Steve Cropley
Car chat at the House of Commons
TUESDAY
First and only time I’m ever likely to speak in the House of Commons: asked to give a talk at the All-party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group’s annual dinner by its chairman and irrepressible car lover, Sir Greg Knight. As you can imagine, the prospect became more and more terrifying as the moment to rise to the hind legs approached: I mean, what idiot consents to performing in front of a group so effortlessly brilliant at talking off the cuff as a bunch of politicians? Anyway, I survived, mostly by wearing and talking about a tie given to me 40 years ago at Maranello by Enzo Ferrari.
Big positive was seeing how parliamentarians love cars. Not just enjoy them, but honestly love and nurture them. The event was attended by transport secretary Chris Grayling, who credited the group’s deep collective knowledge with keeping the government honest on proposals that affect old cars and their owners. He also noted the extreme importance of car heritage to a country whose key manufacturers were great marques guided by their history. It was a good moment.
WEDNESDAY
Great chance for a one-on-one with Jag master designer Ian Callum on the subject of the new electric I-pace and the “Bevolution” at Jaguar. It happened at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, during a press call to mark the I-pace’s Dewar Trophy win. Callum and I arrived late, sat together and had a quiet little chat of our own, with him explaining the packaging opportunities of the car with sketches to add clarity.
Callum loves honesty in design. He explained how the I-pace’s revolutionary mechanical layout (no 500kg motive lump suspended on rubber in the nose) affords all-new packaging opportunities that, in turn, allowed “extra space per dimension”. This, however, can’t be allowed to make car look strange, he insists. “Elon Musk and Tesla taught us this,” said Callum. “Their car is very America-centric but it looks good because it’s essentially conventional. I loathe the idea that electric cars have to be different: odd cars for odd people. The I-pace is a volume car, a real Jaguar, intended to appeal to as many people as possible.”
THURSDAY
Weird motoring decisions No. 672: I’m finding it hard to get my head around Subaru’s decision to kill the Impreza WRX STI, with a “strictly limited” Final Edition announced today. The maker’s own bumf calls it Subaru’s iconic model, which seems a heck of a label to chuck away. It’s like VW deciding there was no longer a case for the Golf GTI – except that, if anything, Subaru needs its image-builder much more.
FRIDAY
Fascinating day at Santa Pod, venerable HQ of UK drag racing just north of Bedford, to produce the “our wreckage” feature we traditionally run at Christmas. Shouldn’t say anything here about the identity of the participating machinery, except that there were seven vehicles involved and I reckon you’ll only have seen one of them before.
Drag racing has come a very long way since I last went to a meeting, and one progression is the fact that the track surface is now entirely coated with a gluey, rubberised black coating offering so much traction that at “run what ya brung” road car meetings (the first 2018 fixture is next February, when unlimited running will cost you £20) the danger is you’ll blow your car’s clutch, diff or axle. Anyway, the black gunge is regularly sprayed from a trailer towed by, of all things, an immaculate early Sunderland Nissan Bluebird, better known in Pod circles as ‘The Gluebird’…
I survived, mostly by talking about a tie given to me 40 years ago by Enzo Ferrari