That's Handy

Here's a burnt out mini-bus I passed twice today:

It looks like the owner of the Renault in front of it was lucky not to have their car damaged.

Here's my dashcam footage of earlier in the day, just after the fire:

Couple of things to notice:

1. The drivers of the Aygo and the Audi were the sort of people who just stare ahead pretending that they haven't seen you wanting to pull out into a long stream of traffic being held up by a Fire Engine blocking the road.
2. The entrance opposite the junction that you can see a wheelie bin in...is the fire station.

Oh Jeremy!

You've really gone and done it this time haven't you?

"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her."

Not the cleverest of things to say about Meghan Markle.

Apparently it is a Game of Thrones reference.

I've never watched Game of Thrones.

And he made the reference in his column in what Greatest Hits Radio (Liverpool) calls "The paper we don't name"

Although calling it a paper is being generous.

And given that its readers are generally as thick as the proverbial brown stuff, they won't have gotten the reference even if they did watch Game of Thrones.

Anyway, the paper that Greatest Hits Radio (Liverpool) don't name has received over 12000 complaints and counting and he has replaced his online column with a tweet that shows a teensy bit of regret.

Even is own daughter spoke out about the misogyny in the article.

The BBC reporting of this is here.

It's a shame - this is after he'd established himself as a very competent host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and had received plaudits and new fans for his Amazon series about his farm.  There is a release date scheduled for series 2 of 10th Feb 2023 - less than two months off - is all publicity good publicity?

I'm a big fan of Jeremy's.

99% of the time.

We all know he loves to shock - I think he may have overdone it here though.

And the only person covered in manure will probably be him.  Does he keep cows on his farm?

Crashing Bore

I wouldn't call him a bore - I quite like him.

I also like Paddy McGuinness.

But, as I pointed out when it was first announced in 2018 - they should not be presenting Top Gear!

They've both managed to crash cars on the show since - Freddie in 2019 and Paddy in 2020 but this one appears more injurious.  The BBC story tells us that he was airlited to hospital - not good.  But his injuries are "not life-threatening" - okay.  It also tells us that it was not believed to be a crash at speed - also okay.

So why aren't they saying any more yet?

According to Piers Morgan (Yes I know!) who has been talking to TalkSport,

“I’m told it was a pretty serious crash and that Freddie’s going to be OK, but it might be a little bit more serious than first appreciated. I’m told he’s going to be OK, which is great news, but I’m also told it was a pretty nasty bang and that he’s had surgery and is recovering now and we’ll have to wait and see."

So he was told no real news then.

We don't know anything about this crash - but the cynic in me says that a motoring journalist wouldn't have done it and a racing driver certainly wouldn't have done it - I may be completely wrong - it may well just be prejudice on my part - I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

After all, look at Hamster's history - he nearly died.

And James' two incidents (one was not his fault) made the recent Grand Tour the best one ever.

When the show goes out, will I end up thinking that he is in the same league as them?

Or the same league as these people who, despite the best efforts of the snow, haven't had their number plates blurred out:

Tampering With Evidence

When you are Chief of Police, you may think you can get away with a minor misdemeanour.

But you must be pretty confident if you first ask if you are being recorded and then still flash your badge to try and get away with it.

That is what Tampa, Florida's ex-Chief of Police did:

She was being driven by her husband in a golf cart on a public highway.

Therefore not licenced and not insured.  And presumably they were a slow-moving hazard.

The BBC have the story here and CNN have it here.

They were stopped by a Deputy and she announced who she was and asked if they could be let off.

And she would have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky...

Hang on - how didn't she get away with it?

The Deputy did let them off.  And this happened weeks ago in November.

So I haven't a clue how this has come to light - did the Deputy hand his camera in for washing?

Or did his wife find Mary's business card and want to know the score?

Anyhoo, there is no mention of him - surely he should be in trouble too?

And why didn't she let the husband take the rap?  (Assuming you can use that phrase about someone who is actually guilty) After all, it was him who was driving.

Well, the mayor has forced a resignation which may sound a little harsh when you consider she has been a serving officer for 22 years, but...

Read the last sentence of the BBC report:

In 1995 she was fired as an officer after being arrested for attacking deputies during a traffic stop before being re-hired the following year.

Formula Gone

It's not just cars that are getting bigger.

The Formula 1 season is too.

It is in the news today because they have announced that there won't be a Chinese Grand Prix in 2023.

But that would still leave 23 which is the biggest calendar ever.  I'm glad I don't watch F1 any more - it would take up nearly half a year's worth of Sundays to watch races that have a devalued points stake and the last few races will probably be moot anyway as a decent driver/car combination will have wrapped up the championship before Halloween.

When I was young, there were about a dozen races - mostly in Europe.

Then Bernie started chasing the money and along came such noble countries as Russia and Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

And of course China, who, apart from assorted human rights issues, seem to have cocked up Covid which is the actual reason why they are not hosting now - stuff human rights, Sky need more viewers.

Meanwhile, a European country not known for hosting F1, Romania, had a problem with a vehicle for a different multinational today.

Literally a vehicle.

A Coca-Cola Christmas lorry in fact:

Oops.

Looks to me like a fridge in the trailer has had a fault. The BBC story is here.

Also looks to me like there are loads of different uses for Coca-Cola.

Although putting out fires doesn't appear to be one of them.

Just 17

I used to have one of these:

I thought it looked really cool.  I didn't realise just how much it looked like the uncool Renault 12 in real life.  But then again, it was based on the 12.

I found that picture on this fan site which I'm going to have to spend a while trawling through later.  Not sure how they can describe it as red there though - it is most definitely orange.

Anyway, what got me thinking about Renault 17s?

Well, this did - it's an Auto Express story about the Hyundai Pony concept car from 1974.  It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro a short few years after Gaston Juchet's 17 so I think I know where he got some inspiration from:

Hyundai have got George in again to recreate this for the modern day - the original sadly no longer exists. Whether or not it will be like the electric Pony I blogged about last year we just don't know.

I bet that if they had mass-produced that concept, Matchbox would have done a version and I'd have owned it - like these ones:

Looks like I was definitely in to red, orange and yellow cars - and it didn't matter that buses were in the wrong scale.

And how old was I then?

Just 11.

Riyadh, We Have a Right-Hand-Drive Car.

In Saudi Arabia, it is an acknowledged punishment for stealing to have your right hand cut off.

This would make it difficult to drive a manual left-hand-drive car.

So maybe that is why right-hand-drive cars are banned in Saudi Arabia.

Being a Welsh football fan, I was aware of a pilgrimage to the World Cup Finals in Qatar by a group of Welsh fans using an electric car:

The story is here (although I first heard about it on Radio Wales)

And they would have succeeded too, if it wasn't for those pesky Saudi laws.

Houston, We Have a Moron.

Well, HAD a moron.

Here he is very shortly before his death.

There is a big clue in that picture as to the manner of his demise.

And here is the story as reported by my namesake newspaper.  It's worth clicking on that link just for the first couple of reader comments.

There is no sympathy but much comment about Darwin Awards.  I concur wholeheartedly with this sentiment.

Heralding a Mystery

As someone who appreciates a bit of left-wing satire, I follow The Daily Mash on Facebook.

But, as a UK car nerd, I was somewhat irked by this which appeared on my feed:

Every UK car nerd knows that they stopped building Triumph Heralds well before the 1976 that that P registration indicates.

So what is the story and why does that number plate look so familiar to me?

Was it one of the several "driven" by Thora Hird playing Edie in Last of The Summer Wine?

I put driven in quotes because

a) I don't know if Thora actually drove the cars herself

b) Whoever was driving, the joke was that Edie was crap at driving

But, in either case - no:

So, if it isn't Edie's, then I must know it from somewhere else.  A search or for "Red Triumph Herald Convertible" brought up no more images of it - not even the one from the Daily Mash piece.  A search for the registration number did bring up that photo though - but bugger all else.  Search by Image didn't help either - it just brought up some similar cars plus some Imps and Simcas.

So, what does mycarcheck tell us?

It tells us it really is a Trumph Herald from 1976:

But, of course, it can't be.  Can it?

The Government MOT check site tells us more.  It tells us that it is a 1969 car that was first registered in 1976.

Incidentally, there are only 5 MOTs recorded on there from 2013 to 2018 (when the rules were changed and MOTs were no longer required on cars over 40 years old.)  It looks like it was only doing about 100 miles in between those MOTs so I guess that it just goes to car shows every so often.

So why wasn't in registered for the first seven years of its life?

Sometimes it has been stuck in a car showroom or private collection and sometimes it has been a military vehicle.  Surely the military wouldn't be interested in a convertible Herald would they?

Except that is the wrong colour and it is left-hand drive.

So not the one Daily Mash have found.

So where did they find it?

And why does it look familiar?

I haven't the foggiest.

Grab One While You Can

Last week I posted about the forthcoming demise of the Fiesta.

Twice.

Now it appears to be top of the sales charts.

Not sure whose though.

The Yahoo one I've just linked to could well be the SMMT.  The BBC have it in at number 6 while my original Auto Express story didn't have it in the Top Ten at all.

It's a bit like when Radio 1 suddenly had some competition and an alternative Pop Chart for us to listen to on a Sunday night.

So, which is "The The The The Chart Chart Chart Chart That That That That [pause] Counts"

You may need to have sat on a Sunday night with your fingers hovering over one if these to understand that last sentence.

Only one of the different lists isn't completely depressing - in that one, half of the entries are not SUVs.

Yahoo!

Am I Boring?

Well, I have just bought a grey Volvo.

And maybe even Volvo think they are boring...

...because I've bought mine on the same day that Volvo have said, "We're continually re-evaluating our product portfolio and as part of this process have temporarily removed the S60 from sale in the UK.”

More bloody management-speak - Autocar have the story here.

So I've said farewell to my BMW.

And one of the last things I caught on the dashcam en route to the Volvo dealer was this tit.

Is he typical of cyclists?  Am I typical of Volvo drivers?  Is Jerry from Lowestoft typical of Tory Party members?

Maybe. Nah. Probably.

Video Nasty

On Tuesday I reported on the imminent demise of The Ford Fiesta.

This has now been confirmed.

And Ford have made an extremely sickly video to try to justify it.

In it, it becomes apparent that the Fiesta is to be replaced (and not in a Liz Truss way) with a quartet of electric SUVs.

"Because it's job was done."

They have a Puma in the Suella Braverman role which seems appropriate.

Never mind, here's a video from the BBC today with a happy ending:

The Party's Over

The Conservative Party?

I wish.

No, this party is a fiesta - the Ford Fiesta is dead.

Or will be soon anyway.

A bit of crappy Ford management-speak states,

"We are accelerating our efforts to go all-in on electrification and therefore review our vehicle portfolio in line with our business strategy. We do not comment on speculation and will share more information in the coming months.”

This is their response to being asked if the Fiesta will be joining its already deceased sibling, the Mondeo.

So they won't deny it then?

Auto-Express have the story here.

Autocar use it as an excuse to repeat one of their slideshows.

The Fiesta is already conspicuously absent from the top-selling cars lists - like this one - which is sadly dominated by cross-over SUVs - like Ford's horrific Kuga and Puma which both get mentions.  

Interesting that the Focus has gone from the top 10 too.

Also interesting though is that in at number one is Vauxhall's Fiesta-rival the Corsa.

I think Ford's Marketing Department have missed the party.

Did he make it to the toilet in time to avoid an accident?

Nope.

BBC News have the story here.

Basically, a Japanese gentleman whose job it is to help preserve Japan's cultural heritage has accidentally reversed his car into a bit of it.

And the bit he reversed in to is a communal latrine in Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto. (Which is an anagram of Tokyo).

Although these toilets (which is an anagram of T.S.Eliot) were 20 holes in the floor.

It's a strange looking car isn't it?

And it looks like someone has written "willy" on the back of it.

But if you look closer, you will see it says "WiLL Vi" - for it is a Toyota WiLL Vi - a rather quirky and rather ugly precursor to Scion strongly related to The Yaris.

Learn more about it here - I think this one ended up in the right place.

America Tending to the Right

With the mid-terms quickly approaching, I hope this doesn't happen.  DC will be watching closely.

One thing that I have always liked about America, and I have driven a bit over there (although not in a long time) is the rule they have in most States whereby you can turn right through a red traffic light (assuming it is safe to do so)

There are still rules to follow of course - here's a little Driver Ed for you.

And here is another Driver Ed:

But I digress.

Back to the traffic light rule.

According to Car+Driver, Washington (and the rest of D.C.) are looking to remove the turn right on red rule.  The story is here.  Apparently fatalities are on the up with pedestrians not looking around the corners as they cross and, more importantly, drivers not checking for pedestrians or cyclists as they go through the red lights.

This will become even more of a problem as quieter electric vehicles become more prevalent. 

Now throw in something I had not heard of before called The Idaho Stop and much chaos and death will ensue.  The Idaho Stop (although not fully implemented in D.C.) basically allows cyclists to do what they think they can do here in the UK and proceed carte blanche through stop signs and red lights.

Car+Driver added one of their little 50/50 votes at the end of story and, since we petrol-heads all think we are such skilled drivers, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome with as many as 31% agreeing with tighter rules:

I just hope there are some pleasant surprises for Joe in the vote next month.

Umbrage, Pus and a Homologated Lightweight Chassis

Silly story out of F1 today.

Even Lewis Hamilton says it is silly.

Here it is on the BBC F1 page.  The Mercedes team were fined €25,000 after qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix because they filled out a scrutineering form saying Hamilton would comply with the regulations not to wear jewellery - and then he wore his nose-stud.  Apparently, he is "the only driver to wear significant amounts of piercings."

It doesn't say whereabouts these piercings are - or how the scrutineers check whether they are in place or not.

Anyway, he is taking the Alex Higgins Bow Tie defence and got a letter from his doctor claiming exemption for medical reasons.

F1 claim that body piercings are against the rules as they are in danger of getting a bit hot in a fire.

I would have thought them being ripped out during a crash would have been more of an issue - but I don't follow F1 these days so I may be missing something.

Meanwhile, Lewis is also in the unusual position of not running away with the championship this year.  This is mostly due to the success of the Red Bull Team - who suddenly find themselves under investigation for breaking budget rules.

One person who has been speaking out on the subject is Mercedes team boss Heinz Wolff who never falls fouls of the bow tie rule:

Sorry, that should be Toto Wolff - and he has fallen foul of the bow tie rule:

Anyway, Red Bull boss (and Mr. Ginger Spice) Christian Horner has taken umbrage and is talking about legal action.  But his team need to concentrate on rules about having enough fuel to test when you do a qualifying lap - because they didn't - so their top driver, Max Verstappen,  ended up eighth on the starting grid.

Max reckoned that Singapore is a difficult circuit to overtake on so he wouldn't be able to win from there. 

He was right - his team-mate won.

He did finish 7th though, two places ahead of Lewis.

Maybe Lewis was being weighted down by his jewellery.

Badge of Honor

I've spelled it the American way because this is a story from over there.

According to Car+Driver, Ford can't sell 40 to 45 thousand of their top-selling F150 pick-ups because they are missing a vital part.

Which vital part?

Is it something to do with the global chip shortage?

Nope.

It seems to be to do with a naughty company called Tribar.

Here's the story as told by the website of Michigan Radio.  Basically, Tribar accidentally released about 10,000 gallons of hexavalent chromium solution into the local water system.

It's not nice stuff and it's not the first time this has happened.

Oops.

Although it is quite useful, for example, in the manufacture of Ford badges.

Tribar are now running at reduced capacity while they are trying to clean up their mess and Ford have a shortage of car badges.

It is probable that the two events are connected - ether that or the lots of little badges have been melted to make one big one for this place:

After all, it is named after the Ford badge.  It's called Blue Oval City.  Hope they've got a nice, clean water supply.

Cognisance

Talking of TV shows involving Richard Hammond, I watched another episode of Richard Hammond's Workshop yesterday too.

It's now being shown on Freeview channel Quest.

I think I like it.

But then it's a show where they do up cars in need of restoration.

And I like all of those - but there isn't anything particularly different about this one.

They do have a frail-looking dog:

But apart from that - nothing else that stands out.  So it'll come down to personalities.  Father and son team Neil and Anthony Greenhouse are Richard's business partners and you get to see more of Richard's wife Mindy and their daughter - who, along with her boyfriend irritated me when they called Richard and his Land-Rover and trailer away to rescue her when she had a puncture.

The workshop is called "The Smallest Cog" - presumably a play on Hammond's short stature.

Series 2 has been greenlit so it will be a success as a TV show - which takes the pressure off it being a success as a car restoration business.

But it almost certainly will be - which is a presumption I am fully cognisant of.

Best. Grand Tour. Ever.

I watched A Scandi Flick yesterday.

Don't read this if you haven't watched it yet but do plan to!

The boys were on top form.

I suspect that Jeremy was very much involved in the writing.  It had a lot of the humour of Top Gear when that was at its best - like the camping trip adventure and the making-an-advert-for-the-VW-Corrado piece.

The bit on the ski slope was just hilarious.

I refuse to believe, though, that the two most shocking events in the show were scripted.

If they were, then somebody deserves an Oscar.

Firstly James smashes his Mitsubishi Evo at high speed sideways into a cave wall and breaks a rib and the car.

Then, once it has been made roadworthy again, he crashes it through a frozen lake surface and he has to escape a semi-submerged car.

It is after this second accident that Hammond (why does he get known by his surname?) comes to the fore and "remembers" seeing a way of using some trees to make a winch to retrieve the stricken car.

Now surely it was the production team who cut down the trees and set everything up to perform this rescue - Jeremy and Clarkson got the credit but whoever did it - it was very effective.

And excellent television.

You would have to be a very harsh critic to think otherwise.

Cars and Coffee (and cats)

 And Rita Ora.

Or should that be "Rita Aygo"?

No.  This story is about an Ora not an Aygo.  It's in Auto Express.

An Ora Funky Cat.

Formerly just known as the Ora Cat.

It has scored 5 stars in the latest NCAP Safety Testing.

But its percentage scores were beaten by Great Wall’s Wey Coffee 01.

So I guess it's hard to beat a coffee.

Trussed Up

I'm getting fed up of Autocar's car news.

It seems to just now be "business insights" that you have to register for or repeats of slideshows.

So I decided to go back to my old favourite - Auto Express car news.

There they had a couple of stories from earlier in the week about how our new feeble-minded, Thatcher-Wannabe Prime Minister was trying to woo the 180000 old white men who got to choose the replacement for the bumbling lecherous Churchill-Wannabe liar.

I'm talking, of course, about Liz Truss:

Hang on, that might be the wrong picture.

Yes, this one is Liz Truss:

You can tell by the spurious union flags.

Anyway, there is one story I actually find myself agreeing with the woman on - she is not a fan of Smart Motorways and suggests the evidence she's seen indicates the concept has failed.

Too bloody right it has - people have died!

The story is here.  Every time I drive to Manchester on the M56 I get slowed down by the roadworks behind the conversion of a stretch of it into Smart Motorway - I dread the day it is opened so that doubles the torture.

Just because you call something "smart" it doesn't mean it actually is - look at Liz Truss for example.

In the other story, she suggests that she is “prepared” to look into scrapping mandatory speed limits on motorways as prime minister.  Now using words like "suggest" and "prepared to look into" means that this is as likely to happen as the 40 new hospitals Boris promised us.

And is she saying she wants to make us more like Germany!?

We could have stayed in the EU for that.

This story wouldn't have chimed with the old men voting for the PM so maybe that is why the final voting went a lot closer than most people - me included - thought it would.

Never mind.

At least Priti Patel is gone.

Ever put the wrong type of fuel in your tank?

Nope, me neither.

But apparently, lots of people do.

If you are going to do it, it is slightly less worse to put diesel in a petrol tank than petrol in a diesel tank.

But try not to do either.

Especially if you are a tanker driver.

Melbourne Fuel Station Shuts After Diesel Tank Filled With Unleaded Petrol

You'd think they'd have different coloured nozzles or something.

Stupid Bits of Road

There's a mini-roundabout I tackle nearly every day.

It may make sense if you are coming from some of the directions - but not from the way I am coming from.  The car in front will now demonstrate the way sensible people (like me) tackle it:

Maybe if I had a smaller car I could do this instead:

Meanwhile, there is a busy stretch of dual carriageway not too far from where I live that used to be National Speed limit.  Which meant that you could drive at 70mph on it:

OK, not a particularly exciting video that one - and it doesn't look much like a 70-zone does it?  That is because, several years ago, it was deemed unsafe for 70 due to not having a central reservation with barriers.  So it became a 40-zone.  Then, last year, big roadworks appeared!  Did that mean that they were going to install a central barrier to help relieve the congestion that appears there every rush-hour?

Nope.

You've seen the footage - they made it worse by turning one lane in each direction into a cycle lane.

It will be chaotic if someone breaks down there - and emergency vehicles are definitely going to get held up.

The only motorised vehicles that can get in there are underneath impatient motorcyclists:

Telling

Some people get very passionate about Tesla - either for or against.

And there has been some questioning of the safety of the Tesla Autonomous driving systems.

But one Tesla fan is so convinced of how safe it is, he is prepared to have one drive at his child.

Sounds like a modern day take on Swiss fictional hero William Tell - famous for shooting an apple off his son's head.

Actually, he is prepared to have one drive at somebody else's child.  Drive.com.au have the story here.

He advertised for someone willing to put their child forward and actually found someone.  The person had to first clear it with his wife - but now that has been sorted it looks like it will be going ahead this weekend.

It's not as horrific as it sounds - the car will be travelling at 5mph and have someone sat in the driving seat to override the system if need be.

Not exactly folklore then.

Oaty Crumble

Fox News aren't big on historical figures.  They have a story today that I probably can't link to - (if I can it is here)

But then I'm not happy about linking to a Fascist website anyway even if they do have some good car stories.

So, today they claim that "The Ford Bronco 'Oates' is a motoring mystery."

Ford have included in their latest VIN decoding information a variant of their Bronco called the Bronco Oates and this has confused the stuffing out of Fox News.

The only Oates's that they can come up with are an elderly writer called Joyce Carol Oates and half of Hall & Oates, John Oates:

He's toned down his moustache since his heydey.

And they can't see what either of them have to do with a rugged SUV.

So they have clearly never heard of Captain Lawrence Oates of Antarctic fame:

Maybe Ford plan to drive a Bronco to The South Pole.  But they would be 110 years too late to help Captain Oates.

Given what happened to him though, if that is why they they are using that name, they would be better off calling it The Bronco Amundsen.

Water and Electricity

They aren't supposed to mix are they?

Well Tesla are absolutely encouraging it.

This story from Drive.au explains how they have put a mini swimming-pool at one of their recharging stations in Germany.

It is heated - by solar energy of course.

It only accommodates four people though.

But there are some branded balls to play with:

I wonder if they also supply diving gloves?

I'm not into Hyundais or Tik-Tok

But if I was in to both, and I had low-life tendencies, then I would probably be looking to emulate the Kia Challenge - which also works on their cousin-brand Hyundai. I don't know if their posher cousin-brand Genesis is affected, you would hope that they would all come with immobilisers.

The challenge, which has nothing to do with a bucket of icy water, involves breaking a rear window, breaking the steering column shroud and using a USB cable somehow to start and therefore steal the car.

According to yahoo!news, this is an expanding problem in The States.  They cite:

• Louisville Metro Police Department announced on Wednesday that 52 vehicles, half of which were Kias and the other half Hyundais, were stolen between July 1 and July 25.
• Arlington Police Department received 12 reports of stolen Kia vehicles, with most occurring towards the end of July. Several underaged individuals have been arrested and charged.
• Police in St. Petersburg, Florida, reported 56 stolen vehicles in the last two weeks, with 23 of them being 2021 or older Kia and Hyundai models.

It is spreading worldwide too with the first instance down under in Brisbane.

This is poor design on the part of the Korean manufacturers - the 2022 cars now do come with immobilisers.

But if you are into slightly older Hyundais, you also need to be in to Krook-Lok.

Doing Bird

Well he should be soon.

Interesting story today from the BBC about two guys who crashed a pick-up into a shop then fled the scene.

Fortunately, the shop was empty - if you want to rent it, you'll need to contact Fielder & Jones - ask for the shop with a truck in it.

Actually don't - they've moved it:

I'm a bit miffed that I can't tell what make it is.

Anyway, the driver tried to make a getaway running through a field of emus.

So it can't have been Michael Parkinson.

They attacked him.  You can read the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald take on it here.

Meanwhile, in other emu/motoring news - Runaway emu rescued from busy A32 in Hampshire.

Make for the Border

 Here's a picture of the approach to the Wallasey Mersey Tunnel.

In the olden days, the "ATTENDED" lanes were called "MANNED" 

I have no idea how offended the women working there were by that.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, there seems to be a lane for a specific makes of cars crossing in to the US:

The other lanes (thinking back to my O-Level Spanish) are:

• Cars Only
• Lorries and cows
• Joint Despatch (I presume this is drug smuggling)
• Cold Stuff

This is from a Drive.com.au story.

But wait, that isn't a Tesla in the Tesla lane!

Apparently, that lane is for goods being transported to the Tesla facility in Austin, Texas.

Next they'll be telling us that down the M53 from the Mersey Tunnel there is a lane that isn't reserved for people driving Vauxhalls:

Pregnant Pause

I'm a Wordle addict.

So I've now got a log in to the New York Times - I get to keep my statistics despite using several different devices to play it..

So I've checked out their Motoring section.

Or, as they like to call it, "Automobiles"

I found this lady staring back at me:

She has the very American name of Brandy Bottone.  She is VERY pregnant and has an enormous car door.

She is somewhat miffed because she was stopped by a sheriff in Dallas for driving her enormous vehicle in a multiple occupancy lane.  The sheriff argued that there was nobody else in the car but she reckoned that, since the awful change to the abortion laws in The States, that her unborn baby should be counted.

I can see her point.

But she now has a $275 ticket to fight.

But all that the photo needs to make it look like a British local newspaper photo would be for her to be holding up the ticket.  But then again, they probably haven't sent someone down from New York to Dallas just to take a photo.

"Photo" - that would be a good word for Wordle.