Ford Capri

It is always a worry when you go round a motor museum and see cars you drove on the press launch. Ford did some spectacular presentations in the 1960s, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and from 12-15 January 1969 Cyprus for The Car You Always Promised Yourself, the Capri. It had been a busy week. Monday a press conference with Colin Chapman of Lotus, Tuesday the London Racing Car Show, Thursday a meeting with Harry Ballantine of Ecurie Ecosse to learn about the apparent collapse of the team, Friday by BEA Trident to Milan in connection (I guess) with my reporting for Gazetta Della Sport, then back on Saturday by Alitalia Caravelle. I used to note in my diary what I flew in. On Sunday off again by Trident2 to Nicosia. This was a return trip to Cyprus, where ten years before, I had spent a year of my National Service with the Royal Artillery in Famagusta. On Monday we drove round the snowy Troodos mountains, Tuesday to Famagusta and beautiful Kyrenia lunching at Bellapais Abbey, returning Nicosia-Athens-London on Wednesday. I will drive a Capri on the Guild of Motoring Writers' Classic, not a mark 1 like the above but a later 1977 Mark II.

Ford had done Capris before. The first 109E in 1961 and 116E the GT with 5-bearing engine the following year based on the curious reverse-rake rear window Classic.

From The Ford in Britain File; Dove Publishing Ltd

1961 Capri 109E

The voluptuous lines of the Capri were a surprise to a British market that regarded 2+2s as sports cars, and was unfamiliar even uncomfortable with the concept of a car in which appearance took precedence over passenger space. It was legitimate if space was sacrificed to speed, but a rear window raked at 40 degrees, and an enormously long rear deck just for appearances’ sake was somehow too contrived. The name outlasted the model. It had been used on a Lincoln, and Ford now applied it to a version of the Classic intended for export, but to which the home market unexpectedly warmed. Two inches (5cm) lower than the saloon, its small frontal area gave it an advantage in top speed, but it had no sporting pretensions. Rather thin cushions could be specified for the rear shelf, normally carpeted as an addition to the enormous boot, enabling it to serve as a back seat when absolutely necessary. Luggage room was even bigger than the Classic and the boot floor, which was of pick-up truck proportions, was rubber-covered. The front seats were better shaped than the saloon’s and finished in two colours of pvc. Like the Classic however the Capri driver was still required to do a certain amount of home maintenance to ensure satisfactory running. Ten points required attention with a grease-gun every 1000 miles.

Looks like Dagenham-on-Thames with 1960s river traffic

INTRODUCTION July 1961-August 1962 BODY Coupe; 2-doors, 2+2-seats; weight 2055lb (932.15kg) ENGINE 4-cylinders, in-line; front; 80.96mm x 65.07mm, 1340cc; compr 8.5:1; 54bhp (40.3kW) @ 4900rpm; 74 lbft (100Nm) @ 2500rpm; 40.3bhp/l (30.1kW/l) ENGINE STRUCTURE pushrod overhead valve, chain-driven camshaft; cast iron cylinder head and block; Zenith 32VN downdraught carburettor, centrifugal and vacuum ignition; AC mechanical fuel pump; 3-bearing hollow-cast crankshaft. TRANSMISSION rear wheel drive; 7.25in (18.4cm) hydraulic sdp clutch; 4-speed manual gearbox, synchromesh on 3; hypoid bevel final drive 4.13:1. CHASSIS steel monocoque structure; ifs by MacPherson struts and anti-roll bar; live rear axle with half-elliptic springs and lever arm dampers; Girling hydraulic non-servo 9.5in (24.13cm) disc front, 9in (22.86cm) drum rear brakes; recirculating ball steering; 9gal (41l)(10.8US gal) fuel tank; 5.60-13 tubeless tyres. DIMENSIONS wheelbase 99in (252cm) track 49.5in (126cm) length 170.77in (434cm) width 62.2in (166cm) height 54in (137.16cm) ground clearance 5.86in (15cm) turning circle 34ft (10.36m) EQUIPMENT fresh-air heater, leather upholstery, push-button or manual control radio optional extras; screenwasher standard, pvc upholstery, carpet, 12 body colours, 7 two-colour choices PERFORMANCE maximum speed 81.2mph (130.35kph) The Autocar 16.45mph (26.4kph) @ 1000rpm 0-60mph (96kph) 21.3sec fuel consumption 27.9mpg (10.12l/100km) PRICE £627, purchase tax £288 12s, total £915 12s (£915.60) PRODUCTION 11.143 including 1291 kits

The later better known Capri was destined to be a cult car yet nowadays curiously unloved, except by real zealots. You can dial the web for a hundred owners’ clubs for Capri events, spare parts and enthusiasm. There are branches everywhere yet maybe the car’s slightly louche image when it was new has not worn well. Maybe people remember the short engines that left a lot of space under the long bonnets, or the slightly tacky add-on cosmetics .

From The Ford in Britain File; Dove Publishing Ltd

1969 Capri 1300, 1300GT, 1600, 1600GT

The Car You Always Promised Yourself had a profound effect. In a sense it was like the original Capri of 1961, neither a sports car in the accepted sense, nor an everyday saloon. It created its own niche as a sort of European Mustang and enjoyed astonishing success. The long bonnet, 2+2 seating and style gave it a cachet hardly any car enjoyed before, and not many would again. The basis was typically Cortina, only the top half was really new, the first engines were wide-ranging, and an important innovation was an array of X, L, XL and R custom pack options, giving customers a wide choice of upholstery and equipment so that they could, in theory at any rate tailor their Capri to suit themselves. There were dummy air scoops, chrome wheel trims, reclining seats, map-reading light, extra lights and special paint schemes with anti-glare matt black on the bonnet just like real rally cars. Launch prototypes were shown with BDA 16-valve twin cam engines (the Escort was first to get it) but never went into production. The Capri was destined to be a huge success; it built on Ford’s mastery of production engineering through relying on components already in production. it would be made in Britain and Germany, and getting on for 2million would be sold during the next 17 years.


This looks as though it could have been photographed on the launch

INTRODUCTION November 1968 production to December 1973 BODY coupe; 2-doors, 2+2-seats; weight 1300 880kg (1940.05lb) 1300GT 900kg (1984.14lb); 1600 GT 920kg (2028.23lb) ENGINE 1300 4-cylinders, in-line; front; 80.98mm x 62.99mm, 1298cc; compr 9.0:1; 42.51kW (57bhp) @ 5500rpm; 9.2mkg Nm (lbft) @ 2500rpm; 32.8kW/l (43.9bhp/l). 1300GT 53.69kW (72bhp) @5500rpm. 1600 87.65x66mm; 1593cc; 53.69kW (72bhp). GT 65.62kW (88bhp) @ 5700rpm ENGINE STRUCTURE pushrod ohv, chain-driven camshaft; cast iron cylinder head and block; Ford GPD carburettor; centrifugal and vacuum ignition; mechanical fuel pump; 5-bearing crankshaft. 1300GT and 1600 Weber 320 carburettor; 1600GT Weber compound. TRANSMISSION rear wheel drive; 19cm (7.5in) diaphragm spring cable-operated clutch; 4-speed manual all-synchromesh gearbox; hypoid bevel final drive 4.125:1 (1300) 3.89:1 (1600). Borg Warner 35 automatic available 1300 GT, 1600, final drive 1600GT 3.777:1 CHASSIS steel monocoque structure; ifs by MacPherson struts and anti roll bar; live rear axle with half-elliptic springs and radius rods, telescopic dampers; Girling hydraulic 24.1cm (9.49in) disc brakes at front (optional 1300s), 24.4cm (9.61in) GT and 1600; 20.32cm (8in) rear drums; dual circuit; vacuum servo; rack and pinion steering; 48l (10.56gal)(12.68USgal) fuel tank; 6.00-13 cross-ply 1300, 165-13 GT and 1600 radial-ply, 4.5rims DIMENSIONS wheelbase 256cm (100.79in) track front 134.5cm (52.95in) rear 132cm (51.97in) length 426cm (167.72in) width 164.5cm (64.76in) height 129cm (50.79in) GT and 1600 128cm (50.39in) ground clearance11.5cm (4.53in) turning circle 9.75metres (32ft) EQUIPMENT SLR pack £79 12s 10d (£79.64p); fixed seat belts £8.49p, inertia reel belts £14.01p PERFORMANCE maximum speed 1300 138kph (85.96mph), 1300GT and 1600 150kph (93.44mph), 1600GT 160kph (99.66mph) 1300 26.2kph (16.32mph) @ 1000rpm; 1600GT 28.8kph (17.94mph) 0-100kph (62mph) 19sec; 13sec 1600GT
fuel consumption 9.1l/100km (31.04mpg); 9.8l/100km (28.83mpg) 1600GT PRICE 1300, £682, £890 7s 10d (£890.39p) including PT; 1300GT £985 70p; 1600 £936.9p; 1600GT £1041.83p PRODUCTION 374,700 UK Capris

1969 Capri 2000 GT, 3000 GT

The one-shape-fits-all recipe of the Capri was well judged. Buyers rang the changes with engines and accessory packs to their hearts’ content. Rear axle radius arms had been deleted from Cortina GTs on the grounds of road noise; they were reinstated on the Capri to provide GT handling and developed with care so that there was negligible sacrifice in noise vibration and harshness, the celebrated NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) that Ford took seriously to compete with classic makes in the sporting or semi-sporting or even quasi-sporting field. By the dawn of the 1970s it did not much matter if a car was sporting or not, but it had to be refined, smooth-running, and if not completely quiet it had to make the right noises. The 2000GT V4 was not quite ready at launch, it went into production in March, the V6 3.0litre followed in September. The first addition to the range was the 3000E, technically the same as the 3000GT, but cosmetically upmarket and better equipped. In 1971 the 3.0 litre Essex V6 was revised with better breathing to provide more torque and 138bhp (102.91kW) instead of 128bhp (95.45kW), a change that was never applied to the same engine fitted to soon-to-be-replaced Zodiacs. The German Capri RS2600 was not sold in Britain and only 248 of the dramatic RS3100 with big-bore V6 of 1973 were ever made. INTRODUCTION November 1968 production to December 1973 BODY coupe; 2-doors, 2+2-seats; weight 2000GT 960kg (2116.42lb), V6 1056.89kg (2330lb) ENGINE 2000 4-cylinders, 60deg V; front; 93.66mm x 72.44mm, 1996cc; compr 8.9:1; 68.61kW (92bhp) @ 5250rpm; 141Nm (104lbft) @ 3600rpm; 34.4kW/l (46.1bhp/l). V6 93.66 x 72.4mm; 2994cc, 8.9:1; 95.45 kW (128bhp) @ 4750rpm; 235Nm (173lbft @ 3000rpm ENGINE STRUCTURE pushrod ohv, gear-driven camshaft; cast iron cylinder head and block; Weber 40 compound carburettor; centrifugal and vacuum ignition; mechanical fuel pump; 3-bearing crankshaft. V6, Weber 40DFA carburettor, 4-bearing crankshaft TRANSMISSION rear wheel drive; 22.86cm (9.0in) diaphragm spring cable-operated clutch; 4-speed manual all-synchromesh gearbox; hypoid bevel final drive 3.545:1; Borg Warner 35 automatic available. V6 3.22:1 final drive CHASSIS steel monocoque structure; ifs by MacPherson struts and anti roll bar; live rear axle with half-elliptic springs and radius rods, telescopic dampers; Girling hydraulic disc brakes at front, 24.4cm (9.61in); 20.32cm (8in) rear drums; dual circuit; vacuum servo; rack and pinion steering; 48l (10.56gal)(12.68USgal) fuel tank; 165-13 radial-ply tyres, 4.5rims DIMENSIONS wheelbase 256cm (100.79in) track front 134.5cm (52.95in) rear 132cm (51.97in) length 426cm (167.72in) width 164.5cm (64.76in) height 128cm (50.39in) ground clearance11.5cm (4.53in) turning circle 9.75metres (32ft) EQUIPMENT SLR pack £79 12s 10d (£79.64p); fixed seat belts £8.49p, inertia reel belts £14.01p PERFORMANCE maximum speed 171kph (106.52mph), V6 183kph (113.99mph) 30.6kph (19.06mph) @ 1000rpm, V6 33.4kph (20.8mph) 0-100kph (62mph) 11.3sec, V6 9.2sec fuel consumption 12.3l/100km (22.97mpg), V6 12l/100km (23.54mpg) PRICE £833, £1087 10s 7d (£1087.53p) including PT PRODUCTION 374,700 UK Capris

The Ford in Britain File; Dove Publishing Ltd http://www.dovepublishing.co.uk/

Hybrids and Why We Need Two Cars

HYBRIDS, ELECTRICS, LEGISLATORS AND WHY WE ALL NEED TWO OR MORE CARS.

Fleet Street Group last week. Nice to be back at Rules. It’s agreeable entertaining fellow Europeans in an establishment set up when Napoleon was opening his campaign in Egypt. The oldest restaurant in London has moved on a bit from porter pies and oysters but you can’t disregard its history. A separate entrance enabled the Prince of Wales (Edward, not Charles) to come and go discreetly on his assignations with Emilie Charlotte (Lillie) Langtry. Rules was a favourite of literary greats including Dickens, Thackeray, Galsworthy and HG Wells. Not many literary giants in the Fleet Street Group of motoring correspondents and not all of us write much for what used to be Fleet Street newspapers. Still it’s composed of leading lights in the business and I’ve retained my membership for 25 years I suppose from my Sunday Times days. Guest this time was Dr Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 2003, and responsible for Group Research & Mercedes-Benz cars’ development.

Alas the days are gone when the head of research at what we used to know as Daimler-Benz could report progress on how it was aiming to make the best passenger cars in the world. Daimler is spending €4.4 billion annually guessing what wheeze the politicians will decide on for dealing with climate change or safety or whatever cause celebre lobbyists come up with. Catchy headlines are crucial.

Stuttgart’s technicians are never self-effacing and Dr Weber was not being modest when he parried a couple of searching questions with a plain, “We don’t know.” He could not predict how fuel cells will develop, or whether petrol or diesel will provide the best answer for hybrid car power units because it all depends on things he can’t control, legislation, infrastructure, energy prices. He must have plan A for some circumstances, plan B for others, and a whole alphabet of plans for when Brussels changes its mind.

Some things he can be sure of. Electric cars will be fine for towns (they always were) but not for dashing down the autobahn (nothing new there) and ic engines will shrink (well they’ve been getting smaller and more efficient for years).

What seems certain is that Dr Weber’s €4.4 billion is being cleverly disposed on having some solution ready whatever happens. There is lots of jostling over infrastructure (refuelling with electricity, hydrogen) and who is going to pay for it. There are co-operative projects on battery technology that will extend beyond the motor industry. What seems perfectly clear is that one general-purpose car of the sort we have now won’t do. A zero-emission green car for towns will not do the Autobahns. It is all very well Dr Weber saying we need to reinvent the car, reduce battery charging time and set up hydrogen stations, but none of the solutions on offer provides a single sort of family car that will do everything. Not for a generation. We shall need two cars for every one we have now. Let us wait to see how a world, already agog at two or three-car families, will cope with fleets of electric bubblecars topping up batteries on parking meters, while whizzo cruisers proliferate town-to-town.

Scotland on Sunday Motoring, Eric Dymock 2 February 2002
New Technology

The next big thing in cars is how to make them go when the oil runs out. Futurologists can’t make up their mind whether to back fuel cells chemically manufacturing their own electricity, or hydrogen working the sort of engines we have now. America seems to think fuel cells, Europe hydrogen and existing engines. A hundred years ago inventors were struggling with steam, electricity, and petrol, against optimistic “systems of levers” and “gravity”.

Wilder flights of fancy fell by the wayside and the contest to win credibility by the main protagonists was taken up in earnest.

Half a century of railway engineering meant steam was well understood. Stanley steam cars remained in production until 1927. Steam lorries were still working twenty years later. Dobles, Locomobiles, Serpollets and Whites, although slow starters, once under way were swift and silent but people wanted cars that started on a button. Flash boilers and condensers were of no avail, and even though Fred Marriott’s Stanley set a world speed record in 1906 at 127.66mph (204.93kph) steam did not prosper.

Electric cars seemed more promising. In April 1899 Camille Jenatzy exceeded 100kph (62.3mph) in La Jamais Contente, built by the Compagnie Internationale des Transports Automobiles Électriques, with a cigar-shaped body of partinium. It weighed 1450kg (3196.67lb), of which 305kg (672.4lb) was batteries, but they only had sufficient energy for the kilometre course.

Pure electric cars are as far away now as they were in Jenatzy’s day. Practical batteries that go beyond milk-float capacity are not imminent. However hybrid electric gets a boost this month through exemption from London’s congestion charge. Honda and Toyota have cars on sale that could save a London commuter £1,250 a year, as well as qualifying for a £1000 bonus from the Energy Saving Trust.

Hybrids have small engines to charge up the batteries, the Toyota Prius is smooth, quiet, tractable, and economical. A computer rings the changes seamlessly between petrol and electric. The Prius has been on sale in Japan since 1997, and qualifies for reduced Vehicle Excise Duty, with carbon dioxide emissions less than 120g/km.

Its performance is leisurely, so in two years’ time Toyota plans a Lexus RX 4x4 with Hybrid Synergy drive. It will be sold in North America, where SUV gas guzzlers have been attracting some opprobrium. It will have a V6 instead of a V8, yet still produce the kind of performance SUV drivers want, with the economy and emissions of a small car.

Operating at twice the voltage of existing hybrids its front and rear electric motors will drive all four wheels.

Honda’s hybrid programme is well advanced. The £17,000 Insight’s batteries took up a lot of space, it was only a two-seater but the new Civic IMA is a full four-seater, it will do 58mpg, 100mph (160kph), and its CO2 emissions are 116g/km bringing it within the 11 percent tax band. The Civic qualifies for exemption to the London congestion charge and, when it is introduced in May, will cost £15,000 against the Toyota Prius’s £16,440.

Hybrids are not new. Audi had one in 1989, with a 2.2 litre 5-cylinder petrol engine driving the front wheels, and a 9.3kW DC electric those at the back. The petrol engine charged up nickel cadmium batteries, at 181kg (398lb) two thirds the weight of Jenatzy’s, but they gave a range of only 30km (19miles) and took three quarters of an hour’s running to re-charge.

A separate electric motor worked the power steering, brake servo, and ABS, and a petrol-fed heater when the electric motor was working. It was not a success.

The hybrid represents a half way house towards cars that use no fossil fuels and Honda is ahead with fuel cells. Last July its FCX was first to gain certification from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity chemically. The only exhaust material is water vapour, but the cost of a fuel cell engine is £450 per kW, against about £12 for a petrol engine, and hydrogen generation remains problematical. It can be extracted from petrol, methanol, or natural gas on board the car.

Huge hydrogen-production plants are decades away, yet all the major manufacturers are researching fuel cells. Ford and Daimler/Chrysler have increased their stake in Canadian Ballard Power systems, the fuel cell developer, and General Motors has shown its Hy-Wire, taking the concept forward to a vehicle with no steering wheel, no pedals, and dramatic appearance.

But even Hy-Wire manages only 94kW (126bhp), about the same as a 1.8litre Vauxhall Vectra, and VW and BMW are among the Europeans who feel that if you are going to have hydrogen available, it is best used in internal combustion engines with the power and flexibility we already have. I have driven a hydrogen BMW and it works much like any other BMW. Fuel storage is no problem; it is in a pressure tank like LPG. A fleet of hydrogen-powered BMWs clocked up 125,000 miles in 2001 and would give us the prospect of motoring much as we do now, well into the century.


Scotland on Sunday Motoring, Eric Dymock 8 February 2003
Toyota Prius road test

The significance of the Toyota Prius lies not so much in the car itself as the technology that drives it. Toyota has hundreds of patents on a mechanism that General Motors, Ford or DaimlerChrysler could use to make their own Hybrid Synergy Drive models under licence since, on the face of it, the Prius represents a technical revolution.

However it is as well to remember that the last breakthrough of this magnitude, the Wankel rotary piston engine of the 1960s, proved an industrial cul de sac. It went into production with NSU, and licences were obtained by Curtiss-Wright, Daimler-Benz, Deutz, Rolls-Royce, MAN, Krupp, Fichtel & Sachs, and BMC among others. Citroën planned the GS of 1970 with a Wankel engine, small, light, minimalist it spun like a tiny turbine but Wankels had two drawbacks. Problematical rotor seals made them unreliable, and it had fuel consumption like the bath running out, especially going fast. I drove a splendidly aerodynamic NSU Ro80 down the then-new Autoroutes to a Monaco Grand Prix, and had to send for money to pay for the petrol.

The Toyota’s hybrid Synergy Drive is as revolutionary as the Wankel but has more chance of success. The Prius feels like any 5-door automatic hatchback. The starting procedure is a bit fiddly and when you press the Start button nothing much happens. It moves off when you put it in Drive, gliding away sometimes in electric, sometimes on the quiet little engine in response to instructions from the computer. Brake, or slow down, and the computer turns the electric motor into a generator, pumping energy back into a battery behind the rear seat.

It is accomplished technology. You can follow it on a monitor screen, which shows power going to the front wheels from the petrol engine, or the electric one, or both at once. It is not specially swift. It is slower than a 1.4 Ford Focus but its CO2 output puts it in the lowest tax category.

The facia monitor shows fuel used every five minutes. One column gives an instantaneous read-out, so downhill goes off the scale at 100mpg because the petrol engine is shut down. Labouring uphill it collapses to 25mpg. Ambling along on the level it registers 50mpg, then goes up to 60mpg cruising at 50mph. Its best was 95mpg driving slowly with the electric engine helping.

Overall economy depends on how you drive. Prius was not at its best on motorways. The petrol engine is a feeble 4-cylinder, not best suited to pushing a streamlined but broad-shouldered saloon through the air, so has to work hard at speed. Like a diesel the Prius does best in traffic. Over 1300 miles of mostly motorway driving 46mpg was not really surprising, although a good way short of the official combined figure.

Sometimes Prius argues with itself, hunting through the CVT-style transmission, uncertain whether to propel itself with petrol or electric. This results in unevenness, but probably the most disappointing aspect of the car is road noise. Coarse surfaces send a lot of drumming up through the structure, all the more noticeable since the mechanism is so quiet. At red traffic lights there is uncanny silence, the engine stopped awaiting GO.

BOX: Verdict: Astonishing technology, quiet, for the most part smooth, mandatory for Greens
Length 4,450mm
Width 1,725mm
Body Five-door hatch
Engines One and a half litre petrol 76bhp (56.67kW) and 67bhp (49.96kW) electric
0-60mph 10.9sec
Fuel Combined 65.7mph but see text

Goodwood

GOODWOOD

The Goodwood Revival meeting this weekend 18-20 September is a highlight of the motor racing and social calendar. Nostalgia, they say, isn’t what it used to be but judging by the way people dress for the occasion, turn up in old cars, old aeroplanes, motorcycles and steam buses it’s here to stay. The waiting list for the Goodwood Road Racing Club may be shorter now than it was in 2007, when this feature appeared in The Business magazine, but the appeal of the event remains undiminished. Buzz Aldrin, Mr Bean, and celebrations of Stirling Moss’s 80th birthday will all feature.

From: The Business July 2007 by Eric Dymock

Key ingredient of the Goodwood Road Racing Club is to offer something money can’t buy. Conducted tours of the Ferrari racing department at Maranello can’t be bought without buying a Ferrari. You can’t just buy a paddock pass for the Goodwood Revival Meeting or be eligible for the Kinrara or March Enclosures. You may not drive on track days, or get invitations to the Summer Ball and Christmas party at Goodwood House but you can as a member of the GRRC, so it’s small wonder that membership is capped at 5000 with a waiting list of 2000. Since 94 out of a hundred members renew annually, it could be two or three years before you get in.

Goodwood’s rolling acres are reinterpreting the traditional sporting estate. No longer the exclusive realm of the nobility and gentry, new sorts of corporate and individual members are invited. The Earl of March, who took over management of the 12,000 acres on the Sussex downs from his father, the tenth Duke of Richmond, in 1994 lives in the spectacular Regency house surrounded by priceless paintings, furniture, porcelain and tapestry. Charles March is down to earth about his heritage, presiding over a culture of style, design, fashion and luxury. Every combustible litre is commercial: “I suppose we’re most famous for the sports – horse racing, motor racing, golf, flying, shooting and cricket. They were all started by keen amateurs at Goodwood, the Duke or the children of the Duke.”

The third Duke brought horse racing in 1802. He provided a course on a field known as The Harroway for fellow officers of the Sussex Militia. The Earl of Egremont had turned them out of Petworth Park, and the Duke was so pleased with the military’s two days’ racing that he organised a three day meeting under Jockey Club rules. Racing has continued ever since almost without a break.

Glorious Goodwood is a 205 year-old horse racing hallmark. Golf came later. “You join for about £150 and then buy the golf credits you want. It means people can come from far afield without paying massive green fees. It’s an effort to make golf more modern, get rid of stuffy clubhouse routine. We have no dress code. We appeal to younger golfers. It was all started by the seventh Duke’s three children. Widowed for the second time he told them to stop hanging around the house. One daughter was only thirteen and got James Braid to build them a golf course. Originally it was just their own, then it became a member’s course.”

Motor racing came with the ninth Duke. A car enthusiast, the Earl of March Frederick Charles Gordon-Lennox joined Bentley Motors as an apprentice, drove his first big race in 1929, and as works driver for Austin together with SCH Davis won the BRDC 500 Miles at Brooklands. He raced his own team of MGs to win the Brooklands Double-Twelve, Britain’s answer to the Le Mans 24 Hours, run in two parts because residents of woody Weybridge couldn’t bear the noise of racing at night. In the 1930s Freddie Richmond flew aircraft of his own design from a field near Goodwood House, gaining an Aviator’s Certificate from the Royal Aero Club. The field became RAF Westhampnett, a satellite of the Battle of Britain station at nearby Tangmere, and Douglas Bader took off on his final wartime sortie from its grass runway.

Following the loss of Brooklands after the War, Freddie Richmond now Duke of Richmond and Gordon sanctioned motor racing on the airfield perimeter track. It became second in importance only to Silverstone until 1966, when it was summarily closed. Bringing it up to date would have been costly, although it was said that Freddie didn’t much like the nouveaux riches infiltrating motor sport. In just under twenty years Goodwood was instrumental in the careers of Mike Hawthorn and Jackie Stewart, although it effectively ended that of Stirling Moss in 1962. After it closed, the picturesque circuit remained in a motor sporting time warp until the 1990s, when Freddie’s grandson gave up being society photographer Charles Settrington, and as the newest Lord March, set about fulfilling his vision of a modern sporting estate.

“There are traditional estate-type activities, house, property, farm, forestry, then there’s aviation. We’ve got an engineering business and a flying school. There’s a retail business that sells clothing to our various members and in celebration of our events, and a farm shop selling our meat.”

The 52 year old Charles, Earl of March and Kinrara, has some Charles II in his dna, a result of the liason between the King and Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth. The inheritance might be responsible for Lord March’s Cavalier charm and Hugh Grant good looks. His enthusiasm for the Goodwood brand’s motor racing highlights, the Festival of Speed in June and the Goodwood Revival Meeting in September, is infectious. This is motor sport with upper class style, the Festival sprinting the latest and greatest, fastest and oldest on a little hill-climb track between the manicured lawns of Goodwood House. At the Revival Meeting on the old immaculate racing circuit you are asked to turn up dressed pre-1966. Nearly everybody does. It is like a film set with 130,000 extras.

Lord March communicates close attention to detail to 400 people on the estate. It runs to piling the infield corn carefully in neat lean-to stooks, tied with baler twine, not spun by a baler and wrapped in plastic.

Attendance at the Festival of Speed is fixed at 150,000. That not only keeps it, as Brooklands used to be, “The Right Crowd and No Crowding”, but also the tickets are pre-sold as an insurance against the weather. Pay-at-the-gate punters might look out on a wet weekend and stay at home. If they’ve already paid for their tickets they’re more likely to attend the £5 million event, eat in the smart marquees, drink the Champagne and come back next year.

Charles March is doubly astute. Last year he launched a grander version of the Goodwood Road Racing Club conferring the delights of Goodwood on a corporate clientele. Not only has he 150,000 and 130,000 happy punters turning up at Goodwood for the Festival and Revival meetings, contributing roughly a third towards the £5 million (the other thirds come in sponsorship and concessions like catering). But he also has the 5000 members of the GRRC who although they only pay £120 subscription, cheerfully chip in for the foreign jaunts to Ferrari and Spa, and £240 for the Kinrara and £280 for the March Enclosures. There is a pay restaurant and bar, or a hamper service if you prefer.

GRRC and other sporting members to share the delights of The Kennels, the James Wyatt Grade 1 listed clubhouse built for the Charlton Hunt, restored with library, dining room, and clubrooms. Shooters, aviators, drivers, riders or players can join as full corporate sporting members. Goodwood already has six, with a box for guests at the horse racing and their own sponsored and named race, as well as a flight in a De Havilland Rapide for a day’s racing at Deauville. Full sporting members can have 20 VIP guests at the Goodwood Revival with their own celebrity racing driver, an exclusive shoot for 8 guns, a day’s golf for 72, and exclusive use of Goodwood’s historic cricket pitch. You can have an English picnic for 50 with the refuge of Goodwood House if it rains.

FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW

FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW

Dithering about electric cars, a rash of unlikely concepts, GM in trouble in America, Ferdinand Piëch making a stir in Germany; as the Frankfurt Motor Show of 2009 gets under way it turns out it was much the same 16 years ago. Columns in The Sunday Times of 12 September 1993 show that Mercedes-Benz was about to make a small car but had not yet toppled one on to its roof – not in public anyway. BMW was planning a small car too. It showed the 344cm (135.4in) long, 164cm (64.5in) wide Z13 with a 1.1 litre 4-cylinder engine producing 82bhp but never made it. It was about the size of an Issigonis Mini but prettier. Instead it waited until it had bought Rover and made a slightly bigger Mini 365cm (143.7in) x 193m (75.9in) with 1.4 litre and 88bhp (or 210bhp for the brave). BMW thought it would sell the Z13 for $35,000 or about £15,000 and roughly what the Mini sells for now. Honda was on the right lines with another pretty car, the Civic Coupe, with which I was so impressed I ran one for a year. Smooth, swift and economical it was, and totally reliable. The concept cars all came and just as speedily went. The one in the picture was a later creation of Giugiaro’s.

Sunday Times: Motoring, Concept cars at Frankfurt Motor Show 1993, Eric Dymock

Testimony to the importance of the Frankfurt show as a shop window came from the Japanese manufacturers who chose it as a launching platform for cars such as the Mazda Xedos 9 a flagship affiliate to the year-old Xedos 9, the 1994 Mitsubishi Space Wagon and Space Runner, and a new edition of the Lexus.

The Japanese also selected Frankfurt to display their latest concept cars instead of next month's Tokyo motor show to which they will be shipped as soon as Frankfurt closes its doors.

Daihatsu's arch-shaped electric hybrid follows the logical pattern for an electric car, until battery technology catches up with petrol as a convenient means of storing energy. The Dash 21 uses its own power plant to generate electricity. A 660cc three-cylinder petrol engine at the front starts up when the batteries stored under the floor run low.

The nickel metal hydride batteries have a better performance than lead acid batteries, and Daihatsu believes that they would last the life of the car. The enormous cost of battery replacement - a penalty equivalent to heavy fuel consumption on an ordinary car - has inhibited the development of electric propulsion.

Burning a lean mixture of petrol and air would make the Dash 21 very economical, and with a top speed of 75mph and a range of 280 miles, it looks like a realisable production possibility. Some restyling might be necessary.

The ESR (Ecological Science Research) Mitsubishi also pursues the hybrid route. Electric motors provide the motive power and the batteries are charged by a novel petrol engine which runs at a constant speed. A four cylinder of 1.5 litres, its even speed enables ultra-low exhaust emissions and a thermal efficiency, which Mitsubishi claims is superior to a diesel.

Nissan shows two concept designs in Frankfurt, the AP (Attractive Performer) - X and AQ (Ambition with Quality the Japanese have a way with names) - X. AP-X has a lightweight V-6 engine and a new kind of stepless automatic transmission. AQ-X is a rather disagreeable-looking four door saloon which has a smooth front and a flat underbody to achieve good airflow.

Ford has gone for a bulbous look in its Sub-B compact, which has a two-stroke engine serving as a reminder that a fleet of two-stroke Fiestas has been undergoing a user-evaluation programme. The tall narrow configuration, Ford says, is the best one for giving the occupants most space. The Sub-B is more compact than a Fiesta, with a sliding door on the right which gives access to the rear seats.

The rear-mounted 1.2 litre engine develops 82bhp and would give the Sub-B a fuel consumption of well over 50mpg.
END

Sunday Times: Motoring, 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show Report, Eric Dymock

Most of the new cars were previewed weeks before the sprawling halls of the Frankfurt Motor Show opened on Friday. The aluminium Audi, the Mercedes-Benz C-class, the revised Volkswagen Passat and Golf estate were all presented in advance. The Mercedes and BMW small-car prototypes, due for production in the mid 1990s, are already familiar. Mercedes-Benz revealed that it intends to make the car in substantial numbers and is still discussing the possibility of establishing a separate identity for it while keeping it firmly within the Mercedes-Benz family.

General Motors revealed the engaging shapes of concept cars based on the Vauxhall Corsa. Officially shown to gauge public reaction, they had a maturity that suggests they are closer to production than GM is willing to admit. Indifferent sales of the Opel Corsa in Germany probably hastened their appearance to stimulate interest.

Called the Tigra, Roadster and Scamp, they looked too well finished to be mere flights of the design department's fancy, and seem likely to be in production within the year. The Tigra is well proportioned and good looking despite its short wheelbase and since the Corsa is brisk and handles well, so the Tigra ought to have a performance to match its appearance. The open-topped and recreational derivatives also look the part, and will fill market niches in a segment where a good deal of the opposition is staid.

The Tigra's big glass canopy carries the stamp of the accomplished design studio set up at Opel by Wayne Cherry before he was taken back to Detroit to revive GM's lacklustre home products. The Roadster is a pert two seater that promises fun at an affordable price. It may not be a sports car, - it has leather-trimmed seats and stowage space for a cool box - but with close-ratio gears, power steering, and anti-lock brakes it promises to be lively.

The engine is GM's latest ECOTEC 1.6 litre 16-valve unit giving 109 bhp, which provides a top speed of about 120 mph, and acceleration to 60 mph within the 10second benchmark that distinguishes the lively from the leisurely.

The same level of performance is promised by another handsome newcomer, the Civic coupe made in Honda's American factory at East Liberty, Ohio. Cleanly styled, beautifully made and coming to Britain in February at less than £10,000 with a 1.5 litre engine, it is similar in size to the Vauxhall Calibra, Nissan 200SX, or Rover 200 coupe but a good deal cheaper. It will also be cheaper to insure and run.

There will be two trim levels, the ESi has power steering, central locking, four-speaker radio-cassette player and tinted glass. The LSi adds a sun roof, electric windows and a wide range of optional equipment including leather upholstery, alloy wheels and air conditioning.

The German motor industry is desperately anxious to regain its customary self-confidence. Sales are down 20 per cent on last year and some of the exhibition halls had unlet space. Frankfurt was a gossipy place for the 55th IAA motor show, full of rumours about the running war of words being waged between Volkswagen and Opel over the Piëch and Lopez affair. German industry opinion is about evenly divided on whether Piëch can survive when Lopez goes.

The Fiat Punto and the Toyota Supra, already on sale, were on public show for the first time, together with the latest Porsche 911 which, although it looks much like all the 350,000 other 911s made in the last 30 years, has been altered a great deal. Yet another new suspension will help with its out-of-balance rear-engined handling.

Porsche AG will manufacture the Audi Avant RS2, which made its debut at Frankfurt. An estate car based on the Audi 80, it has a turbocharged 2.2 litre engine giving 315bhp and a top speed of about 162mph. With acceleration to 60mph in 5.8 seconds, the RS2 is aimed at sports car drivers who have had to give up two-seaters. Production starts next year and only 2,000 are planned for 1994 and 1995.

America used to export large numbers of cars to Europe, in the days before General Motors and Ford established their own plants, much as Nissan and Toyota have now. Chrysler has rediscovered a commitment to export to Europe, stressed by chairman Bob Lutz, at the unveiling of the new Neon. This took place in a Frankfurt exhibition hall made up to look like a rather tacky pin-ball table, and in a noisy introduction Lutz revealed a Ford Mondeo clone, which will not go on sale in the UK. Chrysler's commitment to Europe apparently does not extend to cars with right hand drive.

British exhibitors had their tails up following an apparent rush of sales in August, although Geoffrey Whalen, President of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, cautioned against a euphoric view of the UK market. “Our manufacturing industry depends heavily on sales in Europe, and our economic recovery is bound up in Europe's economic recovery”.

Rover alone is inceasing sales in a declining European market - thirteen per cent up, it will sell more cars this year than Mercedes-Benz and only a few hundred fewer than BMW. Land Rover has had such a strong response in Germany to a special edition Discovery with chrome accessories, fancy wheels, and finished in British racing green, that it has had to make a fresh batch.

Saab

SAAB

You can’t help thinking Saab is marking time with its new 9-5. The appearance is improved now they’ve got rid of the clumsy chrome surrounds for the grille and headlights. They have rung some changes in the engines and you have to believe Jan- Åke Jonsson, Saab Automobile’s Managing Director when he says, “This car is the start of a new era for our brand.”

It could scarcely be anything else. Given the dire state Saab was in as part of General Motors, it probably marks the end of an old era at the very least. It was only in June that General Motors Corp confirmed a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of Saab Automobile AB by Koenigsegg Group AB.

The sale, expected to be complete by the third quarter, included $600 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) guaranteed by the Swedish government. More support will come from GM to pay for day to day operations and invest in new products. That means this 9-5 announced in Frankfurt. It must have been in the final stages of development when GM was planning to move production to the Opel factory in Rüsselsheim.

“This is yet another significant step in the reinvention of GM and its European operations,” intoned GM Europe President, Carl-Peter Forster extremely relieved to get shot of the embarrassing little Swedish firm. GM had never been able to make a go of it since buying 50 per cent in 1989 and the remainder in January 2000. He said, “Saab is a highly respected automotive brand with great potential. Closing this deal represents the best chance for Saab to emerge a stronger company. Koenigsegg Group's unique combination of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and financial strength, combined with Koenigsegg's proven ability to create world-class Swedish performance cars in a highly efficient manner, made it the right choice for Saab as well as for General Motors.”

Well he couldn’t say anything else.

Part of the transaction was for GM to provide Saab with architecture and powertrain technology during what was described as a defined time period. This must now mean Saab producing the 9-5 in Trollhättan, but who is going the buy the things during a “defined time period” however long or short.

The Konigsegg deal is bizarre. Founded by Christian von Koenigsegg in 1994, it is a tiny outfit that makes the 395 kph (245mph) CCX at Angelholm, southern Sweden, in a former Swedish Air Force hangar. Norwegian entrepreneur Bard Eker owns 49 per cent through his holding company Eker Group AS. Koenigsegg made 18 cars last year, Saab around 90,000. Koenigsegg employs 45 people, Saab 3,400.

Saab has made cars in Trollhattan since 1949. The 9-5 and 9-3 built in Trollhättan, the 9-3 Cabriolet by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria.

The announcement of, “The most technically advanced Saab ever” has a hollow ring. Saab is careful to say it was conceived, built but only “chiefly” developed in Sweden, and will compete head-to-head with leading premium class competitors. It can at best be interim and its on-sale date of 2010 means Trollhättan is being hastily reorganised to make it. How difficult to shift the company culture back from dreamy aerospace to what Saab really did best, quirky all-Scandianavian relatively low-tech but high-quality mid-range saloons.

“Dramatic wraparound window graphic echoes Saab’s aviation heritage. With styling inspired by the award-winning Aero X concept car and a muscular, low-slung stance, the new 9-5 heralds the introduction of a bold and expressive design language.” They really can’t get out of the rut. “Aircraft-inspired head-up information display (HUD) - fuselage-smooth surfacing of the bodywork - deep grille flanked with curving, ice-block headlamp units. The entire glasshouse is presented as a ‘wraparound’ mono graphic: the disguised windshield and side pillars giving the cabin Saab’s signature cockpit look. In this interplay of proportions, the windshield and roof are reminiscent of the classic 900 model.”

Saab, like Jaguar, was one of the classic makes that lost its way under big corporate ownership. Ford and GM did not quite know how to keep the good bits and manage the money side. There were too many cooks in Detroit, and the broth was spoiled. The 9-5 will probably be a perfectly good car but it remains to be seen if the European Investment Bank’s $600million will be enough, or if Sweden is going to see yet another Phoenix Four emerge to turn a profit out of a crisis.

Dove Publishing produced the award-winning SAAB HALF A CENTURY OF ACHIEVEMENT 1947-1997. See www.dovepublishing.co.uk.

AUDI

AUDI SPORTBACK

Number Two daughter scorned the Audi Sportback press launch, a day trip to Le Touquet, as Daddy’s booze cruise. It was nothing of the sort of course despite quite drinkable supermarché Merlot at €3 a bottle. Nice car, nice people, but scarcely the alcoholic adventure press launches once were. They gave you a breath test before driving in the morning. Were they worried somebody was going to sue Audi for plying them with drink? Probably the Milton Keynes risk assessment department told them they had to. Bit of a charade really; nobody seemed to fail, one wonders how veterans like the late Patrick Mennem would have reacted. Taken it in his stride I expect.

It’s odd how car manufacturers with ambitions of grandeur avoid “hatchback”. We’ve had Liftback, Fastback, Notchback, Sportcoupe Sportwagon; now Audi has turned to Sportback with a 5-door coupe look-alike. Hatchbacks were invented 70 years ago, the first predictably a front wheel drive car with a low floor. The Citroën Commerciale 11 Large (or Big 15) of March 1939 was a voiture de tourisme with a third row of seats. Citroën found the spare wheel was so heavy the bottom half of the hatch had to be hinged underneath. The 1939 tourisme season was somewhat attenuated, however, and by 1945 for one reason and another not many Commerciales were left.

Citroën revived it in 1952. The Big 15 returned with an extended boot, but up-market hatchback imitators were on the way. The following year Aston Martin opened the rear window in he sloping rear of the DB2/4 so you could load your monogrammed suitcases on to a shallow platform behind the seats. In 1958 the Farina Austin A40 Countryman was a 2-box saloon, something akin to an estate car, with a horizontally split tailgate. One version had a conventional boot lid just in case the customers were not convinced. The Renault 16 established the adaptable top-hinged hatchback with moveable seats in 1965, and Austin replied with the Maxi in 1969. It was a horrible car, with doors inherited from the unlovely 1800, but its heart was in the right place. Typically for BMC it was a bright idea stricken by ineptitude and woeful quality

Audi’s new saloon desperately wants to look like a coupe, a racy recipe that used to be implausible. There had been oddballs like the Maserati Quattroporte but you could scarcely take that seriously. Designers found it too difficult to get a low roofline and practical rear doors. Moray Callum’s Mazda RX8 was a clever ploy until Mercedes-Benz showed the CLS at Frankfurt in 2003. Nobody noticed at first. Mercedes-Benz was bringing out new shapes every week. The CLS was exquisitely proportioned and set a trend. Now they’re all at it. Jaguar XF, Porsche Panamera and did you see the Peugeot RC Hymotion at Geneva? VW Passat CC, Lexus, Honda FCX, Toyota Avensis the list goes on.

The Audi Sportback is customary Audi quality. The cost of the extras is a bit daunting. I tried a 2.0 TDI SE, list price £26,400 but the extras took the price to £31,970. Sport seats cost £465 presumably the ordinary SE had decent seats too; £145 for what they called aluminium hologram inlays in the doors; £690 for 10-spoke V-design alloy wheels; heated seats £243; Audi media interface £245 and mobile telephone preparation whatever that is, £365. It all adds up. Jon Zammett says that they had to specify the press cars with whatever happened to be first on what he called the extras tree. You could add the best part of 10K with fancy seats, different alloy wheels, MMI navigation with a 10GB hard drive. Luggage capacity with the back seat upright is only 10 litres less than an Avant – about the size of a small suitcase. It’s 6cm longer in the wheelbase than the 2-door A5 and you can ring the changes on engines and transmissions from 2.0 to 3.2 and three diesels, 7-speed S-tronic, multitronic and quattro four wheel drive.

The 2 litre diesel turned out to be about the best compromise. It’s quiet, lively, and with the 6-speed manual SE at £27,140 swift enough for most purposes. What a pity press fleets can’t resist low-profile tyres. They think they make cars look better while all it does is generate disagreeable road noise. It’s not too bad on the 2 litre diesel but quite spoils the 3 litre.

AUDI 100 YEARS

Audi has been celebrating its centenary but its four-ringed symbol only dates from 1932, when Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer in the German state of Saxony joined together following the Depression and threats of state intervention. The badge was based shamelessly on the Olympic emblem, and Auto Union became as potent a symbol of prestige as the three pointed star of Mercedes-Benz, when they competed in grand prix motor racing. Unfortunately in 1945 Auto Union found most of its factories in East Germany. There were fitful attempts at revival by the East German state with smoky Trabants and asthmatic Wartburgs.

Mercedes-Benz meanwhile grew rich in West Germany. Volkswagen revived itself in Wolfsburg within artillery range of the Iron Curtain. BMW abandoned its factories on the wrong side of the border and re-established in its native Munich. Rights to the old Auto Union were claimed by both East and West German contenders, but in 1948 with the arrival of Marshall Aid, currency reform by the federal finance minister Ludwig Erhardt and the introduction of the Deutsche Mark, Germany turned the corner and the Economic Miracle got under way.

Desperate to get back on their wheels, Germans ran their old cars into the ground, looking for spare parts for aged DKWs. Some 60,000 of the quarter-million two-stroke cars made before the war had survived. Former Auto-Union president, Dr Richard Bruhn and salesman Carl Hahn were in the west when the new frontiers were drawn up, and set up a DKW spare parts centre in Ingolstadt. DKW was one of the rings in the 1932 amalgamation so they boldly claimed the old title.

In the 1950s Auto Union still carried overtones of the Third Reich. DKW was associated with motorcycles and down-market two-strokes, Horch had been a favoured parade car of the Nazi hierarchy, Wanderers were recreated in East Germany as Wartburgs. Only Audi had the clean-cut premium-price image to compete with Mercedes-Benz and the emerging BMW.

The new Auto Union GmbH was established in September 1949 with loans from the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, reconstruction credits, and a local authority grant which paid for rebuilding the bomb-damaged Rheinmetall-Borsig plant in Düsseldorf. This began making DKWs on pre-war designs, with a 688cc transverse two-stroke twin-cylinder engine, and a body intended for a 1940 model. In an effort to reduce the heavy fuel consumption it had a smooth aerodynamic body, with flush headlights, full-width bodywork, and a long tail enclosing the luggage boot.

Introduced at the 1950 Frankfurt motor show, the DKW was right for a cash-strapped world where cheap engines mattered more than clever ones. Boldly Auto Union made the DKW dearer than a Volkswagen, and in 1950 the rebuilt factory made 1,380 cars, 6,873 vans and 24,606 motorcycles. By 1954 it was making nearly 60,000, its high price stuck, and it was prospering.

In 1958 Daimler-Benz nearly took it over, acquired the Düsseldorf plant and began to expand Ingolstadt. Two years later Volkswagen bought new share capital, and the cars became Auto Union DKWs, and Daimler-Benz was eased out. In 1965 when a 72bhp four-stroke was developed VW-Auto Union coined the name Audi, signifying the end of the two-stroke and setting the premium-priced brand on the road.

AUDI Q7

The relentless ascent of Audi continued with galvanised body shells, the aluminium A8, ground-breaking aerodynamics, Q7 its first Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) with seven seats, adaptive air suspension, four wheel drive, and enough electrickery to keep a celebrity clientele happy for a lifetime. Q7 is a big car, as much Deutschland Üuber Alles as Vorsprung Durch Technik, and with a choice of 4.2V8 petrol and 3.0V6 diesel, awash with luxury appurtenances.

It has acoustic parking which means beeps and facia display rather than waiting until you hear the bump, and its rear-facing camera has a 130degree field of view showing the rear bumper and tow hitch on the facia TV screen. You can manoeuvre Q7 into position for hooking up to the horsebox, or boat. Perhaps not a caravan. It has Electronic Stabilisation Program (ESP), traction control (ASR), Electronic Differential Lock (EDL), 6-speed tiptronic with Dynamic Shift Program (DSP), Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and two 24 gigahertz radar sensors in the back bumper that warn the driver when the car behind is too close.

Seven seats? Well maybe 5+2; the rearmost pair are not very big, and might well spend most of their time folded down in the big boot floor. Yet the Q7 confirms Audi’s place in the up-market pecking order alongside Range Rover Sport, BMW X5, Volvo XC90, Lexus RX and the rest of the classy country-style cars parked round the polo field. It manages it subtly, as befits a classic marque, by looking less of a Chelsea tractor and more of a big estate car. You can’t be inconspicuous in a vehicle getting on for 17ft long and 6ft 6in tall, but it doesn’t look so pushy, and from the other end of the village can look quite modest.

Other People's Driving

Other people’s driving always makes good copy in a motoring column. Witness the eloquent David Finlay (www.carkeys.co.uk) ‘Motorway Madness’ 17 July. The idea aired recently that police could levy on the spot fines recalled a driving incident 21 years ago that I used in my Fast Lane magazine column. Magistrates are quite right to resist providing the plods with such authority. The courteous, cultured and intelligent Peter Dron edited Fast Lane and was kind enough to run my column every week for four years. He took the view that editors should not interfere with what a columnist wrote. The authorities are still dithering over what to do with the A303 close to where this incident took place, unable to make up its mind what to do with the bit passing Stonehenge. I wonder how long the chap in the Sapphire survived. The 21 years that have passed have also seen speed cameras come and very nearly go. And my son is now 42.

Fast Lane, April 1988

True story. I am driving a Porsche Turbo, not mine, Porsche’s, along the A303. It is a fine morning, the road is damp, then sun’s well up, it is closing 9am and I am thinking, ‘hello my son’s 21 today’. So I remember the date. It is February 2, and I am driving from deepest Wiltshire to Egham.

Do not ask why, that is not part of the story.

At about 0830, a man in a hairy tweed suit has put on a hairy hat, adjusted his glasses, said goodby to his wife and got into his blue Ford Sapphire, new last year, clean as a whistle. He comes from womewhere near Market Lavington, or Tilshead on Salisbury Plain (where they’re up in arms about the army building a German village, to practise fending off the invading hordes expected at any time from the east). He is on his way to his office in Salisbury, and he willreach the A303 in about half an hour at a village called Winterbourne Stoke. There have been two fatal accidents there since I came to the district, it is an unhappy little place. He is thinking it’s a nice sunny day, a bit windy perhaps, as he collects his morning paper and gives a lift to a friend.

I drive from the junction with the A36 Salisbury-Bath road. The A303 is a well surfaced dual carriageway, block, glistening and beckoning. This Porsche accelerates with satisfying swiftness, zero to 60mph in 5.7 seconds. It is one of the fastest point to point cars I have ever driven, nimbler than a 928, yet, at 160mph, nearly as fast. It will exceed twice the legal speed limit with ease. I drift past the odd car and truck – crawling, unhurried, their drivers day dreaming. Winterbourne Stoke, surprisingly enough, is not yet bypassed by this trunk route, now splendid dual carriageway for much of its length.

You drop down into Winterbourne, whee the whitewashed houses stand out clear in the crisp morning light. You can’t overtake, there’s a double white line curving left handed, then right, as the road narrows to standard two-way. The big disc brakes squeal just a little – wonderful brakes with the four-piston fixed calliper of the 928S and ventilated discs. The 944 slows obediently behind a large white covered lorry. A refrigerated van I guess.

The B3083 joins from the left. The A303 bends to the right through the village. There are good sight lines. The truck is doing about 40 – there is a speed limit. I am about four cars’ lengths astern so I can see in sharp detail.

The Sapphire noses out from the side road, the driver looks, I can see his round face and silly hat – and on he comes. The truck driver can no more believe it than I can. His brake lights go on. There is smoke from his locked wheels, which he seems to sense. The brake lights go off. I am going to see a painful accident. I think of the traffic I have just overtaken. They’ll say, “I bet it was the Porsche’s fault; serves him right,” when they see the wreckage. Ungracious, but that’s how people are.

The Sapphire is now well into the truck’s path. But the truckie, to his credit, is equal to the situation. Here is a one-man ABS system. The brake lights go on again – and off – and on – and he steers round the Sapphire with inches to spare. It is like the Ford TV commercial for anti-lock brakes.

I don’t expect he will ever read this. Fast Lane doesn’t sell much to truckies. I wish I’d noted down his number, or the name on the side, so that I could write and tell his boss what a good driver he’s got. I felt like pointing out to the Sapphire driver that his life had just been saved.

I needn’t have bothered. Truckie stopped and without so much as pause to wipe his brow opened his door, got down, and told hairy tweedy himself.

Question. Who is the hooligan? Wind the video back a couple of minutes. Here is old tweedy, going about his presumably lawful occasions, strapped into his Sapphire on a quiet country road, passing the time of day with his chum. Ambling to work, talking about last night’s TV. Paying not a blind bit of notice to death stalking him from his starboard side on the A303.

Here am I, in my splendid Porsche, disappearing over the brow of the hill in a cloud of spray with finger-wagging and cluck-clucking from anybody who happens to see me, and a wigging from the local bench had I – heaven forfend – been exceeding the statorury speed limit.

Which of us was being dangerous?

The difference I suppose might lie in acknowledging that driving cars is dangerous. Tweedy at 5mph seemed to think he was bomb proof, while I know perfectly well that I could have an accident as easily as anybody – but try not to.

I am no campaigner for lifting the 70 limit. I am not deeply unhappy about the present state of affairs. Imposing it in the first place was crass, a panic measure by the miserable Tom Fraser, a Minister of Transport besides whom the witless Bottomley seems inventive and dynamic. But now nobody pays much attention to the limit. Unless you sweep past them at 130, not even the police. They’ve got more to do. Chief Constables would like photographic speed-monitoring equipment, which would be a touch uncomfortable, but since I don’t break the limit by much on motorways as a rule, it wouldn’t concern me.

Besides, it is just as well there are some powers that authority has in reserve for the wholly incompetent. I would prefer if they were able to impose a stricter IAM-style driving test – that would weed-out a few. Failing that, throw some penalty points around and get them off the road that way.

The awesrome thought is that there are Hairy Tweeds who don’t just poke the nose of their shiny new Sapphires out on to the A303 at 5mph. They are out there, on the M3 every day, doing 70 or more. God help us.

MG Rover

MG Rover

It is all very well for the Department of Trade and Industry, or whatever it calls itself this week, being wise about MG Rover after the event. How much better had it been wise beforehand. It was obvious six months ahead of the April 2005 collapse that the company was coming to pieces. Here is what I wrote in November 2004.

Scotland on Sunday Motoring by Eric Dymock, 28 November 2004

MG Rover and China

Nearly everybody wants MG Rover to thrive. There are too many jobs, too much industrial prestige at risk, to allow loose talk. Yet the euphoria that greeted last week’s news of a billion pound Chinese investment is fraught with peril. Put it this way, if I was a senior executive at MG Rover, and wanted to find a scapegoat for its collapse next year, an inscrutable Oriental government would look tempting.

The groundwork has been laid. Dire warnings that MG Rover is not viable without a major partner have been widely aired. The company admits that without the Chinese deal it has no future. It is so short of cash that its research and development budget is the lowest for decades. It has no new models anywhere close to production. Sales from the group, the rump of the British Motor Corporation that once had 30 per cent of the British market, have sunk to around 3 per cent.

In November its auditors Deloitte drew attention to the problem. The company’s parent Phoenix Venture Holdings could only be considered a going concern because it had assumed that a deal with Shanghai would provide money for the development of new models. “In forming our opinion we have considered the adequacy of the disclosures,” said Deloitte. “These relate to the satisfactory completion of negotiations with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), which may supply additional sources of finance. In view of the significance of this uncertainty, we consider this should be drawn to your attention.”

What an opportunity. If SAIC’s owners, the Chinese authorities, refuse to ratify the deal the Birmingham Four who own Rover can say: “The game’s up but it wasn’t our fault. A big boy said he was going to give us money and then ran away.”

Shanghai is already counselling caution. The industry was more sceptical than British newspapers following the announcement, carefully arranged for a Saturday, that billions were on the way from China. Suspicions were raised that once again MG Rover was buying time by claiming it was all over bar the shouting. But the small print spoke louder It was clear that the deal had yet to be agreed by the Chinese government. Rover maintained this was only a formality and approval was arranged for January or February.

SAIC’s response was: “The programme of the deal is still under discussion and we still have to talk about many details. We read in the British press that we are going to invest £1billion into Rover, but it’s not like that, that’s not how it works. We need government approval for a project like this, and we’re not used to the British custom of going to the press, as this would cause inconvenience with the government. If the British press say one figure, then we hand a report to the government with a different sum, then it’s a problem for us.”

You can bet your life it’s a problem. But it is nothing like the problem MG Rover is facing. Moreover betraying incomplete negotiations to the press is not customary at all, despite what MG Rover may have told SAIC. Not only have Rover sales collapsed; its directors faced such criticism over their featherbedded pension fund that they had to scale down its payments. Desperation over new model announcements has reached fever pitch. Concept cars, plans, projects, coupes, and racy never-to-be-produced sports saloons have earned plenty of column-inches in an uncritical motoring press.

The aim of the publicity is not to sell cars, so much as convince creditors, suppliers and the SAIC that MG Rover is a viable vigorous company. It is a chimera. Rover engaged one of the best stylists in the business, Peter Stevens, to produce stunning new designs. Some of his MGs, based on old Rovers, have found buyers. Yet the failure to sell sufficient numbers speaks volumes. The customers are not convinced. Some Rovers like the 75, designed under BMW’s tutelage, are outstanding bargains yet they are scarcely profitable.

We have been down this road before. Likely partners in rescue plans have been paraded ever since BMW backed off in May 2000. Proton of Malaysia, China Brilliance, even Tata of India which produced the lacklustre City Rover have all been rumoured or announced as likely investors for the hundreds of millions needed. New cars have been under development, notably by the talented but in the end failing TWR Group, led by the ultimately unsuccessful Scottish former racing driver Tom Walkinshaw.

The question is whether China needs to spend a billion on MG Rover when BMW, Volkswagen, Ford, Honda, and Citroën are queuing up to spend billions inside China. General Motors’ joint venture plant in Shanghai, built in 1997 with inward investment of $1.5billion, was planned to make 100,000 cars a year but has had to add extra production lines and double-shift working to meet demand. VW will build one assembly plant and two engine factories to double capacity from 800,000 to 1.6million by 2008.

VW has been in China since the 1980s and will spend €5.3billion on its expansion in partnership with the same SAIC with whom Rover has been negotiating. Shanghai has no need to reverse such a cash flow, and spend money on a small time outfit like MG Rover, which uses out of date technology to build cars well past their sell-by date.