The Motor Muse
With a production run of 25 years, the Lotus Elise should be considered a relic by automotive standards. Yet it is not. Hethel’s little welterweight shows no signs of faltering. Still elegantly simple in its execution and punching above its weight as the day it debuts. Though still a spring chicken by British auto industry and royalty […]
First things first, I take no pleasure in writing about car advertisements. Advertisements are half-truths wrapped in a shiny and often unscrupulous veneer. Most advertisements annoy with a pathological need to reinforce its corporate slogans and jingle. And only a handful offer something remotely entertaining in its show-stopping brainwashing act. I’m aware that one of the […]
Have you ever gained an affinity and an unexplained appreciation for something you will never spend money for? Like vintage wine tasting or sampling lines of fine-cut Colombian cocaine. Well, that pretty much sums up my relationship with Citroën and its sub-brand DS Automobiles. An ongoing fascination for esoteric aesthetics with financially ruinous consequences. How […]
Life is all about doing silly things and learn to grow out of it. Ideally, though for the most part, it is hard to grow out of our silly habits. Much like my nine-year journey of committing myself to live with the most impractical car around. A two-door convertible sports car – a first-generation Mazda MX-5 to […]
It is a strange world to be living in when the most exciting enthusiast car of the year is a Toyota Yaris with a three-cylinder engine. Okay, there is more to the Toyota GR Yaris than its squashed bodybuilder physique. Underneath its inflated arches lies a bespoke three-cylinder engine and a melange of chassis parts lifted […]
1999 was a great time to be alive. The excitement of crossing into a new allegorical millennium was nigh. As were the Y2K hysterics that banks would delete money and planes fall out of the sky the moment the calendar goes from “99” to “00”. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world as it was […]
The Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ was probably the most exciting car that nobody could agree on. Those who worship at the altar of driving purity saw it as the Second Coming. Those who chant horsepower and performance numbers shunned it as a charlatan for its “gutless” engine. It wasn’t just the enthusiasts that couldn’t agree on […]
A few months ago, Toyota created a stir at the 24 Hours of Le Mans start by “returning” the trophy in a development prototype of its GR Super Sport LM-Hypercar class contender. Toyota’s publicity stunt was proof that the dream of track-related road cars was a step closer to reality. Though as it turns out, […]
The turn of the millennium was a time of wide-eyed optimism. Not only did we survived the great “extinction event” that was Y2K, but the future was unfurling before our eyes. Wireless global communication was connecting the world, a new human space habitat lifted our eyes to the heavens, and you could carry 1000 songs […]
Happy Halloween! Today’s the day for children to add themselves to the obesity epidemic and for grown-ups to get into costume and add to the debauchery. If you are too old for candy and too busy fixing your car for sex, then it is time for some campfire stories. And in the spirit of today’s […]