Fast Cars

Wrote off my first two cars, by the time I was 20 so stayed on bikes for many years. Best road car ever owned was the TVR Griffith 500, 5,000cc V8 engine in a 2 seater fibreglass body. Sounds like a good recipe for fun.

The Jekyll and Hyde character of the TVR can be deceiving, you can drive around town with a gentle caress of the throttle, the big V8 lump smoothly drives you around without a care, you can pull away in third from a standing start and hardly notice the difference, as you leave the confines of town and get on faster roads, you boot the throttle, grabbing higher gears the speed piles on, suddenly you find your not sat in the pussy cat you thought, you are strapped into a wild rocket ship that attacks every corner like a football hooligan on steroids who's just seen an opposing supporter.

But the car copes with whatever you throw at it, strong brakes, grippy tyres, low centre of gravity and a firm ride keeps the plot under control, but you had better know what your doing when you ask too much, entering a roundabout too fast I changed down to 3rd to reduce my speed, but didn't allow for the massive engine braking, and at 90 mph the rear stepped sharply out to the right, thankfully I have done a bit of racing in my youth and I simply fed in some opposite lock and a bit of power and the beast got back into shape.

You spend so much time sideways in the TVR, you have to keep the side windows clean to see where you are going....

On the down side the TVR was plagued with annoying little faults, like an electrical short that cut the engine in the fast lane on a busy day on the M25, water leaked into the foot wells, oil leaked out of the engine, but on a summers day with the roof down, with that mighty V8 engine burbling behind, you could forgive it any fault.

Also the Griff was expensive to run, you could easily get through expensive rear tyres in 10k miles, and a standard 12k service cost me £750.

I can't get very excited about most cars, fast ones are too expensive and once you have ridden fast bikes, a car will seem dull.

Current cars are the BMW 3 Ltr X5 great for towing the two wheel toys to track days.

And the latest addition a BMW M3 Coupe

Just picked up a new BMW M3 Coupe, first impressions are very good, by BMW standards its a good looking car, drawing admiring looks whenever its stopped. Large purposeful air scoops and bulging bonnet and wheel arches hint at the cars potential, but in a subtle way.

The heart of the M3 is its excellent V8 4 Litre engine giving good power in the low-mid range and topping out at 420 hp at 8,000 rpm. But I will have to wait for the first service before I can sample the upper rev power. And the sound from the four exhausts is a restrained but fruity wail.

The Initial feel of the car is a big improvement on previous models, grip level are very good and lateral G gets very high before the Electronic Traction aids kick in, which by the way is a huge improvement on earlier models that tended spoil the driving experience, I've had the tail out a few times on the new car but only when really provoked, previous experience on BMW's saw the traction control kick in far too early, resulting in the power not being available just when it was getting fun.

I will keep you posted as I get more miles on the M3.