No Charges Were Brought

Not for trespass anyway.  It doesn't say about anything else - like theft - but I hope there were.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about this Car+Driver story - A Florida Tesla owner claimed that his car's battery had died on the way to a friend's house around midnight. So, he parked on a stranger's front lawn and plugged his charging cable into an external outlet for 12 hours.  Here's a photo:

The wording of the article implies to me that the author is not a fan of electric cars but he does have a go (quite rightly) at this particular electric car owner and concludes with the advice, "...when you screw up, you call AAA"

 

I'm presuming he means the American Automobile Association - but I suppose that in this case, he could be suggesting getting hold of some of these:

Who Knows?

It is the annual Wirral Historic Vehicle Run today and they always stop off for lunch at my local Garden Centre so I always have a wander up there.

Here is my album from the event three years ago - a few of those were there again today and there were a few different ones.

Once you've had a good nose at the cars on the run, it is always worth a stroll around the Garden Centre Car Park too -  there are always a few interesting cars in there whose owners have come along for the main event.

It was in there that I had to do a double-take on seeing this:

Was it the actual car from Doctor Who?  Or just a very good copy?  The number plate is right.

 

Only trouble is, according my Mycarcheck, that number plate belongs to a 2004 silver-coloured Land-Rover Freelander so this must be one they've stuck on here whilst on private land.

 

Here's the real Bessie being driven by Jon Pertwee (my first Doctor):

It has to be said, it's not a bad likeness - here it is from the other side with a nice Kharmann Ghia Cabrio next to it:

 So, a not bad replica then - I had to do some research to be sure.

Who knew?

Night Rider

I like this picture.

But if you've only recently passed your driving test, then you would only get to see it from the passenger seat.

 

That is if a proposed new law comes in to force whereby night driving is banned for new drivers.

 

The BBC cover the story here - it includes a video with young people saying a few things - a lot of which don't make sense.  And remember that it's not only young people who are newly-qualified drivers.  Who remembers Maureen?

Autocar also cover the story.  If you scroll past the crappy adverts there you will see that the commenters on the Autocar page are most definitely not in favour of this.  I get where they are coming from - it would need very careful rule-defining and be virtually impossible to police.

 

When does night-time begin?  Is it different at different times of the year?  Is it different in Scotland to Cornwall?  What happens when the clocks go forward or back?  What happens during a total eclipse of the sun?

There are so few police on our roads now thanks to 8 years of Tory austerity that we can't really expect those that are left to be looking in car windows every evening to see if the driver looks like he or she may not have held a full licence for very long.

And how, if they are not allowed to do it beforehand, does a driver having completed a probationary period cope when they are finally let out after dark?  Surely it's just pushing the problem a year or two down the line.

No, there is a far simpler solution - add a bit to the driving test to say that the driver has achieved a certain amount of night driving under the supervision of a qualified instructor.

Thank you and good night.

Aston Martin Enters a New Class of Vehicle.

Aston Martin has revealed the final design of the DBS GT Zagato:

Car+Driver have the story here.

 

It doesn't have a rear window.

And I'm guessing it's a two-seater.

So that makes it a van then.

Doing a Burn-Out in Australia

Ever heard of a "Gender Reveal"?

Is it when someone with Gender Identity Issues tells the World about it?

Or when we find out about the next Doctor Who?

I'd never heard of it but people younger and trendier than me know it is when a couple expecting a baby announce what make it is going to be.

An Australian idiot decided to do it in tyre-smoke.

Now I appreciate a good burn-out as much as the next bloke.

But if you don't know when to stop, you find that your black Holden Commodore:

Becomes even blacker.

Here's the Fox News (sorry about using them they had the best video) story.

I have no sympathy for them but in case you're wondering...

...it's a boy!

Greater Manchester Police Lamborghini Collection

They've collected three in the last week or so.

This is the latest:

The BBC story is here.

 

The idiot driving it turned up at GMP to pick up an uninsured car that had been seized.  The Police noticed that he wasn't insured to drive it so seized it too.

 

Now it just needs a paint job and some flashing lights and they can be like the Dubai Police: 

Bully For You

We're three episodes in now.

Two to go.

Another short series.

It was starting to grow on me a bit.

But last night's show began to confirm my fears.

The bit last week when Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle and star of his new film Himesh Patel had to drive at speed at a closing barrier seemed a bit childish and unnecessary.

This week they had Olympic Horsewoman and Queen's Grand-daughter Zara Tindall together with her England Rugby star husband Mike driving a Jag at speed between two bollards for no good reason.

I suppose it makes the interviews a bit shorter for them but I'd rather know a bit more about the guests than see this.

 

I'm hoping that TG doesn't go the same way as Driven did during its death throes - that was such a shame.

But the bit that made me feel really uncomfortable was when Paddy and Freddie were stopping Chris from winning the stuff-as-much-stuff-into-a-family-car competition.

It looks like I wasn't alone with the word "bullying" coming into my head.  Here's the Metro (the Newspaper) report on the ensuing Twitter-storm.

 

I wonder if that is why they got shut of Rory Reid - they can cope with accusations of bullying but racist bullying would be going too far.

 

Chris has taken to Twitter himself to say that he didn't feel victimised and that the others are really kind people.

 

I suppose he had to do that or they'd have beaten him up.