finished off with some shiny special effects from the paper’s Production Department, the footage and reporting has been done by Yours Truly, making it the first Life On Cars movie (of sorts).

So that’s a newspaper column, a blog, a spot on a radio show, a specially created car magazine and now video footage.

Whatever next?

Great car, shame about the reaction it gets

EVEN if everything else is going up it seems there’s still one commodity that’s cheap in our age of austerity. Looking like a berk behind the wheel.

Previously I’d long laboured under the belief that the least you’ll have to pay to look like an idiot on the highways and byways of Britain is £43,980 - the entry level price for the BMW X5 - but after two lucky breaks last week I’ve been able to find out it’s much cheaper than that.

It was after being invited to a party in a part of Liverpool that‘s usually on fire I realised all I needed was Mitsubishi’s latest Shogun, which unfortunately I happened to be driving that evening. It’s a very, very good car for ten grand south of what the BMW sets you back, but with bright white paintwork, alloys all round and a chrome grille straight out of the Wayne Rooney school of car styling it didn’t exactly blend into the world of dented Nissan Primeras and terraced houses I’d taken it to. It took less than five minutes before the local yoof had made it that night’s target practice.

Genuinely frightened that I’d get a £35k off-roader that wasn’t mine keyed, burnt out or stolen by a gang who’d taken exception to my choice of chariot, I jumped straight back in and hotfooted it to safer streets, which I’m sure in anything else - even one of Mitsubishi’s smaller 4x4s - wouldn’t have been called for, and it’s been the same since. The Shogun just seems to offend people.

For all its low-down grunt, acres of space, and off-road ability I just couldn’t recommend the solid Shogun to anyone in austerity-era Britain, because you just feel antisocial driving it. I honestly didn’t think it would come across as in-yer-face as a Range Rover Sport or an X5, but it seems in 2010 ANY big off-roader is going to attract stones, dirty looks and flicked fingers. I actually felt embarrassed to be behind the wheel.

But don’t worry if you can’t afford £34,999 for a Shogun, because at the Woodvale Rally a few days later I discovered it’s far easier and cheaper to get personalised number plates. Mine cost just £15.

Luckily for me, I can’t legally use it on the public road anyway, meaning my new moniker is limited to just the few days a year I take it to classic car shows, but the fact is that I now own a number plate that reads 51 MMY.

Geddit?

Another Rally good weekend

CAR show, model aircraft extravaganza, funfair, home of the £4 cheeseburger; the Woodvale Rally is many things. But I wasn’t anticipating a wedding at last weekend’s event.

That’s one of just many things I witnessed a weekend celebrating the weird and wonderful at RAF Woodvale, and even though I genuinely wasn’t expecting it a “wedding”, took place on the same stand I was showing off my car on.

A wedding between two cars, no less, but even something as bizarre as that fits in with the fun-filled atmosphere you always get at the annual August event, which took place this year last Saturday and Sunday (August 7 and 8, 2010).

In previous years I’ve clocked a goggle-donning dog at the helm of a Morgan three-wheeler and a Land Rover buried nose-down in a sandpit, so an automotive wedding with specially-written vows seemed entirely appropriate.

It’s hard to explain exactly what the Woodvale Rally actually is other than to say it’s a melee of old motors, model aircraft displays, funfairs and car boot sales, but despite having gone almost every year for the last 15 years I’m still drawn back every year, because it’s a heady mix of sunshine, shiny machinery and stalls which seem to sell absolutely everything. Everything apart from the one Haynes manual I actually wanted, of course!

The stock cars proved a popular insight into a part of Southport’s sporting past you probably didn’t know about but one of the real highlights this year was the Wall of Death, which despite offering shows just a few minutes long was definitely worth the £2 entry fee. I’ve no idea how an attraction which lets you see people blast bikes around a vertical wall got past the health and safety inspector, but I’m glad it did because it’s breathtaking to behold!

As an exhibitor I was obviously flying the flag for my own piece of the region’s motoring heritage – the Mini from The Champion motoring section – but it was staggering to see so many stunning cars of all shapes and sizes putting on a show at the rally, with everything from fast Fords and Volkswagen camper vans to exotic machines like Porsches on Ferraris proving a memorable draw for members of the public.

After two days of relentless walking around RAF Woodvale I was knackered, sunburnt and considerably skinter than this time last week, but it’s the Woodvale Rally and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Roll on next year…

Look on Life On Cars later this week for an exclusive video from this year's Woodvale Rally

Life On Cars Mini among Woodvale Rally entrants

THIS year's Woodvale Rally is going to be bigger and better than ever before, the event's organisers have told Life On Cars this weekend.

A thrilling wall of death, a recreation of the Dambusters raids in minature, scores of classic cars and an array of fairground rides are among the many attractions at this year's Woodvale Rally, taking place this Saturday and Sunday (August 7 and 8).
“This year’s rally is packed with attractions and exhibits for everyone,” said Peter Wood, Rally manager.

“It really is an affordable fun day out for all the family. We’d advise people to arrive early so they can thoroughly enjoy everything the rally has to offer.”
Among the special events at the rally this weekend is a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and displays from Neil Porter, the motorcycle stunt rider, the Michael Colley Stunt Show and the Vander Brothers Wheel of Death Stunt Team.

Classic cars of all ages, shapes and sizes will also be on display throughout the year, including the original Mini frequently featured on Life On Cars.

Mini Southport and Ormskirk District will be on Stand 42 at the rally, between the Triumph and Porsche owners' clubs.

Tickets in advance for both days are £8 for adults, £4 for children, £7 for OAPs and £20 for a family ticket. At the gate adults tickets cost £10, children £5, OAPs £8 and a family ticket is £25. Tickets are valid for both days.

For further information telephone 07794 781027 or visit www.woodvale-rally.org.uk. Advance tickets are available from the Tourist Information Centre on the corner of Lord Street and Eastbank Street in Southport.

Champ reporter David Simister will be offering updates on the Woodvale Rally on the Champion Twitter feed throughout this weekend. To find out more log onto www.twitter.com/champnews or visit our website at www.champnews.com and follow the links.

Charge up the... MINI E

NO matter what you make of the MINI, the version I've just been lucky enough to drive has one pressing problem. You can't actually buy it.

The MINI E, for all its good looks and sporty stance, isn't going to be hitting showrooms any time soon, because it's an experimental exercise to see whether Britain's car buyers like electric cars. This isn't a normal road test. It's test driving the future!

It's just a shame I have to declare an interest before even getting behind the wheel; I own one of the original, rather smaller Minis, which means I should hate BMW's bloated, cramped cover version. But I don't - I test drove a petrol-powered Cooper last year and found it instantly likeable, despite the cartoonish dials on its dashboard. Think of it as a baby Beemer rather than a classic car ripoff and you'll soon warm to it.

It's much the same story with the volt-powered version, which actually feels far more car-like to drive than it really ought to. If anything it feels quicker off the line than its petrol-powered counterpart - electric power's instant - and although you can feel weight of the E's batteries in the corners, it's not something you immediately notice. The only thing you'll have to get used to is the engine braking, which is easily the most powerful I've experienced on any car. At one roundabout, I pulled up safely without touching the brakes.

But the real killer with this car is the back seat, which goes from being a bit cramped in the petrol Cooper to being non-existent because it's where the batteries and gadgets live. There have been two-seater MINIs before, but the last one, the GP, replaced them with a roll cage so you'd enjoy it at Silverstone. On the other hand you won't enjoy the E on the racetrack, but that's only because with a 100 mile range you'll never get there in the first place.

The MINI E makes as a stylish, low cost city car, but as it's a limited run experiment BMW won't reveal how much it actually cost to make it, although it's been whispered each car cost as much as £25,000 to make.

It shows that electric cars aren't the milk floats you might expect them to be, but there's still a long way to go before we're all driving them.

As published in The Champion on August 11, 2010

Twice the price of what you need

FIAT'S 500 range has been boosted by two new arrivals this week - but one costs more than twice the price of the other!

Dedicated fans of the Italian icon will be delighted to know they can now pay tribute to the Ferrari F1 team with the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari, above, which boosts not only 180bhp, lots of luxuries and a limited production run of just 152 cars, but an eyewatering pricetag of £29,600. That's £5,000 more than the bigger and faster Golf GTi, though it's also the cheapest new car you can buy with a Ferrari badge on it.

Alternatively you can spend less than half that to get a limited edition 500, with the Fiat 500 Black, below, costing a rather more reasonable £12,165 for the 1.2 version. This sequel to the Fiat 500 Pink introduced earlier this year won't be as fast or as exclusive as the Tributo Ferrari, but you will at least stand out from the crowd.

And with the £17,435 you'll have saved by going for the cheaper car, you could always buy another.

Fire up the... Jeep Wrangler

IT'S oversized, overpriced and over here. The latest incarnation of an Stateside off-road icon, whether you love it or loathe it, has arrived in the UK.

Jeep is about as American as Burger King but - unlike many other car companies trying to make a stab at crossing the Pond - it's worked its way into our affections. The firm's latest effort, the four-door Wrangler Unlimited Ultimate Edition, is the newest spin on the 70-year-old four-wheel-drive formula, and they're hoping it'll build on the popularity of the last Wrangler. But can it pull same trick as its predecessor in our newfound age of austerity?

Even if you're used to the likes of Land Rover's Freelander the new Jeep's a big beast; you don't just get in this thing, you clamber onto a step beneath the door and climb your way up, like a mountaineer making their way through the Rockies. It's big on price too, at a mildly frightening £25,000, but if you've got this far chances are the Wrangler's beefy looks are bound to win you over.

But there's no way of sugarcoating the way the Wrangler drives, which unless you're venturing off-road is badly. You're given a very commanding view over the flat bonnet, but push too enthusiastically into a corner and it rolls and lurches, with a hint of tyre squeal even at lower speeds. You'd also think that with a 2.8 litre diesel at its disposal it'd get about quickly, but it doesn't.

Yet for all for its flaws you can't help but love this car, because it makes you feel like Bruce Willis on even the most mundane of outings. It just feels tough, and that's not just in terms of its impressive build quality.

Technically the Land Rover Freelander is a much better buy, but if you like your cars with bags of character and a sense of unstoppable off-road ability, make way for a Wrangler.

As published in The Champion on August 4, 2010