my motors

Ok, before I start an apology to the research purists; I have, maybe, overused wikipedia in my links. Because I'm lazy and it hits high. Anyway.

I like the Chrysler 300. Not because it is a lot of car for not a lot of money, not because of it's luxy features or any of the other sensible reasons to like it. I like the way it looks. I know I shouldn't. It is a big slab-sided hunk of yank metal that is unlikey to go around corners. But I like it. And that got me thinking about my cars and other cars I like.

I have soft spot for the Ford Fiesta. My first car was a high mileage Mk2 1.1L that did me great service until a bloke removed it's side with a van. It was written off...and still on the road 2yrs later when it overtook me as I was cycling along Grand Drive in Morden. As a young bloke I liked the hotter Fords - the Xr2 and Xr3s and the RS1600. But when it came to my time to get a hot hatch it had to be the Peugeot 205GTi. Better than the Essex-boy Fords and Vauxhalls. I've owned 2 pugs and they are without doubt the most fun cars I have driven. Back in the mid-90s a group of four of us each had one. Both of mine, the most recent one sold only last year, were black. Warren was red, Kev grey and Martin was white. All Martin's cars were white. Top bonding stuff, I think all young blokes should get stupid cars with their mates. Actually I don't, but...back to the road. No air bags, ABS or power steering; just a little car with a big engine and not a lot else. They feel far faster than they are and are made from the sort of metal typically used to make crisp packets. And they'll lift a rear wheel when you corner them hard. Marvellous. And French too, who'd have thought.

I've owned a couple of silly cars. One was a lifted, mud tyred 1982 AMC CJ7 Jeep with an Isuzu 2.5l diesel engine. Agricultural hunk-a-junk, but great fun. Looked a bit like this one. Sounded like a tractor and was about as fast, but on the few occassions when the roof and doors were removed it did manage to turn heads. Previous two owners were the same person. First a bloke, then he had to re-register when he became a she and therefore a different person for car registration purposes. It was a very silly car and it had to go for something more sensible.

And that is precisely what did not happen. The next car was a 1979 Porsche 924. A VW say some purists. A small lightish car with something like 50/50 balance and a 2.0l engine, it pushed the 205 very hard for top honours for the most fun to drive prize. All manner of beige on the inside, red on the outside and with just one factory fitted wing mirror on the drivers side. Cheap and very, very cheerful. That was a fun time on the roads of London because my daily commute was on an Italjet Formula 125 scooter. A get-fucked orange nutter of a thing, with far more potential than I ever realised. It was like a banshee-bar stool at up to 80mph.

I am now rather middle aged. I drive a Subaru Outback H6. In pearlescent white. It is lovely. Lots of leather, lots of toys and a sweet engine that will, eventually, wake up once you get it and keep it over 3500rpm. But it's a middle aged family car and day to day it is...well...a bit dull. Even more dull than the 2.5ltr Outback Limited I owned a few years earlier.

I've owned some other cars; biggest engine was the 3.8ltr Holden Commodore Wagon, dullest was an auto 1.6 Ford Sierra (I bought that in a hurry after the Fiesta was written off, so a necessity and not choice purchase, OK?) When I first got back to the UK I bought a MK2 Golf Driver that idled at an embarrassing 3000rpm in the winter. Sold that on eBay aftyer considering paying someone to simply take it away. Rose owned a Mitsubishi Colt that I drove quite a bit and was pefectly OK for a small car.

But what I have started thinking about is cars that I don't like. And recently something shocking occured to me. I am starting to like motors that I have, in the past, found utterly awful. For instance my in-laws neighbour has an Austin Maxi. In yellow. Fucking awful car, but kinda cool. Eventually. I was passed at the weekend by a Rover SDI, one of the god awful things that came after the fabulous P6. It sounded as if it was on it's last legs, so just like new. Most shameful of all is my softening in attitude towards the Renault Fuego, quite possibly the most dreadfully badly designed car prior to the arrival of the wank-a-thon Audi TT. I still don't like the Jag XJS. Or any MG with plastic bumpers.

Bored now, off to watch tele.