Articles

  • Trouble fulfilling promises: Outside vs Inside

    /

    /

    comments

    The Carchive has, once again, reached critical mass. The shelves are so densely packed that inserting one more brochure could lead to a black hole forming, and my study wasn’t built with that in mind. This morning the 1985-2000 North American section nigh on exploded off the racking, and Camaros, Imperials, Intrepids and many more…

    Read More

  • Project Car SOTU: Rover 800 gives Sterling service

    /

    /

    comments

    “Relax, it’s a Rover”. That was the defunct British firm’s late ’90s advertising strapline, and I could never have credited it with being so prophetic. I mean, we all know that cars from the brand’s twilight era weren’t exactly geared towards exuberance at the wheel, so the the fact that the strapline could be interpreted…

    Read More

  • Carchive: The 1966 Renault 16

    /

    /

    comments

    Here’s a debate worth having: what did the major car producing nations contribute during the 1960s, really? Here’s my take on it in really broad strokes. Britain? Well, there were two areas that the UK had a firm grip on; posh stuff and cheap stuff. The middle ground, the kind of stuff that families drove…

    Read More

  • Pondering automotive fidelityFinding the answer at a music festival

    /

    /

    comments

    Driving a car is wildly abstract, analogue process. As much as we enjoy it, there’s so much going on that the individual sensations served up can be hard to pin down. To feel them individually, sometimes you have to leave the blacktop and use another vehicle. For example, the tiller of a boat offers steering…

    Read More

  • The Carchive: 1991 Saab 900

    /

    /

    comments

    It’s been a while since we last put the TV on mute, signed out of social media and drew the curtains to prevent the modern world from getting in, and turned our attention to the cosy, familiar and occasionally embarrassing past. So far, dredging the murky depths of The Carchive has brought up the Saab…

    Read More

  • Ghostly Spirito: R.I.P Fiat Punto – 1993-2018

    /

    /

    comments

    Earlier this week, dozens of Europeans and a sprinkling of souls from further afield, united in a common shrug, when the news came that the Fiat Punto has finally been axed after spending years in conditions of wilful neglect. While it’s been a long, long time since the Punto has fought rivals on a level…

    Read More

  • Car design today: Is baroque back?

    /

    /

    comments

    Hey, yo, slam your eyeballs against this. Few cars are as iconic as the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado, especially in its convertible Biarritz form. There can be few people of any age who aren’t aware of its form, even if they don’t know exactly what it is. As a non-American, my curiosity was piqued by seeing…

    Read More

  • When you can't unsee the similarity

    /

    /

    comments

    Year in, year out, I take a holiday in Cornwall, South-West England. I inevitably end up at the same campsite, commanding a view from the cliffs above a tiny resort village called Millendreath. Just off the beautiful sandy beach, there juts a large, rounded rock, and on my first visit to the village at age…

    Read More

  • Mad Mike's Modified Mazda: MADBUL

    /

    /

    comments

    The greatest thing about any hobby is variety. The determined reader has endless books to choose from, the whisky connoisseur might spend a lifetime tracing some elusive expression that was distilled 80 years ago and thought lost to history. Meanwhile, motorists and car enthusiasts can either satisfy themselves with the machines plentifully available in their…

    Read More

  • Rally cars of Goodwood: All the world's a stage

    /

    /

    comments

    Ah, just when you thought it was over. For the three or four individuals who have yet to tire of our 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed coverage, you’ll be pleased to know that I have a swollen bag of images and things to release in dribs and drabs over the coming weeks. This’ll be my…

    Read More