Not one, but two great Lancashire car shows

THAT bit of the A59 between Burscough and Maghull was my passport to petrolhead joy over the weekend. For a change I had not one, but two great car shows right on our doorstep to check out!

Yet – even if you’re someone with Castrol R coursing through your veins – these two events couldn’t have been more different. If you’re a car-loving Champion reader they were both within easy reach, but they’re emphatically the chalk and cheese of motoring. That’s why – even though I only had a day to do it – I had to go to both.

That’s why last Saturday morning you’d have found me wondering around the golf course up the road from Aintree Racecourse, with the grandstands where I’d lost a small fortune on some horses just a few weeks earlier still fresh in my memory. I was, however, totally in my element with the horsepower Aintree was offering up this time around – lots of it, under the bonnet of just about every racing car imaginable, at the same place where Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix for the first time.

If you’ve never been to Liverpool Motor Club’s sprint events at Aintree Circuit then get the next one in your diary, because it’s seriously underrated full-throttle fun. For next to nothing, you can spend the day watching Lotus Elan 26Rs, track-prepared Caterhams (pictured) and single seater racing cars screaming and screeching their way through the corners in an effort to eake out the quickest lap time possible. It’s fast, frantic and always good for a few dramatic helpings of oversteer, and last Saturday’s event proved no exception.

I’d have loved to have hung around simply to see how quickly an Aston Martin DB6 could be hammered down Sefton Straight – which might sound like a bit like seeing how quickly you can throw a priceless painting down a flight of stairs – but I had a second car show to get to before the afternoon was out.

The Riverside Steam and Vintage Rally also had scores of beautiful classic cars to check out. It was just nice, after hours of wheelspin and full-throttle starts, to chill out and chat with their owners about why they loved their automotive antiques. If you’re sort of person who knows what an Austin A55 Cambridge is without having to punch it into Google – or why it’s nicknamed the Farina – then you’ll have loved the laid-back, nostalgic vibe of this two-day event, a stone’s throw from Tarleton.

Yes, I know the main attraction is all those steam-powered traction engines beloved of Fred Dibnah types but I was more than happy just to immerse myself in a world of Morris Bullnoses, Ford Populars and Triumph Spitfires for a couple of hours. I don’t know how – especially considering how long I’ve been doing these columns for – I’ve managed to miss the Riverside gig every year since its inception, but after being hugely impressed by the variety of cars on show it’s definitely one I’ve got into my diary for next year.

All this and it’s only the start of a great season of car shows. Roll on Lydiate, Hundred End, Bank Hall and Ormskirk! Keep an eye for my full reports on both shows in Classic Car Weekly

Ford adds even more luxury to its fastest Fiesta

FORD has fitted even more luxuries to its fastest Fiesta to create a new range-topping version of the hot hatch.

The new version of the Fiesta ST, called the ST-3, throws toys including cruise control, a keyless entry system and rain-sensitive windscreens to the car, and costs £19,250.

For more information on the ST and the rest of the Fiesta range head to www.ford.co.uk

Life On Cars wins national award!

Life On Cars has tonight won a national award celebrating blogging, it has been announced.

The organisers of the UK Blog Awards, held tonight at The Grange Hotel in St Pauls, Central London, confirmed that Life On Cars had beaten off stiff competition to win the Individual Automotive category, which celebrates motoring writing.

Originally launched by David Simister while working for The Champion newspaper in Southport, Life On Cars has featured hundreds of motoring articles, and has continued throughout his time at national title Classic Car Weekly.

The blog features comment pieces on hundreds of different motoring topics, road tests, show reports and news items, and is accompanied each week by a column in The Champion.

Sadly, David couldn't be in London to collect the prestigious award due to an assignment earlier today with Classic Car Weekly. Sadly, Life On Cars can't reveal too much, other than to say it involves some stunning roads, a pork pie shop and a broken Austin Montego.

All will be revealed soon!

David Simister is news editor of Classic Car Weekly and regularly contributes to The Champion as its motoring correspondent

Drive It Day: A chance to get your classic car in print!

EVER fancied getting the classic car you cherish into the pages of a national newspaper?

That's exactly the opportunity the motoring newspaper I work for, Classic Car Weekly, is offering petrolheads across the country this weekend. All you have to do is send us a picture of you and your classic car - and as long as it's suitable for use and arrives in time for Monday morning, we WILL print it.

The extraordinary iniative is part of the paper's efforts to promote Drive It Day, a nationwide event which promotes the joys of owning and running older cars. This year's event takes place this Sunday (27 April), and there's no shortage of shows, runs, and get-togethers to take your classic car to.

There's more details of how to get your pride and joy into the pages of Classic Car Weekly in the latest edition, but to give you an idea here's a picture of Yours Truly with the trusty MGB GT.

Even as someone who's enjoyed going to Drive It Day events for the past few years, I've genuinely got no idea how many classic car owners will send us a picture, but it's a great chance to get your car into print if you haven't done it before.

I'll be out on the roads in one of my classic cars - will you?

Is it possible to buy a £1,000 car in just one morning?

SIR BOB Hoskins used the long Good Friday to stop terrorists tormenting his gangland empire. I used it to find a cheap used car which – I hope – won’t blow up as soon as it’s delivered to its lucky new owner.

Thanks largely to an unfortunate incident involving a Suzuki Wagon R, a wet night and a kerb, my girlfriend’s mother is suddenly in need of a cheap secondhand motor. That’s why I was given the task of sourcing a cheap ‘n’ cheerful replacement which would be practical and easy to live with.

Surely not a challenge for Mr Champ Motoring Correspondent, whose day job is talking about clapped out old cars and who’ll happily waste an hour at Wetherspoon’s spending an imaginary budget on automotive tat? However, this particular mission involved spending someone else’s actual money on a real car, and I had just a grand to play with. Worse still, I had just one day in which to nail the deal – a bank holiday, no less. Is it possible to find a cheap used car, on a day when almost everything’s shut, before the sun sets?

The first thing I discounted was asking my usual pals if they had anything cheap knocking around, on the basis I didn’t want to lumber my girlfriend’s mother with a mouldy MG Midget or an Austin Princess that needs a light restoration. The big car supermarkets were out too, not offering enough choice of cars costing hundreds rather than thousands, and most of the private deals belonged to folk who – quite rightly – would much rather spend their bank holiday arguing with family or traipsing around IKEA.

In the end, salvation came from the places I’d expected to be the first to shut up shop for the Bank Holiday – small dealerships, who had plenty of gems knocking around if you dug deep enough. Among the cars within a 15-mile radius of our Maghull starting point were a 12-year-old Fiat Punto with plenty of life left in it, a Peugeot 206 which offered a low mileage and lots of history for a tiny bit beyond the budget, and a Toyota Corolla which had just done its 100,000th mile without so much as a hiccup.

In the end, the car of choice went to a family hatch I’ve always had plenty of time for – a Peugeot 306, which came with six months’ tax, a full MOT, and a more than healthy stash of service history. Yours for just £750, which proves you CAN pick up a decent secondhand car on a Bank Holiday if you dig deep enough.

So the better half’s happy that a reliable, affordable, family-friendly hatchback is now taking up the spot the misfortunate Suzuki once occupied. That the 306 has always been hoot to drive has nothing to do with it…

The Focus is (still) the best family all rounder

THE OTHER day I stayed in a hotel room with the world’s most sophisticated shower as its top trump.

I was briefly amazed by the way it had mood lighting, an inbuilt radio to allow you to tune in to The Archers mid-rinse, and an in-shower telephone so you could ring your mum to counter those horrendous I’ve-forgotten-my-towel scenarios you only ever encounter once you’re truly ensconsed in the wash. However, the hotel itself didn’t have a bar, so it failed immediately in my imaginary Tripadvisor review.

Another suite I tried had – get this, Life On Cars readers fortunate enough to own an S-Class – electrically-operated curtains. Again, this hugely impressed me, right up until the point I wanted to show off this marvellous invention to the rest of the world and promptly found out I’d be charged a small fortune to access Facebook. Given that WiFi these days is about as important as water, you’d expect to be included in the (already hefty) hotel bill.

My point is that all hotels seem to offer a perfect blend of things you’d want for a night away – but never at the same time. In much the same way that nobody yet offers the perfect family hatchback.

For years, I’ve argued to anyone who’d care to listen that Ford’s Focus offers the best compromise of a decidedly mixed bunch – and a few hours blasting across Britain’s countryside in a 1.6 diesel version confirmed that it’s still one of the best contenders out there. You’ll love it because it’s a hoot to drive when it’s off the motorway, your other half will love it because it’s quiet and refined when it is, and the kids in the back are unlikely to complain about the generous helpings of space.

But – not unlike most of the hotels I’ve been putting my head down in lately – you get the feeling it’d be improved immeasurably if it borrowed a few more ingredients from elsewhere.

The 2.2 litre diesel Honda uses to such wonderful effect, for starters. That it manages to move something as hefty as the CR-V around with such aplomb is a miracle in itself, but mate it with the Civic and you have a powerhouse that manages to be startling quick and eerily quiet while refusing to do less than 45 to the gallon. Imagine how much better all family hatches would be if they had one under the bonnet?

The Italians should be put in charge of styling, if the Alfa Giulietta is anything to go by, while Volkswagen’s best engineers must be kidnapped from Wolfsburg and set to work on the interior for the perfect family hatchback. Nissan would take the lead on marketing, judging by the sales phenomenon it has created with the Qashqai, and the French would be in charge of all those tempting cashback deals.

Blending the Focus’ talents as an all-rounder with the shiniest gems from the opposition would create one heck of a family hatchback. Which you’d all ignore, because you’d still want a 1-Series instead.

BREAKING NEWS: Toyota model recalled due to styling defect

TOYOTA has announced a recall of more than 45,000 cars after one of its biggest selling models suffered from a styling defect.


The company announced the recall of its Innova people carrier after it emerged that the seven-seater suffered from a visual fault which rendered the car so mind-numbingly dull that anyone who beholds it is at risk of developing headaches and lethargy. While nobody has been injured as a result of the defect, the Japanese car giant has gone ahead with the recall due to the risk of the styling boring other motorists to the point of sending them to sleep.

A Toyota spokesman allegedly told Life On Cars: “While the vast majority of our cars are designed these days to be as safe, aerodynamically efficient and as visually stimulating as possible, occasionally a model styled by someone clearly on a tea break or a work experience student does slip through the net.

“For this reason, and due to the safety implications of having a car in our model which is so dull it risks boring other drivers to the point of distraction, we’ve decided to recall the model and replace it with something more interesting purely as a purely measure.”

While the Innova, mercifully, is not sold in the UK, the measure comes in the wake of recent – and totally genuine - recalls affecting cars sold in this UK, including a trio of issues affecting the RAV4, Hilux, Yaris and Urban Cruiser models. Owners of the UK models affected by the real recall are urged to check whether their car is affected by looking at Toyota’s British website or by calling into their nearest dealer, but anybody who has been affected by the Innova’s styling defect can safely deal with the issue by looking at a more interesting car after they’ve read the rest of this column.

 Motoring pundit Joe King said: “Toyota’s UK offerings have come on a long way from the terminally dull Corolla models of the 1990s – you only have to look at the GT86, for instance, to see that there are some cars with real soul and charisma in their showrooms these days.

“UK motorists should be relieved that the Innova isn’t a regular sight on this country’s roads, but it just goes to show that even the world’s biggest car companies can still offer some inexplicably dull models in their line-up.”

Several other car manufacturers have had to recall models due to styling defects before, including Ford for the indescribably dull Escort in 1990, Hyundai for the offensively ugly Coupe in 2000 and Ssangyong for the poorly-proportioned Rodius people carrier.

Any readers considering buying any of these models are urged to consult their nearest optician for further advice.

The Volkswagen Golf GTE is a hot hatch Greenpeace can get excited about

BOFFINS in a bunker deep beneath Volkswagen’s headquarters have mooned at the laws of logic with their latest model. Somehow, they’ve managed to serve roast beef and sushi on the same plate, and in a way that’s weirdly appetising.

Translated into layman’s English, the German car giant’s latest model manages to combine what should be two diametrically opposed strands of motoring. Hot hatches are feisty, fun and powerful, and eco-friendly hybrids emphatically aren’t.

The two might be about as easy to blend as oil and water, but that hasn’t stopped Europe’s biggest car maker from having a crack anyway.

To be fair, the idea of a hybrid that’s fun to drive isn’t exactly unprecedented. Anyone who owns a Honda CR-Z already knows that it’s entirely possible to drop a Captain Planet-pleasing powerplant which runs largely on lettuce and mineral water into a car that’s eager and exciting to hoof about in.

It’s just a shame that – for all the MUGEN-branded tuned up versions knocking around – Honda never came good on the CR-Z’s sports car potential. No matter how well it handles, the range-topping GT version has just 122bhp. Perhaps it’s just perceived wisdom that you can’t make a car please the hot hatch brigade and appease Greenpeace at the same time.

Or it at least will be until VW’s new hot hatch arrives.

It’s a simple idea – forty years ago VW popularised the hot hatch with the Golf GTI, and in 2009 it managed to translate the idea into coherent diesel by introducing the torque-tastic GTD. Now it’s swapped the last letter again to create a plug-in hybrid version of Germany’s favourite pocket rocket – yes, it’s the Golf GTE!

The E, in case, you hadn’t already worked it out, stands for Electric, because this particular Golf ditches the GTI’s big engine in favour of a small one and some electric motors to develop the same sort of power. Add the two together and you’ve got the equivalent of 204bhp.What’s more, when you aren’t driving like a speed-addicted yoof you can do 31 miles on electricity alone, saving the polar bears as you glide silently along.

More importantly, the GTE proves the future is arriving quicker these days. When Mercedes introduced the airbag on the S-Class we had to wait 15 years for it to reach family hatchbacks. The GTE’s premise of a performance car aided by electricity is exactly the same as the trick the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 make their shtick, and yet you can get it in affordable Golf form at the end of the year.

Who said saving the planet couldn’t be fun?

Life begins at 40 for Mitsubishi UK

MITSUBISHI is celebrating 40 years of selling cars in the UK by bringing one of its most extreme offerings to Britain.

The company’s special edition Lancer Evolution X FQ-440 MR might pack both a lengthy name and a hefty £50,000 price tag, but its turbocharged 440bhp and rally-bred four-wheel-drive system make it one of the fastest four-door saloons on the market.

To find out more about the special edition, which is only available in white, visit www.mitsubishi-cars.co.uk

Why I can't wait to test the new Renault Twingo

RENAULT’S Twingo has soared straight to the top of the list of cars I’d most like to drive this year. Even though at least one of my petrolhead pals reckons it’ll be a little bit rubbish.

The argument goes that the Twingo, after 20 years of being resolutely French in its insistence on having a front-mounted engine powering the front wheels, is now a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive car. Just like the Volkswagen Beetle your grandparents used to drive 35 years ago.

The prosecution also moans that the reason why the new car has its engine stuffed into the boot is because it’s based on the Smart – a city car not exactly renowned for its brilliant handling – and that as a result, there are no plans whatsoever for a Renaultsport hot hatch version. The new Twingo, therefore, will be a slovenly supermini that’s too tall to go around to go around corners properly with its engine in the wrong place.

None of which matters, because the Twingo’s baby brother is also afflicted by being too tall and having its engine in the wrong place. The electrically-powered Twizy, however, is one of the gems of Renault’s range. Look at a Twizy and you’d probably just laugh – it’s far too narrow, it has flimsy struts instead of doors to protect its two occupants, and it maxes out at just 45mph.

Drive one, however, and you’ll discover that it’s a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive car with skinny little tyres and a chassis set up by Renaultsport, who also did the wonderful Clio Williams and the race-bred Spyder. As a result what looks like a Government disability car for the new millennium will drift for England if you ask it to. It is utterly brilliant to drive.

 In fact, I’ll go further than that – it’s the only electric car I’ve ever actively wanted to buy with my own money, and seriously thought about saving up for until I learned you have to lease the batteries separately. To me, that’s a bit like buying the house of your dreams only to learn you have to rent the living room separately.

The new Twingo, with its four seats and its proper petrol engine which comes free with the rest of the car, has every opportunity to be similarly smile-inducing to drive without costing you a fortune in fuel and speeding tickets.

If anyone at Renault is reading this, count me in for a test drive!

The Land Rover Discovery is a suprisingly likeable removals van

MUCH like making a mountain goat do an elephant’s work, I felt a tad cruel entrusting the job of moving house to an ancient off-roader.

The unenviable task of hauling beds, armchairs and about 300 old copies of Autocar really ought to be given to something specially designed for the task, not unlike the Ford Transit Luton van I used the last time I moved any furniture about. Yet last week, with every van hire firm within a 40-mile radius fully booked, the gargantuan load-lugging challenge fell instead to a Land Rover Discovery.

A family off-roader which celebrates its 25^th anniversary later this year.

Fittingly, the one I’d been lent for the morning by a mate was one of the early cars – the original three-door version, with a 2.5 litre diesel lump to drag its considerable weight along school runs up and down the land in the early Nineties. It also came in exactly the sort of condition you expect any early Disco to arrive in these days – caked, inside and out, with a thin sheet of muck from an off-road excursion several weeks earlier.

While borrowing a 160,000 mile Land Rover to help you with moving house might seem a bit like entering Sir Chris Bonington into World’s Strongest Man, it performed more than admirably, heaving shelves and chairs of all kinds of clutter about without so much a whimper of complaint. It even happily sat at precisely 69.9mph on a dual carriageway – even though it took an eternity to get there!

Admittedly, the poor Landie lurched its way through roundabouts, chomped up £30’s worth of diesel in no time and had the acceleration and stopping capabilities of the Mersey Ferry, but I couldn’t help but warm to it. It’s got a rugged charm to it, it feels far more car-like to drive than the Defenders I’ve tried and it’s enormously practical, and that’s before I get to the best bit.

A lot like the Audi TTs I mentioned in these pages a few weeks ago, the Land Rover Discovery is astonishing value for money these days.

Yes, I know they’ve got a crummy reputation for build quality and a penchant for Shell’s finest but think about it – where else can you can get seven seats and unstoppable ability on the rough stuff for the same sort of money? The only thing I can think of is its great Oriental arch-nemesis, the Mitsubishi Shogun, but it doesn’t come with the wax-jacketed, Countryfile image the Disco does.

The Land Rover Discovery, especially in mud-caked, worn-out spec, is far from perfect. Yet you can’t help liking it.