Lady Elanore

CVT isn't going to be the problem, as I see it, it's the lack of emotional connection with the 'future cars' that are coming our way. As I posted earlier, the sound and feeling of the literally living and breathing combustion engine is a huge part of what matters to car fans. There is no reason why electric cars can't look fantastic, but why would we care for the driving experience if it's just about 0-60 that is talked about. Or what's the unique selling point if all that differentiates cars in general is the OS they employ. I was given a ticket for the recent Classic Car Show at the NEC recently (and also offered a lift down in an AMG silly car ) and the sounds of the 'go for a spin' cars was astonishing. Big naughty V8s were a highlight Also looking at shiny bits and having technical things explained by my learned and experience engineering friend was a genuine joy and privilege. He pointed out many clever solutions to strange problems that required mechanical magic. There was a huge hall which was 50% full of mechanical bits and bobs in boxes, not a single complete car in sight. Looking at electrical connectors and electrical motors won't have the same draw for most enthusiasts I fear. So, is car media a dying pleasure?

Maybe, but how does this impact the media? I kinda made a long first post to show my reasoning for worrying that motoring journalism and car forums are a doomed species. Electric cars are very good at what they are meant for, but I suspect people won’t bond with them in the same way. Perhaps Apple and Civic Type R fanboys (and girls) will embrace the electric car - it's light-hearted generalisation, so don't burn me - but I think the rich car culture society that most of us inhabit here in cyberspace, will slowly evaporate

Thats my worry. Will car forums be mainly people talking about high charge rate stations they have found, or the latest software update to their air conditioning? Will Brisky be mainly a bunch of classic car enthusiasts talking about their beloved 2.0 tdi Yetis?

I've noticed more and more electric cars reviews appearing in car reviews and now we have a TV show specialising in e-car reviews too. It made me wonder what the future of the traditional car show and magazine is. Bear with me while I digress a little. Once up on a time... The traditional heart of any car is the engine. Most of us on Brisky love the internal combustion engine and have a long and intimate relationship with it - you can read into that what you will, but with the onslaught of the electric motor, this relationship is sure to change I feel. I genuinely can't see people raving about the Tesla 'whizzywoosh' motor being more evocative than the BMW 'whirrrthweep', the attraction of these engines all comes down to the numbers imho. However, with combustion engines, Is the straight six preferable to the V6? Which sounds best, which is smoothest? Which is evocative of the marques pedigree most faithfully? The scream of the V12, the discordant howl of the V10, the bark of a Pinto engine with big carbs, all to be consigned to the dustbin of evil things. There is the smell of mechanical things, the character of the beast as it warms up, the visual allure of multiple cylinder banks, the miles of plumbing and belts, it's all part of the living breathing, organic core of our cars. As we have a liquid fuelled car, we need a gearbox, this too has its own appeal, or if you have certain British Leyland products, then repulsion. The 4 speed snickity Ford gearbox in the early Escorts to the 7 speed manual of a Porsche, these are the most tactile of things, we connect with our engine in a sympathetic way. We ask the engine to accelerate us and in turn, to assist its task, we listen and feel our motors increasing urge, so with mutual rapport, we change ratios and await the next symbiotic moment where in perfect unison, we enjoy the synchronised dance again and again. The amount of pleasure that can be gained from timing a perfect gear change is ridiculous, but it's part of the process and the reason we connect with our cars on a human level. Even the DCT and Automatic can be controlled and used to great effect in the enjoyment of driving our cars Of course the compromises that having a combustion engine mean even more mechanical items are required, prop shafts, drive shafts, differentials, even the bonnet shape is partly dictated by the machine beneath it. This brings me to electric cars and heading back to being OT I suppose. There is no getting away from the fact that electric cars are coming and in the short term at least, these will be battery powered devices. They are green, generally fast in a straight line and futuristic in their interiors. But the 'heart', where is it? I fail to see how I will ever be enthralled or excited by a set of electric motors, no matter how fast they can fire me down the road, pure straight line speed is a nice party piece, but there is no interaction at least for me. I've only driven one electric car and I'll admit it was only for 20 minutes. I've also only been a passenger in a couple of them, but any initial wonder when stepping on board a 4 wheeled space ship is soon dispelled once we are on the move. Yes they are fine cars and fulfil their brief admirably. Comfortable, quieter than Boris when questioned about Brexit and potentially spacious. I can't really fault them as modes of transport, they seem generally excellent. Personally I hate touch screens, especially in cars and the large display in cars like Teslas, I truly detest them. Perhaps it's because I played piano in my younger days and got used to being to feel my way around the keyboard without the need to look down from the music and without accidentally playing an unintentional note, owning to a certain amount of force being needed to activate a key stroke? Electric cars leave me cold I'm afraid, no matter how fast they are. I won't mention range anxiety as for me in my job, it's potentially a real issue, even with some cars being able to cover 300 miles (or perhaps 250 in real world winter conditions and sitting in motorway jams with the heater on), however I know it's not really a concern for the vast majority of people, or at least it shouldn't be. So, at last the media side of it... Well, I have now read many reviews of electric cars and by and large they talk about the things that don't excite me. Handling of many of these cars is fine, often thanks to the low centre of gravity caused by extremely heavy battery packs, ride quality if OK and acceleration is good to outrageous. They talk about electronic doodads, connectivity and charging rates, but it leaves me with an empty feeling in my stomach. It's like reading a mobile phone review. Phones reviews seem to be mainly about battery size, screen quality, processor speed, and storage and that now seems to be pretty much maxed out. Screens have extreme resolutions that few can discern, they are more than enough storage for 95% of people, batteries are pretty much the same spec across the board and processors are a marvel of modern engineering. I've had the same phone for 3 years now and I looked at the latest version and could perceive no real difference when compared to my own. I know the newer version has superior specs, but the biggest difference was the OS version. That's how I see electric cars if you will excuse the generalisation. I'm now more interested in the software of my phone than the device itself. Phones are almost all the same size and shape, similar speed, similar storage, similar facilities such as camera, in fact the manufactures are desperately throwing crazy specs at us to entice to buy something with a wow factor. 100 megapixels camera anyone? Phones that can bend in the middle? No, for me phones are becoming white goods and I fear that to a large degree, cars will become that too. Will car media survive this transition? Will a 'Which' test of electric cars become the norm, rather than the 'CAR' magazine giant group test? Maybe Top Gear and its ilk will continue with their, "how can we drive something totally inappropriate for the conditions and do ridiculously unpleasant things to it" standard template, but ultimately I fear this too will die. I have stopped reading electric car reviews, at least for cars that I may well be forced to drive one day and possibly only am interested in something a bit different, an electric Bowler might be a laugh, but the latest Mustang-e or Tesla Jetson mode doesn't float my boat. I'm not knocking the electric car as transport, it's magnificent at doing that, but I think the death knell of the petrol car will mean apart from what will become 'classics', the car scene and myself will become estranged and no longer BFFs 😞 Will car reviews online and in print survive in the current form? Will even Brisky ultimately be consigned to the dustbin for worshipping the devils juice? Will only middle-aged and old men huddle in the corners of pub car parks for a covert mini meet of their pride and joy Fabia 2.0 petrol? If anyone actually has read this far, perhaps you'd like to pitch in with a thought on the matter. Please don't use this thead to knock either petrol cars or electric cars as such, I was only setting a scene for what I think means the potential end of car related interactions as we know them. Do I get a badge for the longest post/rant in quite a while? .

I've worked for nearly 40 years ( well 3 weeks a year) next door to the Lyceum and never been in...except once to see what frequencies they had their radio mics on as we were having problems and even then didn't see the full interior 😞 Lovely looking theatre

I think even Max will understand why Toto and Sir Lewis won't be attending. I'm hoping there will be a positive discussion come out of the final farce of a race and also we get to see why the decisions were made, as everything is recorded - yer right! that's going to happen

Be honest Colin, you're standing in the pub car park

A lot of chat around whether Hamilton might now quit. I don't think it's likely, but you never know I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't doubt Max's talent, but I think his personality was too fragile until this year. I don't think mentally he could have coped with Hamilton as a teammate. For me, Hamilton had the 'big team ride' throughout his career, quite simply because he was the best. Now he is at the end of his reign and his peak powers will slowly decline, but that doesn't mean he won't win an 8th title. When I look at the whole season and the ability to focus and manage the requirements of mounting a championship bid, I see only two contenders. That is unless one of the other teams produces a mega car that can compensate for any driver shortcoming.

Hamilton has gone up a bit in my estimation because of this. Not his driving which has always been sublime, but his maturity and decency, which I had questioned previously. Well done Sir Lewis!

It was never going to change things. I think they saw the light once the dust had settled To be fair to Hamilton, I've always considered him a bit of a pillock, but he has shown great grace and sportsmanship in his handling of the defeat, especially under the circumstances of what happened .

If I could place a bit on it with SKY Bet, I'd wager that things will not change. It's done and dusted. At least the Ham-ster gets a knighted on Wednesday

Hmm interesting. Mind you, I put a bet on Max to win the championship before the season kicked off, so there is some compensation

So Max and Lewis have a crash, Lewis legs it back for the Bottas car (Max remains seated in is his car throwing the steering wheel out and anything else he can pull off in the cockpit), goes on to win after restart but receives no points. He is then equal to max on wins and so shares the championship with him?? Just curious At least I feel happier about the starting grid for this final race. Lando already said he doesn't know if he wants to get wrapped up in the front two's race (sensible) and Lewis is much less likely to throw his car up the inside of Max in a desperate do or die manner - or, if the roles had been reversed, a win or win situation for Max.

It puzzles me why now, when the Niva is going out of production, the motoring press are starting to laud it. They have missed a trick for the last 44 years I reckon. https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/lada/niva-4x4/

Collins did it for Fangio, but I wondered if it was one of those strange laws that was never repealed in the way that it's still illegal to eat orange smarties on the Northern line on the first Tuesday of the month.

So here's a question. The lights go out, Hamilton leads into the first corner, closely followed by Verstappen...who dives up the inside and takes them both out! as he then wins the F1 title on his superior number of victories that year...but... Hamilton runs back to the pits and arrives just in time for Bottas to pull in and give his car up to Hamilton (who luckily has a spare seat in the back of the pit). Would this still be allowed under current rules? I suspect not?

I'm working on Sunday 😞 No doubt somebody, somewhere will mention the result 😞 😞 😞

New cars will all have speed limiters fitted as standard by 2024 it seems 😞 I'm guessing there will be a button to press or a bit of software to activate, in order to go quicker.

I've never been offered a speed awareness course, I just get the points 😞 Been clean for a while now, although a lot of late night driving and long distances to travel might have changed that recently...

hope this isn't too late to be of assistance a) I'd say it's very, very unlikely you can renegotiate the mileage once you have signed the paperwork. But don't forget, if you pay less per month due to your claimed, likely low mileage, there is an adjustment amount owed to compensate this if your final, accumulated mileage is higher. b) A car isn't leased on a PCP, although it feels like it. It's really just an HP agreement, but dressed up in a funny way with the big balloon at the end. c) With a PCP you can sell, trade, keep or hand back the car at the end of the term. In fact, you can sell it at any time as long as the outstanding finance is covered (if there is equity in the vehicle, you get a nice cheque for the difference). If the car is in negative equity ie not worth what you still owe, you simply hand the car back at the end of the agreement and walk away (assuming the car is in decent condition). You can hand the car back at any point once you have paid off half the total amount too, the figure you need to hit is usually quoted in teeny weeny writing in your finance doc. In general, it's a good idea to set your annual mileage at either exactly your expected mileage, or better still, just slightly below this figure. This is because if you sign up for 10k a year, but actually do 9k, then if your car isn't worth what you still owe at the end of the term (negative equity) then you will have overpaid for the car whilst it's been in your care. If you actually do slightly more than miles than you signed up for and the car is in negative equity, then you still have to pay a small adjustment figure. The cost/mile is quoted somewhere in your financial agreement. Thus ensuring you pay a fair price for the usuage. Of course at the moment, used cars are experiencing a huge uplift in value, especially ones only a few years old in nice condition. At the moment, the average figure in Europe is quoted at somewhere around 20% above prices pre lockdown, for similar cars.

Just watched 'The Last Duel' yesterday and it struck me how handsome Adam Driver is. he is not just a great Driver, but also has a large nose Also, my old M4 has been sold, it was only up for a week on the BMW site, so I wonder if I pitched the price a little low? 😞 it was in lovely condition. It even had rubber left on the tyres Here is an interesting video. Two identically engined cars, both with Xdrive only one is a saloon and one is an SUV. the driver, Joe Achilles, eventually does a side by side drag race with extra weight in the M3 and the difference in performance is intriguing to say the least. Also, it shows how ridiculously quick the X3M is, especially when you think it was available for £549 deposit and then £549 a month on a PCP when it was launched.

There are plenty of attractive men with large noses (shouts?) and I would not want them to change. Similarly, I don't hate the latest grills on Audis. In fact, they are a grill with a border, but it's OK. I don't like the 4 series grill as much as the M4, but I think it's because of the indentations in the bonnet are missing.

If you are driving it, you aren't having to look at it. Win Win Btw this isn't a garage queen, it's going to be used for work as much as anything

Ah but a closer look will reveal it's a LHD car. I'm hoping to get it next March, although probably will be around June the way the delays are growing at present. Thats allegedly the same colour as I specced, but it's not mine, I can't afford the extra bits of body kit