Unintended consequencies

Not before time, there's proposed safety legislation not obsessed with speeding. Proposals for new powers so police can issue tickets for bad driving are all very well, but begs the question of how you catch the miscreants. One sees drivers weaving in and out of motorway traffic, risking theirs and everybody else's necks, and just wish there was a patrol car there to scoop them up. There never is. And with the passing of a regime that thought it could enforce safety by speed cameras while reducing traffic police, maybe we are on the threshold of a new era.

We need more patrol cars like this Vauxhall Insignia
Unfortunately making new regulations does not follow logical processes. This 1993 Sunday Times column was concerned about unintended consequences. The original copy for "proposed law..." is attached.


The AA has just taken delivery of a fleet of new Ford Transits.
Sunday Times: Motoring 02 May 1993
DEATH BY DANGEROUS DRIVING

The creation of a new offence of causing death by driving is to be looked at by the AA as soon as the proposals are drawn up for a new criminal justice bill in the autumn. It is barely a year since the Road Traffic Act introduced two offences, causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed blood-alcohol limit. Instead there will be a new single offence with double the existing maximum jail term of five years.

Courts will need to take account of the circumstances of accidents to make a distinction between misdemeanours with unexpectedly tragic consequences and minor shunts. 'We need to make sure that motoring offences do not get out of proportion,' an AA spokesman said. 'Causing death while at the wheel of a car must relate to similar offences in other areas, although we acknowledge public concern over the powers judges have for dealing with the lunatic fringe who drive without concern for life.'

A driver who runs into a car stationary at traffic lights is clearly culpable. But the difference between the consequences may be no more than a matter of chance. The driver of the stationary car may get a stiff neck when his headrest cushions the blow, step from his damaged vehicle and exchange names and addresses before driving off, aggrieved but alive.

Another stationary car might have no head restraints. They are a relatively recent safety feature. In an identical accident with the same degree of carelessness by the offending driver, whiplash could break the driver's neck and kill him.

Consequences in traffic accidents can often be a matter of luck - running into a car with safety features against running into one without. Driver B could face a custodial sentence of up to ten years against driver A getting a caution, a fine, and a few points on his driving licence for essentially the same misdeed, running into the back of a stationary car.

Drink-driving is a different issue. Impairment through drinking is a serious business, the courts take it seriously, and the distinction of a separate offence of causing death while unfit to drive through drink should remain.

But there is a distinction between the driver who crashes carelessly or recklessly into a bus shelter when it is empty, and the one who kills all the occupants. The difference rests only on whether anyone was in the shelter at the time. In one case it might mean a wigging by the bench, in the other a long term of imprisonment.

The logic of increasing penalties according to the consequences of transgressions, would imply decreasing them where the risks are small. Speeding at 3am on an empty motorway in clear weather would become less serious than recklessly flouting the law on a busy afternoon.

Reckless, careless, driving without due care and attention, or whatever it may be called under various road traffic acts, now generally comes to light when there has been an accident. Yet it is the bad driving that is the offence, not whether the driver knocks down a tree or kills a sheep.

In the last four years nearly 100 cases of apparently lenient sentences on drivers involved in accidents have been referred by the Attorney General to the Court of Appeal. Fourteen involved fatalities. The protests the Home Office receives over sentences on killer-drivers are overwhelming.

It is difficult not to take account of fatalities in assessing culpability, but leaving aside the drink-driving issue, not many drivers set out to kill, and pressing for fierce penalties on those who do will not do much for deterrence and could look like a cry for vengeance.

Rolls-Royce

Twenty-one years ago Rolls-Royces were still made in Crewe. They were a decade away from fundamental change. Yet their dignity seemed unshakeable as this motoring column from 17 June 1990 shows. And 'personal imports' to beat Car Tax and VAT was still newsworthy.
SUNDAY TIMES: Motoring, Eric Dymock
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT II
Upwards of a thousand Rolls-Royces are converging on Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire today for the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club Annual Rally. It will be a meeting of hearts and minds as well as cars. Rolls-Royces are as close to Britain's soul as Big Ben or Land of Hope and Glory, yet as with other pillars of the establishment, it is easy to expect too much of them.
Dignified and regal, beautifully made and long-lasting, Rolls-Royces are as imposing as ever they were. You are more likely to be taken for a pop star at the wheel of one nowadays than a Member of the House of Lords. They tend to be bought more by 'new' money than by the old aristocracy who seem to be happier in Range Rovers and green wellies.
Adjusting one's expectations means not assuming a Rolls-Royce will handle like a Mercedes-Benz, nor be as quiet as one of the new Japanese luxury cars. It means driving them in a fitting manner, not too fast, and avoiding harsh braking or acceleration. The older parts of the suspension were not designed to avoid the diving and leaping that go with clumsy driving.
Rolls-Royce chauffeurs like Rolls-Royce cars are expected to keep their composure at all times. At the chauffeurs' school they are instructed how to open a door, then shut it with a satisfying clunk, like the door of an old First Class railway carriage, as the passengers sink into the Connolly-leather chairs, kick their shoes off, and curl their toes into the shaggy carpet.
Rolls-Royce's tradition of naming cars after ghosts began in 1907, when Claude Johnson, responsible for the creation of the marque as much as the two euphonious partners, had their thirteenth 40/50 finished in aluminium paint, and the carriage lamps and fittings silver-plated. It was named The Silver Ghost
The latest Silver Spirit is less ethereally quiet. It is probably noisier than some of the graceful old cars gathering at Castle Ashby, the difference is that it does 120mph, and accelerates to 60mph in a vigorous 10 seconds.
Its worst shortcoming is the tiresome hum from the air intake of the 6.75 litre V-8 engine which would pass unnoticed in a Sierra or a Cavalier, but as in the tale of the princess and the pea, quite spoils the cushioned luxury of a car that costs £85,609, and does between 12 and 15mpg. With a little effort you feel the fuel consumption could reach single figures.
The heavy thirst is the result of the blunt aerodynamics and the car's weight of 2350kg (5180lb, 46cwt). The controls are all light, but at seventeen and a quarter feet (5.3metres) it is a large car. The ride is now extremely good, with the new adaptive ride control which senses speed, steering, and the disturbance made by road bumps. The sensors then stiffen or slacken the springing within milliseconds, making this the best-riding and best-handling Silver Spirit yet.
Body roll on corners is firmly checked, and the old floaty motion has gone.
The interior of the Silver Spirit is of matchless quality, with further refinements to the two-tier air conditioning system. Unlike those of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, it divides horizontally, giving the occupants the choice of warm feet and a cool head as opposed to a cool driver and a warm passenger.
There is usually so much noise in a car that the quality of an elaborate stereo system is squandered. The Silver Spirit is quiet enough for pop stars to appreciate its ten speakers (two tweeters in the demister panel, mid-range and bass units in the front doors and tweeter and mid-range units in the rear doors) and, for those of their lordships who still have them, to hear Today in Parliament in perfect peace.
ENDS 661w
SUNDAY TIMES: Motoring, Eric Dymock
ROLLS-ROYCE, CREWE
Rolls-Royce has at last had to concede that machines make cars better than people can. Sir Henry Royce, whose engineering credo was that, "There is no safe way of judging anything except by experiment," would probably have agreed. He would go to any lengths to achieve excellence and had he known about it, he would have embraced computer-controlled machining with enthusiasm.
Changing the habits of a lifetime has not come easily. The old wartime factory at Crewe still has machinery, which still looks as though it made Merlin engines for Battle of Britain Hurricanes and Spitfires. They did, and are gradually being replaced by automatic cutters and drillers to turn out better components than the most skilled craftsman.
Rolls-Royce offers the production engineer a singular challenge. It is relatively easy for robots to turn out thousands of identical parts, but Rolls-Royce made only 3,243 cars last year, just under 70 every working week, so it does not want thousands of anything very much. What it does want is seventy or so axle casings, or cylinder blocks, or exhaust manifolds machined to a consistent accuracy that befits the car.
This could no longer be accomplished with the relics of industrial archaeology on which Rolls-Royce Motors had to rely following the receivership of 1971. Like Ferrari, Rolls-Royce has had to adapt to changing circumstances, which meant commissioning a highly automated paint plant a year ago, and bringing in sophisticated new machinery, the latest of which was brought into operation only last week.
Unlike Ferrari, in which Fiat has invested heavily, Rolls-Royce has had to generate its own resources. Profits have gone up from £14.1 million in 1984 to nearly £25 million last year. Sales are up 18 per cent world wide, the Pacific basin is doing well with sales in Japan up, North America holding its own, and the UK up by over 8 per cent.
Just over half the cars made by the company are Bentleys, and when the new model arrives by the mid-90s, the Rolls-Royce and the Bentley ranges will separate for the first time since 1945. The pre-war "Silent Sports Car" will have an identity of its own again, with a separate body style.
More pressing however is a new engine to replace the thirty year old V8, which is neither as smooth nor as efficient as a Rolls-Royce ought to be. Vickers, Rolls-Royce's parent now owns Cosworth Engineering which is not only an outstanding manufacturer of racing power units, but also notable in the production engineering of engines.
Among Cosworth's notable achievements was successfully designing and producing the 16-valve heads for the outstanding Mercedes-Benz 190 2.3-16, in an astonishingly short time. Rolls-Royce is fully extended making cars - it makes most of its own components down to the Spirit of Ecstasy on the radiator shell. Cosworth, rich in talent, would not find it difficult to design and engineer a new power unit adaptable for a 1995 range of Bentley sports cars and Rolls-Royce limousines.
Meanwhile the crafts at Crewe which even the cleverest robots could not replace, continue to thrive. Ferrari lost none of its cachet through installing modern production methods and neither will Rolls-Royce. Ferrari quality and reliability has improved and so will Rolls-Royce's. The irreplaceable features, the sumptuous leather and the carefully-grained woodwork which no manufacturer in the world does as well, will give the cars their own distinctive character for generations to come.
ENDS 600w
SUNDAY TIMES: Motoring, Eric Dymock
Mrs Alberto Pirelli will flag off 125 pre-1966 cars taking part in the 2,000 mile Pirelli Classic Marathon from Tower Bridge at 0800 today. The third annual Marathon which commemorates the old Alpine Rally travels through six countries in seven days, finishing in Cortina Italy, on Saturday.
The 15 special tests, start at Lydden Hill, Kent at 11.00. Spectators will be admitted to a slalom-style event which will decide the first day's leaders before the cavalcade sets sail for the first overnight stop at Ypres, in Belgium.
Stirling Moss has declared himself fit to drive an MGB following his recent motorcycle accident but has not yet discarded both his crutches. Victor Gauntlett has withdrawn his £200,000 Austin-Healey which leaves Indianapolis star Bobby Unser's rather special Jaguar E-Type as probably the most valuable car in the event. Together with all the other precious classics, the Jaguar will be put to some strenuous tests such as a timed climb of the famous Stelvio Pass, Italy's highest Alpine road, nine miles with 48 hairpin bends, which will be specially closed for the occasion.
ENDS 195w
SUNDAY TIMES: Motoring, Eric Dymock
BMW SAYS EURO-PRICES BUNK
Despite a recent rise of 3.3 per cent, BMW claims that the prices of its 3-Series cars are much the same in the UK as they are in the rest of Europe. Taking the prices of extra equipment into account, optional in Germany but not always optional on the UK market, personal imports cost the customer more.
BMW allowed £300 to cover petrol, hotels, and ferry fares and local taxes were taken into account. No allowance was made for any administrative expenses, but BMW calculates that on an exchange rate of Dm2.8 to the pound the costs are as follows:
personal import UK retail extra cost of personal import
316i £12,525 £12,425 £100
320i £15,638 £15,550 £ 88
325i £19,179 £19,175 £ 4
The more expensive the BMW, the more BMW says you save by buying it in the UK.
ENDS 161w

Aston Martin DB VII

An Aston Martin DB7 was just about right for a road car. Quick enough for most purposes, classic name and reputation, well made and exquisitely beautiful it remains an aspiration. It also has the virtue of not making its driver look absurd. Unless you are going to race, there doesn’t seem much point in a 600 horse power two hundred and something miles an hour monster. A DB7 is manageable, isn’t a lot faster than the 1960s icon the E-type Jaguar and doesn’t invite ridicule. Its real pedigree may not stand too close scrutiny. As the attached feature from The Times testifies, it was pretty much Jaguar XJ-S underneath but that rode well, handled not badly and by 1993 was well sorted. Ray Hutton, with whom I drove on the press launch, was a bit dismissive but I liked it from the start. Went to Chatsworth last year when there was an Aston Martin Owners’ Club event and thought how well DB7 looked still, even against later bloated Astons. You need a sense of proportion about cars. Goes back to when an E-type was perfectly appropriate for the road and a D-type was great to race but couldn’t be taken seriously for going to the shops.


Click to enlarge or read original copy attached.


Two Litres was once fine for a high quality sports car

The Times: Tuesday 19 October, 1993: ASTON MARTIN

There is an air of confidence at Aston Martin, which the company has scarcely known since the 1950s. When production of the DB7 starts in April, it will mark an astonishing come-back, after nearly two decades in which the rest of the motor industry virtually wrote it off.

Most of the 300 DB7s planned for the first year's production are already sold after the car's spectacular debut at the Geneva motor show this spring. Now, Aston Martin is expanding its sales network, confident that the North American market will enable it to double production to 600 a year.

It hardly matters that the car is essentially a design shelved by Jaguar; it has brought Aston Martin back into the automotive mainstream. It looks every inch a thoroughbred, and after development by a team which includes former world champion Jackie Stewart and formula 1 team taskmaster Tom Walkinshaw, it has brought Aston Martin back into the mainstream.

Stewart started his racing career thirty years ago in an Aston Martin DB4GT, but when Ford took over the company in September 1987, production Astons still bore it an uncomfortable resemblance. Ford invited Walter Hayes, one-time confidant of Henry Ford and a motor industry veteran, to bring Aston Martin up to date.

A first-class opportunist, Hayes identified a role for Aston Martin within the Ford empire, as well as one for himself running it after he stopped being a Ford vice-president.

He needed fresh minds, and hand-picked a new team. He also knew he could never create a new car in the old cramped works at Newport Pagnell. A key appointment to the board was Tom Walkinshaw, who had set up JaguarSport to make Jaguar XJ220s in a roomy, modern purpose-built plant with room for expansion at Bloxham near Oxford. XJ220 was planned with a limited life, Jaguar with a half-share in Bloxham was now owned by Ford, so the pieces of the jigsaw began to fit together. Aston Martin (Oxford) was formed, with Jackie Stewart on the board to ensure the DB7's sporting pedigree.

A consultant to Ford since his racing days, Stewart protested at first. 'I don't work for Aston Martin.'

Hayes's reply was succinct. 'You do now.'

The Times subbed this bit out and inserted 'Mr' before names.

Aston Martin's history was punctuated by financial crises and changes of ownership. Until Ford took over, its only consistent feature was the production of fine sports cars. Astons were always at a premium, highly priced, highly prized, and exquisitely made.

Lionel Martin made the first one in 1914 with Robert Bamford, and coined the name from a hill-climb course at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire. It had an undistinguished 1.4 litre side valve Coventry-Simplex engine, in a chassis copied from an Italian contemporary.

Production of a 1.5 litre car, plainly engineered but selling for a formidable £850 got under way in 1922, and by the mid 1920s the firm was making 20 cars a year. In 1924 a racing programme led to adventurous overhead cam engines and lightweight chassis. There was an optimistic showing of Aston Martins at the Olympia Motor Show in 1925, but within weeks the company was in trouble.

Aston Martin was unable to pay its way. It was wound up and had to be rescued by A C Bertelli, who restarted production at Feltham in 1927, and made racing versions in 1928/29. Success on the track, alas was not matched by sales. Following another financial crisis in the early 1930s, the Bertelli regime collapsed, and R G Sutherland took control.

He inaugurated sports cars such as the 80hp Ulster of 1935, and the 100mph Speed Model, as notable for their striking appearance as their stirring performance. Sutherland's Aston Martins were archetypal sports cars with cycle-type wings, pointed tails, and spartan open two-seater bodywork.

In 1947 Aston Martin, integrated with Lagonda, became part of the engineering empire of David Brown, the tractor manufacturer, once again leading to outstanding cars. W O Bentley supervised the design of a 2.5 litre overhead cam engine for a sporty coupe which came out in 1950, together with a luxury Lagonda.

After the new 2.0 litre sports, the proprietor applied his initials to the next, and DB for David Brown entered the motoring lexicon as a match for anything produced by Ferrari, Maserati, or Alfa Romeo. A vigorous racing programme brought Aston Martin the world sports car championship in 1959, and first and second in the 24 Hours race at Le Mans.

But in the 1970s the luxury car world was thrown into turmoil by successive oil crises, sales failed to cover the substantial cost of making quality cars largely by hand, and Aston had once again to be saved. This time the staunchly patriotic Victor Gauntlett re-established it, making Aston fit enough to attract the major shareholding by Ford.

At the headquarters of Benetton, his formula 1 racing team, Walkinshaw whose 40 companies have an annual turnover of £100 million and 750 employees worldwide told me, 'I was approached by Victor Gauntlett and Walter Hayes two years ago. Aston Martin had no new product programme and its future looked doubtful.' Together with Hayes and his team of engineers a new strategy was worked out, and a smaller Aston Martin (the current ones had grown to 5.3 litres) planned at an affordable price. The way forward was to see what common components could be obtained from within Ford, which included Jaguar.

The design for the DB7 was code-named NPX (Newport Pagnell eXperimental), with a Jaguar XJS floor pan and engine block. The aim was to develop a car in the £80,000 range. It emerged as the DB7, a classic 3.2 litre front-engined, rear-drive coupe still bearing the initials of Sir David Brown, honorary life president of Aston Martin Lagonda until his death last month September at the age of 89.

The old works at Newport Pagnell was left to carry on making new versions of the existing cars. It has been modernised, but by and large the cars are hand-finished much in the way they always were. The latest 5.4 litre Vantage has two superchargers and a top speed approaching 190mph.

Jackie Stewart has not forgotten the kind of car he raced in the early 1960s.

'Aston Martin customers will be fastidious', he says. 'The DB7 must have the grip and handling of a thoroughbred, it must feel like an Aston Martin.' It is in good hands.
Wood facia nothing new for an Aston Martin.

Ferrari Italia

At last, a proper Car of the Year. The Daily Telegraph motoring supplement has elected the Ferrari 458 Italia COTY in its Money No Object category. It is also Car magazine’s and Auto Express’s Performance Car of the Year, GQ’s Supercar of the Year, MSN Car’s Car of the Year and even Fifth Gear and Top Gear agree about it. How welcome. What a contrast to the self-serving European Car of the Year jury’s Nissan Leaf (see earlier blog), which flaunts the COTY logo shamelessly on television.

I didn’t drive a lot of Ferraris in 1992. The Fiorano test track was instructive. I avoided being driven round by Ferrari testers, who aimed to frighten passengers to death within a lap. One of our number, I forget who, managed to punt one of the 512s down the banking after the overpass bridge but I’m glad to say I managed to keep it on track and return a respectable performance, along with Michael Scarlett. We weren’t racing of course.

The 458 Italia won, according to The Daily Telegraph, “Because of the pure driving pleasure it delivers – to drivers of all abilities. It flatters your driving while involving you fully in the experience. Despite its towering performance … the 458’s astounding levels of tactility and refinement clinch it. It has almost telepathic steering, superbly linear major controls, looks (and sound) to die for. Hell, it’s even comfortable."

Not sure about the rhetoric but you can see what they mean. Read what I thought in The Sunday Times of 19 April 1992. Click to enlarge


The conversation with Luca di Montezemolo, an aristocrat to his fingertips, then as now was also instructive. Enzo Ferrari may have founded a great dynasty of sports cars but it was Montezemolo who made them work properly, got rid of the red stains on the balance sheet and developed a practical range of road cars instead of stark 2-seaters. One of Berlusconi’s henchmen called on him to resign at Ferrari after losing the world championship. Luca had his ups and downs in football and ran Fiat for seven years until displaced last April, by 34 year old John Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli.

Montezemolo’s title is not Marchese or Marquis but Nobile dei Marchesi di Montezemolo (Noble of the Marquises of Montezemolo), indicating his descent from a Marchese although not one himself. Luca is youngest son of Massimo Cordero dei Marchesi di Montezemolo (1920–2009), a Piedmontese aristocrat whose family served the Royal House of Savoy. His grandfather, Mario (1888–1960) and great-grandfather Carlo (1858–1943) were both Generals in the Army and he is cousin of a Cardinal. Aged 44 in 1992 makes him 63 now. Luca’s uncle, Admiral Giorgio Cordero dei Marchesi di Montezemolo (1918–1986) was a commander in the Royal Italian Navy, the Regia Marina in WWII. Good if you think Italian frogmen disabling HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Valiant in Alexandria on 19 December 1941, less good at Taranto and Cape Matapan.

Safety Fast

1974-1977 Ford Granada Ghia Coupe featured in The Ford in Britain Centenary File, an Eric Dymock Motoring Book available March 2011
There is not much new in the latest anti-speeding wheeze. The return of cameras by Prohibitionists was predictable. Roundheads propose one of those fatuous speed awareness courses to anybody exceeding limits by only a little, at £100. The Times parrots the airy talk of, “some 800 people a year,” being killed if speed cameras are decommissioned. “Populist objection to speed cameras cannot withstand … scientific research,” it says. It should be cautious. Climate changers and global warmists, to say nothing of millenium buggists, salmonella scaremongers, passive smoking soothsayers, panics over BSE, DDT and a dozen more hysterical “scientific researches” produce a jaundiced view of “experts”.
Campaigners follow predictable paths. A half-truth, an emotive pull, an expert advocate will set a bandwagon rolling and if the result is a Puritanical ban on rich speeding drivers so much the better. A dozen years writing for The Guardian showed me how it was done. Opinion was entrenched on speeding. I never subscribed to the newspaper’s political stance, although to its credit, once nominated as a contributor it left you alone. Your opinions were your own. Alastair Hetherington probably took the view that if I got myself into what he would regard as a hole, I should stop digging. All that was required was the house style of writing, which was the most demanding of any newspaper for which I wrote. Right-click to enlarge

If you wanted reader reaction, whimsies on speeding guaranteed it. During the first oil crisis 50mph limits were imposed to save fuel. Guardian readers of 23 December 1974 loved them.

This correspondence column of 6 January 1975 was quite restrained. Mr Burke seems perversely pleased to drive a 90mph car. A bit racy for 1974.

Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen

Resurfaced roads in Spain convinced journalists of the superior ride and handling of Mercedes-Benz SLs. In an era when Spain’s roads were iffy at best, before all Europe shelled money out to improve them, Mercedes-Benz paid to have them smoothed-off for car launches. Or so it was once supposed. A publicity event for a new kind of Geländewagen was set up in Scotland and as this Sunday Times column of 2 December 1990 relates, I drove one across a grouse moor and waded it up a stream. Click column to enlarge It splashed obediently through a good deal more than the recommended 60cm of water, picked its way over wet boulders, then up a steep bank on to dry land. It was quite compelling. The G-Wagen was more accomplished than the Vauxhall Calibra, with which it coincided. I praised the Vauxhall carefully although faintly. Colin Dryden was kinder to the Land Rover Discovery V8 he drove in the desert. It was an era of extravagant car launches and with fuel at only 60p a gallon in Dubai he could happily recommend it for holidays.

Press launches could be memorable for the wrong reasons. Even though Mercedes-Benz planned its’ with more than usual care, they could take an unexpected turn. The Highland river test of the G-Wagen included driving through strongly flowing water, over a course marked by tall sticks. We were warned to keep between the sticks because of adjacent deep pools. One G-Wagen was more luxuriously appointed than the rest. It had air conditioning and leather upholstery, thick carpets and, it was said, was in the Highlands to be loaned for appraisal to a member of the royal family. Mercedes-Benz allocated it to a journalist more important than mere writing hacks.

Tom Ross was editor of Top Gear. The programme had been going since 1977, as a BBC Pebble Mill production with presenters Noel Edmonds, William Woollard and Angela Rippon. Contributors included Sue Baker, Frank Page, Tony Mason and Chris Goffey. It went on to BBC2 and the affable easy-going Ross was editor until 1991. Unfortunately, like many TV people, he not only thought he could walk on water, he was also sure he could drive on it.

He elected not to steer between the sticks Mercedes-Benz had provided.


Doug Wallace of Mercedes-Benz supervises recovery

Premium Brands

Volkswagen Group sells more cars than Ford in Britain. That’s not just Volkswagens of course. It is also Seats, Skodas and Audis. You could include other VW-related nameplates, Bentley maybe, Porsche and Lamborghini although the numbers would not add up to much. It was a bit different in 1991 when everybody was into acquiring a premium brand as a means of improving profit-per-car. Ford sought Jaguar and Volvo, General Motors Saab, while Toyota created Lexus and Nissan Infiniti.
Right-click to view
Ford is now back to just Ford. If it still owned Jaguar-Land Rover and Volvo, or wasn’t busy relinquishing its stake in Mazda, VW might not have taken the lead. Ford claims it is less concerned about market share than about profit. Well, it would say that, wouldn’t it, yet it is probably true. The engines and components it still makes for Jaguar and Volvo, a relic of its ownership years, must make a useful contribution to its balance sheet. An Aston Martin V12 started life as a doubled-up Mondeo V6 after all, and Ford-made bits will go into Indian-owned Jaguar and China-owned Volvo for a long time to come.

VW has been good at absorbing other makes and keeping them all on board. It is rationalising its engineering, concentrating development of sports and luxury cars at Porsche against opposition from Audi, which keeps the 2007 modular longitudinal matrix for the Audi A4, A5 and Q5. With the dust is settling on who owns what at Porsche and VW, Martin Winterkorn told Audi executives just before the Porsche AGM at the end of November that it will keep the lead in developing large luxury cars. Winterkorn reassured Porsche that it won’t be merely a tenth VW brand and will develop the Panamera and future Bentleys, as well as a sports car platform for Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini. It will have a new wind tunnel, a design centre with a hundred new engineers and integrate electronics at Weissach.

Volkswagen Karmann Ghia

The European Union has approved Volkswagen’s purchase of bankrupt Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, according to Automotive News. This provides control of Karmann's divisions for car and components development, contract manufacturing, plant engineering and equipment and tool development. “Given (so many) considerable suppliers and Karmann’s moderate market share, the Commission concluded that car manufacturers would still have alternative suppliers,” according to the competition watchdog. Karmann filed for bankruptcy after it stopped making the Mercedes-Benz CLK in 2009.

Valmet of Finland took over roof-making in Osnabrück and Zary, Poland; Canadian Magna International acquired roof business in Japan, while Webasto gained Karmann’s concession for the US and Mexico.

Karmann made its name with the VW Beetle-based Karmann Ghia and VW has plans for cars at Karmann’s Osnabrück factory in Lower Saxony, starting next spring with a Golf convertible. Will it have the grace and style of a Karmann Ghia? VW CEO Martin Winterkorn had kind words. “Over the decades, some of the most beautiful models in the automobile world have left here. We will be carrying on this tradition from 2011.”

A definite maybe perhaps, yet it could scarcely have the perfect proportions of the little Karmann Ghia, over which I eulogised in my first ever motoring column. “It has faults in its handling,” which I apparently found easy to master. Well, no denying the perils of swing-axles. I can’t have been going fast enough.

Here is my test car of 1959
VW hit upon the idea of the sleek coupe in 1954 and the first were displayed the following year at European motor shows. Italian studios were all the rage and VW commissioned Carrozzeria Ghia, which created haute couture Cadillacs for Rita Hayworth and was in league with Chrysler. One of its less accomplished designs was the Chrysler Norseman, which took 15 months and $150,000 to build in 1956, before being shipped off to New York. Unfortunately it was on the Andrea Doria, which collided with the MS Stockholm off Nantucket and the Norseman went down with the ship.

Ghia assigned Luigi Segre to base a design on the VW platform chassis, with air-cooled flat four at the back. There was no question of competing with Porsches, which looked quirky and had only just got under way. Karmann made 444,300 up to 1974.


I had not quite got into my writing style in 1959. I was quite new.
Demonstrator cars had plastic seat covers; I was already into taking interior pictures. Right-click to read motoring column

Jensen-Healey

Well, it wasn't the last open sports car. America changed its mind on toplessness. And the Jensen-Healey was not as rust-resistant or trouble free as other cars made by the little factory at West Bromwich. Otherwise this column from The Guardian of 16 September 1972 was accurate and well intentioned. I was careful to insert a caveat in the first paragraph. My brief half an hour's drive was too short for more than a superficial assessment. It was a time for hedging bets. I was unconvinced about Kjell Qvale, the Norwegian-American who had made a fortune selling sports cars in California, and was chagrined at having no Austin-Healeys to sell. You can tell from the way Tony Rudd is spelt why a whimsical Fleet Street called this newspaper The Grauniad.

Citroen letdown

Surprising really for Citroën to be caught out by hydro-pneumatics twenty years ago, when they had been working on them for twenty five years, but there you are. There were some DS saloons wafting about at the Le Mans Classic a couple of weeks ago but not many. Their hydraulics, like those on the XM I was testing simply weren’t up to the rough and tumble of running on roads. You don’t see many Cars of the Year XMs about, but I was right about the Mercedes, “a speed machine for the connoisseur.” Still is. Prescient comment too about how speeding drivers are regarded and the promising state of the old Goodwood racing circuit, as used by Peter Gethin for his driving courses.
I watched Gethin win the 1971 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It was one of the most exciting grands prix ever, when Monza was a slipstreaming circuit and the lead changed several times every lap. Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari), Ronnie Peterson March), Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell), François Cevert (Tyrrell), Mike Hailwood (Surtees), Jo Siffert (BRM) and Chris Amon (Matra) all led at one point, Gethin only briefly on laps 52, 53 and crucially 55, the last. He won at an astonishing 150.75mph by 0.1 sec from Peterson. It was 2003 before Schumacher went faster on the changed track. The redoubtable Peter Kenneth Gethin took part in 30 grands prix; Monza was his only win. He was 70 on 21 February.

McLaren F1

I came to know Bruce McLaren quite well in the years I covered Grand Prix racing. He was such a fixture in the business that, a bit like Jim Clark, you never thought of him dying in a racing car. He was careful, dependable, a regular nice man and you somehow imagined he never took big risks. In those days, of course, they were all taking bigger risks than they knew. I was on my way to the Range Rover press launch in Cornwall when I heard he had died testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood. That was 40 years ago next month. Now McLaren Automotive says it is 20 years since the team that was setting out to design the McLaren F1 came together. Apparently the decision to build, “the finest sports car the world has ever seen” was taken in 1988 so it must have taken Ron Dennis two years to put the resources behind the F1, launched in 1994 at £540,000. In four years 64 F1s, 5 F1LMs, 3 F1GTs and 28 F1GTRs were made along with six prototypes. An F1 with delivery mileage was sold at auction in October 2008 for £2.53million. I drove an F1 for The Sunday Times in July that year.
What an experience. Two daughters’ careers never looked back after I picked them up from school in the F1. Ruth didn’t like it much. She found the acceleration so fierce she walked home. Amazing to think that Dr Porsche designed a road-going Auto Union in the 1930s with the same seating configuration as the F1 McLaren.

Giorgio Giugaro

Giorgio Giugaro’s portfolio of car designs is without peer. I met him not long after he set up Italdesign in 1968 and found not only a talented artist but also an enthusiastic communicator. Flamboyant, arm-waving, Italian and despite his celebrity status he has the rare gift of making you feel worth listening to. And what cars. He worked at the Bertone studio from 1960-1965 creating memorable Alfa Romeos and Ferraris, and the exquisitely proportioned Gordon Keeble, a large British car that he somehow shrunk to a manageable size. Among his masterpieces were the BMW 3200CS and in 1965 a Mustang commissioned by Automobile Quarterly. From 1966-1968 he was with Ghia, producing the beautiful Maserati Ghibli. When he set up on his own he was able to pursue the distinctive ‘origami’ designs, which made him famous, such as the 1972 Lotus Esprit. Prolific Giugiaro’s flair spread from one-off haute couture to popular cars that became best sellers. He became a popular consultant to manufacturers in the developing industries of the Far East, not only producing cars that were the height of fashion but also, by virtue of their clever detailing, cheap to make. His work for VW on the Passat and Golf brought enormous commercial success, culminating it seems, according to the usually reliable Luca Ciferri, in a takeover.
My motoring column in The Sunday Times 24 April 1988

TURIN – Volkswagen AG will buy a controlling stake in Italy's largest design and engineering firm, Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A., two industry sources confirmed to Automotive News Europe.
One of the sources said that an announcement could come as early as next week. Italdesign and VW representatives declined to comment.
The move is consistent with VW's plan to be the world's largest automaker by 2018 with sales of 10 million vehicles a year. To reach that goal, VW's 10-brand group, including Porsche, will need more designers and engineers. In 2010 alone, VW group plans to add 60 models, including upgrades.
Italdesign, co-founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro in 1968, currently has 975 employees and 800 computer aided design workstations. Most of the workers and equipment are based at the company's headquarters in Moncalieri, 15km south of Turin.
Italdesign is a private company entirely owned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, 71, who serves as chairman, and his son Fabrizio, 45, who heads the design and model division.
Both executives are expected to continue working at the company following the VW takeover.
Italdesign does not disclose its financial results. The most recent data available shows that in 2008 the company increased its revenues 6.2 percent to 136 million euros ($166 million) and reported an operating breakeven. Luca Ciferri

There is always something worth seeing on the Italdesign stand at Geneva.

Mercedes-Benz Simulator

It looks as though Mercedes-Benz wanted its simulator to be run-in, as it were, before inviting Ray Hutton and me to drive it. Inaugurated 25 years ago, on 10 May 1985 at the Daimler-Benz Research Centre in Berlin Marienfelde, we flew there, my diaries tell me, via Bremen, between 14 and 16 August. The Sunday Times Magazine published the feature on 10 November 1985 headed GOING FOR A SPIN, BUT ONLY THE FEEL IS REAL. The Walt Disney animation would be passé nowadays. You would get Avatar in three dimensions but it felt realistic enough at the time, when Berlin still had a wall and Checkpoint Charlie was a bit more than a sandbagged memento of a divided city. For some reason the BBC's royal correspondent Michael Cole was included among Mercedes-Benz's guests and we saw Checkpoint Charliefrom "our" side. Flight back was diverted to Bremen, where the flight crew regretfully ran out of flying hours. Mr Cole drew himself up to his full six foot three and remonstrated with BA that we, the passengers, had run out of passenger hours. We remained in Bremen overnight while Elizabeth, who knew Ray had been visiting East Berlin and had not heard from him, fretted, sure that he was somehow locked away behind an Iron Curtain. Who would have thought that 25 years later, with Ruth, Jane and Alex we would have a multi-duck dinner in the Reichstag roof. See view.

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.

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.