Life On Cars Magazine, Issue Two

IT'S BACK, by popular demand!

Lots of you said you enjoyed Life On Cars in handy magazine form when the original issue got published way back in July, as a sort of birthday treat for the blog you're reading reaching its first birthday.

In the end, I decided to do a follow up because there's been so much going on in the motoring world, and with the return of Dune FM's Live From Studio One yet to be announced it could be a while before there's any more radio broadcasts.

But along with some stuff you'll already be familiar with, there's also a couple of pieces you won't have read yet, including a media man's perspective of The Stig identity story which gripped the tabloids not so long ago, and a guide to the LA Auto Show, taking place this week.

Read it, enjoy it, and let me know what you think, and hopefully you'll enjoy reading through it as much as I've enjoyed making it.

Will there be a third? Watch this space...

Open publication - Free publishing - More motors

The mystery of the Skover pickup

FORGET Nessie or the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Stranger things have happened, as one Life On Cars reader has found out!

Jamie Frew sent in this picture of the strange cross-breed he spotted in a dark supermarket car park somewhere near Glasgow, which appears to splice the genes of the Rover 200 I bought earlier this month with the early Nineties efforts of a certain Czech car maker. It's the Skover Felicia... I think.

I love the idea that a cash-strapped Rover Group would have gone knocking on Skoda's door with a cheque for the Czechs, in return for a tarted-up pickup truck which could have been sold alongside Metros and MGFs. It is badge engineering at its cheapest, simplest level.

Oh alright, I'll come clean; it's a Skoda Felicia Pickup, which someone thought they could improve by removing all the original badging and replacing with Rover wheels and radiator grille. The idea, I take it, was to take away the outdated connotations of cheapness which used to come with Skoda, and replace it with Roverised visions of restraint and refinement.

I'm not entirely sure it's worked...

At least this facelift's better than the Audi Q7

LIKE the American automobiles of old, Life On Cars has just been treated to its annual facelift!

After being innundated with a comment that the blog, which hasn't been properly updated in over a year, was an unremitting sea of blackness, I've gone through the entire thing with an entire toothcomb.

What you're looking at is the result of trying to bring it closer to The Champion colour scheme and just nicer to look at in general, because the general consensus among my petrolhead mates was that it was a good read once you got over the dark, slightly cramped style of its predecessor.

Can't remember what the original looked like? Then click here, and then let me know whether you think I've done a good job of it or not.

Eagle-eyed readers might also spot the "In Print" section subtly added at the top, which does exactly what it says on the tin, giving you the chance to see some of the pieces as they would have appeared in The Champion and GR8Life Magazine.

Stay tuned for the normal motoring musings later this week...

Coming soon...

THE Life On Cars magazine is back!

Well almost, with the most I can reveal at the moment of the upcoming second issue being this preview of the front cover. I can promise, though that the whole thing will be available to read on here later this week.

If you're not familiar with the original issue, which was published to coincide with the first anniversary of Life On Cars back in July, you can read it again in all its glory by clicking here, or by visiting the Magazine section above.

Meanwhile, the website itself is also going to be treated to its annual facelift later this week, to make sure it stays fresh and easy to use as well as being the region's best source of motoring news, reviews and opinions. I can't say much yet about what form it'll take...but I hope you enjoy the finished product.

Watch this space...

What do you know about the DUKW?

A SOUTHPORT man hoping to tell the tale of these mighty vehicles from the resort's past - and he's looking to hear from residents who remember them.

Peter Dyer, of Longacre, told Life On Cars he is working on a book covering the history of the amphibious DUKW vehicles, which were once a common sight along the region's coastline when they were used as rescue vehicles by the Sefton Lifeguards.

“The red and cream DUKWs, workhorses of the Southport and then Sefton Lifeguards, patrolled our shores for nearly four decades,” he explained.

“They were responsible for saving the lives of some 600 people, but started out here as pleasure ride vehicles. Now their story has come full circle, with some of them being used on the Liverpool and London yellow Duck Tours.”

The DUKW, popularly pronounced “duck”, is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck designed for the American military to use in amphibious attacks during the Second World War, and among other operations was used in the D-Day Landings in 1944.

Mr Dyer is requesting that Champion readers who remember the vehicles should get in touch with him with their stories, along with any additional photos, film footage or information. He is particularly looking for more information about the company Thompson and Doxey Export, which was involved with the vehicles, the use of the Canning Road bus sheds to store them, and any photos from the late 1940s, when they were first introduced.

To get in touch with your stories contact 01704 231685 or by email at peter@peterdyer.wanadoo.co.uk

Fire up the... MINI Countryman

THERE'S a little-known tale from the creation of the new MINI I suddenly remembered while roadtesting the Countryman.

The story goes that just after BMW signed off the reinvention of the British small car classic, they figured that if their smallest car is called a MINI, then logically its eventual bigger brother should be christened the MAXI. Only when they realised British Leyland had already tried - and not entirely successfully - did the idea get quietly dropped.

This, to all extents and purposes, is that car; a MINI that stretches the idea of being minature to its vaguest, fuzziest realms yet. It is MINI made massive, a car that's trying to grow faster than the families spawned by the company's original customers. Don't move out of your MINI and into an MPV just yet, not when you can have the same retro style in a slightly bigger package. That's the idea, anyway.

But the Countryman - cutely named in homage of the Sixties Mini estates - comes across as a turgid take on its smaller and sportier sisters, boasting all the familiar MINI styling cues but in a slightly bloated way. It's the same story on the inside too, with an interior that blends its use of colours and materials well but comes across as chintzy in some of the fussier details, particularly the pizza-sized speedometer surrouding the stereo.

Out on the road it handles impressively for something its size, with a smooth feel through the brakes and suspension, but it feels almost unrelated to the sprightly MINI hatchbacks, with the fun factor strangely absent.

Where it does impress is not the packaging but the dressing, with the retro touches like the cool rocker switches on the dashboard being familiar to MINI moguls, but almost unheard of among rivals like Ford's Kuga and Nissan's Quashqai, which focus more on practicality than pose value.

But in the end there's one big problem that'd stop me buying one: Skoda's Yeti, which can't match the MINI brand's catchet but makes up for it by being better almost everywhere else, particularly where driving, practicality and value for money are concerned. If you really want driving fun for all the family, buy one of those.

Weirdly, if you want the most MINI for your money, you're better off sticking with the smaller ones.

As published in The Champion on November 17, 2010

And the new arrival is...

RELAX. It's a Rover.

The long-gone Longbridge concern's old ad slogan couldn't have rung more true the first time I gave the latest arrival on the Life On Cars fleet its first proper run, heading for home up the M57. Sporty this £300, 1995 Rover 214 isn't, despite it coming in a rather fetching shade of British Racing Green. If there's one word to sum up this icon of Hyacinth Bucket motoring it's... comfortable.

Thanks to it being winter I've only actually driven it in the dark so far, hence the car you see above not being the exact one sat outside, but already it's impressing me with its plush trimmings and soothing suspension. I like the tasteful - if restrained - styling, both inside and out, and the way the revvy Rover K-Series engine seems to mate perfectly with the Honda heritage in the engineering. I like the half-leather seats and the (plastic) wood trimming, and the way it comes loaded with things like electric windows and an immobiliser that works. And my mates love the fact that - for the first time ever - I'm driving something with five doors!

Where the Renault, with its flyweight engineering and suspiciously powerful engine, was a hot hatch in disguise, the regal old Rover's much more grown up, but there's lots to like about it. On wet, nasty November nights, it's nice to step into something that soothes your brow as you head home.

I'm so relaxed, in fact, that I haven't even bothered to ask the obvious questions yet. Is the notoriously fickle K-Series engine going to blow a head gasket? Are the strangely solid-looking sills hiding a lifetime of rot? And - most worryingly - is my choice of a Rover as my latest purchase meaning I'm about to prematurely celebrate my fiftieth birthday?

All, I'm sure, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: No more reading the manual for me, thanks to a Top Gear tuition video in all things Rover 200! Cue a very 1989 looking Chris Goffey...