Opinion
IN PRAISE OF CHADWICK + THE LOTUS IN TOYOTA’S GR YARIS
See you in 2041
In December 1996 I bought CAR magazine and fell in love with the description of the car of my dreams, the Lotus Elise. I eventually bought a new Elise in 2000 and it has proved to be an enduring pleasure over the past 20 years.
I sold that first Elise to start a business and suffered separation anxiety for two years before buying a 1996 ‘lightweight’ with MMS brakes – simply the best driving car I have ever driven.
As I look forward to my seventh decade, and find myself wishing for a slightly less austere drive with all the same engagement as an Elise, I cast my net wide and suddenly, amazingly, along comes the Toyota GR Yaris. With lots of Toyota experience in business (including a 250,000-mile diesel Yaris), I paid the deposit without driving or seeing the car in the flesh. This provoked some not inconsiderable buyer’s remorse.
I need not have worried. The penultimate paragraph of Ben Miller’s Hot Hatch of the Year story in the December issue, where he likens the GR to an Elise, gave me a smile that will carry me through to delivery in June 2021. I drove the GR Yaris this week and I strongly believe it will be my driving pleasure for the next 20 years. And CAR magazine my reading pleasure.
Neil Davis
Ah, what a relief! Great news on two fronts, Neil. Keep us posted on your GR Yaris experiences – we have one joining the Our Cars fleet imminently. BM
Heart of the matter
I loved your understated line in the review of the Mk8 Golf R (January): ‘The reason this engine is used so much across the VW Group is simple: it’s very good.’ This reminded me of one of the reasons for the demise of British Leyland – their chaotic mess of many different engine series, overlapping in size and distributed across all their brands. VW (and others) have been strategic in that regard, having ‘similar’ well-developed engines which can be based on the same components, scaled accordingly using different numbers of cylinders and different configurations. These are utilised across all their brands with excellent eciency.
Since all these motors will soon be replaced by sewing-machine rotors, I thought it might be an idea (like your magnificent ‘The last gallon’ story in the September 2019 issue) to tell the background stories of some of the most
outstanding engines. I’m pretty sure you did this previously in the ’80s or ’90s but surely it’s worth retelling to a younger audience, especially since there is an extra 30 years’ worth of engines that will soon be as relevant as the Flying Scotsman, despite their magnificence.
Stuart Aspin
Great letter, thanks Stuart. Much food for thought here, and we are working on something along the lines you suggest – watch this space. You’re absolutely right on the impressive scalability of modern engines – the JLR inline components set that can be a triple, a four or a six is a good example of the breed. BM
In praise of CAR 700, pt1
I have been reading the magazine ever since it first appeared on Melbourne newsstands many years ago. It was full of marvellous stories and photography which lifted us beyond the petrolhead and into a shimmering world of auto adventure and intellectual challenge (well, for some of the time anyway). I continue to enjoy it; even in its more sedate latterday form it is intelligent and rewarding.
Ralph Stanton
In praise of CAR 700, pt2
To distil the essence of all that CAR is about in just one issue was absolutely brilliant!
R Ron Mitchell
Thanks Ron. Features guru James Taylor and art man Mal are still recovering. BM
Play to your strengths
I now reluctantly accept that in the UK we drive on the wrong side of the road. Or more accurately, from the wrong side of the car. Now that we are required to poke, prod, swipe and pinch to access most vehicular functions, like 90 per cent of the population I would be a lot more adept at this with my right hand rather than my left.
The clincher was your article on the massive screens in the Honda E (Does it work?, January 2021), showing an awkwardly positioned right hand reaching over. I can see a ‘handed’ question coming from the car insurers. Steven Georgiadis
Some of the better voice-control systems might be able to bypass this problem, and some central screens are configurable, so you can put the more important functions within easy reach. But yes, what’s so terrible about buttons and switches? CO
Me and my 575M
You were kind enough to publish my letter about the Ferrari Roma in the February 2021 issue of CAR which arrived today. As you asked, here’s some background on my 2004 575M.
It’s a left-hand-drive car which I bought in 2014 from GTO Motors in Saronno, an ocial Ferrari Service dealer, 50km south of Lake Como.
GTO also specialise in restorations and they do everything in-house, including engine rebuilds and paintwork to a very high standard. I never intended to drive the car much in the UK so I went all over Europe to find the very best left-hand-drive car I could find. Antonio Pizzi, the owner of GTO, is a pleasure to deal with and he even arranged a personal factory tour for us when we collected the car.
I’ve taken the Ferrari back to Antonio several times since, for servicing and a cambelt change. We never need much of an excuse to drive over the Alps and down to the Italian Lakes!
Other services have been taken care of by the excellent factory-trained guys at Emblem Sports Cars in Poole, who are on my doorstep.
Christopher H Sheldrake
End of the road
My first word some 59 years ago was ‘car’, much to my parents’ annoyance, and I have been infatuated with these gas-guzzling machines ever since. Something has happened to me in the last few years. I have lost my enjoyment, and my appreciation of modern technology. I cannot cope with a car that is a mobile computer, especially these electric monstrosities. We have been told that by 2030 or earlier we will not be able to buy a petrol or diesel car any more. How is the average man or woman in the street going to be able to afford an electric car?
Just look at the January issue. There’s a Volvo XC40 at £59,000, and we read that a Vauxhall Corsa E is £28,000. With a maximum range of 260 miles they are pathetic. I can buy nearly four ⊲
new Dacias for that money and can travel 650 miles on one tank of diesel. I know the manager of a German car dealership in Glasgow. He informs me that a five- or six-year-old hybrid tradein is virtually impossible to sell – no one wants them secondhand. Perhaps in London, yes, but in the rural United Kingdom they are an expensive joke. The answer is hydrogen, where water is the only waste product.
Andrew Forrest
The next decade is sure to be a wild ride. Like every other option on the table, hydrogen has its pros and cons, backers and sceptics. BM
Blast from the past
Inspired by your recent 700th issue,
I reflected on the first issue of CAR that I can recall reading. Stretching my memory bank, the first issue I can remember was one that had a comparison test between an Aston Martin V8 and Mercedes Benz 500 SEC. I remember wrestling with the diculty of choosing between them at the time, and wondering which I would buy if I was old enough.
Thanks to the power of the internet, I was not only able to identify the issue, but was also able to purchase it (again!). Just before Christmas the September 1982 issue duly arrived, complete with period advertising insert for Citroën Visa and Dyane special editions, and I enjoyed reading an edition that I first picked up when I was 11 years old.
The style has clearly evolved over the intervening years, with more technical detail than I generally notice today, two pages on the latest stereo trends in an era when changing your in-car hi-fi must have been much more common, and a long article on different fourwheel-drive systems from a time when it was a novelty in road cars.
I even enjoyed reading the group test between the Rover 2000, Saab 900 and Austin Ambassador, although the conclusion was fudged somewhat (pick any of them!). I don’t know that anyone would have predicted all three brands would have disappeared from sale within a generation.
I shall make sure I keep my copy this time, to avoid having to buy a third one! Thanks for continuing to produce a great magazine.
Matthew Harris
What a great purchase. There’s so much nostalgia in old magazines – our archive (when we used to be allowed into the o ce…) was a great way to kiss goodbye to the rest of the day. BM
True costs
I always believed in your reputation for top-quality journalism, but just picked up a couple of comments that trigger some small doubts. In issue 703, page 78, Ben Miller describes the counterclockwise revcounter as ‘weird’. Well, not to anyone who has driven a Lancia Delta Integrale HF 16V, not to mention many more classic driving machines often lauded by CAR. And on 146, Ben Miller’s overview of boxer engines leaves out the sweet flat-four in the much praised (again by CAR) Alfasud. Or the more recent Subaru offerings.
I realise you have to prioritise your content, but apart from the 2CV engine, I’ll wager that very few CAR readers could appreciate the delights of exotic boxers. Otherwise delighted with your magazine! Keep up the standards. Mervyn Rees
Good points both, Mervyn, though you’d have to concede the vast majority of revcounters, not to mention pretty much every other instrument with a rotating needle, runs clockwise, surely? You’re right on the Alfa and Subaru engines of course – sad omissions both. Brace yourself for a brief history of flat engines, part 2! BM
A good grilling
What has happened to BMW? Have they fired their designers? The 1-series, especially with that grille, is so ugly even its own mother would disown it. If BMW made washing machines, the 2-series would fit into its range
perfectly. The X4 and X6: can anyone say what triumphed, form or function? And with the X5 and X7, it seems the brief was to put several seats in a steel box that would take people to a destination without a moment’s thought as to the aesthetic qualities of that box. As for the iX, it looks to me like an opportunity wasted.
At least Chris Bangle challenged the style and design norms.
Alan Webb
We continue to push for the required interviews… BM
Seeing brown
Mark Walton’s superb column dedicated to a finely crafted sandwich analogy in the February issue was a joy to read. Until, that is, the final sentence. Ketchup instead of brown sauce on a bacon sandwich? Get out...
Thomas Harrison-Lord
Roma is where it’s at
I bought my first Ferrari in 1975. The choice over the decades since was between the long, cumbersome, frontengined V12s or the slightly cramped mid-engine d V6s, V8s and flat-12s. I’ve had quite a few of both. The V12s were lovely on motorways, but you always felt as though were sitting too far back. As for the mid-engined options, I had three Boxers, a Dino Spider in the ’80s, an excellent 328 GTB later on and, lastly, the wonderful 458 Spider.
For me the concept of the new Roma 2+2 GT is absolutely spot on. Ferrari had to expand their range. The compact V8 makes for a car that is easier to place and the front-engined layout makes for a more accessible and usable machine. The all-round visibility is excellent and the engine is a bomb. It allows you to be a gentleman one minute and then turn into a hooligan the next one. What more could you want?