Not Fine Parking

May must be motoring offences month with two more stories from the BBC today.

The first one involves lots of people in High Wycombe parking where they shouldn't.

In a car park.

And they weren't told that they shouldn't park there.

And in reality, it was only a small corner of the car park that they shouldn't have parked in.

So some sad traffic warden has wasted a few hours doing this:

All tickets were rescinded - the story is here.

While up in Scotland - on a roundabout clearly marked with Police "No Waiting" cones, somebody has parked there anyway - on top of a steel drum:

That story is here - it was a stolen car.

Can't tell if the car was damaged or not - I would suspect it has been.

But if it hasn't been then that is a bit of very impressive parking.

And they have avoided getting a ticket.

Horse Jam

I don't really like horror films.  Especially ones that are not advertised as horror films.  I started watching a film once - it started with a group of motorists stuck in a traffic jam.  If that wasn't bad enough, a large number of vandals suddenly appeared and started to damage the bonnets and roof panels of the stranded cars.  And to make it worse, there was plinky, jolly music being played over it all.

I switched channels and vowed never to watch any of La La Land again.

This photo reminded me of that:

It is from this BBC story about a traffic jam in North Wales caused by a horse on the carriageway.

It is a bit misleading in that it makes it look like a major incident with an escaped horse although in reality, the traffic was stopped briefly by the Police so that the horse could be moved from a broken-down horsebox to a non-broken-down horsebox.  Even if the horseboxes had rear doors, (which they don't appear to) getting a horse that is already nervous about vandals on the roof safely along the roadside would be a nightmare - ha "mare" - geddit!?

What are you supposed to do when your horsebox breaks down anyway?

I've just renewed my breakdown recovery.  I was with AutoAid - not one of the big four - AA/RAC/National Breakdown/Green Flag but good value and they are big enough to sponsor BTCC cars:

So I was surprised to see I could be with Green Flag for 40p less.  I signed up for Green Flag and it's a good job there is a cooling off period because my wife spotted a bit about Excesses on the Policy Document - they wanted to charge me £40 for every call-out!  Bloody cheek!

I'm back with AutoAid.

I don't know if AutoAid cover horseboxes - if not, they may get saddled with a Green Flag policy.

Driving a Shed

Not literally of course.

That would be daft:

Although Edd China did it first:

No, I'm talking about this guy: 

Various news sources have the story today - including Sky News.  It was held on with a single length of rope.  Perhaps he didn't have anything better in his shed.  To be fair to the guy though, I don't think that is a shed - it's a tool store.

 

Meanwhile, on the subject of being fined for doing something stupid on the road:

 

I don't speak Emoji so the story is here.

Infernal Combustion Engine

The new Honda Civic looks pretty spectacular:

That is going by Editor-in-Chief of Top Gear Mag, Charlie Turner's, comment that "...our cover story, where the battle for the hot-hatch heartland continues with the arrival of the fifth-generation Civic Type-R"

 

Ah, of course - it's the Type-R - that explains the spoiler.

 

Or maybe, while us subscribers to this fine magazine get our own covers, maybe we should also get our own welcome message from Mr.Turner.

 

In case you're wondering, that's an Aston-Martin Valkyrie not a Honda Civic.

 

Meanwhile, on Page 20 of the mag, we learn that Volvo's high-performance division, Polestar, will now be exclusively building electric cars.  Which is a shame.  But it also fits in with the big Volvo news from last week - Carmaker Volvo has said all new models will have an electric motor from 2019.

 

They were actually quite clever with their wording there.

 

My own car for example has several electric motors - at least one in each door.

 

They got the headlines though.  It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021 and a range of hybrid models.  But it will still be manufacturing earlier models that have only combustion engines.  And those hybrids will still have some carbon being ignited - so it is nothing more than an indication of the direction that the car industry is moving in.

 

Further illustrated by the story a day later that France is set to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.  No indication of what happens to internally combustion engined cars bought in France in December 2039 though - or those bought over the national borders that may get driven in to France.

 

I suppose they still have 22 and a half years to fine-tune the rules...

 

...and to come to some sort of agreement in Paris.  Probably not involving this foolish fossil...

who may well be personally adding to the world's fossil fuel stocks by then.

Musical Cars

I often see this car on the M53 Motorway on my journey to work:

Well, maybe not that actual car - because the one I see has number plates and (I hope) is road-legal and it isn't being driven by Andrew Jordan.  But it does look the same - including the full livery, the Jordan stickers and the roll-cage.

I guess it has something to do with Pirtek, the main sponsor, having a site at Ellesmere Port - a place that, if you pronounce it with the right accent, may sound like a beach resort somewhere exotic (like Jordan for example) but, in fact, isn't.

Anyway, Andrew is in the news today - BTCC News that is.

He has switched team.

Again.

I first noticed him in 2011, when he was in his very early twenties and having his first taste of success.

Since then, he won the whole British Touring Car Championship in 2013 - which is why the car above is carrying the Number 1.

He wasn't as successful in 2014 so, for 2015, he switched to the cars run by Triple Eight Racing who had previously had great success with Vauxhalls but were then running MGs without much success.

So, in 2016 he switched team - just as the MGs improved.  He was now with Motorbase as Mat Jackson's team-mate in Ford Focus STs.  I add the "ST" to avoid having to use the plural of "Focus".  He finished eighth overall (in a tightly contested contest) and won the Independent Drivers Title so was in a strong car that he had got more and more used to during the year.

So now he's moving to West Surrey Racing and their BMWs.

I refer you back to my first ever post on this Blog.

2014 Toyota Corolla Ditches Drab Design, But Will It Sell?

Of course it will - it's a Toyota Corolla.

They would have to triple its price and replace the driving seat with a huge, rusty spike for it not to sell.

The question is asked by Autoguide here.  They are commenting on the radical new look of the 2014 Corolla:

Caertainly more striking than the orginal Corolla:

The Corolla has been going since 1966 - just like me.  This photo of a 1966 model is taken from this Mail story from last year reporting on the milestone achieved when the Corolla officially became the World's most popular car.  They claim one was being sold every 40 seconds - I see no reason for that to change.

 

The radical look of the 2014 version won't put off the "traditional" buyers - they would buy it whatever it looked like.  Heck, in the mid-nineties, they bought (in Britain at least) Corollas that looked like this: 

The new look might even attract in some other buyers who wouldn't have given a Toyota a second glance.  The whole Toyota range is looking more stylish these days - but I think they are still a couple of years behind other manufacturers.

 

Like Honda for example.

 

When I first saw the new Corolla, I did think it looked like a Honda Civic:

Coincidence?  Maybe that is what Autoguide should have been asking.