Summers Coming!

So as it does every year, the days get longer, and the weather gradually improves so we can start to get all the amazing cars that we have been lovingly nurturing over the winter back on display for our fellow petrol heads for admire and enjoy with us.

I was through in Elgin yesterday for the Speyside Stages rally which kicked off in Cooper Park and it filled me with pride to see such a large turn out for the event. As it was Scotland, the weather was hardly favourable however, all manner of ages turned out to brave the elements and enjoy what was a great spectacle! The cars were great and there were some real drama, with  burning rubber to get the blood going!

its great to see events like these in small towns around scotland and not just in the big cities! I urge anyone who can, go along and support these events!

I will post my video of the day soon!

Who was at Top Marques?

Wish I could have been there! Top Marques looks like such an amazing event! Hopefully make it there in the next couple of years! For now ill just live with views like this...

Thanks guys!

My first grown up car.

So, after the devastating loss of my ford ka. I used the insurance money to put a deposit down on a new car. When I say new i don't mean new to me, I mean brand new. 15 miles on the clock when I got it. And what was this new, new car? Why, it was a VW polo of course! A 1.4 polo match to be exact and it was possibly the most grown up thing I owned, exept maybe the 21 year bottle of scotch I got for my christening when I was 5 years old.

It was just such a sensible car. Great, please don't think it was a bad car because it really wasn't. But very sensible. The layout of the cabin was exactly as you would expect from a german car company. Very logical and well presented, and the outside was very serious but very modern. I loved it. I was split between the polo and the fiesta but I found the fiestas dash too fiddly. So I went with the adult car.

The polo was a world of difference to the hoot of the KA. Much more comfortable, much better built and way more refined in every way. I could cruise down to Glasgow without my ears bleeding and my palms sweating. I got to test it in every way over the 2 and a half years I had it. I got my first speeding ticket in it. I did the west coast and northern Ireland. My girlfriend did her first lessons in it. VW really did an amazing job with the polo.

However, I discovered I may have been a little hasty in my need to grow up. I found myself looking around at the dash in traffic, wishing there was just a little bit more fun around. Also when I was around town the engine just didn't quite have the grunt the KA did. It was still a strong puller but I had become used to the force of the little KA.

In an attempt to get a little more life of the engine I fitted an induction kit. And it worked, to a point. Certainly the engine sounded a better and the torque band was wider. However it still lacked the ungency I craved. So I decided to go for something a little more wild.

The importance of the right tyres.

So,  I thought I would share with you, why I think tyre choice is so important and also why it is so massively overlooked by so many people.

When I bought my seat Ibiza in April 2014, I was the happiest person in the world, it was a cracking car and we had an amazing summer together. however as winter drew nearer I became slightly apprehensive as I was living in the middle of nowhere at the time and I knew the weather could get rather cold and snowy. Also, the previous winter was pretty bad, and my previous car never got winter tyres, which I discovered was a seriously big mistake! So I decided to price up some winter tyres. as I was looking around, it quickly became apparent that if I wanted to keep the original wheels on the car I would have to fork out well in excess of £400 for the tyres and for fitting etc. At the time I dint have a spare £400, so I started looking at other options. I finally decided to buy a smaller wheel and have winter tyres fitted to them, Even though they were a full set they were significantly cheaper! 

I chose a 15 inch steel wheel with 185/55 profile winter tyres on them, although the overall size was fractionally smaller the speedo was on an extra 1mph out so it was an easy adaptation. Now winter tyres have a harder compound so are meant to last a lot longer, however when I specced my tyres I didn't look at the speed ratings, so my tyres were only designed to a max speed of 110mph, My car can do 140mph but of course in winter you would never get close to that, however the tread of a cheap tyre can't take the acceleration forces inflicted my a powerful engine and so after only 8000 miles my tyres started to lose chunks of tread. As it turns out, instead of lasting the recommended 40000 miles, im having to bin them after less than 20,000. so a word of warning, although the tyres might be cheap and you may only be using them for wintry conditions, always go with the manufacturers recommendation, it might seem like they are just trying to rip you off, but each tyre is made to a certain tolerance and if you buy a cheap tyre, best case scenario, it loses half its life, worst case, you could end up worse than leaving your summer tyres on.

That being said however, for the 2 seasons I had my tyres on, they made a marked difference in poor conditions and I would highly recommend anyone who lives in a climate where there is a good chance of bad weather for half the year, definitely shell out for winter tyres. The difference will almost certainly save your life! 

I GET TO DRIVE A FERRARI 458!

My day with supercars!

Learning to Drive

I'm not too sure how it was for anyone else, but I rather enjoyed my driving lessons. Don't get me wrong, those first couple of lessons were pretty damned nerve racking, and of course there's the odd moment like first time you arrive at a busy roundabout. that all being said and done however, I realised very quickly how to relax into the drive and just enjoy the sensation of driving. Really I'm a firm believer that the teacher makes the pupil. I actually had 2 different instructors while I was learning to drive. the first one, I would get in her car and would say absolutely nothing to each other after the first 30 seconds of awkward small-talk. the only sounds in the cabin would be the occasional direction change we would make and the sound of crunching gears from a very tired gearbox. the second one however was a world apart and if you are  ever looking for a driving instructor in the Moray area of Scotland then Learn with Lilian is who I would always recommend.

Another thing I would recommend is try and stick to a decent sized car, it worries me when I see a massive big 4x4 or people carrier with L plates on. I know running a second car can be expensive but, with a little bit of research there are 1000's of cheap runabout that you can pick up for a couple of hundred pounds just to see you through the test. If it fails its MOT, no problem. it will have done its job anyway. If you are teaching a reverse park and the clutch slips and you end up pranging it off the wall, no worries - it was £200. If you nudge someone else's car then its just their car you need to worry about because yours ain't worth the trouble. Also, learning to drive is a daunting prospect. i would have hated to do my lessons in my dads X3 or Renault Espace. In fact the first lesson he ever gave me was in his Ford Galaxy where, as soon as i started moving my foot slipped and I went straight over a rock, bending the side sill in the process. £300 later, my dad had learnt his lesson and bought a little ford fiesta.

That Ford Fiesta is still going strong to this day, now being run about by my little sister who also passed her test in it. i would say it probably still has at least another 30-40 thousand miles left before she gives up the ghost but my point stands. a little runabout is always better to learn in. I remember learning to reverse round a corner in that car. it took me 2 or 3 tries to work out exactly where my points of reference were and once I had that I could race round. To this day I still find that car the easiest to back into my parents driveway. The rear visibility was just spectacular, to be fair, the all round visibility was great in that car. in fact i think the only 2 things i didn't like about the car was the seats which were about as supportive as a picnic bench and the dash, which was as exciting as wallpaper paste. thankfully when i went to test drive the new fiesta those 2 issues had been well and truly addressed.

What are you experiences on learning to drive?  I would love to hear some views and experiences.

Thanks for reading.