Steve Cropley
MY WEEK IN CARS
Phone users: don’t try this at home
WEDNESDAY
Sunny day in Staffordshire driving the new Ssangyong Rexton, the Korean maker’s new 4x4 designed to fit somewhere between a Land Rover Discovery and a Discovery Sport, obviously at a much, much lower price than either.
Many will be inclined by instinct to dismiss this model, which lacks image and a prestigious name (Rexton does sound like an ointment for sensitive areas), and when it trebles its UK volume, as predicted, it will only sell about 1000 units a year. It’s no technology leader, either, with a four-pot diesel and old-style (but effective) selectable 4x4 system. Yet I enjoyed it. It looks modern, the cabin is roomy, durable and plush and the quality is the classiest bit of all. And I take a curious pleasure out of driving something quite decent that sits far outside the ‘prestige hierarchy’ that seems to drive most of today’s SUV buyers. This new Ssanger is pretty good in mud and effortless on the motorway. What’s not to like?
FRIDAY
Before leaving the car park after a visit to Gaydon, I placed my phone on my Toyota Prius’s roof in order to remove fat wallet (its girth caused by disorganisation, not value) from back pocket so as to increase my seat comfort for the 80 miles ahead. The next time I thought about said mobile was a few miles down the dual carriageway I was negotiating at 60mph, as it slid down the rear window and cartwheeled down the road in the rear view mirror. I stopped, hazards on, and rushed back up the road, but not before 20 cars had passed over it, some avoiding it, but a couple passing directly over it – at least one, I think, deliberately. When I reached it, the phone, protected only by a cheapo plastic case, was unmarked and fine. Stopped on the way back to the office and bought a lottery ticket.
SUNDAY
Call it weird, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Triumph TR7 – to the extent of buying one a few years ago and blowing my wad on a V8 conversion and associated mods. (After that, I always reckoned the TR7 was fine as long as you changed the engine, gearbox, brakes, suspension and back axle ratio.) Back in the day, I was a lone-ish voice in loving the car’s bold styling, comfortable cockpit and modern proportions – the work of a brave designer called Harris Mann, who I never knew but always regarded as a hero.
I finally met Mann at an MG event at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, and he turned out to be every bit the gent I hoped. We talked about the unique circumstances that produced his revolutionary Trumpet: the lack of resources, the time pressure, a management with little feel for sports cars. All of which make the TR7’S creation the more remarkable. I’m glad to see these cars being recognised by the market at last, although at £5000 to £10,000 for a decent convertible (much less for a coupé), they’re hardly pricey. Nowadays, aftermarket V8 conversions predominate. In future – as with so many affordable classics – it’ll be the unmolested examples that draw the interest and carry the value.
TUESDAY
Heartwarming tweet from Damon Hill alerting the motorsport community about Murray Walker’s 94th birthday, whereupon a Twitter thread began to run, right across the world, to the effect that the world’s most loved, admired and recognised F1 commentator richly deserves a knighthood. My question – and that of hundreds of others – is why hasn’t it happened already?
The world’s most loved and admired F1 commentator richly deserves a knighthood