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.

Getting Down With The South Side Posse

Autoguide call this video...

..."The worst car dealership ad you've ever seen"

Bit harsh.

The story is here.  I think it is great fun and derserves more Youtube hits.

Note that this video has the sobriquet "CLEAN VERSION".  That will be because there is a naughty word bleeped out.

At the bottom of that Autoguide Mitsubishi story is a link to another Autoguide Mitsubishi story that includes a video that contains a lot of swearing.

But when you watch it, you may just understand why.

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

You're not in Britain, that's for sure.  Back in December, Top Gear had the story that Subaru were, due to dwindling sales, ceasing the sale of the WRX boy-racer special in the UK.  To mark this passing, the February edition of Top Gear Magazine had an interesting potted history of the model including its many forms dating back into the last century when it was better known as The Impreza.

Your average boy-racer who wanted a rally-inspired 4WD saloon always had two choices, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo or the Subaru Impreza.  They were always very evenly matched so it became more a brand loyalty issue or just a case of going by the looks.

Not being a boy-racer, I never really considered either car but I did think that some of the Imprezas (like the one Richard Hammond took to find the source of The Nile) were very visually challenging.

Today, Autoguide have the unveiling of a new WRX Concept at the New York Motor Show - a foretaste of a car we won't be seeing on British roads until the importers catch on.

Autoguide claim it looks quite Jaguar-ish but I can see quite a bit of this car in it...

Quite an evolution.

Evo Schtick

A story in Autoguide about how a Mitsubishi Mirage Evo Hatch is a possibility.

My initial reaction was "What is a Mitsubishi Mirage?" We don't have them in the UK.

My follow-up reaction after taking in this picture......was "Bloody Hell - that's bland!"

Apart from anything else, how can a car like that share it's name with a plane like this?...Anyway, an Evo version might be OK but I can't see it taking off.

Checking out the UK Mitsubishi range, it seems like there is a big hole in it. You've got the quite passable Colt and the quite ugly little electric i-Miev:...Tata Nano anyone? Sticking silly graphics on the side doesn't make it any prettier you know.

And then they do the big cars starting with the proper Evo - based on the Lancer - which itself doesn't seem that big until you add on all of the Evo gubbins.

So we could have the basic Lancer to fill that gap - except they tried that and it didn't sell.

So how about the Mirage?

Err, no thanks!

We'll take the hole please.

Drink-Driving Caused This...

If the 23 year-old owner of this Mitsubishi Evo (for that is what this yellow car iswas) had known what was going to happen - I'm sure he'd have stuck to the lemonade (assuming he actually is guilty - he's only "suspected" at the moment)

The only problem is - it wasn't him who did this - it was the police officers who arrested him. In such cases, they are supposed to organise a recovery vehicle to come and remove the vehicle of an alleged offender. In this case, they decided to take it for a spin themselves - literally. Oops.

The full story is on BBC News here. Greater Manchester Police have said they will pay for the damage caused to the properties but what about the car? It wouldn't be insured because it was being driven unlawfully and without permission. Will anyone be able to sue anyone? Will that bloke who played a dodgy copper in The Bill and now claims to be an injury lawyer get involved?