TUESDAY
Since when was a deluge life-affirming? Since last Tuesday, I’d say, at this year’s first monthly Gaydon Gathering of interesting cars at the British Motor Museum. It’s an open-to-anyone event that starts after work and runs to about 8pm. For this season-opener it bucketed, but we didn’t mind. Of course, fewer people turned up than had registered, but there were still a couple of hundred cars on hand by 6.30pm.
I took the family Alpine A110, which proved surprisingly decent in the conditions: for one thing, it had a fixed roof. Such was the rain that on my homeward trip, the Fosse Way was often entirely covered by sheets of water. Experience with Lotus Elises has taught me caution in the wet when you have lightly loaded front wheels, but the A110 avoided aquaplaning well. Other fears are that you will drown the engine or that the vast weight of water beneath you will rearrange the various flaps and fairings that manufacturers use to improve underbody aerodynamics, but we arrived home unscathed, having spent a couple of damp but enjoyable hours with like-minded friends.
WEDNESDAY AM
Having done so much via Dieselgate to knock the European car industry off its trolley, Volkswagen looks increasingly like the firm that will help it back to late-2020s viability. I’m encouraged by the details we’re hearing of an imminent range of sub-£25k Volkswagen EVs, both because past experience of small Volkswagens (the Up is a terrific example) makes me believe it will do a great job and others will have to follow.
I’m visualising a world where a family’s second car becomes its first. This started happening in thoughtful households when the Nissan Leaf arrived. Nine-tenths of mileage is done in zippy little EVs with 100-mile ranges (Honda was right with the E), while the family SUV needed for long trips is either hired or shared. Not a bad solution.
WEDNESDAY PM
Discussion point: when is an MG not an MG? This came up a couple of days ago when a friend parked his MG 3, prominently liveried so as to draw attention to The Octagon’s 100th anniversary. To lovers of logic, the 3 (and the rest of the current range) aren’t MGs at all. There’s no straight-line relationship with Cecil Kimber, the old Abingdon factory or even the MG Montego. They could as well be Rileys or Hudsons, if SAIC had bought those brand names. Whenever I see an MG 4 EV, I’m impressed by the ownership proposition – but as a heart-on-sleeve lover of motoring heritage, I also see the c
