Renault and Caterham join forces to build sports cars

 

THE problem with Renault's Wind was that it wasn't hardcore enough.

It was my kinda car; small, light, blessed with a clever roof which didn't ruin the shape, and underpinned with the same basic mechanicals you'll find in the Renaultsport Twingo 133. Yet the little roadster always lacked the bite of its hatchback sister, which I suspect is part of the reason why Renault quietly dropped the wind from its range last year.

Luckily, Renault's found an innovative solution to making its sports cars a touch more manic. It's brought its F1 partnership with Caterham onto the road, so the French automotive giant will join forces with the plucky Brit firm to design and build cars together, with the inevitable results getting the famed Alpine badge.

Renault chief Carlos Tavares said yesterday as the tie-up was announced: "Our ambitions of reviving Alpine depended on our ability to find a partner in order to ensure the economic profitability of such an adventure. Right from the start, we wanted to place the Dieppe plant at the heart of the project.

"Today, through our partnership with Caterham Group, we can enter a new phase:  the design of a vehicle that will embody the very essence of Alpine, a vehicle that will rekindle sporting passion once more. It could become a reality within the next three or four years."

It's the second sports car tie-up announced in the space of a year, after Fiat and Mazda teamed up to build an Alfa Spider with MX-5 mechanicals. However, if Renault matches the pedigree of its last proper sports car - the spectacular, race-bred Spyder - with Caterham's best known offering - the bonkers Seven R500 - then the Anglo-French efforts look set to interest the more hardcore end of the market.

Either way, it's encouraging to see that even in these tricky times, car makers still want to give us something to get excited about.

Skelmersdale - the Lancashire town designed with motorists in mind

THERE'S a cruel irony in efforts to reunite Skelmersdale with the nation's rail network. It is, for better or worse, a New Town made with motorists in mind.

I got thinking about this the other day as I drove one of the Champion's Renault Meganes towards the Concourse centre, where I'd be quizzing Maria Eagle, the shadow transport minister, on her support for a new town train station. Skem has many things to reccommend about it, but its transport links for non-motorists isn't one of them. The government of the day designed the New Town for the age of the car, and it shows.

In many ways it's brilliant when you're behind the wheel. There are, as far as I know, absolutely no traffic lights, the dozens of roundabouts are all well signposted and offer plenty of visibility, and thanks to the town planners' liberal use of bridges and underpasses there's very little risk of a zebra crossing getting in your way. It's also right next to the motorway network, meaning that unlike the residents of Southport, Skemmers don't have to drive through miles of farmland to reach the motorway.

But it's also the only place in the north west where I still regularly get lost, because once you drive in there's something weirdly disorientating about the road layout. Yes, there are plenty of roundabouts and wide, open roads, but when you're a non-native venturing about in a car which isn't yours it's all too easy to lose your bearings.

Yet the most obvious giveaway that Skem's New Town was designed in another era is when you pull into the multi-storey at the town's shopping centre, because it was clearly designed for a world when everyone drove around in Cortinas and Austin 1100s. The Megane's by no means a big car, but threading it through some of the building's tighter turns somehow transformed it into a Humvee with widened wheelarches.

It's weird; Skem has clearly been redesigned with the motorist in mind, yet driving around it always demands a fraction more concentration because it has a road network quite unlike any other in the north west. Next time I think, I think I'll leave the Megane parked up and get the train in instead.

Oh wait...

New Renaultsport Clio promises hot hatch thrills

THROTTLE-happy hedonists will be delighted to learn that a new Renaultsport Clio has just been announced.

Closely based on the all new Clio range announced by Renault earlier this year, the new hot hatch swaps the old car's 2.0 litre engine for a 1.6 turbo unit, and while power remains roughly the same at 200bhp it's torquier and kinder to the environment than its predecessor.

Renaultsport MD Patrice Ratti had this to say about the new arrival: "New Clio Renaultsport 200 Turbo proclaims loud and clear the values of Renault Sport: beautiful and fast, it has everything that’s needed to make it the benchmark car in the high-performance sports hatchback class – just like its predecessors.

"The introduction of a very high performance turbocharged engine, with plenty of torque at low revs and coupled to the EDC dual clutch transmission (Efficient Double Clutch) developed by Renault Sport engineers, results in a car that raises the performance driving experience to a new level. The expertise of Renault Sport Technologies is reinforced by long-term programmes in the most demanding types of motorsport, including racing and rallying.

"It is this experience which makes us so passionate about handling feedback, and you can feel this the moment you drive any of the Renault performance derivatives we have developed. We’re also proud to be producing the Renaultsport in Dieppe, home of Alpine, and delighted to be using the EDC gearbox in a Renaultsport version for the first time."

Perhaps more importantly, keen drivers will be offered two different chassis settings with the new model - a Sport chassis, which is aimed at providing driving kicks with a dash of everyday comfort, and the harder Cup chassis, which has been designed with trackday fans in mind. There's also a fun button for go-faster drivers to press, called the R. S. Drive, which sharpens up the throttle and gearbox responses when it's pressed.

If that's not enough, there's also an accoustic gadget called R-Sound Effect, which replicates engine noises through the speakers, meaning you can literally make the new Renaultsport Clio sound better than it actually is!

Expect to find the new Renaultsport Clio lining up at a trackday near you from early next year.

Fire up the... Renault Twizy

EVER since they cancelled kids' TV favourite Captain Planet saving the world hasn't been the same. Eco-friendliness is all very noble but it's - to my mind at least - a bit boring.

This is particularly true of electric cars, which have at best been dull and overpriced and at worst fatally flawed, but Renault's determined to change all that. With, by the looks of the utterly bonkers Twizy, something that's been styled by Gerry Anderson's production team rather than a car company's design department.

Tall in stance, open-wheeled and equipped with little bodywork other than a set of scissor doors cast in plastic rather than steel, the Twizy (which, by the way, rhymes with easy and not, as I thought, Thin Lizzy) is quite unlike anything I've clapped eyes on. In fact, the only thing that comes close in terms of visual impact is the Morgan Threewheeler I drove earlier this year, and in both instances you'll have to get used to being looked at.

So the Twizy, if you're shy, probably isn't not your bag but - and I really wasn't expecting it - it is mine. It is, if you've been raised on a diet of fast cars with noisy petrol powerplants, not exactly the last word in speed, but it's weirdly thrilling to drive because it's so nimble and because the relatively low grip from the skinny tyres offer up as much fun at 30mph as some cars struggle to do at twice that.

With electric cars it's usually at this point I say it'd be great if it weren't for an extortionate price tag, but at less than seven grand the Twizy doesn't have one.

Think of it as a car and you won't get it - it's too exposed, too impractical not plentiful in the seats department for that - but as a scooter for scaredeycats it's big fun. It's small, easy to park, kind to the environment, and because it comes with seatbags and an airbag and because you can't fall off it, a whole lot safer than taking two wheels to work. In fact, I think the Twizy's only real failing is that, with it being an entirely eco-friendly effort, Renault won't offer you one with a perkier petrol engine.

The Twizy is odd and impractical but it puts a smile on your face and has a definite ‘want one' factor. Which for me makes it a landmark in the world of electric cars.

Renault Laguna Coupe Monaco GP Limited Edition

V6 / 3.498 cc / 240 PS / 244 ft/lb (330 Nm) @ 4.400 / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 7,4 s / Vmax: 152 mph (244 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)

The Renault Twizy and Vauxhall Ampera are electric cars you might actually want to buy

IT was, to get the obvious puns out of the way, a shocking conclusion. Out of a host of brand new cars I've just driven the most impressive were the electric ones.

You'll already know that in the noble interests of Champion research I headed down to the motor industry's annual test drive day at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire last week - think of it as speed dating, just with cars rather than potential partners - and got to put a host of different motors through their paces, all of which you'll be able to read about in these pages over the coming weeks. Everything from the Jaguar XKR-S to the Fiat Panda's been given the Simister treatment.

Yet what surprised me most of all were two very different - but boldly brilliant - electric models. At the same event two years ago I drove a MINI of the volt-powered variety and concluded the world of electric cars needed to come on in leaps and bounds - and it has. The little Citroen C-Zero I drove last year nearly did it (ridiculous pricetag aside), but it's Renault's Twizy and Vauxhall's Ampera that I reckon are the game changers. Both of them pass the most crucial test of all. The “Would you actually buy one?” question.

Yes, I know the Ampera's got a petrol engine but it's emphatically not a hybrid - it is an electric car that occasionally uses a petrol engine to charge it up, which until they sort out the refuelling issues is the only way to make ‘leccy vehicles even mildly practical. Should you wake up tomorrow with a sudden urge to drive it to Inverness, there's nothing stopping you. Not even the price. It costs roughly the same as the Insignia, but that doesn't matter because it's roughly the same sort of car.

It's a hugely impressive bit of kit but it's not the first electric vehicle I've driven with a definite ‘want one' factor - that honour goes to Renault's faintly ridiculous Twizy. Think of it as a car and yes, it's rubbish, but think of it as the spiritual successor to all those bubble cars that bumbled around Britain in the Fifties and Sixties and it's spot on. It's a scooter for people who are scared of falling off. Oh, and as far as I know it's the only car this side of a Lamborghini Aventador which comes with scissor doors. It is, for want for of a better word, hilarious.

I don't think Renault, keen to be seen as an innovator of all things electric, were that happy though with my suggestion after my test drive. Wouldn't it be fun to fit it with a superbike engine?

Renault 5 Turbo 2

S4 / 1.397 cc / 160 PS / 163 ft/lb (221 Nm) @ 3.250 / 970 kg / turbo / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 6,9 s / Vmax: 130 mph (209 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)

The old Renault 5, not the new one, is the perfect car for Cameron's Britain

TORIES and Liberal Democrats, look away now. The buzzword I’ve heard most since the establishment of Cameron’s Britain is “austerity”.

Blame who you like but austerity is everywhere, from the library that shut down six months ago to the vacant shops dotting the town centres. The TV screens are awash with anarchic imagery of Greek people burning things and news correspondents looking confused, unsure of which political party or city banker to blame it all on. Everyone knows these are austere times. Except Renault.

The French, you see, are reckoning on a reinvention of the iconic Renault 5 as a way to light up the supermini market in the way the latest Clio and Twingo haven’t, but they’re making the mistake of tilting it squarely at the Citroen DS3. This, in Cameron’s Britain, is a mistake.

I like to think I know a bit about the Renault 5 because I owned one and absolutely loved it. While the fact my very ropey Campus model cost just £100 helped, it really was the archetypal austerity car. Due to the fact it came with absolutely no equipment at all the engineering effort went into making sure the few bits you did get worked perfectly, and even after 120,000 miles it still started on the button every single time. I suspected it’d survive everything up to and including a light nuclear blast.

It was also much, much quicker than an ancient 1.4 hatchback had any right to be and easily the most spacious car I’ve owned. Both, I suspect, down to there being absolutely nothing in the way of luxuries to weigh it down or clutter it up. Prison cells come better equipped these days than the old 5 did.

But the new one, if predictions are right, won’t be a car for peasants and paupers, but a posh one with all sorts of unnecessarily bourgeois equipment like cruise control and electric windows and central locking. In the old one, you were lucky if you got a working heater!

What Cameron’s Britain of spending cuts and soaring unemployment needs isn’t a Renault 5 that’s weighed down with pricey electrical equipment that’ll only break anyway. It needs a real replacement for the old warhorse, which offers cash-strapped families a five star Euro NCAP safety rating – another Renault tradition, don’t forget – and absolutely nothing else so that they too can afford a brand new car.

Then again, even if Renault does bring out a new and rather more decadent reinvention of the 5 it won’t reach us until at least 2014. Maybe they know something about an economic recovery the rest of us don’t?

Fire up the... Renaultsport Twingo Silverstone GP Edition

GILLIAN McKeith, I reckon, would be a big fan of this sporty little number from Renault.

This latest version of the Twingo, you see, has been on a bit of a crash diet, in a bid to get rid of any uneccessary blubber and get into great hot hatch shape. In fact, the only place its piled on the pounds is in the price; this run-out Silverstone GP edition weighs in at £14,995 - more than two grand more than the standard model.

But don't think this is all limited edition badges and no trousers - this run-out version comes with a host of options chosen to appeal to the keen driver, including a stainless steel exhaust system and a performance monitoring system which lets you record your favourite boy racer stats, including your lap times and the amount of time it takes to shoot from nought to sixty. Tip for anyone thinking of thrashing one; 8.7 seconds is your target time.

Despite all the options and the wonderfully cossetting bucket seats, however, this is definitely a hatchback designed for thrills rather than frills, something you can't fail to notice with the rather cheap-feeling interior. Spartan on equipment and clad in tacky grey plastics, it's not a car you buy if you enjoy being pampered in your spare time.

Where this car really shines is not on the motorway - where it's just too noisy to be a comfortable companion - but on the B roads, where it's clear that all the crash dieting and the company's Cup chassis really come good as you dart from corner to corner. It is a fanatically fit streetfighter of a car, and always feels far more frantic than its 133bhp 1.6 litre engine initially suggests.

While it's a bit too raucous for my tastes - for my money I'd still go for the slightly more polished Suzuki Swift Sport tested earlier this year for Life On Cars - it is undoubtedly a true hot hatch in the old school sense, and more than capable of giving weightier rivals a run for their money.

Just don't load it up with too much luggage, otherwise you'll undo all of Renault's hard work!

Prepare to fire up the... Renault Twizy

A RENAULT that's not even a car is set to arrive in the company's UK showrooms from spring next year.

The two-seater Twizy is described by the French firm as “an urban compact vehicle”, and uses an electric battery to power a narrow four-wheeler which blurs the lines between an electric car, a scooter and a quad bike.

But if that makes you think of mobility scooters used by the elderly, consider that it'll do 50mph and - thanks to its low weight - is capable of outdragging most conventional city cars away from the lights, while Renault are promising its nimbleness will make it great fun to drive.

Prices for the Twizy will start at £6,690, with monthly battery hire costing £40. For more information check out the Renault website at www.renault.co.uk

Renault 17 TS

S4 / 1.647 cc / 98 PS / 98 lb/ft (133 Nm) @ 3.500 / Vmax: 106 mph (170 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)

The best car commercials ever: Renault Fluence

"The hitchhiker"

(click image to play the video)

The clue for cool car names comes from an unexpected source

“SOME of these eco cars have got awful names, haven't they?”

That was what one our subeditors at The Champion asked me after reading a short piece in last week's edition on the Ford Focus Econetic, the greener, leaner version of the Blue Oval's new big hitter. To be honest, I couldn't agree more.

Check out the news pages of any car magazine these days and chances are you'll be washed away by a stream of BlueMotions, Ecoflexes and Econetics, and that's before you come to electric cars with wet, boring names like Leaf and Zoe.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the names people come up with for eco-friendly cars - as worthy as the vehicles they end up on might be - are awful.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have it in for electric cars, but their slow sales so far show that most Brits have yet to be convinced, and part of the problem I reckon is the pub scenario of having to tell people what you drive. In the same way I couldn't ever see myself admitting to having a Wind - despite it being a great car, I'll let you make your own jokes up - the chances of me proudly proclaiming ownership of an electric car are slashed significantly if it comes with the wrong name.

So far I've only seen two that actually sound vaguely interesting, but despite having the same source of power in common are actually poles apart. The Chevy Volt sounds like something the star of a dystopian sci-fi film might drive, but my favourite by far is the new battery powered Rolls Royce. Whether you call it by its proper title - Rolls Royce Phantom Electric Experimental - or its 102EX codename, it seems to have a name nicked straight from the world of Cold War comic books and action hero fighter pilots. I couldn't care less what it runs on, because it sounds cool.

Yet it seems the idea of giving racy, evocative names to products more suited to the set of The Good Life isn't anything new, and something else in last week's Champion proves it. Flick back through the classified ads section and you'll see the brilliantly named Ace Rallyman and the Swift Corniche up for sale. Despite conjuring up connotations of power, performance and luxury they're not cars. Or motorbikes. Or speedboats. Nope, you're not even close.

They're caravans.

Au revoir, Renault 5!

A MOMENT'S reflection for the most reliable car I've ever owned, which finally reached the end of the road today.

Regular readers might remember how excited I got when I paid just £100 - the price of a first class rail ticket - for a Renault 5 earlier this year. Since then it's been as far north as Dumfries, as far south as London and along some of the country's most challenging roads in between, and in 11 months and just two oil changes it has never broken down.

Unfortunately, even two weekends' worth of welding wasn't enough to stop it failing its MOT earlier this week, and the news was far worse than I'd feared. To repair the rot beneath the front wings would take weeks and cost far more than the old girl's worth, so after 16 years and 123,000 miles it's finally reached the end of its working life. As sad it seems, she's off to the scrapyard.

I won't miss the clattery old engine or spartan interior but I already miss lots of things about it, including its ridiculously spacious interior and its surprisingly sporty handling. But most of all I'll miss it as a bargain buy; £100 for almost a year's worth of malady-free motoring is going to be hard to beat.

Not that it won't stop me trying, of course, and today I've been down to Liverpool to draft in its replacement.

I won't reveal exactly what the newest Life On Cars bargain basement car is but I will reveal some tantalising clues; it's a hatchback with a bigger boot than the tiny Renault's, it's got five doors rather than three, it's packed with Japanese technology but it's been proudly made in a British factory.

Oh, and it cost just £300, meaning I can now climb up the ladder into the opulent world of immobilisers, electric windows and half leather seats. All will be revealed tomorrow...

Fire up the... Renault Wind

RENAULT'S decidely dinky little two-seater isn't a Wind so much as a breath of fresh air.

The company's choice to take its Twingo city car, chop off the top and replace it with a folding metal roof unlike anything you'll have seen before wasn't exacty something you would have been expecting when they announced the new arrival earlier this year, but it does offer the ideal option for cabriolet fans daring to try something different.

Not only is it suitably more stylish than the urban runabout it's based on, but it also looks unlike any of the other open-tops on offer for less than £20,000, thanks largely to a folding metal roof that's rather different to its rivals.

Taking an idea last tried by Ferrari, the roof doesn't dissapear into the boot, but instead sits on top of it, meaning that whether you're travelling al fresco or not you'll always get the same 270 litres' worth of space for your shopping. It's not only a clever USP, but it means the Renault isn't blessed with the frumpy proportions of its Coupe-Cabriolet competitors.

You'll also like the cute proportions and the way the hidden door handles help to keep the Wind's lines clean, but you probably won't be as pleased with the interior, which is livelier than the Twingo thanks to its leather seats but still looks more obviously plastic than the likes of Peugeot's 207CC, another French flyer for a similar price.

Out on the road the 133bhp powerplant - swiped straight from the Renaultsport Twingo - is lively enough, producing a sweet sound, but it's obvious it doesn't have the same get up and go as its hard-top cousin, largely due to the common cabriolet problem of having to carry extra weight, dulling the performance.

But chances are you aren't going to mind, because what it does is take on the mantle of the old MGF by blending distinctive looks, sporty if not spectacular handling and an undeniable fun factor, which should mean that come next summer there'll be plenty speeding away from the company's showrooms.

It's not the sharpest open-top for the money but for something which sets its stall out not as a sports car but as a cabrio with a difference, it's as invigorating as the breeze in your hair.

As published in The Champion on November 3, 2010

Mountains, museums and motors

AT one point, on a particularly gridlocked M6 near Lancaster, I actually thought going on another driving adventure was a bad idea.

Some of you might have spotted something I'd planned called The Mountains and Museums Run, which had it not got cancelled thanks to no promotion whatsoever, would have last weekend been the first ever Life On Cars event. It got shelved because most of the classic car nuts (rightly) decided that October's just too wet and wild to take their pride and joy out, but - given that I'd booked a few days off - a few mates and I decided to go anyway.

Designed to be done in just two days, it's a cracking route through the countryside, taking in two counties, two National Parks, three motoring museums and one pub with very tall ambitions. More importantly, it mixes some of Britain's most demanding roads, including the Buttertubs and Kirkstone mountain passes - to make the motoring extra memorable.

With the Mini long gone and the MGB nowhere near ready, it fell to the £100 Renault 5 to get me to the fells, and as soon as I got there it became instantly obvious that it was far faster than either of the two Minis my mates had brought along. For a car I bought originally as something to keep me moving while my own Mini was in winter hibernation earlier this year; it's really grown on me despite the dowdy styling. As well as being endlessly reliably, it's got far more poise and precision than any 1.4 hatchback really ought to!

What I did learn from my lessons in the Lakes? Firstly, that The Mountains and Museums Run can be done in less than two days with stops at Cars of the Stars, The Bond Museum and the Lakeland Motor Museum to spare. The route's here in all its glory, if you fancy giving it a go yourself, but I am planning on doing it as a proper event, when the weather's better, sometime next year.

But more importantly I've reminded myself that it doesn't really matter what you're behind the wheel of (though it helps), as long as you've got a group of mates behind you and a few miles of challenging mountain passes ahead. You might have to put up with a few gridlocked motorways on the way there, but it's worth it.

The smiles are back.

When three doesn't go into one

THIS time tomorrow, I could be completely car-less.

Admitting you own not one, but three cars, isn’t the status symbol it sounds like if you’re actually relatively poor, a problem made worse by the fact most of whatever you earn is almost immediately transferred to the cash registers of Halfords and PartCo. Certainly, arranging to restore one, sell another and MOT a third in the same week is naïve bordering on stupid.

Eagle-eyed readers of tomorrow’s Champion might spot the following hiding in the Classifieds section, which is how this week's agony of owning three old cars at once began:

A reg - 1983
Classic Mini Mayfair Automatic
As featured regularly in The Champion’s “Life On Cars” column. MOT Jan 2011, tax Mar 11, needs minor repairs, just 33,000 miles
£800 ono
07581 343476

Yep, I’ve decided, after no end of deliberation, to sell the Life On Cars Mini, meaning it’s available to anyone looking for a cheap starter classic provided they’re not afraid to use a spanner. It’s not going to make me terribly popular but precisely because I am afraid to use a spanner and because I’ve had my two years of fun with it, it’s time someone gave it a better home.

In true Mini tradition, it’s decided to reward me by breaking down just before the ad appears, so it not only needs a speedo cable, a choke, a rocker cover gasket and at least two new body panels, but it now won’t start at all.

The MGB, the bargain sports car I bought back in the summer, is in much better nick and just needs the spot of Quantative Easing selling the Mini is going to allow for, but as you read this it’s hidden away in a garage, untaxed, uninsured, and waiting on a shipload of shiny parts before it can rip up the country lanes of Lancashire again in anger. It’ll be fantastic to drive. This Christmas.

All of which leaves the £100 Renault 5, which despite being given no attention whatsoever has ploughed on faultlessly through all weathers, never once complaining that mileage-wise it’s been around the fattest part of the Earth four times.

But that’s due in for an MOT tomorrow and - despite being faultless everywhere else - there’s one patch of problem corrosion which my expert mechanic mate reckons will almost certainly cause it to fail, leaving me with the prospect of owning an MGB that isn’t finished yet, a Renault that isn’t roadworthy and a Mini that’s either broken or in the hands of a lucky new owner.

Last time I risked this situation Peugeot came to my rescue by letting me road test a cabriolet I wasn’t expecting, but the chances of finding a 308CC outside The Champion offices tomorrow are slim to non-existent, largely because I haven’t asked to test anything.

I fear next week’s road test could be called Fire Up The…Bus.

UPDATE, OCTOBER 20: News from a mate in the world of MOTs reveals the Renault’s patch of corrosion would have meant it failing, so it’s been pulled out of the test at the last minute.

Had two calls already from Champion readers about the Mini, a car which burst into life last night but is now back to square one because the chilly weather this morning did mean things to its battery.

Am now faced with one car that’s roadworthy but only until November 6, another that’s (still) broken and (still) up for sale, and an MGB which isn’t finished yet.

Commuted to The Champion office by bus.

UPDATE, OCTOBER 21: The Life On Cars Mini has been sold! More information when I've got over being gutted to see it go...

Blitzing the Buttertubs

LAST week, I went to Britain's highest pub. Or did I?

The Cat and Fiddle, at the top of the eponymous and much sensationalised mountain pass, does a great pint, but it's not the only bar claiming to give you the highest altitude for your ale. Depending on how you measure it, you'll have to head instead to Yorkshire, more than eighty miles further north, for the Tan Hill Inn.

In all honesty, I'm not really that fussed as to which one's highest - it's not as though they're next door to each other - but having battled the hairpin bends and tricky turns to reach both, I'd say it's the Tan Hill that feels higher. Come here on a wet day and it's a wild, desolate wildnerness offering views right across the Dales towards Cumbria.

Better still, it's more fun to get to, because it's in a part of Yorkshire which remains delightfully deserted even in the middle of a Bank Holiday weekend. If this were the Cat and Fiddle Run, my rear mirror would be filled with bikers and my windscreen with camera vans, but in this captivating corner of the Yorkshire Dales there was nothing. Just mile upon mile of empty roads.

The Tan Hill is well worth tracking down if you're ever up there, but I wasn't all the way up in Yorkshire for a beer. Nor had I taken a Renault 5 via Ribblehead because I wanted to revive memories of racing the Settle express towards Carlisle. Nope, I was here for the Buttertubs Pass.

I could try explaining its appeal, but someone off Top Gear's already done a much better job. Here's Jezza:



P.S: He's definitely got the right idea doing a drive this challenging in an Escort Cosworth. If only...

Fire up the... Renault Megane CC

NO, this isn’t a misprint. You’d be forgiven for thinking this is the Peugeot 308 CC we test drove earlier this year, but it’s actually Renault’s riposte.

Every manufacturer and his dog offers you a cabriolet with a clever folding metal top these days but there’s a good reason why the French companies have the market (if not the roof) sewn up; they do these cars better than anyone else. Which is great news if you’re looking to buy the latest Megane CC but a difficult job for anyone road testing it, because it’s almost identical to its closest rival.

Both the Megane CC, now in its second generation, and the 308 CC are hugely comfortable – particularly in the back, where most CCs aren’t – and effortlessly refined with their tops up or down. They both also cost around £26,000 and while neither of them offer a spectacular sporty drive they handle reassuringly enough while making sure absolutely everyone on board is cruising comfortably.

But while the Peugeot looks like a little Mercedes with its roof up the Megane masters a rather cleverer trick; appearing to still be travelling al fresco! Blacking out the roof panels is an unbelievably simple visual trick but it works, and means it wins in the style stakes when it's raining.

I’m sure that if I spend hours trawling through the statistics there’d be some minute detail that makes one technically better than the other but in the image-driven world of cabriolets there’s only one thing that matters – looks. The quirky charm of the Megane, or the flowing curves of its softer rival? Your call.

You really can’t place a fag paper between either of these cars, because both do what they do excellently (and better than either Ford’s Focus CC or Volkswagen’s Eos for that matter). While both these cars have the substance, in this market it’s all about style.

I’d take the Peugeot because I personally reckon it’s prettier, but that doesn’t stop Renault’s reply being equally impressive.

As published in The Champion on June 9, 2010

A little bit of everything

MOTORING events are – ironically – like buses. You wait ages for one…

First stop was a fancy restaurant in Aughton, although it was actually a helping of advanced driving on the menu, served up RoADAR Merseyside, an organisation determined to make motorists in Merseyside and Lancashire a little less likely to become an insurance statistic.

One of those motorists was a Lancashire resident with a passion for driving - despite being in his eighties.

Eric Sandelands, above, who is 81 years old, is among the motorists who have joined the group, who meet at the Swan Inn pub in Aughton, to sharpen up his driving skills and become a motorist with advanced skills.

“I thoroughly enjoy my driving, but I think as you get older, you gain more knowledge, but you wouldn't have the reactions of a driver who is 20 years old,” he told Life On Cars.

“Everybody should try and drive to the best of their ability - it's their responsibility to try and prevent any accidents happening. That's why I've taken up the course, to learn what I can, and I hope that the more I learn, the safer a driver I can become.”

Mr Sandelands, who did take an Institute of Advanced Motorists driving test around twenty years ago but is keen to improve his driving skills further still, is one of the Sefton and West Lancashire driver who has joined the group in an effort to pass safety charity ROSPA's driving test, which the group says is one of the highest accolades available to drivers to show competance and safety.

The group is open to drivers of all ages and abilities, and is currently looking for younger drivers - often the ones most likely to be involved in accidents - to join up.

“Advanced Driving or Riding will make you a more confident, safer, smoother and accurate driver or rider; it will reduce fuel consumption leading to fewer C02 emissions, and can also reduce insurance premiums. Passing the RoSPA test can also lead on to a BTec qualification in driving,” said Colin Knight, chairman of RoADAR Merseyside.

“We aim to prove that our free training can make Advanced driving a cool and exhilarating thing to do, and at the same time encourage safe driving and riding for life.”

Then it was my turn, only I wouldn't be using something like Eric's lovingly-maintained Skoda Octavia. My passport to advanced driving, it seems, is the £100 Renault 5 I bought earlier this year.

According to Colin I performed impressively enough, even getting a smattering of the top 'A' grades when it came to atttitude and vehicle safety, but am I really going to be good enough to get the group's coveted Gold certificate?

I'll be doing the whole course over the next month or so, just to let you know whether a twentysomething petrolhead in an ancient hatch really can cut it as an advanced driver. For more information about RoADAR Merseyside visit the group's website www.roadarmerseyside.org or contact Colin Knight on 07753 280465.

In fact, I was feeling so good about the advanced driving, I was determined to bring the Life On Cars Mini next time. Until this happened...
Lots of people talk about "driving the wheels off" off whatever it is they're at the wheel of on a cross-country sprint, but I doubt they mean it literally!

That's what happened to the Mini on a dash between Formby and Parbold, without any warning whatsoever. At first I thought it was a blowout, but it turns out of the driveshaft (a notorious weak spot on Minis, I'm now told) simply gave up the ghost, knocking out a swivel joint in the process, and meaning the wheel simply collapsed into the arch. At 40mph. On the way to a showing of The Italian Job I'd spent months organising. I've had better afternoons!

But I've been lucky, firstly because despite the scary-looking image no major damage seems to have been done, secondly because I'm informed the knackered part isn't too tricky to replace, and most importantly because I managed to recover the skid and nobody was hurt. Obviously the RoADAR course has come in handy already!

It's lucky I've got mates in the motoring trade, because I still managed to get to the showing of The Italian Job in the nick of time, which turned out to be a fantastic event.

Despite being a Mini short it was great to be able to see the petrolhead film on a cinema screen just as it was intended, and the people of Parbold seemed delighted with the armarda of Minis we'd brought along to get them in the mood. There'll be more about it on here later this week, but if you want to find out more take a look at this week's Ormskirk Champion.

And last but not least there's this, the latest look at a truly exciting Land Rover, due out sometime next year.

The LRX - set to be the smallest of the company's line up and badged as a Range Rover - looks fantastic, but the news that the firm are going to offer a 2WD version makes me sad.

Every Land Rover since the original Series One of 1948 has had 4WD, because it's something that shows that even their softest models mean business on the rough stuff.

But will a front-wheel-drive hatchback with the iconic badge still be a proper Land Rover? The jury's out...