Top ten: Life On Cars motoring moments of 2014

IT’S NOT often you get to compare a Ferrari F355 with a Peugeot 306 diesel snapped up for less than the price of a shirt.

Yet both managed the same trick – leaving a big impression on me in a year packed with great motoring moments.The tricky bit hasn’t been picking out the highlights, but working out which ones to leave out. Here are the ten I remember most fondly:

Discovering driving heaven is an MG TD…

 …or a 1954 MG TD Midget MkII, if we’re being precise about the draughty, exposed two-seater I drove on that bitterly cold day back in February for a Classic Car Weekly road test.

I remember spending most of that morning with a runny nose, numb fingers and shivering limbs but I was stunned by how sublime the steering and handling was this 60-year-old car.

It was not only more enjoyable to drive than my own old MG, a 1972 MGB GT, but it made me smile more than a Ferrari F355 did. That’s how big an impression it left on me.

Doing a lap of Fiat's rooftop test track (even if it was only on foot)

 The banking on top of the former Lingotto factory in Turin isn’t just where Fiat used to shake down its newly-built cars; anyone who knows their car films will instantly recognise it from the chase sequence in The Italian Job.

Normally, it’s off-limits to the public, but because I ended up staying in a hotel on the same complex I had the huge privilege of being allowed to go up and have a wander around this wonderful slice of automotive folklore.

Even if I didn’t have a Mini Cooper S to pound around the circuit, being able to walk around Fiat’s rooftop test track was an experience I’ll never forget.

Winning a national award for Life On Cars

Being named as one of the winners in the inaugural UK Blog Awards was a huge honour, and helped Life On Cars get – as I remember telling The Champion back in April – “national recognition as being one of the best motoring blogs out there”.

In true Life On Cars style, though, a motoring misadventure meant I never actually made it to the glittering awards ceremony in St Pancras. Classic Car Weekly had me exploring Rutland on the same day for its annual spring tour – highlights of which included pushing a broken-down Austin Montego out of harm’s way at Rutland Water!

Discovering what would happen if Carlsberg did classic car shows

Regular readers will already know I’m a car show junkie – at the last count, I’d gone to more than 50 in 2014, ranging from cosy charity events like the Lydiate Classic Car Show to European giants like Techno Classica Essen.

So you’d think my favourite would be the sun-kissed Auto Retro Barcelona or watching 20 D-types going head to head at the Goodwood Revival, right? Erm, not quite; it was the Lakes Charity Classic Car Show, which has about 200 cars and is held in a field just outside Grasmere.

There wasn’t a D-type or a celeb in sight but it had everything I look for in a show in spades; a great mix of cars, a stunning location, sensible prices and – best of all – a friendly atmosphere. Count me in for the 2015 show!

Applying the word ‘stagulent’ to just about everything

Spending quite a few occasions in 2014 driving a borrowed Triumph Stag inspired me to come up with the idea of stagulence – applying the slightly kitsch, retro qualities of this V8-hauled convertible and applying them to other objects.

So far reruns of The Persuaders!, Directors Bitter, Joanna Lumley and the entire town of Harrogate are among the things I’ve managed to describe as stagulent. Which is a shame, because I’ve always quite liked the Triumph in question.

Watching the car that started it all (briefly) resurface

I began 2014 by pondering what had actually happened to the old Life On Cars Mini. Sure enough, it reappeared a couple of months later on eBay – in worse condition than I’d originally sold it back in 2010.

Despite being flooded with nostalgic thoughts and suggestions from chums that I should buy it back, I resisted the urge to throw in a bid and let it go. Hopefully its new owner will be able to restore with the sort of money I didn’t have when I ran around in it!

Driving to the Nürburgring in my own car

This is a petrolhead pilgrimage everyone who really loves cars should do at least once, and I even though I was a bit apprehensive I even did the compulsory blast around The Green Hell in my MX-5 at the end (and no, I didn’t buy one of those sad stickers to put on my car afterwards).

Despite suffering a fairly dramatic air conditioning leak on the way – and being forced to mend it with a condom of all things – CCW colleague Murray Scullion and I had a great weekend on our assignment at the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix. If you’re going to venture over to the continent for a show in your own car, I’d seriously consider this one.

Being in two places at the Ormskirk MotorFest at once

It was a tricky call – while I knew the job in hand was photographing the classics parading around Ormskirk for the annual MotorFest, I’d also got an invite to do a lap in the MGB. How, I’d spent the entire morning wondering, was I going to do both?

In the end, I finishing snapping my first set of cars, set the camera up, handed it to my girlfriend, and ran for it. I made it through the thousands of spectators in the nick of time, and managed to fire up the ‘B with seconds to spare before my designated slot.

It was worth it for this shot. Good times!

Rediscovering bargain basement motoring

2014 hadn’t begun on a great note when it comes to Life On Cars workhorses – looming transmission trouble had led me to sell the old Rover 214SEi and its Ford Mondeo replacement was destroyed when an errant BMW ran into the back of it.

This Peugeot 306 was the belated hero of the year, not only acting as a £750 stopgap for my girlfriend’s mother before she bought another car, but then being passed onto me as an everyday chugger for just £150.

It hasn’t been perfect but – as the first Life On Cars diesel car – I’m enjoying regularly getting upwards of 50 to the gallon. Like the £100 Renault 5 I ran years ago, I’m forgiving the 306’s imperfections because I love its bargain basement Frenchness.

Putting my foot down – in a Ferrari

I ended 2013 – having driven my first Aston Martin – wondering whether I’d get to pop my Ferrari cherry this year.

Sure enough, Classic Car Weekly needed someone to test a Ferrari F355, so my hand shot up quicker than the car itself can get to sixty! Truth be told, I barely got to scratch beneath the surface on real world roads, but on this few occasions when I really got to nail it this mid-engined supercar really was as good as everyone said it should be.

It really was utterly, utterly wonderful. New Year’s resolution for 2015 – get a go in a TVR Griffith. Here’s hoping!

Life On Cars wishes both of its readers a happy New Year

Life On Cars has been facelifted!

EAGLE-EYED readers - yes, both of them - will have already spotted that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a facelift.

The blog's had a great year, including being honoured as one of only two motoring blogs to win in the Automotive category of the inaugural UK Blog Awards back in April.

In the aftermath of the awards I got a lot of great feedback about Life On Cars and how to tweak the blog. In particular, the authors of Creditplus - another nominee in the UK Blog Awards - made quite a few useful observations.

Creditplus writer James Dwyer wrote back in September: "Two things immediately stand out. One, David is an authority on his chosen subject (classic cars), and two, the blogpost is written in a personal and friendly style that gives the reader an insight into David’s character.

"The posts are long and detailed, covering a variety of topics within David’s area of expertise. The website isn’t that flashy, but it's the high quality content that appeals."

I couldn't agree more - a motoring hack I might be, but a web design guru I'm emphatically not. That's why I've entrusted fellow blogger Natalie Bassling to give the site a complete refresh, meaning I can concentrate on bringing you more motoring tales - even ones which involve looking a bit silly while standing next to a Corvette - without getting bogged down in how Life On Cars looks and works.

Personally, I think it looks great, but I'd be keen to know what you think. Feel free to get in touch with your motoring stories and details of shows!

Life On Cars is five years old!

 

IT'S great to reflect that Life On Cars is now five years old* and - by some stroke of luck - is still going from strength to strength.

Since its humble beginings with a broken-down Mini back in 2009 there have been hundreds of show reviews, test drives, comment pieces and features - and, of course, it's still a regular fixture each week in the pages of The Champion newspaper.

In an idea not-at-all-inspired by Chris Evans' seven-themed displays at the CarFest events, I've decided the best way to mark the anniversary is by looking back at five of the best 'fives' from five years of Life On Cars.

Click on each to find out more about each of these memorable motoring moments...

Five.... unforgettable drives

1) Blackpool Illuminations in a Mini
2) The Buttertubs Pass in Suzuki Swift Sport
3) The New Forest in a Jaguar XK150 (pictured)
4) Derbyshire Dales in a Lotus Evora S
5) North Wales in a Mazda MX-5

Five.... shows you won’t want to miss

1) Lydiate Classic Car Show
2) Cholmondely Pageant of Power
3) Lakes Charity Classic Car Show
4) Goodwood Revival
5) Ormskirk MotorFest

Five.... fantastic Life On Cars moments

1) Raising much-needed cash for charity (pictured)
2) Seeing Life On Cars printed in a national motoring publication
3) Winning a national award
4) Landing a job at Classic Car Weekly
5) Getting printed in The Champion

Five.... moments we’d rather forget

1) Taking an MGB at Curborough - and not doing it much good (pictured)
2) The Volkswagen XL1 being accidentally referred to as a Vauxhall in print
3) Selling the Mini and the Renault 5 within a week of each other
4) The Mondeo’s premature demise
5) Spinning my first MX-5

Five.... greatest cars we’ve tested

1) Ford Fiesta (2009)
2) Honda CR-Z (2010)
3) Citroen DS3 Racing (2011)
4) Morgan Threewheeler (2012, pictured)
5) Suzuki SC100 (2013)

For all these reviews, plus dozens of other road tests, visit the Fire Up The... section.


*Or rather it was five years old last week, but I might have been away on holiday on the big day. Oops!

The Life On Cars Mini resurfaces - here's why I didn't buy it

SUPPOSE you’re invited out for a drink with an ex you haven’t seen in years. You’re curious – perhaps even slightly sentimental – but you know it ended for a reason. What do you do?

That’s the way I felt the other day when the first car I ever owned turned up, completely unexpectedly, in an online auction. Naturally, it piqued my curiosity, and I’ve almost certainly spent far longer than anyone really ought to keeping track of all the bids a rather ropey, 30-year-old Mini.

It proved, given I’m exactly the sort of car lover who develops an attachment to what everyone considers to be automotive tat, to be a weirdly bittersweet experience. Even though there was no shortage of people egging me on, I couldn’t bring myself to do the motoring equivalent of getting back with your first girlfriend. I resisted the temptation to stick in a bid on the 1984 Mini Mayfair which for several years accompanied the logo of this very blog.

Not that I didn’t look back longingly, of course. If you really, truly love cars then your first outings in your own car are something you’ll reminisce about as fondly as your first kiss or your first pint, and for me those tentative initial trips in that Mini will be forever stacked away as wonderful memories. Being behind the wheel of A860 JKC meant the first time I ever took my own set of wheels to a car show, my inaugural motoring holiday and finally being free of bus stops. It was so much more than just a car.

That’s why seeing it up for sale in almost exactly the same state in which I sold it left me feeling sad. Contrary to previous belief, any plans to restore it to its former glory seemed to have fallen by the wayside – in fact, the 2009 Woodvale Rally plaque I’d fitted was still cable-tied to its chrome grille. The only difference was that four years ago my old Mayfair got driven away; it got sold online as a non-runner.

In the end I resisted the temptation, largely because despite the supersized helping of nostalgia my abiding memory is of it being a car which you could rely on to let you down. I watched as it went under the virtual hammer for £120 more than I sold it for; I can only hope it went to someone who’ll love it as much as I did, and can rescue it using the funds I didn’t have back in 2010.

Despite the bittersweet ending, I realised I’d learned two things from watching my first car being snapped up. For one thing, old Minis really have shot up in price over the last few years – that’s why even ones which really weren’t very good, like mine, get snapped up.

But perhaps more importantly, I remembered it’s better to have loved and lost an old car than never to have loved it at all.

Life On Cars writer picks up award

THE writer behind Life On Cars has won a prestigious award at a glittering ceremony in London.

David Simister (pictured, centre) was presented with a ‘One to Watch’ award at this year’s Bauer Media Awards, held last Friday (June 27) at The O2.

David, who was praised for his achievements as news editor at Classic Car Weekly, said: "I'm over the moon to have won such a prestigious award a little over a year after I started at Classic Car Weekly.

"Even though I write more about Austins and Astons than Ormskirk and Aughton, I'm delighted to carry on The Champion spirit of finding great stories through hard work and good journalism."

The award was in recognition for a series of exclusive motoring scoops for Classic Car Weekly and sister website Classic Cars For Sale, including breaking the news that the world’s first Triumph Spitfire was up for sale and that the world’s largest collection of cars from the James Bond films was being sold for £20m.

John Westlake, acting editor of Classic Car Weekly, said: "David richly deserved this prestigious award. His tea-making is woeful, but he's a very promising journalist."

Earlier this year, Life On Cars picked up a prize at the inaugural UK Blog Awards, and when working at The Champion newspaper in 2011 David won the O2 North West Scoop of The Year award.

Read more of David’s news stories every Wednesday in Classic Car Weekly

My MGB: to restore or not to restore?

YOU’D think with all the hours of online research, pub-based debating and burying my head in obscure books that I’ve got a dissertation to hand in. 

Yet in some ways, the question I’ve got to answer at some point this summer is actually even more challenging. What ought I to do with a tatty old classic car which I’ve developed an unfortunate attachment to? 

It’s a question that’s been vexing me ever since my four-wheeled companion emerged from the MOT station back in March. Regular readers might remember my classic car, an MGB GT which arrived at the Simister household four years ago on the back of a trailer after spending at least a decade hidden away on a farm in the Lake District. Since then, it’s been on all sorts of adventures, plodding to car shows across the North West, parading past Blenheim Palace on a classic car rally and – on a day I’d actually rather forget – being thrashed to within an inch of its life around a track by race ace Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams. 

It’s also – considering I bought it for just £200 – had quite a lot of love, time and money lavished upon it over the past few years. Yet as I discovered during its last trip to the MOT station back in March, it still isn’t enough. 

In short, I’m looking down the barrel of an MGB restoration that’ll almost certainly cost more than the finished product’s worth. 

While the bits that make the old girl go, stop and steer have long since been sorted out, leaving me with a car that at least drives in the wonderfully analogue, old-school way an MG should, the repair bill for sorting out the rot that’s slowly eating away at its wings, sills and valances looks set to run into the thousands. 

So the million dollar question – well, the six-to-eight grand question to be truthful – is whether I should.

I’ve met chaps at shows who’ve happily spent the price of a brand new Fiesta on transforming their tatty old classics into gleaming show winners, used them sparingly for a few years, and then sold them on for half their outgoings. Despite my best Man Maths (if you’ve ever tried to justify buying or restoring an old piece of automotive tat despite the complaints of a cynical wife or girlfriend, you’ll know what I mean) I’m not sure if I can bring myself to do the same. 

Put simply – would you throw thousands of pounds at a tatty old car or spend the same amount on a tidy Triumph Spitfire, a cheap TVR or a gleaming Peugeot 205 GTI? Answers on a postcard to the usual  address.

Champion columnist scoops top award

Originally printed in the 7 May, 2014 edition of The Champion newspaper. For an online version of the article click here.

Life On Cars wins national award!

Life On Cars has tonight won a national award celebrating blogging, it has been announced.

The organisers of the UK Blog Awards, held tonight at The Grange Hotel in St Pauls, Central London, confirmed that Life On Cars had beaten off stiff competition to win the Individual Automotive category, which celebrates motoring writing.

Originally launched by David Simister while working for The Champion newspaper in Southport, Life On Cars has featured hundreds of motoring articles, and has continued throughout his time at national title Classic Car Weekly.

The blog features comment pieces on hundreds of different motoring topics, road tests, show reports and news items, and is accompanied each week by a column in The Champion.

Sadly, David couldn't be in London to collect the prestigious award due to an assignment earlier today with Classic Car Weekly. Sadly, Life On Cars can't reveal too much, other than to say it involves some stunning roads, a pork pie shop and a broken Austin Montego.

All will be revealed soon!

David Simister is news editor of Classic Car Weekly and regularly contributes to The Champion as its motoring correspondent

Life On Cars shortlisted for national award

LIFE ON CARS has been shortlisted for a national award celebrating blogging, it has been confirmed this week.

Originally created by motoring journalist David Simister in July 2009, the blog is one of just eight from across the UK which have been shortlisted for the Automotive category of the UK Blog Awards 2014, with the winner due to be announced at a ceremony in London on 25 April.

The blog, which is accompanied by a sister column in The Champion newspaper in Southport, focuses on a wide range of motoring topics with more than 750 articles since its launch, including many of the misadventures David has encountered in his own cars!

David is the news editor of Classic Car Weekly, and regularly contributes to The Champion as the motoring correspondent for the series of weekly newspapers.

For sale - Rover 214SEi

The Rover 214SEi which has appeared here on Life On Cars and on a number of occasions in Classic Car Weekly is up for sale.

This N-registered model is the 214SEi, and comes with features including electric front windows, alloy wheels and half-leather seats - making it one of the more luxuriously equipped models in the 200 range when it was sold new way back in 1996.

While the car isn't perfect, and will need attention on the clutch and gearbox in particular before its next MOT next August, it's long proven a reliable runner, and has never broken down in the three years I've owned it. In the time I've had it, it's travelled as far afield as Cornwall, the Norfolk Broads, North Wales and the Lake District, and always got there quietly, faultlessly and comfortably.

The car MOT'd until August 2014, taxed until January 2014, 75,000 miles, lots of history, good condition throughout, and has never broken down in three years of ownership.

If you're looking for a cheap runaround with plenty of Longbridge heritage behind it, feel free to make me an offer! Give me a ring on 07581 343476 or drop me a line using the usual Life On Cars contact details...

The motoring mysteries Life On Cars still needs to solve

THIS year is definitely the year of the anniversary. Porsche’s 911 is 50, the Corvette is 60, and even the humble Hillman Imp has knocked up its first half century.

So it’s probably passed you by that today marks four years since Life On Cars choked into cyberspace for the first time. Since then, this blog – and the sister newspaper column in The Champion – have gone on a high octane journey through a world of car shows, reviews and test drives, taking in a few broken down Minis and sunburnt afternoons along the way.

However, there are a few questions which – despite having a finger on the pulse of all matters motoring since 2009 – still haven’t been answered. Niggling issues and unsolved mysteries, such as…

Does The Audi Lane actually exist? 

The more I drive on motorways, the more I’m convinced the outer lane has – perhaps through the signing of a secret EU protocol at a summit in deepest Ingolstadt – been reserved exclusively for cars with four rings on the radiator grille. Whether you’re in an entry-level A1 or a thumping A7 V12 TDI, your 95mph entrance into The Audi Lane is politely welcomed. Daring to venture there, however, in anything other than an Audi seems to result in the image above dominating your rear view mirror…

Can I get Allegrodote into the motoring lexicon?

An Allegrodote, in case you missed the article earlier this year, is an anecdote solely covering the Austin Allegro, particularly if it’s one that isn’t true. With BL’s great hatchback hope itself celebrating its fortieth birthday, it’d be great to see whether the car which inspires more urban myths than any other could be given its own special term to mark the anniversary.

Is the Renault Clio the most sensible secondhand car ever?

It struck me earlier today that almost everyone I know seems to have an owned a second generation Renault Clio, made by the French firm between 1998 and 2006. Whether it’s the 1.5DCI diesel – of £30 a year road tax fame – or the strikingly quick Renaultsport Clio 172, they do seem to reflect frankly ridiculous value for money. Which is why, I suspect, most of my mates have got one.

Why do cheeseburgers at car shows always cost £5.50? 

This one I’ve yet to understand – a cheeseburger at a car show, whether you’re in Dorset or Cheshire, Lancashire or Lanarkshire, almost always costs £5.50, making me suspect there’s some sort of layby-based cabal somewhere determining the price. That is, of course, with the exception of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which when I visited earlier this year marked itself out as a car show of a higher calibre. This, I think, explains the £8 you paid for a burger there.

What will the next Fiat 500 spinoff be? 

We’ve already had the 500C, the Abarth, the hideous 500L, the even more hideous 500L MPW and now the frankly unbearable 500L Tracking. Chances are that by this time next year you’ll be able to buy a 500 Roadster, a 500XXL Fire Engine, a 500 Beach Buggy and perhaps a 500 Submarine. All of which will be worth £500 in a used car auction near you in the not-too-distant future.

Can you go green-laning in an electric car? 

I was wondering this earlier today when I’d stopped laughing at the Hummer electric car a UK design firm has come up with. Land Rover came up with an electric Defender earlier this year, but I am left wondering what would happen to an electric 4X4 if, for instance, you took it wading through a river in the Cumbrian countryside. Potentially, the results could be shocking…

Why are Peugeot interiors always messy?

An old colleague of mine got so cross when I put this particular pet theory across that the column I’d been planning for that week got quietly canned, for offending owners of 307s everywhere. It does, however, leave the ongoing mystery as to why so many unloved car interiors I’ve seen are in Peugeots, from a 406 Estate practically blacked by cigarette smoke, the 407 with Seventies-esque disco lighting on account of its numerous technical warnings, and a 206 lined with old McDonalds bags and a distinct whiff of vomit, even though it was barely a year old at the time.

Do ‘GB’ plates make you motor look more modern? 

A mate of mine put this to me today and – annoyingly – he’s absolutely right, although I’m not entirely sure why. All afternoon I’ve been checking out whether cars have the telltale EU blue strip at the side of the numberplate, and determined that all the cars that do somehow look newer than otherwise identical ones which don’t. Weird, but true.

Why are all classic cars described online as ‘BRAN FIND’? 

Genuine classics which are in ‘barn find’ condition are worth a fortune – witness, for instance, the E-Type which sold at auction for £109,000 after spending most of its life hidden away in the aforementioned agricultural building. However, that doesn’t excuse clumsy eBay sellers flogging any old tat as a ‘barn find’, inadvertently mis-spelling it as ‘BRAN FIND’ in the process. In the world of crap secondhand buys, any car of any age or merit can be described as ‘BRAN FIND’ if it's spent even a short of amount of time in a garage or other building.

Will my MGB GT ever be finished? 

Speaking of which, my MGB – which actually did spend a decade of its life in a barn – has over the past three of Life On Cars’ four years kept me busy with visits to shows and appearances in the pages of Classic Car Weekly. While it’s had a small fortune spent on it there are many, many jobs it could still benefit from – least of all, a proper tune up after its latest excursion made it sound like a cement mixer with a cold. I wager, though, that it’s the automotive equivalent of painting the Forth Bridge. Maybe it’s a job that’s never meant to get finished…

Life On Cars thanks both of its readers for all their support over the past four years

Bank Holiday weekends are no fun for motorists

So another Bank Holiday weekend’s been and gone. How was yours?

If you were sensible you probably spent it trying to shelter your pint from the searing heat of the sun in a beer garden of your choice, enjoying a round of a rather different sort at the Royal Birkdale or – if you were feeling adventurous – trying to avoid a DIY-induced trip to your nearest Accident & Emergency.

It’s just a shame, then, that I loathe Bank Holidays with a venom usually only reserved for Bob Geldof, the music of Will.i.am and the Kia Pride. Part of the problem is that – unlike days you’ve chosen to take our your holiday allowance, when the world truly is your oyster and you’re free to make whatever carefully considered plans you like for it – Bank Holidays are essentially days when the Government tells you that you must have fun. Whitehall telling you to enjoy yourself is like telling a six-year-old child to go to sleep – because of the imperatives involved, it ain’t gonna happen.

But worse still is the unintended but inevitable byproduct of Britain’s population being told, en masse, to have a good time; the slightly silly amounts of traffic on the major roads and motorways from clocking off work on Friday right through to the following Tuesday morning. As much I love cars and driving, even I was wishing someone would get on with inventing a successful teleportation system as I sat in the same two mile stretch of M6 for the 45th minute last Friday night. If you can liken Britain’s road network to a living, breathing thing, then the Bank Holiday weekend represents the clogged arteries that come after the nation collectively gorging itself on the double cheeseburger that is the working week.

I can see the retort coming already; perhaps, rather than being one of these people inconveniently helping cause a bit of congestion, I should have just avoided travelling? I would have loved to have travelled at a different time but I could only leave work to get where I needed to be when – you guessed it – work finished. I’d only dared venture onto the M6, at rush hour on a Friday night on a Bank Holiday weekend, because it connects where I’d come from with where I wanted to go. Thanks to the brilliance of Bank Holiday weekends, that’s the predicament everyone else was in too.

There was that idiotic suggestion by some Government think tank that Bank Holidays should be abolished altogether, but really what Whitehall ought to do, for the nation’s collective commuting sanity, is find a way of managing the congestion nightmares they cause for thousands of people, none of whom especially want to be stuck there.

That or get busy giving a grant to whoever can invent a teleporter.

Life On Cars changes gear

YOU don't have to be particularly eagle-eyed to spot that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a revamp.

What you might not know, however, is that Sefton and West Lancashire's favourite motoring blog has looked largely the same since November 2010, when I gave it a bit of a facelift to bring into the line with the various shades of blue that make up the house colours at The Champion.

You can, of course, still catch up with the printed column in the eight editions of the newspaper every Wednesday, but with all the other changes it only seemed right to give the blog a bit of a sprucing up, including bringing in a bit of red - oh all right, a lot of red - to match Classic Car Weekly and its equally scarlet logo.

But while the colour's changed and some of the pictures and stories might come from a little further afield, with CCW being a publication with national reach, the anecdotes of automotive misfortune, the tips for events in the North West and all the other things Life On Cars covers will continue.

So while you'll be seeing red with the artwork, hopefully you won't be seeing red with any of the articles!

Read more of David's motoring stories - including a full page report on his MGB GT - in the latest edition of Classic Car Weekly (published Wednesday, April 17).

Life begins at Classic Car Weekly

JUST a quick note to say how much I've enjoyed my first day as a full time motoring journalist.

It's not every day you start as a writer for Classic Car Weekly, which is based down in Peterborough and published by Bauer Media, but that's exactly how the dream of getting up, driving gorgeous old cars and then getting paid to write about them, started this morning.

I've already been entrusted with a series of motoring-related missions, including some stories which should, fingers crossed, be in next Wednesday's edition. All this on a day when I've managed to get totally lost in the office's endless corridors and have only just discovered where the canteen is!

Ever since I learned to string "Range Rover" into a sentence I've been pretty much obsessed with cars, especially older ones which make grunty noises when you put your foot down. For the past three years, my friends at The Champion have allowed me to indulge my automotive passions on the flimsiest of journalistic excuses - and don't worry, the weekly column WILL continue - but now I'm a fully grown boy and I get to do what I love doing most of all for a living.

To say I'm looking forward to giving these automotive adventures my all's a bit of an understatement.

Tomorrow's assignment: drive an E-Type. No, really. One of my first assignments for Classic Car Weekly is to let you know what it's like to get behind the wheel of a car I've been itching to drive since I was ten years old.

I'll keep you posted...

Have you got a story for Classic Car Weekly you'd like to share with David? Get in touch with him by sending an email to david.simister@classiccarweekly.co.uk or give him a call on 01733 468847.

It's (not quite) the end of the road for Life On Cars

THE END is nigh. Well, at least it would have been, because tomorrow marks what could have been the last time Life On Cars appears in The Champion.

After three-and-a-bit years of motoring mishaps I'm off to pastures new next week - a job writing for Classic Car Weekly - so it's probably a better time than any to reflect on the automotive adventures I've had so far. Adventures where I've been priveliged to have you, the petrolheads across Sefton and West Lancashire, in the passenger seat with me.

The sort of adventures which included nailing the Vauxhall VXR8's throttle on the high speed bowl at Millbrook or winding my way over a Welsh mountain pass in an MX-5, or that marvellous morning when I had some of the best roads in the Derbyshire Dales at my disposal and a Lotus Evora S to tackle them in. Then there was the intoxicatingly noisy fighter plane thrills of thundering through Southport in a Morgan Threewheeler, using a Peugeot cabriolet to get from Settle to Carlisle eleven minutes quicker than the Settle to Carlisle train can, and discovering just what 542bhp, courtesy of a Jaguar XKR-S, feels like.

But better still are the real world thrills I've shared. Stuff like the utter joy that is the steering, feel and handling on an original Mini. Then there was the revelation that a borrowed Ford Transit is far more fun through the corners than it's got any right to be, and the smiles that I've had by travelling back in time every time I start up my own classic car of choice - my 1972 MGB GT, which on two occasions I've had the privelige of parading around the Ormskirk MotorFest. Which brings me onto the car shows I've covered - and there were, when I counted, no less than 25 of them in 2012 alone - where I've met countless fellow enthusiasts and gawped longingly at legions of old Astons, Jags and Ferraris.

And that's before I get onto the one new car that's left more of an impression on me than any other.
While there'll always be space for an original Mini in my extended Euromillions winner garage there is one new car out of the dozens I've tested that, for me at least, blended real world frills, proper petrolhead thrills and sensible pricing better than any other. A final special mention, then, for a hot hatch I've raved about on several occasions - the wonderful little Suzuki Swift Sport.

Life On Cars will, for now at least despite the changes, continue both in The Champion and online right here. I'd still love to hear about your motoring stories and events. I'm looking forward to sharing even more adventures, even if they're from a bit further afield!

You wouldn't steal a car...

A RATHER familiar looking article on an Indonesian website I clocked the other day reminded me of that advert you get on almost every DVD about why it's wrong to make pirate movies.

You can imagine I was just a tiny bit annoyed when I came across a motoring website yesterday, The Fast Cars, which featured an article about the author's reflections on their 1990, Mariner Blue Mazda MX-5. A lot like my very own, 1990, Mariner Blue Mazda MX-5.

Among the other articles featured on The Fast Cars was a piece on how the new Volkswagen e-up! has an amusing name which sounds a lot like a Northern English greeting - amazing really, given the site's based in the Far East and I doubt the author has heard of Lancashire, let alone visited it. Yet what really irked me was when I saw an in-depth article on Henry Segrave and his connections to Southport, plus the same images I'd tracked down for a feature in GR8Life magazine.

Yup, you've guessed it; weeks of research and effort for a lengthy motoring feature is being used, without my permission, on an Indonesian-run motoring website.

Anyone who blogs will be familiar with this practice - it's called 'content scraping' - which involves owners of unscrupulous websites taking your hard work, without asking you, and reposting it on their own sites. In my case, articles which have been written for Life On Cars have been taken and tweaked without my say-so, the pictures, even the ones where I've negotiated their use, copied and pasted, and the hyperlinks removed for ones which suit their own use. To add insult to injury the token link to Life On Cars credits this website as "a strange picture source". Charming!

I have written to the owner of The Fast Cars pointing out the obvious - that using content and pictures taken from other peoples' websites without their permission is theft, that I'd like the offending articles taken down with immediate effect, and that I'd consider legal action if they don't. While it's flattering that they'd want to use content from my blog and highly amusing that they make such a hash out of rewording it, it is still a breach of copyright that does down the hard work of motoring journalists across the UK.

Sorry this entry hasn't been terribly motoring-releated, but I'd love to know if you see any Life On Cars articles - indeed, articles written by any pukka UK motoring publication - which is being used this way!

End of term report: Mazda MX-5

THE roof has been lowered one last time. The revvy little twin cam engine has been switched off. I have, after nearly two years of small sports car fun, sold my Mazda MX-5.

Due to getting a new job - more on that in a few days, because that's another story for another day - one of the Life On Cars fleet had to go. The MGB GT, despite still being in winter hibernation, is my passport into a world of classic car shows and authentically old-fashioned driving experiences, and even though it hasn't moved in months I'd rather sell my right arm than get rid of the old warhorse. The Rover, meanwhile, has earned its keep by taking a small forests' worth of old wooden furniture to be recycled and taking hundreds of miles of motorway driving in its stride, so it's proved too comfortable, too practical and too useful to get rid of.

So it's the Mazzer, a small, two-seater roadster I bought back in 2011 after years of wanting one on my driveway, that had to go. Which is one of the hardest motoring decisions I've ever made, because I've loved almost every mile it's covered.

It hasn't, don't get me wrong, been plain sailing all the way, after a combination of cheap tyres and tail-happy handling prompted one repair and a split hose prompted another, but once both these issuse had been tackled it's proven one of the most enjoyable cars I've ever owned. If you pick a good 'un and look after it, an MX-5 is arguably one of the best automotive recipes ever concocted - authentically British sports car thrills topped off with bulletproof Japanese reliability!

The Mariner Blue, 1990 Eunos Roadster - meaning it found its way onto Britain's B-Roads as a grey import after starting its life in Japan, but don't let that put you off - has proved a perfectly reliable companion, which just happened to have a soft-top roof you could chuck down in seconds. Which is exactly what I did when I used it on my advanced driving test.

What's more, even in the company of more exotic machinery and grand automotive stages it's never been anything less than sublime. In the company of a Ford Racing Puma, a supercharged Volkswagen Polo G40, a Metro GTi and some stunning Welsh scenery in certainly didn't embarrass itself. It tackled the Buttertubs Pass and felt right at home, and even took the more boring stuff - like motorway tailbacks - in its stride. Not once has it so much as thought of refusing to start.

Would I point an aspiring petrolhead in the direction of an early MX-5's pop-up headlights? Definitely, given it's one of the cheapest routes into the world of authentic, rear-drive sports cars thrills (and, I suspect, a lot more reliable than a similarly priced MGF!). There's plenty of them out there, so choose one that hasn't succumbed to rot and shows signs of being looked after mechanically. Don't skimp on the tyres - particularly the rear ones, where the power goes - because it makes a big difference to how it behaves. Most of all, treat it with respect, but if you do the MX-5 is one of the most rewarding modern classics on the market.

My Mazda was a cracking little car. I miss it already.