Very rare British classic cars in TopGear

So, here's my last blog entry about the episode 6 of TopGear. When Jeremy was talking about the good old times of British motoring a number of classic cars were shown sitting in a large hall. Have a look, you can spot a Ginetta G4 and a mid engine Ginetta G12, a Lotus Elan, an Ace, and .... Great classics, would be interesting to take a closer look ...

Lada Niva - a classic car you can buy new today

This is a Lada Niva, difficult to say what year. Few people know that this is one of the cars with the longest production history. Since 34 years it has been produced with minor changes except engine updates. 34 years is quite something, the Ford Model T for example was only manufacturered for 19 years. And even the Mercedes SL R107 made it "only" 18 years until it was replaced by its successor. But there are a few cars that are even more successful long runners, i.e. the Volkswagen Beetle with 65 years or the Porsche 911 with 47 years (if you include the water cooled generation), the Morgan 4/4, +4 with roughly 74 years (still in production) or the Land Rover (Defender) with 62 years of manufacturing history. Now, a good question is, whether these cars really have been the same car from the first to the last version produced. At the end it's a marketing decision, whether the name or the shape of a car changes. For example the 911 has probably changed quite drastically in the 47 years it has been produced, a shift from air cooled to water cooled engines is just one aspect. I would say that if basic parameters substantially change (i.e. drag factor, length, width, height, weight) then it's questionable whether we still can speak from the same car. But it's not an easy distinction.
Let's go back to the Lada Niva. I tried to convince my father to buy one of these 30+ years ago. They were cheap then, they still are. They were robust, they still are. And they offered a low cost entry into 4 wheel off road driving, they still are. But off road cars around the Niva have changed quite a bit, so buying a new Niva today is probably more like buying a classic car than a state of the art off road vehicle.

The new Audi RS5 - more than what we need?

It took Audi quite a bit of time, but now it's here, or will be here. At the coming Geneva Autoshow Audi is supposed to present the new Audi RS5. It features a high revving V8 engine with 450 HP and 430 NM, accelerating the car in less than 5 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h. It comes with all the usual Audi features such as four wheel drive, double clutch seven speed gearbox and launch control. It's almost Ferrari F40 performance for you everyday trip to the office. Now, my readers know from earlier postings, that I am not really a fan of the current "bigger - heavier - faster" trend. It's actually impressive that Audi seems to be able to stay below 1.8 tons. But still, given the average speed on today's street is barely more than 130 km/h (even in Germany) you may wonder whether you need such a machine. Why not go for a nice A4 Avant 2.0 TFSI and a Morgan Plus 8, coming at the same price as a well spec'ed RS5 together, but delivering undoubtedly more fun and causing less depreciation also? Don't get me wrong, the RS5 is gorgeous and certainly fun to drive, but for a Sunday afternoon blast a Morgan is so much more fun and for the commute to the office the A4 does the job.

More than 1500 cars at the 2009 British Car Meeting in Mollis

Today the annual British Car Meeting took place in Mollis/Switzerland. With splendid weather it was no surprise that a great amount of cars gathered in Mollis to celebrate the guest of honor brand, Austin Healey.
The British Car Meeting is something special. The only common denominator is the fact that each car has to be manufactured in Great Britain. So it doesn't make a difference whether a car is old (like an MG TC) or brand new (like a Aston Martin V8 Vantage).
Also interesting is the fact, that you can see completely restored cars sitting besides, well, a car in basically drivable condition.
For somebody thinking of restoring let's say a Triumph Spitfire, the BCM is a great event, given 30-50 cars of this type can be found at one location.
And the fact that the place where everybody meets includes also a small airport creates extra entertainment with airplanes starting and landing.
The BCM is a meeting with something for everybody. A Rolls Royce parks side by side with a Mini or a Ford Anglia. True rarities such as an AC ME 3000 can be spotted on the one side, a bunch of Lotus Elise and Exige on the other side. More Morgans than most club meetings can attract are distributed over the place and probably every model that Triumph built since second world war has been brought to Mollis at least once, if not 10 to 20 times.
For TVR fans almost the whole model range showed up also, i.e. Tuscan V6, Taimar, 3000S (at least 4 cars), Griffith, Chimaera, Tamora, 350C.
It's a good event for visitors as well as for the drivers. They walk around between the cars, eat a "Bratwurst" (sausage) or a "Schnitzelbrot" (I can't translate this), drink a beer or mineral water, talk to friends, learn about other people's cars or just relax and enjoy the huge collection of British cars. What a great way to spend a sunny Sunday.
There's no element of competition involved, no concours d'elegance, no 1/4 mile race, no nothing. Good so. That's probably what people want and enjoy. Go on organizing these, the success proves that the concept is right.

The Morgan 4/4 - maybe this dinosaur is actually one of the most ecological cars on earth

So here's a car that has been built since roughly the 30ies. Yes for about 80 years now Morgan manufactures this same car. The current entry model is called Morgan 4/4 Sport. If you read the technical data it sounds like these guys have invented an almost perfect green car! Combined fuel consumption is 6.2 l per 100 km (or 45.6 MPG). The CO2 footprint is 140 g/km. 115 HP are enough to accelerate the 795 kg car in less than 7 seconds from 0 to 100 km. Also, as energy spent for production is an important factor in overall environmental perspectives, here's another important fact: Manufacturing one Morgan takes much less energy and material use than producing a standard car, and typically these cars are well maintained and kept forever.
And the Morgan looks absolutely gorgeous. And it's retro not because it has been designed that way, but because it has been manufactured for so many years now. Get one today or you will regret it tomorrow. I always loved Morgans, especially the Rover V8 powered +8. Maybe ...