Playing to its strengths
Lots of strength, no playing. By Alex Tapley
And we’re back. My first significant photo shoot after months of – at most – low-key local work was quite a way to get back into the swing of things.
Long, sweaty, intense, it was one of those days we used to do all the time – and however much we used to complain about them, they’re an utterly fundamental part of the business of putting CAR together every month. And it was a chance for the Superb to show what it could do, and then some.
The mission was to head down to Somerset to meet up with Ben Barry and photograph him testing the Ariel Nomad R in scorching heat on some great roads in and around Exmoor. Doesn’t sound too terrible, does it? But bear in mind this is work, which means lots of driving between locations, interspersed with bouts of frantic activity when the opportunity arises to actually take the photos, all against the clock and mindful of health and safety.
I left Lincolnshire at 4am and arrived back home 16 hours later, having put 575 miles on the clock. If you saw the Nomad R story in the August issue, I hope you think that the photos were worth the effort; I was pretty pleased. And Ben Barry loved the car.
The Superb is everything the Nomad R is not, and vice versa. It’s as much about the passengers and the luggage as it is about the driving experience, but it does a very good job of looking after the driver from a comfort and convenience point of view. It would be a lie to say I arrived home ready to do it all again – I didn’t; I was knackered – but the Superb did a great job of unobtrusively, undemandingly getting on with its job, so I could get on with mine. The boot was loaded with camera gear, car-cleaning kit and refreshments, but there was still masses of unoccupied space.
And just check out those fuel figures. Although there was an element of to-ing and fro-ing on Exmoor, most of the journey was steady motorway and A-road cruising, giving 43mpg.