MONDAY
In our job, cars collide. I’m not talking about crashing. What I mean is that important models are often launched just as another supreme attention-grabber leaps into the frame. Last week brought the perfect example: competition and tight schedules meant we covered extensively the Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin Valkyrie in the same issue. Great but not perfect.
The same thing has just happened at my place. A long-wheelbase Jeep Wrangler arrived at the same time as the new V6 Ford Ranger Raptor. Both are machines I’ve been busting to drive. The Wrangler is well equipped, strong enough to drop off a building and satisfyingly Jeepish to look at but fundamentally crude. It’s fine if you need class-leading off-roading and will compromise to get it. The Ranger Raptor is different: sweet to steer, brisk on the throttle, amazingly good-riding (courtesy of big-money Fox dampers) and as plush as any ute I’ve ever sat in. It imparts that special feeling that all really great cars do: when you’re not behind the wheel, you keep wishing you were.
TUESDAY
I’m surprised there hasn’t been more loud British support for the German-Italian bid to delay and refine impending EU legislation that aims to outlaw new ICE cars by 2035. Apparently all major car industry players had previously said they would accept an electric-only world, but at the last minute several large stakeholders – Porsche and Ferrari prominent among them – declined to accept new laws unless climate-neutral fuels capable of use in ICEs were allowed.
What surprises me is the silence of British companies like McLaren and Aston Martin, obvious beneficiaries of laws allowing these synthetic fuels. Many buyers of their cars are bound to want today’s exotic engines to survive. Why don’t they say so?
WEDNESDAY
I’ve had an insightful chat with new Morgan CEO Massimo Fumarola (p58), whose experience of international car markets is already hatching new business for the venerable old firm. Unlike many who target new markets, Fumarola is sceptical about the use of celebrities, youth imagery and pop culture rooted in product launches. He isn’t keen to disenfranchise typical Morgan buyers, sometimes themselves venerable, who can actually afford cars they want rather than need. Moreover, he argues, a Morgan makes you feel young whatever age you are.
THURSDAY
I like non-fiction books, usually autobiographies by exceptional people. My lifelong favourite is
AND ANOTHER THING…
Our test team’s collective joy at producing this issue’s cheap cars compar
