THEGAYUK

Category: Motoring

  • MOTORBIKE REVIEW | Suzuki GSX-S125

    MOTORBIKE REVIEW | Suzuki GSX-S125

    ★★★★☆ | Suzuki GSX-S125

    Float like a butterfly sting like a bee

    What Have We Got

    In this age of ever Increasing motoring costs, swapping to two wheels makes more and more sense. Roads are congested, fuel costs a fortune and we seem to spend half our lives sitting in traffic or looking for a parking space.

    We wanted to try one of the current crop of 125cc commuters and see how practical they are.

    Suzuki’s GSX-S125 is a funky, naked styled, Street bike. It looks great, it’s fun and it’ll do up to a claimed 122.82mpg! What a way to beat the traffic, have some fun and save money at the same time.

     

    Riding

    It feels tiny. With a seat height of just 785mm and a kerb weight of only 133kg, it’s a featherweight. The bars are in a great position making it easy to manoeuvre and legs are nicely placed for a comfortable ride. When you’re sat on it you’re the widest part which means you can judge gaps in the traffic easily making it a superb commuting tool, slicing through traffic with ease.

    With only 15ps it’s not fast but the little single cylinder, DOHC (Double Over Head Cam) or ‘twin cam’ engine loves to rev and is good fun.

    On a dual carriageway or motorway you struggle. It wouldn’t do much more than 70mph with my fat arse on it, but with a little 17-year-old should be good for more. Either way, 65-70mph is fine.

    https://youtu.be/hihcf1iLa7w

    Details

    A bike like this isn’t going to be festooned with kit. It’s nicely built, unlike the cheap Chinese 125’s you can get. Switchgear is all good quality stuff and it looks and feels great. The gearbox was ok, it didn’t like clutchless up changes but the ‘box is smooth and easy to use.

    This little Suzuki is really light. They’ve saved weight all over, for example, it has forged aluminium wheels which help the bike turn quickly. ABS is also standard, helping to keep you safe as are LED lights and a neat, compact LCD dash.

    We would expect the Suzuki GSX-S125 will hold its value much better than a cheap Chinese bike too.

     

    Living with it

    You have to take this bike in context. It’s an urban Street bike. Cool, fun and made to cut through traffic and put a smile on your face.

    It handles really well, it’s very flickable. As you would expect from a bike that weighs as much as a paper bag, it turns and stops very sharply.

    15ps (maximum allowed for an A1 licence) isn’t much but it’s on par with the most powerful in its class. The styling is spot on. That big Suzuki logo on the side looks really cool, and the metallic blue paint on our bike looked great.

    The Verdict

    Back in my day, you could pass your CBT on a little 125 scooter or something like that, then jump on a 500cc bike to take your big bike test which allowed you to ride anything. These days, it’s not so easy. There are several stages now, have a look here for more info; http://www.geton.co.uk/motorcycle-training-licence/

    The first main step after you basic CBT allows you to ride this and bikes like it. Whether it’s a stepping stone to getting your big bike licence, a way to get on the road cheaply as a kid or just a commuting tool to beat the traffic and save money, you can’t go wrong with the GSX-S125. It’s fun, looks good, easy to ride and cheap to run. What’s not to like?

     

    Love

    Fun factor

    Cheap to run

    Easy to ride

    Loathe

    Slow (compared to big bikes)

    I looked a bit daft on it

    Nowhere to put anything

    Lowdown

    Bike –  Suzuki GSX-S125

    Price – £3,799

    MPG – 122.82 (combined)

    Power – 14.9hp and 11.5nm torque

    Top Speed – approx 80 mph if you’re little

    Co2 – 54 (g/km)

  • She Is A Model, And She’s Now Looking Good

    She Is A Model, And She’s Now Looking Good

    Autumn is here and before you know it, we’ll be into winter. I turn my attention away from working on the fleet to playing with toy cars. Even at the age of 43, I still can’t pass a car boot sale toy box without taking a look for something a bit scabby that I can turn into something loved again.

    I’d bought this Fiat Panda as a new toy back in 2000 from Beatties toy shop. Now for the toy geek in you, the Bburago Panda model was released sometime in 1982. It was 17 years old now and still being sold as a new toy car. The Fiat Panda hadn’t been sold in the UK since 1996 but would soldier on until 2003 in Italy. So this probably explains why it was still sold by Bburago.

    I digress but perhaps this is to do with the paint I’ve been sniffing this weekend. The weekend I decided to strip and rebuild my battered Panda.   

    There is something quite therapeutic in taking a rough model and making it good again. This time you get to choose the colours, the spec, the interior layout and/or colours and wheel choice. It’s almost like buying a real car without the expense except for paint. 

    This weekend, the Panda has cost me £12 in paint. Or around £30 if you add the other paint needed that thankfully I have in stock from other projects. Model building is fun but from an initial layout, it can look expensive especially when you need just need 3 dobs of clear orange for the indicators for instance.

    I wanted to do a Sisley 4×4 in metallic green. That was the plan some 18 years ago. So I’ve scrapped that idea and decided to go back to basics like the Panda was. A nice shade of pastel blue with the lower half in grey. 

    Thankfully with Bburago, they screw together so dismantling is easy. I try and dip the shells in paint thinners but the 1/24th scale body was too large so a soft fire brush on the workbench was used to strip the paint down. You don’t always have to strip the paint. Some paints won’t react to thinners so a good rub down with wet and dry is sometimes all that you need.

    Primer is essential. Grey or white dependant on the colour you choose. Now I did use a rust inhibitor primer on the lower half of the Panda. A bit overkill for a diecast model that won’t rust but this is an old Fiat so I wasn’t going to take any chances. OK, that is a bit OTT but I needed grey and that was all I had in stock.

    Allowing a few hours to dry and the use of the airing cupboard (always helps to have access to the hot room of the house to aid model paint drying) the drying time was accelerated. Next was to mask up the lower section for another coat of grey in the form of plastic primer that is sort of the correct shade for the lower panels on Panda Mk1.

    The rest, as they say, is a walk in the park. Top coat paint colour applied in light even coats and then once dry, adding the details and reassembling. 

    OK, so it’s not that easy. Like painting a real car, you need to do the door shuts and inside areas first. Easier to do inside parts because the paint finish doesn’t matter as much if it has some overspray or flat areas.

    The details are what can make a model. For your £1.99 (1999 prices) Bburago were not going to paint the lights for you. So I went wild and added those three dobs of orange for front and rear indicators. 

    And now I am left with a bespoke Fiat Panda model that looks like the launch model that as one critic rudely or rightly said, was as square as the box it had come in. Now isn’t that the truth.mo

  • MOTORBIKE REVIEW | KTM 790 Duke – Ready to Race

    MOTORBIKE REVIEW | KTM 790 Duke – Ready to Race

    ★★★★★ | KTM 790 Duke

    What Have We Got

    KTM has a rich and successful motorcycle pedigree. Countless world championships across a wide range of disciplines from Motocross to Endurance to Moto3 and much more. They have become one of the most successful motorcycle brands in history. KTM has been one of the world’s fastest-growing motorcycle manufacturers for some time now. 2016 was the company’s sixth consecutive record year and in 2018, they unleashed this 790 Duke on the world.  

    Small, light and fast, the KTM 790 Duke is powered by the brand new LC8c parallel twin engine kicking out 105 hp.

    Riding

    When you first swing your leg over, the Duke feels small, like a 250, narrow and short. It’s purposeful and uncomplicated. Press the starter and it barks into life. The parallel twin sounds just like a V twin with a powerful and potent rumble.

    When you increase the pace, the 790 really starts to make sense.

    It’s great at commuting, it’s noisy, torquey and very easy to manoeuvre, making light work of slicing through town. As you leave the 30mph confines and the road starts to open up and the pace increases, the KTM loves it. The harder you push, the better it gets, It really is a little hooligan.

    It’s fitted with a quickshifter as standard so going up and down through the 6-speed box is effortless, helped by a slipper clutch (PASC™). I found a couple of false neutrals on the way up through the ‘box but put it down to the bike having been a press bike that’s probably seen it’s fair share of abuse.

    Details

    There’s a funky ultra lightweight chrome-molybdenum steel trellis frame with bolt-on aluminium rear subframe and very cool looking die-cast aluminium open lattice swingarm and at the sharp end, you’ll find 43mm upside-down WP suspension forks fitted with progressive springs.

    Outback is a WP suspension, gas-assisted, directly linked rear shock, also with progressive spring and 12-stage adjustable preload.

    Front brakes are KTM branded, radial 4-piston callipers with a radial front brake master cylinder working on twin 300 mm front brake discs. I thought the whole lot was excellent, needing little more than 2 fingers.

    KTM’s 790 Duke has ride mode technology with customizable track mode as standard. This wild child is among the best equipped bikes in this arena, with ride mode technology with customizable track mode as standard. It Boasts an array of tech usually seen on bikes costing twice as much; Cornering ABS including Supermoto mode (for backing it in), lean-angle sensitive motorcycle traction control (MTC), motor slip regulation (MSR), Quickshifter+, and even launch control work seamlessly to make this a very serious weapon.

    The compact and neat TFT dashboard works with KTM MY RIDE which is a smartphone app that is an awesome tool, click the link to see what it can do.

     

    Living with it

    KTM have fitted Maxxis Superamaxx ST tyres which on my test ride on dry, warm roads, were great. It had a brand new rear tyre so I took a few miles to wear it in but they felt very stable, loads of grip, easily able to get a knee down without feeling it was anywhere near the limit of grip.

    KTM says the goal with the 790 Duke was to create the ultimate street weapon. Ultimate is a big boast but it is really, really good.

    In my opinion, it was all the bike you’ll ever need. You can jump on it and pop to the shops or head off to a track day, it will easily do everything and do it bloody well.

    My one complaint was the complete lack of protection. It’s a naked bike so no fairing, not even a fly screen. The 790 is fast, so you’re at mad speeds most of the time. On dual carriageways and motorway, it’s tiring but, don’t go on them!

    The Verdict

    Brilliant, fast, light and more fun than any bike has a right to be. That’s how I’d sum the KTM 790 Duke. Accelerating hard, throwing gears at it with the quickshifter doing its job, cutting through the countryside at daft speeds. Looking for trouble, adrenaline pumping, the parallel twin barking and shouting “is that all you’ve got”.

    Riding the 790 Duke was a pure, visceral experience. I keep catching myself daydreaming about it now, imagining gunning it out of a corner or flicking from side to side through a roundabout.

    Loves

    1 Fast! It’s really fast

    2 Handling. It’s outrageous

    3 Quickshifter+

    Loathes

    1 No wind protection

    2 Heat, it got pretty hot

    3 Gearbox. I got a few false neutrals

    Lowdown

    Bike – KTM 790 Duke
    Price – £8499
    MPG – 48 mpg
    0-62 – 3.1s
    Power – 105 bhp / 86 Nm torque
    Top Speed – 151 mph
    Co2 – 102.9 (g/km)

  • MOTORING REVIEW | Volkswagen T-Roc Design 1.5

    MOTORING REVIEW | Volkswagen T-Roc Design 1.5

    ★★★★☆ | Volkswagen T-Roc Design

    My Second Coming With The T-Roc

    What Have We Got?

    Volkswagen’s T-Roc was launched last year and TGUK were there to test some of the first in the country. This time we are giving the Design 1.5 TSi DSG automatic for a week and I reflect if it was fair of me to give it 3 stars.

    Driving

    I complained about the front wheels ‘tramping’ when pulling away from a junction and even with the DSG gearbox, it still does. The 1.5 EVO engine is a joy to have and responds quickly to all inputs from the throttle with no noticeable lag. Even the DSG box responds quickly. 

    And this all helps to make the T-Roc a really nice place to be. The suspension comes with the usual set-ups of Eco to Sport while the ‘Individual’ setting allows you to select the best of the pre-sets to suit your requirements and this is always welcomed by me. 

    The trick up T-Roc’s sleeve is the ability to select sport or manual in the gearbox very quickly. You are not left high and dry when you need to get a move on!

    You do have to be careful though with the throttle pedal. From standstill in traffic, it can propel the T-Roc forward quickly and at neck breaking force. Once you get used to it, it’s not really a problem. It’s just not what you expect from a car that doesn’t wear a GTi badge.

    Inside

    It is as you would expect from Volkswagen and that is well screwed together and functional. The choices of trim on this ‘Design’ model are zesty with a nice touch of body colour on the dashboard and in the seat trims. 

    I have only one real criticism here and it seems to be my usual moan about VW. The rear door cards are dull. On this model, the front doors are treated to colour coded inserts with neon illuminations. The rear passengers are again subjected to nothing but darkness. 

    Living With It

    From almost all angles, it is a good looking vehicle. It’s also very easy to live with. The boot is generous with a split level load floor though heavy items will cause an issue thanks to the high load sill because it is an SUV.

    It’s also not really suitable as a 5 seater. The centre seat occupant has to contend with a big transmission tunnel and a raised seat cushion resulting in reduced headroom.

    The Verdict

    I was wrong. It’s more than a 3-star car. It’s not perfect and there are a few things VW could do to make it even better. If it was my money that was paying for it, I’d pay it. The T-Roc proved to be comfortable, relaxing and fast enough when I needed it to be. 

    I still find it difficult to accept that VW predicts the 1 litre to be the better seller. The 1.5 does it all so much better. It also comes with a host of goodies that you’d expect at this price and for that, I actually can’t complain. Much.

     

    Love

    Good looks

    Relaxed ride

    Driver conveniences 

    Loathe

    Front wheel tramping

    Lack of illuminations for the rear passengers

    Hard seat cushions

    The Lowdown

    Car –  Volkswagen T-Roc Design 1.5 TSI DSG 

    Price – £29,690 (as tested)

    MPG – 33.5 (combined)

    Power – 150hp

    0-62mph – 8.4 seconds

    Top Speed –  127 mph

    Co2 – 119 (g/km)

    All photos (C) Stuart Bird

  • COMMENT | Accessories

    Now for an article about adding things on, I am struggling for a title for this piece other than “Accessories” which is a bit ironic. Anyway, let’s crack on…

    Ever since man has had wheels, he has had this propensity to add, personalise or make his own, the car that he drives. Now I say he but I could very well say she too. And indeed where I am about to take you, the man was the chooser of the car, the woman did the dishes. 

    I was recently thumbing through Jaguar’s accessory and options list the other week. I was astounded to see £15 jump leads being sold for £126. Even Rimmer Brothers sell “genuine” Jaguar jump leads for £125.12p

    And then I started to look over the other goodies (or lack of) you could get for the Jag and it didn’t stop there. Other manufacturers are also slack in their personalisation of your vehicle. It’s all so ordinarily dull. So I decided to delve back into a time that us old enough to remember haven’t forgotten and look at who did the great extras. We go back, right back to the 1970s. You see a time when men chose the car which is why I said it to start with. Have you never seen Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party?

    I have my own list of goodies that I like to add including spotlights, over mats, wind deflectors, and mud flaps if available. I spent many hours pouring lustfully over the accessory brochures in my time. There were things you could get for the Citroën Visa that to this day I still dream off. They were awful! By the time I got my Visa, Citroën had stopped selling these extras so I was never able to dress my own with genuine naffness. And this is probably for the best.

    The French were always good at the accessory. Both Citroën and Renault played on their Frenchness by using French words on their accessory brochures. Citroën had “Accessoire” while Renault were the kings with “Boutique” and my word what a boutique it was.

    You could dress your 70’s Renault up to be the talk of the town either stylistically or in a way that your neighbours would wish for it to be hit by a bus. Renault Boutique had a stripe to suit (or not as the case sometimes was) for your car and the worst culprit would go to the R4. In fact, everything extra they sold for the R4 was vile. 

    Renault did redeem themselves with the Starsky and Hutch stripes on the R17. Citroën, on the other hand, could not and by the 1980s, they had lost the plot. Wheel arch finishers could be bought for the CX. Now those who know will know that the CX didn’t really have rear wheel arches. Well, think again. Those pesky spats that covered the rear wheels could be replaced with a lipped piece of plastic. 

    Not ones to waste money because they didn’t have any and because they didn’t want to be without some accessories, BL with Unipart, demonstrated their collection of aftermarket tat for the Metro with cartoons. Knorr used cartoons for serving suggestions for Aromat. While aromat was the finest MSG available for food, Unipart extras were not. You really could get everything you’d never want for your Metro like cruise control and air conditioning. 

    VW UK was mean to us when compared to VW USA. The humble T2 bus could be got with 2 pieces of chrome and a choice of roof racks. In the US, you could get EVERYTHING. And the Golf was left short-changed too. 1975 Golf had no reverse lights while the Beetle and Bus had them there and ready to go with a bit of wire. Never mind because VW could sell you a pair for the Golf that resembled porch lights that you have outside your front door. 

    The final word goes to the Italians and in particular, Lancia. They offered you the driver much more than a pair of spotlights and a body kit to cover up the rust and stripes to hold it all together. They offered a range of clothing before it was seen as enthusiastic wear. Forget rally jackets, they even sold shirts. Not just any old shirts that you could get in Marks and Sparks, oh no, they had genuine polyester cotton ones. So basically it was exactly the same as Marks and Sparks and the Grantham catalogue. What those two didn’t have was the suave man in Lancia sunglasses and to a 10-year-old Stuart, he was frigging HOT. 

  • MOTORBIKE REVIEW | Suzuki V-Strom100XT

    MOTORBIKE REVIEW | Suzuki V-Strom100XT

    ★★★★★ | Suzuki V-Strom100XT, Jack of all trades

    What Have We Got?

    I would have loved to see the look on the old guy’s face, comfortably oblivious of his surroundings, safe in his generic eurobox, as we exited the roundabout side by side, me on the V-Strom, cranked over will a full set of luggage. ‘Round the outside, hard on the gas, then off into the distance.

    I’d like to think he would have turned to Dorris in the passenger seat and muttered, “I didn’t expect that.”

    Suzuki have been in the adventure bike game for a long time. The V-strom first landed on our shores in  2002 and this is the latest incarnation. It’s got a 1037cc 90 degree V twin kicks out 100 bhp and 101 Nm torque and is huge fun.


    Riding

    Well, I’m actually quite new to adventure bikes. These days, the roads are in a pretty shit state and I’m older, so I thought I’d give it a go. I wasn’t disappointed. The V-Strom100XT is a big beast but so are all adventure bikes in this class. Mine had optional (and expensive) luggage too so I was a bit tentative filtering through traffic.

    It’s big, very comfortable, punchy and great fun, way more fun that I expected. It turns well, handles nicely and I’d go as far as to say pretty sporty on the road. Something I particularly liked was the ability to be fast over any road surface. A few times I was riding with other guys on sports bikes on the back roads and they just couldn’t live with the Strom. It’s plush, forgiving suspension just dances over the rough, potholed roads, still giving good feedback and confidence, no doubt helped by the electronics. The guys on their sports bikes were shaken to pieces.

    Details
    Stopping the V-Strom is easy thanks to radial mounted four-piston monobloc Tokico brake callipers biting on to twin 310mm diameter discs on the front, and a 260mm diameter single disc with a single piston calliper on the rear.

    The Bosch ABS system has what Suzuki call “Motion Track Brake System¹” which uses a 5-Axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which measures lean angle and front and rear wheel speeds and provides optimal ABS braking for the situation. Very clever.

    There’s also 2 mode traction control.

    1 is the lowest level of intervention, allowing sporty riding. It allows an amount of wheel spin so you can have fun.

    2 is normal which eliminates wheel spin to ensure a safe ride. Great for riding in the wet.

    You can, of course, turn it off if you want, if you were heading off road for example.

    Living with it

    Suzuki’s V-Strom1000XT is an awesome bike. It did everything we asked it to without breaking into a sweat. We even took a V-Strom on track, hooning it around Bruntingthorpe. Admittedly it’s not the obvious choice as a track slag but it was surprisingly good. It moves around a little when you really push on and the pegs tend to go down, but it’s very good and very funny to see other people’s reactions. It doesn’t do anything stupid, it’ll hold a decent line and doesn’t sit up on the brakes in the corners. It’s a very civilised way to do a track day.

    The Verdict

    Why a V-Strom? The adventure bike sector is crammed with bikes. Everyone seems to do one or even several. BMW is the obvious choice and arguably, you can say they started it all.

    Yamaha, Triumph, Honda, KTM, Ducati and more all play in this playground.

    The V-Strom sits in between most of these interestingly. Generally, adventure bikes are around 1200cc or 800cc (ish). Suzuki’s V-Strom1000 sits in the middle. At 232kg It’s lighter than pretty much all of the competition, even the smallest capacity bikes like the Triumph Tiger 800.

    It’s obviously down on power on the big capacity competition but at £9,999 it’s very well priced.

    A BMW R1200GS, for example, starts at £12,400 and a Honda Africa twin starts at £11,575.


    Loves
    1 Comfort, you can ride for hours
    2 Great handling
    3 Torquey V-twin engine

    Loathes
    1 Optional luggage was odd shaped & pretty small
    2 Vibey at low revs
    3 Dashboard is pretty busy

    Lowdown
    Motorcycle – Suzuki V-Strom1000XT
    Price – £9.999
    MPG – 58.85mpg (manufacturer claimed. We only got around 40 mpg)
    0-62 – 3.1s
    Power – 100 bhp / 101 Nm torque
    Top Speed – 126 mph
    Co2 – 112 (g/km)

  • CAR REVIEW | Mercedes X-Class

    CAR REVIEW | Mercedes X-Class

    ★★★★★ | Mercedes X-Class,  The last vehicle you’ll ever need

    It had been 3 months since Z day and at least a month since we last heard gunfire.

    Peeking through the boarded up windows, the first signs of sunlight were showing through the black skies.

    Our supplies were almost gone, it was time we hit the road and began our fight for survival.

    I kicked open the door to the house and we emerged into what used to be the lush, green garden of the house we had been hiding in while the chaos absorbed everyone outside.

    The garden was lifeless and black, dead like everything else.

    There was a garage at the rear of the house. If we were lucky there would be a vehicle inside that we could use to get the hell out of here. We forced the door open and through the darkness, saw a Mercedes badge.

    “A Mercedes is nice but not much good to us now. Look at the state of the roads”, said Troy. He was right. Abandoned cars littered the roads, tarmac scared with debris from the fighting and shelling.

    As we opened the door further, we saw it was a pickup.

    “But Mercedes don’t make a pickup” exclaimed Sarah.

    “They do now thank god,” said Dutch as he threw his bag in the back of the X-Class, opened the rear door and slid into the sumptuous leather upholstered cabin.

    “Damn this is nice” i said, adjusting the electric drivers seat. I selected ‘D’ on the automatic gearbox and we slowly pulled out of the garage, down the driveway and out into the street. The huge load bed was packed with our remaining supplies. Lucky for us the X-Class can haul a huge payload of up to 1.1 tonnes. That is enough to transport 17 full 50-litre barrels of clean water in the cargo area. It’s able to tow up to 3.5 tonnes, it can pull a trailer containing three horses or easily pull an abandoned truck out of the way.

    The roads were littered with debris from the battle. Burnt out cars, makeshift barricades, ruined buildings. We couldn’t have hoped for a better vehicle than the Mercedes X-Class. It was the X250 Power D 4MATIC AUTO with a powerful and torquey 2.3L biturbo 190hp diesel engine. The permanent 4MATIC all-wheel drive and the seven-speed automatic transmission got us out of trouble more than a few times. When the road ahead was blocked, i’d select 4WD low and head off road. The X-Class has serious off road ability so didn’t struggle. Our Mercedes X-Class apocalypse escape vehicle had great road manners and serious off road ability, but how did it manage to be so good on road but so good off road too? It has a double wishbone front axle and a rear multi-link solid axle which allows for great axle articulation. No old school leaf springs here. The Mercedes rolled on 225/55R19’s which certainly helped with the subtle ride.

    Fortunately the X-Class X250 was really good on diesel meaning we could travel for hours without having to refuel. It really was the perfect vehicle. On road, smooth, quiet and comfortable, with 2WD engaged to save fuel. When the going got tough, select 4WD or even 4WD low range, engaging the differential lock on the rear axle and nothing could stop it. The Downhill Speed Regulation (DSR) made things even easier.

    The electronic safety systems saved us on more than one occasion. With burning cars and buildings belching smoke and restricting visibility, it was hard to see what lay ahead. Active brake assist provided a welcome backup.

    We drove for hour after hour and were all exhausted. Fortunately, the awesome Mercedes X-Class X250 has lane keeping assist which meant when we struggled to keep our eyes open through exhaustion, the safety system kept us on the road when we had the cruise control engaged.

    Rough roads can mean unforeseen punctures. Our X-Class had a tyre pressure monitoring system to help us and LED headlamps with six LEDs to show us the way.

    The 360-Degree camera made manoeuvring around burnt out cars or through partly collapsed building easy and safe. In our life before the apocalypse, features like traffic sign assist, trailer stability assist and emergency call system would have helped, but in a crumbling and uncertain world, traffic signs were the least of our concerns.

    Strangely, our phones were still working although no one ever answered any calls we made. This meant we could use the Mercedes me app to access the vehicle by smartphone, calling up useful information such as fuel level and tyre pressure, find the X-Class’s location when it is parked or being driven by someone else and even program the navigation or remotely read vehicle diagnostics. This was invaluable when on a recce for supplies, split up, scattered amongst the rubble, searching.

    After four full weeks on the road, hardly stopping, crossing the war-torn country from side to side looking for any signs of hope, we finally arrived at the military installation we had heard about on a radio transmission. We found other survivors who had also found their way here and had begun to rebuild their lives.

    It was a relief to find other people and to hear the familiar sound of laughter.

    As we sat in the canteen enjoying a simple but welcome home cooked beef pie, my phone buzzed to let me know the X-Class was on the move. When we arrived we surrendered the vehicle to the motorpool. It seemed perfectly reasonable then, but now it was like hearing that my wife was on a date with someone else.

    All four of us looked at each other then looked around at the other survivors for a moment.  

    We’d all grown fond of the X-Class, it had literally saved us. Without speaking, without even a moment’s hesitation, in one swift move, we all got up, grabbed our bags, headed for the motorpool and for the safety and comfort of our Mercedes X-Class. We’d take our chances in the wilderness and see where the road took us. Wherever it was, the X-Class would look after us.

  • CAR REVIEW | MG3 Exclusive

    CAR REVIEW | MG3 Exclusive

    ★★☆☆☆ | MG3 Exclusive

    What Have We Got?

    The MG3 comes in a 3 car model line up from £9495 for the base Explore to £12,795 for the Exclusive. MG has been slow and steady sellers and numbers on the road are beginning to increase. Recently the MG3 went through a facelift and it’s attractive changes that MG have made. 

    Is there any carryover from MG of old I hear you ask? The British have a thing for MG and there is no getting away from the fact that today’s MG has nothing to do with those of old except for the octagon badge. But is this a bad thing, or does it need that MG thing to make it a desirable car?

    Driving

    This is a bit of a letdown and shows that it isn’t like previous generations of MGs. For a twin cam 1.5 petrol with initials like VTI-TECH, you’d expect something a little lively. On the road, it turns out to be more leisurely than lively. You need to work the gearstick around a bit to get the best out of it.

    The ride is what you would expect it to be and it’s not that bad. Due to the lack of engine excitement you’d probably not get to exploit its handling.

    Inside

    It’s pretty simple and basic where it needs to be. You need to remember that MG is still winning fans and price is key. Door cards, for example, are plain and simple and the dashboard as normal as you can get. That hasn’t stopped MG having some fun and the silver trim with silver printed tartan is a nice touch to break up the expanses of black.

    The infotainment system is also simple to use, effective and nicely laid out. Some of the larger manufacturers could learn from this system. 

    Living With It

    One of the nicest touches the MG3 comes with is hill hold control where for a brief moment in time, it’ll hold the brakes. For this price, it’s a rare treat.

    It’s a small 5 door hatchback that does what you would expect a car to do and if that’s what you want, then you could live with this.

    The lack of engine excitement does disappoint me somewhat. I’m sure underneath there is a better car waiting to shine. A bit like MG’s of old. So perhaps there is some of that old MG magic in there, somewhere.

     

    The Verdict

    For the money, you get a car. I can’t really jazz it up in any other way. That car is attractive in Exclusive guise. Explore comes with 14” steel wheels and is a little on the basic side visually. 

    Excite and Exclusive are probably where you’d want to spend your money. 

    What will probably sell this car more than its dynamics will be the 7 years or 80,000-mile warranty.

    Love

    Price

    7-year warranty 

    Simple yet effective infotainment system

    Loathe

    Lacklustre engine

    Needs a better engine

    Base model is rather spartan on the outside

    The Lowdown

    Car –  MG3 Exclusive

    Price – £ 12,795 (as tested)

    MPG – 47.1 mpg (combined)

    Power – 106PS @ 6000rpm

    0-62mph –  10.4 seconds

    Top Speed –  108 mph

    Co2 –  140 (g/km)

  • CAR REVIEW | Abarth 695C Rivale

    CAR REVIEW | Abarth 695C Rivale

     ★★★★☆ | Abarth 695C Rivale

    Carlo and Carlo Called, They’ve Made A Car For You.

    What Have We Got?

    Abarth has been giving us magical Fiat 500’s for over 10 years now and you wonder how, a car that is over a decade old, can still be relevant in the ever-changing A-segment city car section.

    The answer is to make it good in the first place. Once you’ve done that, the development and evolutions can be kept to a minimum.  

    The Rivale has come about by joining Carlos Abarth, he who took small Fiats and made them fast, and Carlos Riva, he who made special boats, together to make one special city car with an eye-watering price to match. 

    Driving

    Oh my word, where do you start. For a car with older underpinnings, it manages to do two things. Puts the power down and still be entertaining to drive. And it is.

    There is an abundance of torque steer and when it gets charging, it is a fighter. If it was there all the time, it would tire you out. Thankfully, in commuter mode, it is easy to live with. Put your foot down and… (screams)

    And you are fighting with the steering wheel while trying to keep it in a straight line and all this with the roof open and the engine barking and snarling.   

    Inside

    Abarth UK opted for the standard carbon fibre trim. I don’t like it. The mahogany option is a better option and more in keeping with Riva’s ethos of something special. It’s a big piece of wood.

    The rest is pretty much standard 500 except for the blue leather trim and the numbered plaque screwed into the trim by the handbrake. What that lacks in finesse for a special car costing over £25k, it makes up for by being quite endearing. 

    Sadly what hasn’t been altered is the infotainment system. For a car that is a decade old, this really is showing signs of age.

    Living With It

    Millions of 500s have been sold. As a city car, these are just perfect. The boot is small and in the C model, even smaller. You learn to live with the small box in the rear. Likewise, you live with the torque steer fight you have when you stomp your foot on the loud pedal.

    You put up with a lot in the 695 C Rivale and yet you never think you wished you’d bought something else. Very few cars these days are as engaging to drive as they are to look at on the drive and this still has it.

    The Verdict

    It is ridiculously expensive. There are other Fiat and Abarth models with no roof for considerably less and if I’m blunt almost as much fun. 

    Sometimes fun just isn’t enough. Sometimes fun is just a drive to the shops with Graham Norton on the radio. What we have here then is a howling mixture of fun ramped up to the max that really is barking mad and there just isn’t much in this segment that can match it for thrills and spills. 

    And with the roof open, everyone around you will hear you laughing (or screaming) before they see the car and you can’t really put a price on that.

    Love

    Sounds

    Open top

    Torque steer

    Loathe

    Carbon fibre dashboard

    Price

    Infotainment system

    The Lowdown

    Car –  Abarth 695C Rivale

    Price – £25,390 (as tested)

    MPG – 47.1mpg (combined)

    Power – 180HP @ 5000rpm

    0-62mph –  6.9 seconds

    Top Speed – 140 mph

    Co2 – 139 (g/km)

  • CAR REVIEW | Volkswagen Up GTi

    CAR REVIEW | Volkswagen Up GTi

    ★★★★☆Volkswagen Up GTi 

    Up and GTi Away 

    What Have We Got?

    Volkswagen would have you believe that the Up is the successor to the original Golf GTi. In some ways it is. Its dimensions, kerb weight and performance align with those of the original 76 Golf. Golf is now too big to be as delicate as it once was. And Polo is also too big. So the Up now fills the void for a small, buzzy, fun machine to wear the GTi badge. But does this answer the critics who bemoan about the lack of a raw feeling GTi from VW?

    Driving

    There is something about the Up GTi that gets your pulse racing before you turn the key. Delicate red markings on the body and the GTi badges are very evident, likewise so too is the tartan type fabric from the original GTi that is now fitted to all VW GTi models.

    Turn the key and the rorty little 1 litre 3-cylinder engine bursts into life. It contains 115PS. It might not sound a lot, but it sure does know how to use it. The controls are light and precise and the six gears are well spaced even if 6th really is longer legged than necessary for such a small car.  

    What it all makes for is a very engaging car and though it will max out at 122mph, it really is a great back road buzz box. It’ll do 70 in third and that’s rather useful. The only downside is the traction control system can’t be switched off. However, that doesn’t mean you can wheel spin the front wheels from a standstill.

    Inside

    The seat fabric aside, the Up to me is only ruined by the red and black facia panel. I didn’t like this and for a small car with cheap feel, it felt like it cheapened it.

    Now don’t let the cheapness put you off. This is a new VW GTi for £14,000. It’s the lightness that makes it feel the more special in capturing the GTi magic of old. Remember, the original was a trendsetter and well built. The Up betters it but retains some of the raw light elements. That doesn’t, however, mean the doors twang when you shut them. It still sounds like a Golf.

    Living With It

    This Up GTi came in 5 door guise. There is more than enough room for 4 and a reasonable sized boot with a height-adjustable boot floor. 

    The dashboard layout is clear and visible and the ergonomics are perfect. Rear door trims lack the visual joys of those on the front with the absence of body trim.  

    The inability to switch the traction control off does mean it’s always a little bit too safe. Its limits are high and the fun factor even higher, it’s just a shame you can’t fully exploit it to its fullest. 

    The Verdict

    (C) STUART M BIRD

    You can see why many before have raved about it, I love it. It’s quite raw in places and that’s a good thing. That rawness adds to the feel of it being lighter and quicker than it actually is and let us not think this is slow. With a 0-60 time of 8.8, it’ll keep up with an original Mk 1 Golf GTi. In actual fact, there are many areas that this is similar to the original. It’s like VW have resurrected the original from the ashes of yesteryear and I am happy.

    Love

    Rawness

    Lightness

    Entertaining to hurry

    Loathe

    Dashboard facia trim

    6th gear is too tall

    No traction control switch

    The Lowdown

    Car –  Volkswagen Up GTi 115PS

    Price – £16,655 (as tested)

    MPG – 58.9mpg (combined)

    Power – 115PS

    0-62mph –  8.8 seconds

    Top Speed –  122 mph

    Co2 – 110 (g/km)

  • CAR REVIEW | Hyundai i30N

    CAR REVIEW | Hyundai i30N

    ★★★★★ Hyundai i30N – The wild child

    What Have We Got

    Hyundai have quite the Motorsport pedigree, particularly in rallying. They’ve made some pretty tasty toad cars too, remember the Hyundai Coupe? This is one of the latest fast Hyundai’s, the i30N. It’s a 2.0 litre T-GDi turbocharged 247bhp, popping, banging, hard edged hot hatch.

    This is a serious car, in race mode, it is a single-minded weapon, very capable, yet in normal mode, it’s a pussycat. It’ll take you to Waitrose to do the weekly shop, put a smile on your face on the daily commute or let you thrash it around any race track you can think of all day long.

    Driving

    If I said it’s an exhilarating drive it would be an understatement. Hyundai have gone to town with multi-link rear suspension, electronic differential, extra strengthening of the chassis and electronically adjustable suspension. That means at the press of a button it transforms from a fast but subtle hatch in to a serious tool for going fast. The change is dramatic, very firm suspension and man it sticks to the road. It’s a superb drivers car. One of our all time favourites. Where a focus ST would be spinning wheels and understeering, this i30N is manic, single minded, and very very good.

    Inside

    The car has a high level of standard equipment with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, Qi wireless charging and several USB charging ports. There’s a 5-inch centre infotainment screen with sat nav and a host of safety features as you would expect on a modern car; from high beam assist, to lane-keep assist, collision and driver attention warnings, plus camera-assisted speed limit warning and more.

    The interior is very cool. Solid, well built with quality materials and supportive bucket seats.  Choose your drive mode with the button beside the ‘N’ steering wheel; Normal, Eco, Sport modes, and enjoy. You could always opt for race mode if you really want to have fun.

    Living with it

    In race mode, the i30N is pretty extreme and I don’t think I could live with it every day. Good job you don’t have to. In normal or comfort mode it really is a pussycat and a real pleasure to drive. This car feels like an extension of you. There’s good visibility, it’s practical and not bad on fuel if you take it easy. You don’t attract too much attention, just the right amount, and where brand image may have been an issue a few years ago, you don’t need to worry now, you’ll get admiring looks wherever you go in the i30N.

     

    The Verdict

    The Ford Focus ST is the go to in this sector but doesn’t come close to the i30N as a driver’s car.

    With the electronic suspension and drivers modes, you really can have your cake and eat it. Soften it up for the daily commute and at the press of a button, it’s popping and banging when you lift off and acting like a track car on the road. It’s fantastic to drive. This is the 250ps version but there is an even wilder version; the i30N performance, with 275ps and even more toys.

    Loves

    Performance

    Awesome Chassis

    Brilliant manual gearbox

    Loathes

    Too conservatively styled?

    Can’t help myself misbehave

    People still buy Focus ST’s!!

    Lowdown
    Car – Hyundai i30N 250
    Price – From £25,760
    MPG – 39.8 mpg
    0-62 – 6.4s
    Power – 247 bhp – 353 Nm torque
    Top Speed – 155 mph