A Nice Little Hatch

 I love seeing the old-fashioned roadsigns that still remain in parts of Britain.

This one is close to my house. It is near a junction with a tight turn.  You can see the road marking is a bit faded.

So they re-did the road markings a month or two ago.

Notice the hatching on the left.

It is because there is a very narrow pavement there that doesn't give people wandering around the corner much room.

Now, according to the UK Government,

"Hatched markings with a single, broken boundary line may be used at the edge of the road or next to the central reservation of a dual carriageway: the diagonal lines always slope towards the direction of travel. You should not enter any hatched area bounded by a broken line unless it is safe to do so."

I always give that area a wide berth when I'm turning left there.

I would be just keeping quiet and not writing this post if it wasn't the case.

But I see lots of others just driving right over the hatches.

Despite them being fresh and bright. 

So I decided to just stand at that junction for a bit and see how many observed the hatching and how many didn't. I stood there for 5 minutes recording every vehicle that made that left turn.

All 18 of them.

What did I learn?

Both Ford Kugas that passed were driven right over the hatching.

But then that is a crossover SUV so I would expect nothing less.

Seven of the vehicles were crossover SUVs. Of these, four were over the line, two were fine and this one is borderline:

There were eight proper cars. So proper cars are still outnumbering cross-overs but only just.

Anyway 5 out of the 8 were over the line so it looks like I can't single out SUV drivers here like I was hoping I'd be able to.

So what does that leave?

Vans.

I wasn't hopeful.

Normally, I find vans being driven very badly on the M53.

But the first two around this junction executed it perfectly.

I was astonished. 

Then this one came round:

So, roadsigns may have changed.

And vehicle types are changing.

But you can still rely on a van driver to be a tit.

Hell on Wheels

I've never really got Halloween.

The rest of my household love it though.

As do other households.

Like the St.Helens family in this BBC News story.

Every year, they decorate their house to excess and use it to collect money for charity.  In previous years, they have done a Beetlejuice themed display, a Wednesday themed one and a Stranger Things one.

This year, they've gone with Ghostbusters.

So why is this in a car blog?

Because they bought a Vauxhall Astra estate for £400 and turned it into an Ecto-1 clone.

Well maybe not a clone - but a very decent effort.

Given they were starting from an Astra estate. 

They've probably spent a lot more than that on wrapping and decorating it.

Scary.

Who do the AA use when they break down?

The AA of course.

Although wouldn't you have thought he'd be able to fix it at the roadside?

So who do Amazon use for their deliveries?

Woodside MotorFreight it would appear...

That video was from the same bit of the M53 that I got the AA photo a few years back wondering when I would ever use it.

There were three electric 76 registered vans on that transporter.

I've hardly seen any 76 reg vehicles this year so was surprised that Google AI reckons it's been a record year.

The first two I saw were not SUVs - they were REAL CARS!

This meant I was lulled into a false sense of security thinking the popularity was waning.

They are as popular as ever - including this stupid one also on the same bit of the M53:

 So here's my fourth link to the same Blog Post today.

Welsh Sport

Four days is a long time in football.

One minute I'm ecstatic about a Welsh win.

Next they lose at home to another Scandinavian team.

Never mind, Gerwyn Price took a three set lead against Luke Humphries in the World Darts Grand Prix.

Bugger.

 

But wait a minute!  What's this?

Elfyn Evans is the new World Rally Champion!

In the last year it will be a proper competition.

And he's done it in a Toyota Yaris...

 ...not a stupid SUV!

Puma Trainers

Two different motoring stories caught my eye yesterday but I didn't add them to my 'Blog because I was busy watching Wales beat Norway in the UEFA Nations League.

The first, from Auto Express, concerns Ford returning to the World Rally Championship after a couple of years off that were preceded by four years using a Ford Puma of all things!

If Wikipedia is right, then it only won 3 races in all that time.

And one of those had Sebastien Loeb at the wheel.

That will be because it is a cross-over SUV.

And significantly lowering it didn't make enough difference.

Because SUVs are not sportscars!

They presumably didn't want to use the historically successful Focus and Fiestas because they knew that they were due to be discontinued.

So they destroyed their fan base instead.  No racing fan is going to be interested in a tall vehicle tackling winding roads.  And no Puma buyer is interested in the WRC.

Now Ford have realised this so are returning in 2028 with THE FORD FIESTA!

That they stopped building in 2023!

Similarly, in the BTCC, the brilliant Ash Sutton has just won his fifth championship in a FORD FOCUS!

...that they stopped building earlier this year.  And, it was the saloon version that he used - WHICH WAS NEVER SOLD IN BRITAIN!

The "B" of BTCC stands for "British" you know.

So they are prostituting their racing heritage just like they have prostituted the names Puma, Mustang and Capri.

They are also taking advantage of new WRC regulations given that, from 2027, the cars don’t need to share their shell or chassis with a road-car alternative. They must only "reference a road car that the manufacturer builds".

So they can build whatever they like, with whatever chassis and whatever engine - and call it a Ford Explorer Rally Car.

I think the World Rally Championship has just become pointless.

A bit like asking young people in Northern Ireland if the new Graduated Driving Licence is a good idea.  

Although, the BBC, who do like to give both sides of the story, have found one who isn't totally against the idea.

The GDL (not to be confused with DRL which is something completely different altogether and is so commonplace it doesn't get mentioned any more) kicks in for anyone who hasn't passed their driving test by April 1st 2027 with extra restrictions for under 24 year-olds.

The strange thing for me though, after hearing lots of stories about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland over the past few decades, was reading the line,

For the minister behind the Department for Infrastructure reforms, Sinn Féin's Liz Kimmins, graduated driver licensing is about reducing the risks faced by those getting behind the wheel for the first time.

It's positive that a party with an "interesting" past is now able to participate fully in positive changes which, after some recent tragedies on both sides of the Irish Sea involving young drivers, has to be a very good thing.

So it does.