Not one, but two great Lancashire car shows

THAT bit of the A59 between Burscough and Maghull was my passport to petrolhead joy over the weekend. For a change I had not one, but two great car shows right on our doorstep to check out!

Yet – even if you’re someone with Castrol R coursing through your veins – these two events couldn’t have been more different. If you’re a car-loving Champion reader they were both within easy reach, but they’re emphatically the chalk and cheese of motoring. That’s why – even though I only had a day to do it – I had to go to both.

That’s why last Saturday morning you’d have found me wondering around the golf course up the road from Aintree Racecourse, with the grandstands where I’d lost a small fortune on some horses just a few weeks earlier still fresh in my memory. I was, however, totally in my element with the horsepower Aintree was offering up this time around – lots of it, under the bonnet of just about every racing car imaginable, at the same place where Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix for the first time.

If you’ve never been to Liverpool Motor Club’s sprint events at Aintree Circuit then get the next one in your diary, because it’s seriously underrated full-throttle fun. For next to nothing, you can spend the day watching Lotus Elan 26Rs, track-prepared Caterhams (pictured) and single seater racing cars screaming and screeching their way through the corners in an effort to eake out the quickest lap time possible. It’s fast, frantic and always good for a few dramatic helpings of oversteer, and last Saturday’s event proved no exception.

I’d have loved to have hung around simply to see how quickly an Aston Martin DB6 could be hammered down Sefton Straight – which might sound like a bit like seeing how quickly you can throw a priceless painting down a flight of stairs – but I had a second car show to get to before the afternoon was out.

The Riverside Steam and Vintage Rally also had scores of beautiful classic cars to check out. It was just nice, after hours of wheelspin and full-throttle starts, to chill out and chat with their owners about why they loved their automotive antiques. If you’re sort of person who knows what an Austin A55 Cambridge is without having to punch it into Google – or why it’s nicknamed the Farina – then you’ll have loved the laid-back, nostalgic vibe of this two-day event, a stone’s throw from Tarleton.

Yes, I know the main attraction is all those steam-powered traction engines beloved of Fred Dibnah types but I was more than happy just to immerse myself in a world of Morris Bullnoses, Ford Populars and Triumph Spitfires for a couple of hours. I don’t know how – especially considering how long I’ve been doing these columns for – I’ve managed to miss the Riverside gig every year since its inception, but after being hugely impressed by the variety of cars on show it’s definitely one I’ve got into my diary for next year.

All this and it’s only the start of a great season of car shows. Roll on Lydiate, Hundred End, Bank Hall and Ormskirk! Keep an eye for my full reports on both shows in Classic Car Weekly

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What car would Father Christmas drive?

AN AD in last week’s Southport Champion apparently solved a motoring mystery. When the job gets too tough for reindeer, Santa uses an Isuzu D-MAX!

Plugs for Japanese pick-up trucks aside, the question of what the world’s best known delivery man would opt for as his choice of wheels is a surprisingly tricky one to call. In fact, the topic occupied a surprising amount of time with my colleagues at the Classic Car WeeklyChristmas dinner the other day. Yep, I know we should get out more.

Personally, I reckon it’s still open to debate. Largely because I doubt Father Christmas would use any form of motorised transport – not even something as surefooted and spacious as the aforementioned D-MAX – for the job of dispatching all the ponies and Sony Xbox Ones to all the boys and girls who’ve been nice and enough coal to heat Sheffield for a month to all the ones who’ve been naughty.

If Father Christmas actually issued Rudolph and his mates their P45s and did his rounds next Tuesday night with a car, said vehicle would have to have Antonov-rivalling levels of room inside for all the presents, and still somehow be light enough to park on a snowy roof without either crashing through the slate tiles onto the mince pies simmering below or sliding off altogether, falling into the street below and landing The Champion the festive scoop of the century. 

I reckon, boys and girls, that the prestigious job of delivering all the presents can only be done using a dozen reindeer and a sleigh endowed with a TARDIS-esque quality. Particularly because the only way I can think of him doing the job automotively depresses me. Father Christmas clattering up your driveway in a battered old Mercedes Sprinter would ruin the magic of Christmas!

If our bearded chum way up north does own a car, I reckon he’d use it for rather more mundane duties. Popping to the Lapland branch of ASDA, perhaps, or running the elves back from the pub on a Friday night.

I quite liked the idea of Father Christmas, if he’s anything like the grumpy Englishman portrayed in the 1991 cartoon, bobbing about in something like an old Triumph Herald, but it stands to reason that he both lives and works at either Lapland or the North Pole, both of which require the use of something a bit sturdier. Something which is comfy enough for a portly bloke who’s getting on a bit, but can still fight its way out of a snowdrift.

Therefore, after much deliberation, I’ve decided that Father Christmas is a Range Rover man. Merry Christmas!

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Online auctions are a used car nightmare

SECONDHAND Rovers are about as desirable as secondhand socks. That’s one of two lessons I’ve learned this week. 

The other’s a bit of a cautionary tale when it comes to flogging cars. It’s the third occasion I’ve cast my net into the deep, murky waters of cyberspace, and it’s the third time that the only catch I’ve landed are buyers who prove to be a nightmare.Why did I ever abandon the calm waters of The Southport Champion’s classifieds? 

This sorry story started on a still summer’s afternoon, when my trusty old Rover sailed through its third MOT. Yet even I knew the old dog couldn’t last forever, as the increasingly noisy gearbox in particular proved. With that in mind I put her up for sale, sure that a Rover fan out there somewhere – and I know, because I am one – would want to give it a good home.

I might as well have been flogging a pair of Victor Meldrew’s old Y-fronts, as it turned out. The classic car people, despite my best pleas, were unmoved by a cheap Rover, while a stint on a Facebook forum specialising solely in cars for less than £500 attracted precisely zero enquiries. As the weeks drew on and the prospect of the insurance running out loomed, I turned to the dark side and listed it on an online auction site. 

It sold in less than ten minutes, but I was about to relearn a valuable lesson. In online auctions, you have to deal with whichever punter puts up the money first. 

Any noble thoughts of the Rover “going to a good home” quickly vanished – this was a guy who didn’t want to pick up the car tomorrow, but “tomoz”. Or rather, it would have been had “tomoz” not been a day that constantly got moved back to suit his schedule. Eventually, a car breaker from Brum showed up a week later – and was completely disinterested in the pile of paperwork I’d spent three years accumulating. All he wanted to do was get his dirt-cheap car onto the back of his low-loader. 

The chap got his car and I got my money, but I couldn’t help but recall the bloke who refused to buy a scooter from me years ago because a scratch was bigger in real life than he’d interpreted it to be in the pictures, or the man who spent ages playing a hugely stressful game of will-he-won’t-he over whether to buy my MX-5. The internet is great for all sorts of things, but it’s also full of idiots who want automotive perfection for less than £500, and will happily throw all the grief your way if they don’t get it. 

Some things are better done the old-fashioned way. Flogging cars is one of them.

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It's okay to be an anorak. Just not one who likes cars

THE press guru for the London to Brighton Veteran Run gave me a reflective glimpse.

He’d just regaled me with an impressive list of details about a 1903 De Dion Bouton, who owned it and what stage it was at in the world’s oldest motoring event, but it came with an observation.

“You just can’t be an anorak in this day and age.”

Au contraire, as Del Boy might say, and here’s why. I’ve long reckoned that it’s perfectly acceptable to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of something – in fact, it’ll even impress your mates – but it’s got to be the right subject. Unfortunately, that subject isn’t cars.

Anyone who remembers going to school with me will recall I was (and still am) a relentless automotive anorak. Even at the tender age of ten, I could bore my classmates rigid with the differences between a Land Rover Series I and a Series II, before cheering them up with some amusing anecdotes about how TVR employed the managing director’s dog as one of their chief stylists. If you’ve ever wondered why the Chimaera’s indicator surrounds have a touch of Pedigree Chum about them, that’s why.

Luckily, I’ve grown up among a nationwide fraternity of car nuts, and every weekend thousands of us, up and down the land, get together and talk shop. In the case of the Blackpool Classic Car Show, which I went to the other weekend, it was genuinely uplifting to trade facts and banter with hundreds of other enthusiasts.

But the truth about anoraks only hit me as I was leaving Blackpool, and encountered not hundreds, but thousands of people who took their anorak-ness to such levels that they wore white and blue shirts to commemorate it. Their passion was something called Blackburn Rovers.

All of these people, and their counterparts across the country, are anoraks. They can, to a lesser or greater extent, share with you an encyclopaedic knowledge of who a group of sportsmen are, who their opponents are, and how much they’re likely to be worth during a fevered period of activity known only to me as “the transfer window”.

It’s also absolutely fine to share every known fact about Britain’s biggest passion with your friends – whether they’re interested in it or not – in the pub, particularly if it’s one which insists on having Sky Sports News on in the background.

My point to my veteran car guru friend, a week later, was a simple one. It’s fine to be an anorak. It just helps if your specialist subject is football.

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Car clubs urged to lend their backing to this year's Lydiate Classic Car Show

Car clubs across the north west are being encouraged to help the organisers of a classic car show to help fund the battle against cancer.

The organisers of the Lydiate Classic Car Show said they were keen to hear from car clubs who would be interested to hear from any car clubs keen to bring their classics to Merseyside for the July 7 event, which will help to raise funds for Cancer Research UK.

Event co-organiser Ben Spears said: “Currently in its sixth year, the show has raised almost £10,000 for the cancer charity. “The entrance fee is a flat £2 for all, and as well as classic machinery on show there are also charity stalls, hot food and parts for sale.

"There is no need to pre book, you can just turn up on the day and pay on the gate, but it is always advisable to turn up early.”

The show, which takes place at Lydiate Parish Hall, opposite the Scotch Piper, between 10am and 4pm, feature classic cars and motorbikes from clubs across the region.

To find out more search for “Lydiate Classic Car Show” on Facebook or call Ben Spears on 07931 746 520.

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American classics at the Old Town Kissimmee Car Festival

WITH it being a bit wintry out there haven't been too many classics out on Lancashire's roads lately, with most waiting for the North West Indoor Show in a couple of weeks.

On the other side of The Pond, though, it's a different story, and my sister, who's currently holidaying in Florida, was kind enough to send over these pictures of what American enthusiasts are getting up to.

The Old Town Kissimmee Car Festival sounds like a great event; every weekend, thousands of classic car owners congregate in the Old Town in the Florida city of Kissimmee to show off their pride and joy - and, with my sister reporting it's around 28 degrees celsius there at the moment, conditions are rather more inviting than the sub-zero temperatures parts of the north west are currently enduring!

With it being an American show there was plenty of homegrown V8 muscle on offer - Corvettes, Mustangs, Thunderbirds and so on - but it was refreshing to see the people of Florida have just as much enthusiasm for Europe's classics, with a Fiat 500, Austin Healey 100, Jaguar E-Type, and numerous VW Beetles among the entrants.

Life On Cars - or rather, Life On Cars' sister Becky while she was on holiday - took these pictures at last weekend's event:

Life On Cars would like to thank Rebecca Simister for providing the pictures from the Old Town Kissimmee Car Festival.

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Government gives electric cars a £37m boost

ELECTRIC cars might become a bit more appealing if a multi-million pound Government scheme to make them easier to charge proves a success.

It's fair to say that electric cars haven't exactly set the British sales charts alight but the Department for Transport said it will invest £37 million scheme to invest in a network of charging points for plug-in electric vehicles, which should make owning one an easier prospect for eco-conscious drivers.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, said: "This investment underlines the Government’s commitment to making sure that the UK is a world leader in the electric car industry.

"Plug-in vehicles can help the consumer by offering a good driving experience and low running costs. They can help the environment by cutting pollution. And most importantly of all, they can help the British economy by creating skilled manufacturing jobs in a market that is bound to get bigger."

The investment will include grants for private residents who wish to install their own charging points, funding for local authorities to set up charging points, and additional money available for government agencies and railway stations to set up charging areas.

An £11m slice of that funding is available for local authorities to invest in their own electric car charging points, and while Lancashire County Council is yet to respond to Life On Cars' enquiries Sefton Council has said it is looking into the scheme.

A spokesman for Sefton Council said: "As this has only just been announced we will obviously have to look at the finer details of the scheme and the money available.

"We already have a fleet of four electric trucks which are used to supplement cleansing activities right across the borough. These are charged at three locations in Sefton and a further three vehicles are currently on order."

Among the supporters of the investment is Nissan, who won the European Car of the Year award in 2011 with their LEAF electric car.

John Martin, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing in Europe, said: ”We are at a crossroads in personal mobility. Nissan is proudly pioneering zero emission technology through our UK operations and we are delighted that the UK Government is showing it shares our commitment to the transport of the future.

“Electric vehicles become a way of life if the charging infrastructure is in place and Governments are committed to helping drivers to make the switch. We know this from the experiences of Nissan LEAF drivers in countries like Norway where a network of charge points is already in place.”

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What is the best petrolhead album ever recorded?

IN REALITY it was a cold, drizzly night somewhere in Southport but in my head it was a sunny afternoon in southern California.

That's what music does for your motoring - ever since someone Hillman fitted a radio, quaintly titled the Melody Minx, to one of their cars back in the Thirties stereos have been lifting the moods of drivers ever since. So what, pop pickers, is the single best bit of petrolhead music ever recorded?

Music, of course, is even more divisive than cars themselves are, so from the starting grid this is going to be an entirely subjective thing - I, for example, struggle to understand the appeal of N-Dubz, but I appreciate a lot of other people do. It's also true that, in the same way white wine goes with fish, some music and some cars just belong together, for all sorts of boring cultural reasons that belong in supplements in The Sunday Telegraph. What I'm after is music of the particularly petrolhead variety - tunes which just go with chewing up a winding bit of road in a great car.

In a post last week I pointed out I'm a Fleetwood Mac fan, and I think there's an argument to say a certain Anglo-American rock band's biggest seller is the best bit of petrolhead pop ever recorded. For starters it's got The Chain on it - the de facto Formula One theme music since the dawn of time - but it's also packed with catchy melodies and lyrics which ostensibly cover the traumas of dumping someone but in fact seem like mantras for thrill-seeking motorists. Don't stop, you can go your own way!

 

Even Rumours, I reckon, isn't the most petrolhead album ever recorded, because that honour goes to some chaps in Texas with big beards. You don't even have to listen to ZZ Top's Eliminator to know it was created by chaps who've got Castrol R coursing through their veins, because its cover star is ‘34 Ford given the full hot rod treatment. Then you stick into your CD player and you're treated to what must be one of the most full-throttle rock riffs of all time; the opening notes of Gimme All Your Lovin'. Then you're treating to another tyre-smoking tune, and then another, and then another. Subtle it ain't but I can't think of any album which goes better with the rewards you get from doing a challenging bit of driving and doing it just right.

Disagreements from N-Dubz fans to the usual address, please.

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The new MINI Paceman makes sense. I think

HERE’S a thought. The new MINI Paceman is the car the Countryman should have been.

For what it’s worth, I think the latest addition to the already expansive MINI range has a name that makes it sound a bit like a personal stereo for people with cardiac problems but most of Britain's motoring writers have found other things to be cruel about – it’s a worthy enough car, they reckon, but one that’s completely pointless. Why would anyone want a MINI Countryman with less room and fewer doors?

Well, I would, and here’s why.

Before I go any further I’ve got two things I ought to declare – that I owned not one, but two of the classic Minis, and that I’ve yet to actually drive the Paceman. I have, however, got behind the wheel of its closest cousin, the five door Countryman, the open-top, two-seater MINI Roadster, and a couple of different versions of the vanilla MINI hatchback estates agents up and down the land have loved more than a decade.

There’s nothing that really touches an original Mini for immediate, smile-on-your-face small car fun but I’ve always liked the new MINI because it’s frisky, good looking and packed with character (even though I’d still take a Suzuki Swift Sport over a Cooper). The Countryman though, was the exception the rule – not only is this Nissan Qashqai rival a bit weird and bloated looking, but it didn’t feel like a MINI when I drove it. To badly misquote Get Carter, it’s a big car but it’s out of shape.

The Paceman, though, is like a Countryman that’s been down to the gym to get back into shape – yes, it’s bigger than the normal MINI but it still looks the part, which if you’re in the market for a MINI is what matters. I know you only get four seats to the Countryman’s five and two fewer doors but it’s still measurably more practical than the MINI without looking like its overdone it on the Melton Mowbrays. Better to drive too, if the musings of the motoring magazines who’ve already tested it are anything to go by.

Let me put it to you this way – the MINI Clubvan is hopelessly impractical next to the similarly priced Berlingo and Kangoo vans but not one small business will care, because the Clubvan grabs eyeballs and the Gallic load-luggers don’t. Looks count for an awful lot in MINI land. The Paceman has what it takes, and the Countryman doesn’t.

So I get the point of the Paceman entirely. Just a shame about the name, really.

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2012 has been a year of great motoring moments

STRANGER things, I guess, have happened, but I’ll share it with you anyway. As the clocks chime midnight and drunks everywhere usher in a New Year, the most popular Life On Cars piece of 2012 was about the Raleigh Chopper. Which isn’t a car at all.

Still, there were plenty of proper motoring moments – you know, ones involving cars – which I’ve enjoyed over the past 12 months. Here’s ten of my favourites:

1) Doing an advanced driving lesson... in a Lotus Evora S 

2012 marked the year when I took the plunge with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and did their advanced driving course (thoroughly recommended, by the way). I did all of the lessons in my Mazda MX-5 – which was fun in itself – except for the one week when I had a supercharged Lotus Evora S at my disposal. There are probably more sensible choices for what’s basically a driving lesson than a mid-engined supercar, but I used it anyway. Big fun...

2) Setting a blisteringly fast lap time in a Wigan cotton mill 

Literally, as the sharp pain in my hands – shot to bits from fighting furiously with a tiny steering wheel – proved for hours afterwards, but a karting race organised a birthday treat for Yours Truly was well worth it. If you’ve ever fancied flinging a go-kart around a two-storey track crafted from an old cotton mill, give Elite Karting in Wigan a bell. Then again, the three seconds my mate shaved off every lap over mine meant he lapped me twice in our 40 minute race. He still hasn’t let me live that down...

3) Driving a Rover which refuses to give up 

The MGB GT and the MX-5 are undoubtedly the glamour models of the Life On Cars fleet, but when the going gets tough it was always the ancient Rover 214 that’d be called upon – and it delivered, time after time, without a whisper of complaint. In February, it drifted its way across a Cumbrian snowdrift which had defeated a much newer BMW 1-Series, a MINI and a SEAT Leon. Then it sailed right the way across the country to deliver two people and a week’s worth of camping gear safely in Norfolk, and got back again, without a hiccup, and only last month it freed a far heavier Mondeo Estate from a muddy campsite. Not bad for a car costing £300. Rover and Honda engineers of the late Eighties... I salute you!

4) Pitting sports cars against hot hatches in Mid Wales 

We took four performance hits to the utterly wonderful A44 and found four very different ways to get your motoring kicks. Given the choice between a Volkswagen Polo G40 (ultra rare hot hatch from the people who brought you the Golf GTI, with added supercharger whine), a Rover Metro GTi (affordable, rev-happy and goes like stink), a Mazda MX-5 (slowest of the bunch but the only one with rear-drive and the option of driving al fresco) or a Ford Racing Puma (pretty, rare, quick and controversial – see number nine) which would you pick?

5) Going back in time 

Obviously not literally but on the few occasions when I brought the MGB GT to the right road, on the right day, it really was like driving in a simpler bygone age. This heady blend of high-octane petrol, 20w50 oil and Rostyle wheels - which proved a big hit at this year’s Ormskirk MotorFest – provided a nostalgic treat, which is best expressed in moody, monochrome pictorial form. Like the shot you see above.

6) Discovering that you don’t need four wheels to make a great car 

 A couple of people have already asked me how a three-wheeled car with a 1920s body, skinny tyres, a motorbike engine bolted to the front and an absence of any doors, windscreen, windows or roof can possibly be good enough to be named as the best thing I’ve driven in a year that’s produced such hits as the Toyota GT-86. But it just is. Take a Morgan Threewheeler out for a blast down on a country lane on a sunny day – in fact any day, come to think of it – and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

7) Capturing the moment at the Ormskirk MotorFest

The special online magazines made by Life On Cars are, by and large, quite well received (which, given it was only ever meant to be a one-off originally, is a good thing). The edition I wrote with the cooperation of the Ormskirk MotorFest organisers, however, went a bit further than that, being read not by a few dozen or even hundred people, but by thousands of people. I just hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did researching, writing and producing the thing!

8) Driving Britain’s best roads... in an MX-5 

 The Buttertubs Pass is great in any car but when you’re in something as delicately balanced as an MX-5 it feels a little bit extra special (although the bright evening sunlight didn’t help). But even that wonderful moment couldn’t top the occasion when what seemed like a farm track in the middle of nowhere eventually brought us out onto the road between Pentrefoelas and Ffestiniog, which is one of the most spectacular bits of tarmac I’ve ever encountered. To have discovered it any car would’ve been fun but it was even better being behind the wheel of a great little sports car.

9) Discussing whether the Ford Racing Puma deserves its classic-in-waiting status 

Just one of the many pub arguments I’ve had with the small-but-dedicated group of petrolheads who hold Life On Cars’ automotive assertions to account. Other topics to get The Farmers’ Arms treatment include whether or not off-roaders are stupid and pointless, whether a Toyota GT-86 is better than a top-of-the-range MX-5 and if in cash-strapped 2012 MPG was more important than MPH. For these endless hours of entertaining discussion, I thank this small group of people who know who they are.

10) Raising £126 for charidee

Finally, there was the night when Life On Cars and the region’s petrolheads came together to help support a very good cause by taking part in a pub quiz with a difference – all the questions were motoring-related. Even though there was a broken sound system, a very drunk Nigel Mansell fan and a slight mistake in a motorbike question to deal with, the night still managed to raise £126 for the National Autistic Society. You never know, there might even be another one in 2013...

Make no mistake, 2012’s been a great year for motoring moments and Life On Cars will continue giving you a petrolhead perspective throughout 2013. Happy New Year!

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My brilliant idea to get Britain's electric cars back on track

I MIGHT have had a few too many festive tipples when I cracked Britain's electric car conumdrum.


Vehicles which run on volts alone are a jolly good idea but for a few drawbacks which stop them from being practical everyday machines for the moment; they are, for starters, quite expensive, especially when you consider for the price of being an eco activist in a Nissan LEAF you could've got yourself a Range Rover Evoque. Not that I'd mind the price, however, if I could use an electric car to get somewhere meaningful, which - I'm sorry, electric car purveyors of Britain - you can't.

Anyone who read Autocar's hilarious piece on the issue last week will have learned the Leaf can only do Liverpool to London slightly quicker than a horse and carriage can, thanks to the former's insistence on lengthy charge ups every 90 miles or. All this when a certain other electric vehicle, championed by Richard Branson, can do the trip in a shade over two hours.

That's when it hit me - I know what we need to do to make electric cars in this country at least vaguely viable for people who do long distances. What we need, I realised as I saw the potential through the bottom of a pint glass, is to bring MotoRail back.

Bear with me on this one. The idea is you get in your ‘leccy car, drive it to your nearest big train station - which, if you live in the area covered by the Champion, is either Preston or Liverpool Lime Street - and park it on the carriages of a MotoRail train resurrected from the British Rail history books. Said rail carriages have been specially adapted so they've got electric car charging points on them, meaning you can let the train chug its way across the country while your LEAF/Twizy/whatever restocks its batteries. A few gearchange-free hours and a cup of coffee you later you unload your car in Aberdeen, which is fully charged and at your destination three times faster than it would've taken by road alone. Result!

Obviously, such an idea will involve a lot of George Osborne's money and a lot of logistical hard work - in this instance, the work involved in reinstating Britain's entire MotoRail network, from Penzance to Fort William, and equipping it for the electric car age. But it's got to better than Top Gear's solution (running electrified chicken wire, dodgem car style, over the every motorway and trunk road in the country) and Autocar's offering (allowing the slower pace of electric cars to usher in a more genteel motoring age of slow progress and stopping at every other roadside in, an idea already tried not entirely successfully in the 1920s). What we want is MotoRail back. Go on, you know it makes sense!

Normal Life On Cars service will resume next week, now the Christmas break is out of the way and the hangover's cleared up.

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Is it any wonder Britain is falling out of love with the car?

THE doctor's been in and given his diagnosis. Britain is Castrol R deficient. As a nation, we are falling out of love with the car.

That's the finding of a new report, which concludes that we - and particularly my own group of petrolheads, the male twentysomethings - are driving in fewer numbers over smaller distances. Perhaps these days we can't be bothered getting in the car and driving to a mate's place, because it's easier to Facebook them instead.

I'd agree with the numbers - since the days when the Spice Girls were still topping the charts and the most sophisticated bit of handheld tech most kids had was a dead Tamagotchi, the number of young blokes in the North West with a driving licence has dropped by 18% - but not the logic. It's not that we don't still love our cars. We just can't afford them any more.

Motoring as a movement, no puns intended, is still being passed down to the next generation, if the number of lads younger than I am at classic car shows is anything to go by. Gigs like the Footman James show at the NEC, these days at least, are just as likely to draw fans of the original Fiesta XR2 as they are the Morris Minor or the Hillman Imp. I still shuddered when I saw an entire stand dedicated to the Vauxhall Nova!

Nope, the problem is the numbers; upwards of £1.30 a litre for petrol, anything in the region of £1,500 for insurance and the sort of obsession with miles per gallon which would have made a Rover Vitesse owner wince. Not that these aren't things we all have to deal with - remember, these days we're all in this together - and they're costs which most car nuts will still put up with, especially if they're clever and buy a pre ‘73 car with no road tax and classic car insurance. But I can see why most of my mates, even the ones vaguely interested in cars, give the idea an apathetic shrug before whipping out their iPhone.

I like the idea of motoring being a scene, a culture that gets passed down from my dad's generation to mine, which is why I love getting in these beautifully crafted machines, meeting up with likeminded folk and going on a drive to enjoy them. I just worry that in thirty years' time, the generation that follows me won't be able to afford it.

So the car, at least as an entity in modern day Britain, is a bit sick. Then again, I'd still take a Vauxhall Nova over public transport.

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Life On Cars gets a new logo

THE Mini is out and the open-top sports car is in.

Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted a few changes on Life On Cars this week; that's because, for the first time in more than three years, the logos for both the online blog and the column printed in The Champion newspaper have been changed. Where for the past three years the car pictured in the logo has always been my old Mini, now it's a Morgan Threewheeler, and what you see above is what will accompany the Champ column from next Wednesday onwards.

It's been a good week for The Champion, which last night was named as the North West's best free newspaper at the prestigious O2 Media Awards. Given that Life On Cars is a small part of that - and one which I know has got quite a following locally - I'd like to thank all the motoring enthusiasts who regularly turn to our titles for supporting us!

Finally, a quick reminder that a motoring event not to be missed - the Life On Cars Petrolhead Pub Quiz - is taking place in Southport next Sunday night (November 18). Whether you're winding down after next weekend's National Classic Car Show at the NEC, keen to show off your motoring knowledge or just happy to help raise some funds for the National Autistic Society, it should be a fun night and well worth the £2 it costs to take part.

See you there...

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Video: Confessions of a motoring journalist

AS mentioned earlier in the week, I made a video to show the nice people at the Institute of Advanced Motorists but things didn't exactly go to plan.

This, had the computer not said no, is what they would've seen - a sort of narrated slideshow, giving a glimpse into the world of roadtesting cars and the motors I both hate and rate. Instead, I thought I'd share it with the wider world, so the finished film doesn't go unseen.

Enjoy...

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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...

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What does the colour of your car say about you?

ROSES are red, violets are blue. Or, put automotively, Ferraris are red, Bugattis are blue. Some cars, thanks to tradition, are always going to be associated with one colour.

But what about the rest of us, who aren't rich enough to pilot Enzo's or Ettore's creations? I've never really put much thought into it but a letter from one of our readers, who drives a yellow car, got me thinking. What does the colour of your car say about you?

The reader had taken umbrage at a suggestion in The Champion - I'm looking at you, One Man and His Dog columnist Jim Sharpe - that drivers of yellow cars hold people up. I took it to be a quaint reference to Noddy, in which case said yellow car would have to be a Fiat Gamine and the driver would have to wear a silly hat, and nothing more serious than that. I reckon a car's colour only says as much you want it to, given that whether a car comes in metallic or pastel shades is way down my shopping list, even below what I like the seats to be lined with.

I think the only car I've ever wanted in a particular colour was my MX-5, because I think it just looks better in red, but I'd rather take a good ‘un in Mariner Blue, my second choice, than a pup in Classic Red. Which is exactly what I did.

I also have a yellow(ish) car - an MGB in Harvest Gold, or Horrid Seventies Mustard as the missus calls it - and it's emphatically not something I use as a mobile chicane, but more importantly I didn't choose it because I liked the colour. I chose it because it was a clean example of a car I've always liked. It is, despite what all the Laurence Llewelyn Bowens among our readers might argue about the significance of shades, as simple as that.

The only time I can think of colour playing a role, really, is when you buy brand new. In which case you go for silver like everyone else, because you're frightened that going for the green one you actually wanted will hit you hard when it comes to selling it on in three years' time. Other than that, I honestly think most people aren't really that bothered about what colour their car is.

Translated into Llewelyn Bowen speak, quality is the new black.

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The Haynes manual enters the iPad generation

THAT enduring mechanic's companion - the Haynes manual - has been just given a 21st century makeover to help it appeal to iPad addicts and web whizzes.

Haynes said this week that they are now offering 50 of their car and bike workshop manuals in electronic form for the first time, called ManualsOnline, with sections designed with tablets (iPads, in plain English) and mobile phones in mind.

A spokesperson for Haynes Publishing told Life On Cars: "With over 150 million manuals sold worldwide, renowned motoring experts Haynes have been helping motorists perform essential maintenance on their cars for over 50 years. This new digital platform will make Haynes manuals available to a much wider international audience.

"ManualsOnline includes all the content from the printed Manuals with the additional benefits of a glossary of terms, searchable menus, quick links and ‘how-to’ videos. Online Manual content is also optimised for viewing on tablet or mobile device, so for the first time motorists will have access relevant tutorials, diagrams and technical information on the move."

Subscriptions to the fifty manuals, which includes everything from the Ford Fiesta and the Peugeot 306 to the classic Mini and the Land Rover Defender, cost just £25 per manual for a year, or £30 for lifetime access. Fifty more manuals will be uploaded onto the service over the coming months, with scope for more as time goes on.

To celebrate the launch of ManualsOnline Haynes are also running a prize draw, with four lifetime subscriptions up for grabs. More info on how to enter can be found on the Haynes Manuals Facebook page. More information about the manuals is available at www.haynes.co.uk/manuals-online.

Would you use an iPad or a smartphone in the garage instead of a printed manual? Life On Cars would love to know your thoughts...

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The Top 50 Cars driven by Life On Cars

TO THINK it all started with a tinny Mini that had a habit of breaking down.

This is the 500th Life On Cars article published on this website, pretty much exactly three years after I moved over to The Champion from the North Wales Weekly News and figured a petrolhead blog would be a good way to keep up with what's going on in the world of motoring. Since then it's gone from strength to strength, with the blog alone attracting thousands of readers each month and the sister column in The Champion going out to more than 160,000 homes across Sefton and West Lancashire.

So I thought, to celebrate, a Top of The Pops-style rundown would be the best way to celebrate, but this isn't just any old wishlist. You won't find any Ferraris, Lamborghinis or Astons in this list because each and every car in it is one I've actually driven.

Nor though, will you find the likes of the Nissan LEAF, the Audi A1 or the BMW 6-Series, which are all cars I've driven. To be in this list a car has to have to have ticked a very particular and not democratic roadtesting box - quite simply, it has to put a smile on my face - which is probably why there's a couple of surprises among the usual suspects in this list. It's not a quest to find the greatest cars of all time, but a personal look at back at the new, the not-so-new and the truly old cars which have provided memorable motoring for whatever reason.

I hope you enjoy the read. Feel free to add your own favourites in the comments section below...

Open publication - Free publishing - More cars

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