Welcome
A game of word association connects performance saloons to a Deep Purple concert. In Phil’s mind…
Let’s play word association. When I say saloon, what pops into your head? ‘Family’, ‘practical’, or maybe ‘sensible’? How about ‘power’, ‘menace’ or even ‘outrage’? You could apply almost any of those words to the five supersaloons in our big test this month. Yes, even ‘sensible’ if you chose to drive them gently. But apart from when you really do have the family on board, why would you? From the Jaguar Mk2 with its race-winning 3.8-litre twin-cam to the quad-cam, V8-propelled Audi S8, these performance heavyweights come laden with an intent that’s criminally appealing. In 2018 nearly every new large saloon can be bought with a deliciously absurd surfeit of power and wheel size, but our five decades of classic bruisers represent times when the concept was more of a novelty, and more special.
Despite their fictional portrayal as the cars of choice for villains in a hurry, these machines were really bought by successful people who enjoyed sports car performance but shunned look-at-me styling and hear-me soundtracks on the drive back from the office, business meeting or arena gig. People like Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice who, in a separate feature, shared his supercharged Mercedes 500SEL with us for the day, along with stories of late-night, high-speed drives and more.
While I pushed my friend’s Triumph Dolomite Twin Carb out of a muddy Knebworth Park following the 1985 Deep Purple comeback gig, I imagined Ian Paice would be making his escape by helicopter. But it seems he would more likely have been powering home through the night by car, just like we were. Well, with a bit more power than Andy’s student transport, and probably without the need for Gillan, Blackmore et al to get their trousers dirty pushing him out of a muddy field. He didn’t buy the supercharged Mercedes until later that year, so I’d like to think that my concert ticket paid for a tiny part of it.
Enjoy the issue, and the funny, crazy, powerful memories that it evokes.