It’s always a pleasure to return to temperate Britain after a long, hot summer on the Continent. But after the fast 80mph autostrada in Italy and the excellent French péage network, reality hits home as soon as you drive off the Eurotunnel. The potholed M20 motorway remains partially closed due to Operation Brock, where lanes are barricaded to stack freight vehicles, with its tedious 50mph speed restriction still in place. And, boy, are British roads rammed with traffic.
Presciently, in this issue associate editor Waddington extols the virtues of ‘unexceptional’ cars and, having covered nearly 1600 miles in my unexceptional example in August, I have to agree that everyone needs a boring workhorse for load-lugging and motorway flogging. For many years I used to ‘walk the talk’ and use my classic cars as everyday drivers, but with two demanding women in my life this is no longer possible. A smart London dealer in Kensington drives a BMW estate as his hack, admittedly a special Alpina version; an Alfa specialist in Sussex admits to owning an elderly BMW estate as well, which is used to pick up good wine in France. Former motoring broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson wrote in the Sunday Times of the BMW 320i Touring ‘at my age, this is the best car in the world’. I am the same age as Clarkson, and I agree with his assertion. My ten-year-old 320i xDrive Sport Touring is certainly the best motor vehicle I have ever owned – even if it is the most boring. Boring is just fine, thank you, when your ‘exciting’ car is 68 years young.
Let’s be honest, if you drive an elderly classic car long distances you tend to be alert to strange noises or hot smells. Don’t want to tempt fate, but my ’55 Jaguar XK140 has never let me down completely. Once the notorious Lucas fuel pump quit on the Kings Road, but a tap with a hammer got it ticking again and it was replaced with a more robust Facet pump. A quiet, invisible, economical, unexceptional car with an auto ’box, air-con and electric windows is a wonderfully relaxing tool for continental touring. Especially when the incompetent NATS allows British airspace to melt down entirely on the August Bank Holiday Monday.
Returning to London, we are now met with Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ scheme along with the LTNs (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) to render driving more expensive and miserable.
