George Michael Impersonator

Two different BBC car stories caught my eye today.

Ford have launched a car that can be driven hands-free on British motorways.

WHY!?

OK, so I suppose you  have to start somewhere - but not with this.

Apparently, you have to keep your eyes on the road ahead and "the driver is not permitted to use their mobile, fall asleep or conduct any activity that takes attention away from the road."

So what is the point?

Plus, this is a Ford Mustang Mach e that has a maximum speed of 80mph.

DON'T CALL SOMETHING THAT CAN ONLY DO 80MPH A MUSTANG!

I hate the way Ford are reusing classic car names on horrible SUVs - I'm looking at you, Ford Puma.

I don't normally like the comments under BBC stories - the ones I usually read tend to be full of angry Gammons still trying to defend Brexit.  But this one is lots of angry Gammons and angry non-gammons coming up with more and more reasons why this won't work in Britain.  Smart Motorways being a good one - this car is supposed to safely grind to a halt if the driver loses interest in the road ahead - you will have cars stopping all over the place on warm, Summer afternoons.

And will Police have to check whether or not it is the right age of Mustang when they see a driver doing jazz-hands while travelling at 70mph down the M6? And that his hands-free subscription is up to date?

Yes, you need to subscribe to this hands-free driving lark as well!

So why have I called this post, "George Michael Impersonator?"

Ah, well that's because of my second BBC story which combines my love of cars with my love of Swansea City Football Club.  Danny Graham made 54 appearances for us. This includes when we were in the Premier League, so I don't know why we are only a sub-note in the story of him crashing an expensive Jaguar-Land-Rover vehicle into a Co-op in County Durham:

Whilst over the limit.

I wonder if his hands were on the wheel at the time?

It's a Good Job Rose Royce Are American

Otherwise we could have the Rose Royce Rolls-Royce.

And that would be silly.

But would allow for a car wash joke.

Instead we have the Shirley Bassey Rolls-Royce, the Roger Daltrey Rolls-Royce and the Ronnie Wood Rolls-Royce.

Plus six more.

Autocar have the story today of how a series of Wraiths have been commissioned to celebrate nine British music icons.  They claim to have collaborated with them and the resulting cars will be sold off for charities nominated by the stars.

Given that a Wraith goes for about a quarter of a million pounds, I'm not sure how the funding of this is happening - maybe it's worth it for the publicity for owners BMW.

Here's The Daltrey one - it looks like it's got a concave bonnet:

 

But it hasn't.

I'm not sure how they've collaborated with Sir George Martin (who is one of the celebratees - if that's a word) given that he died about a year ago.

Ray Davies of The Kinks has one too but that leaves four unaccounted for.

David Bowie and George Michael would be obvious choices but again, difficult to collaborate with now.

Also, all of the other musicians are all getting on a bit so maybe Elton John would be too young for consideration too.

Which just leaves Cliff Richard who wouldn't want a Wraith as he was always associated with Shadows.

There's Paul McCartney of course.

Or they could do one in memory of his writing partner:

 

Perhaps not.