Slightly Stupid, Quite Stupid and Really Stupid

Three stories reported over two days by BBC News.

Slightly stupid is an elderly couple who parked their Ford Fiesta somewhere near Cheltenham Hospital but can't remember where - it is still missing.

Quite Stupid (unless it was a mechanical problem but it almost certainly wasn't) was at least one of the drivers of these two wrecked sports cars:

They crashed at a roundabout in Sheffield.  Looking at the damage, speed must have played a factor.  And for a Ferrari 458 and a Porsche 718 (or Cayman to us old-fashioned people) to both be involved makes me think they may have been known to each other.

But really stupid is this woman in Plymouth who thought she could drive through a lot of runners taking part in a half-marathon.

I Don't Want a Porsche

If you were offering to give me one, I wouldn't say no. And I don't dislike Porsches - in fact I quite like some of them. In fact I quite like a lot of them.

But I've never really wanted one.

I've always been a bit scared of the 911 with its engine-sticking-out-the-back-which-really-screws-with-the-handling design which was fine for the Beetle but dodgy for anything that can achieve motorway speeds. Now I know that Porsche have added loads of stability trickery and suspension cleverness over the last 150 years that the 911 has been evolving and it is allegedly a lot tamer and safer to drive nowadays but why not just move the engine?

I have never liked the Boxster - it looks like two fronts of the same car welded back-to-back. Especially the early ones - especially with the hood up.

Yuk!

The Cayenne is just an SUV with a 911 front and the Panamera looks like a 911 stretched-limo.

So, if I was forced to pick - I'd go for the Cayman - the halfway-house between the Boxster and the 911. It looks good - it looks fun - and the engine is in a sensible mid position.

Top Gear Magazine and most of the motoring websites have been making a fuss of the new 2014 (what happened to 2013!?) Cayman as presented at the LA Auto Show lately. Here's the story from my favourite site. It includes a video presented by a Loyd Grossman soundalike.

OK, so maybe, just maybe, I nearly want a Porsche.