Auto Car Show

Archive for August, 2008

I’ve been doing a bit of soul searching recently and decided that for many years now I’ve been a tad intolerant towards some of my fellow human beings. In the past I have tended to direct some of my greatest sarcasm towards the sort of individuals who loved their cars so much that they felt it necessary to join an Owner’s club.

I suppose I was poking fun at the person who cleans their car at 8-00am on a Sunday morning using a toothbrush as well as every other conceivable automotive cleaning product you could imagine.

I’ve seen Owner’s club badges in the windows of some spotless vehicles and an image of the individual has appeared in my mind. You know probably still living at home with their parents, certainly a bloke and almost definitely without a girlfriend.

Well it seems that my opinions could be somewhat out of date. I decided to confront my prejudices head-on and took a look at the Ford ST Owner’s Club official site.

They seem to be a positively charming group of people from all walks of like nothing like the stereotypical picture I have painted previously.

I think the changing demographics combined with the internet of course have played a part in this refreshing new group of enthusiasts who all share a passion but above all else it’s the cars.

Fast Fords have been around for a long time now. Those old enough will remember the Lotus Cortina of the sixties and who could forget the Escort RS2000 and Mexico from the 70′s. The 80′s and 90′s followed up with the likes of the Sierra Cosworth the car criminal’s favourite and culminated with the outrageous Escort Cosworth.

Not to be left out in the noughties (doesn’t sound right however you put it!) Ford gave us the Focus ST a Golf GTI beater for the masses. Usually seen in bright orange the Focus ST managed to impress everyone who drove it even the likes of Jeremy Clarkson who is not known to favour cars that come in a price bracket normal people can afford.

So what’s it like then. Well the latest face-lifted version still looks good despite appearing to have morphed into a Mondeo at the front seemingly in order to maintain Ford’s preference for new model continuity. Still a great looking car and the performance is as good if not better than any other hot- hatch around.

Now available as ST 1 2 or 3 the differences are only on equipment level but all come with Ford’s preferred 5 cylinder 2.5 litre turbocharged engine producing 225 PS. This equates to a top speed of 150mph with 0-62mph coming in 6.8 seconds. There is a six-speed close ratio gearbox and The ST sits on 18″ Alloy wheels. In case you get into difficulty the ST comes with Electronic Stability Programme (ESP). The ST body kit remains with an additional ‘single wing’ design rear spoiler. Twin chrome exhausts finish off the look. The ST 2 has in addition Xenon front lights and rear LED’s. The ST 3 has full leather Recaro seats and a 6 disc CD Auto-changer.

The ST has family car origins so remains practical to drive and has a power range through all the gears something you could try after dropping the kids off safely. When driven hard the ST shows its track potential and has excellent handling and cornering ability. Ford has also smartly priced the ST so competition watch out!

Having considered my disparaging comments about the likes of Owner’s Club members in the past I feel that maybe the ST will have the last laugh on me!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even at this relatively early stage of my life there’s loads of things I wish I could’ve done a bit differently or encountered a bit sooner. A prime example would be the family holidays I used to go on. I was quite fortunate in that the three of us have seen most of Europe and lots of America. I remember all sorts, from jumping into a Volkswagen Polo hire car in Ibiza, long before I was aware of what those who aren’t on a family holiday do in Ibiza, to sitting in a Delorean at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Whilst I always appreciated my holidays, now I’ve got a job, a mortgage and have to pay for such luxuries as holidays myself, I wish I could’ve made a bit more of the family trips than I did. It’s a similar story with music (which for the biography is as much a love of mine as cars). I lap up all sorts of audio, but my two big regrets are missing the boats that are Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins in their prime. The former came to a climatic end when I was only ten, so there’s not a lot I could do to change that, but the Pumpkins are a different kettle of fish.

I’ve known of them for years but it’s only this week I’ve truly discovered their brilliance. The problem is, I’m about twelve years too late from their prime so for all the excitement of hearing their stuff, I know I’ll never get to see them play live (or at least not in their original guise). It really is frustrating considering the dross that is popular in today’s music (I sound like my granddad!)

So where am I going with this whimsical tale of missed opportunities in my youth? I think the message is simply: just because something’s been around for a while, don’t take it for granted or assume the newer variations on an old theme are better. A prime example of this is the very car I sat in the back of years ago in Ibiza – the Volkswagen Polo.

The Polo has been around an astoundingly long time for a car – first hitting showrooms way back in 1975. It’s easy therefore to denounce the Polo as nothing more than a car over thirty years old that really should be collecting its pension each week and leaving the business of driving to the youngsters. However don’t make the mistake I’ve made of taking for granted a great situation and not fully appreciating it.

Despite the age the Polo’s heritage harks back too, the latest model is no old man when competing in today’s market. Currently not the baby of the Volkswagen family thanks to the Fox and Lupo, the Polo emits a certain quality not found in all super minis. The styling is as you’d expect from a car designed to attract all spectrums of taste and is therefore subtle but still good-looking. A personal favourite are the rear light clusters that wouldn’t look out of place as Optimus Prime’s eyes in the Transformers sequel.

Essentially being a shrunken Golf, the Polo handles all situations very well, whether it’s city speed humps or countryside cornering. The entry level engines are a tad underpowered which mean more driver involvement to get going – great if you’re in the mood for working the engine, not so if you want to get from A to B quickly and peacefully.

The interior is the usual grade ‘A’ fare as you’d expect from a German manufacturer, with a chunky steering wheel conveying the quality of the cabin as a whole. On a personal note, I have a thing for blue neon lights so the Polo is heaven, with the majority of the instrumentation bathed in its soft glow. Rear legroom is good as is the boot space so it ticks all the boxes for a family shopping trip. Safety features also abound, with stability control and brake assist found on all variants. Residual values tend to stay high with Volkswagens, so if you do come to sell, this should be the least of your headaches.

It’s a busy crèche the baby Volkswagen finds itself in, with the Peugeot 207, Renault Clio, Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa all fitting contenders for your money. Just remember when you’re looking for a new car, not to overlook the elder statesman, else you’ll miss a great car in its prime.

As I sit here in my dingy subterranean office (well almost, there’s certainly no window to speak of!) I couldn’t prevent my mind from wandering. Initially my thoughts turned towards the weather which has been frankly awful for a number of summers now. I can remember a time when me and my little collection of pals would pack a few items (mainly beer and instant noodles!) and head off on a Friday after work for a spot of camping.

The summers seemed never ending with sunburn for everyone, due to lack of protection, which nearly led to another story but I won’t go there! Copious amounts of warm cider (West Country Lads) were consumed. This usually resulted in some pretty degenerate behaviour and got us thrown out of numerous campsites! A record I’m not proud of as you can imagine.

I recently tried to recapture these halcyon days with my wife but women just don’t seem to enjoy the same experiences. You know freezing to death at night, unbearably hot by 6am the next morning. Warm lager for breakfast, uneasy silence for the entire 3 hour journey home, that sort of thing! It started me thinking that there must be a more desirable outdoor experience that doesn’t start with attempting to erect a hideously complicated tent and ends in divorce proceedings. I suddenly had a moment of clarity and remembered the legend of the Volkswagen Camper!

Of course, I should have thought of it before especially as I only had to recall my teenage years when after enduring soggy tents and cold showers my parents finally decided to invest in a VW Camper. I remember it was a 1974 type 2 1.6L , a Devon conversion I think although no doubt some VW fanatic will correct me on this statement. What I do know is that my Stepdad bought it from a lorry driver and the next day several generations of my family embarked on a journey of discovery that ended about ten miles away when a few valves in the engine decided that they had had enough of life.

Luckily my Stepfather was quite mechanically minded and we were able to fit a reconditioned engine. Regrettably our problems did not end here and over a number of years a pattern emerged of family holidays starting out all smiles and I-spy games, only to end prematurely on the back of an AA recovery truck. I seem to recall we were on first name terms with some of the AA patrol men.

I remember one year in particular I was somehow deemed to be responsible enough to be left at home whilst my parents went away virtually dragging my long suffering sister with them along with some French student by the name of Gaston or Christophe. Yes! I thought a week of partay-ing for me. Imagine my horror when only a few hours later the all too familiar flashing orange lights of an AA truck appeared through the curtains with the smouldering remains of the camper on the back. It was quite serious this time as it had caught fire in the car park of the Swansea Leisure Centre. Luckily the plucky French lad had managed to extinguish the flames by using a shaken bottle of lemonade as an improvised fire extinguisher, (a handy tip to remember) thus preventing an inferno. The poor old camper looked rather forlorn though complete with blackened air intakes and a melted distributor amongst other things and another holiday had been cruelly cut short.

I’m happy to say though that the latest generation VW camper is about as far away from the aforementioned nightmares of yesteryear as you can get. The California is the latest incarnation and having recently checked one out they are the business. With car-like performance and luxury interiors you could happily spend the rest of your days languishing away in one of these.

Some say they don’t have the soul of the good old air-cooled VW’s. True there are a few die-hards who spend hours removing rust from their beloved vans you may encounter many in North Devon during the summer months holding all the traffic up!

However after recounting the above tales I know which one I’d go for. Don’t take my word for it though there are plenty of specialist VW Van centres who will point you in the right direction.

Did you know that the Rugs is one of the most exquisite and elegant stuff in the ancient Persian? According to the ancient history of Mesopotamia, only the royal family members and those aristocrats can decorate their living place with colorful rugs! Which means, rugs also a symbolic of wealthy and power in the ancient world.

However, the times had change and we can find rugs everywhere. There is an interesting fact about the different between the rugs and carpets, which always been talking about amongst the people. Some of us really confused about the different and thought both of them are the same.

Beep, you’re wrong! The different between the Area rugs and the carpets is closely related with its size! Yeah, is the matter of size here, which the rugs always less than 40 square feet and the carpets are larger (Well, which one would you prefer here, the ‘flying carpet’ or ‘flying rug’?).

You would like to buy some rugs to decorate your house floor, but you just don’t know where to find it? Well, if you don’t mind, you’re always can find the cheap rugs in the Area rugs gallery, which its offers lots of high quality rugs with the affordable prices!