They've taken the shine off Top Gear Magazine.

It's June 1st!  This means that the July issue of Top Gear Magazine has appeared in my porch.

I knew it was going to be different.  In the June edition, the regular columnists, Andy Franklin, Paul Horrell and Sam Philip pointed out that they were doing their last columns for the magazine.  They haven't been sacked or anything, but recently appointed editor-in-chief Jack Rix has decided that it is time to stamp his own style on the publication and shift a few things around - although he chooses not to mention it in his regular introduction piece.

Columnists in the past have often been the Top Gear TV presenters - notably, at it's peak, Clarkson, Hammond & May. And, more recently Chris Harris - but never Flintoff or McGuinness - maybe because THEY ARE NOT MOTORING JOURNALISTS!

Clarkson, Hammond & May were columnising back in 2010 when I last reported on a revamp of the mag.  That coincided with the recently outgone editor-in-chief first taking over.  The magazine has evolved in those 14 years and we have now lost a couple of features that I really liked such as Mark Riccioni's monthly bemoaning of his fleet of vehicles and the monthly history of a different car manufacturer (although last month the manufacturer was Lego)

The new columnists are Mike Channell (Radio Active anyone?) who I fear is going to be talking about gaming every month, Jethro Bovington who they have been trying to get us used to for a while now and Natalie Pinkham who I fear is going to be talking about F1 every month.

Oh yes, and she's a woman.

Going back to 2010, the magazine was printed on glossy paper.  Magazines in general used to be referred to as "the glossies."

You can't call them that now because most of them aren't.  Cost cutting.  Top Gear lost its glossiness many years ago but at least the front and back covers were still glossy.

Until today.  Look how dull and lifeless it looks in my photo.

It's lost its shine - inside and out?

In 2010 I asked and answered these questions...

So, is it a change for the worse?

No.

Is it a change for the better?

Dunno.

Is it change for change's sake?

Maybe.

Can you spare some change?

Go away.

Today I say...

So, is it a change for the worse?

Maybe.

Is it a change for the better?

Not so far.

Is it change for change's sake?

Maybe.

Can you spare some change?

Go away.

Hmmm.

Testing Times

Argentinian driving tests seem to involve driving around a circuit that looks a bit like the Legoland Driving School (sponsored by Fiat) - my children particularly enjoyed that attraction in Legoland Windsor.

Here's an Argentinian lady having a go at it - as reported by BBC News:

The annoying thing is that they don't say whether or not she passed.

I Don't Like The Tesla Cybertruck

No really - I think it looks stupid.

So why is this my third posting on the subject in under a week?

Probably because the World of motoring journalism keeps talking about it.

Twitter & Car+Driver, I'm looking at you.

Or maybe, more specifically, Car+Driver picking up on tweets.

Here's their story on the Dubai Police ordering one.

But the Dubai Police are all show-offs.

 

Here is the funnier and altogether more satisfying story of Lego taking the Mickey: 

It's better looking, it's windows won't shatter and it could go on sale well before the end of 2020.

I Don't Like Being a Grown-Up

Actually, I do like being a grown-up.

It's just that, every so often, something like this comes along:

And it's remote-control!

Toy Story 2

Yes I know we are up to number 4 now but this is my second toy story.

It comes only 7 years after my first toy story.  That was when Hotwheels produced a model of a pre-production Dodge Viper while the rest of the world only had spy-shots to go on.

This time it is Lego and the forthcoming Land-Rover Defender.

Now I think it looks closer to this Defender...

...than to this spy-shot of the new one...

But I'm sure that Lego wouldn't have invested so much without getting some insight from Land-Rover themselves so maybe that is an accurate representation of what we will be getting from Land-Rover later this year.

 

Who'd have thought it eh? - a squared off Defender.

Meanwhile, in a Ford Galaxy, Far, Far Away...

Today, Autoguide tell us that "If the Millennium Falcon Was a Car, Here’s What it Would Look Like" - together with this picture: 

No it bloody wouldn't!  That's a Nissan!

 

And, worse than that - it's an SUV!

 

Wouldn't fancy taking that down the local high street, the view out is abysmal:

Also, I'd always assumed the MF was right-hand drive, like the USS Enterprise.  I thought Chewbacca was the driver.

 

Meanwhile, the Minecraft Millennium Falcon looks like an Oreo.

It's probably actually very clever - I'm not sure because I never ventured beyond Lego.  The info is here.

 

Meanwhile, back to Nissan:  What has Star Wars got to do with a Nissan X-Trail (for that is what that car really is) anyway?  Surely they'd be better with a Ford Falcon - especially a late '70s version from when Star Wars was good: 

Ah, well there's the clever bit.  In the US, the X-Trail is called The Rogue - as in Star Wars Rogue One - Geddit?

 

Meanwhile, back to the '70s when Star Wars was good (Phantom Menace put me off for ever) - another Japanese manufacturer produced a special Star Wars themed car, I give you the Toyota Celica GT - Star Wars Special:

Nice.

 

Unlike the Nissan.

 

Last week, on Star Wars day, Car+Driver ran with this story about that car.  Today, nobody knows what happened to it.

 

Unusually for a Japanese car, I suspect it has broken down somewhere:

Lego Landie

Pistonheads had this story yesterday about a proposed new Lego model - the Series III Land Rover Defender.

It has been designed by a father and son partnership, Terry & Ben Fisher and looks brilliant.  The detail is very impressive.

 

It looks a lot better than quite a few more famous recent Lego car models such as the Beetle & Porsche 911 but I suspect that that is due to the fact that a Defender is square - like Lego.

 

It needs 10000 votes to go into production and mine was number 5983.

 

It is a slight faff to vote for it because you need a Lego ID but it can be done from here where you will also learn a bit more about it.

 

There have been a few rumours lately that the Defender could be back from the dead and I suspect this isn't what they meant but it'll do for now.

Oil Painting

I do like a Lego story.

So I was all ready to post something about this one from Autoguide.

 

They are asking readers to vote to get this rather nice BMW M3 (E30 flavour) made into a saleable model kit.

But then this Autoguide story caught my eye.

This one is about photographer Freddy Fabris using car mechanics to recreate several world-famous Renaissance paintings.

Here is is take on "The Anatomy Lesson" by Rembrandt:

And here is one that Rembrandt himself made earlier:

 

I do hope that these really are car mechanics pratting about and not actors.

Here's the Fabris version of "The Last Supper" by da Vinci (with added halo):

And again, the orginal (with added doorway underneath)

I particularly like the phrase from the Autoguide write-up that goes, "Blending two worlds that seemingly would never meet, considering automobiles didn’t exist during the Renaissance period"

Having said that, I did hear that Judas had a chariot.

Americans Are Poor Tippers

Actually they don't know what tippers are.

This is a Tipper:

According to this Car+Driver story, Americans call them "Dump Trucks".  This particular one is a Mercedes Benz Arcos and it is up for sale.  It will probably cost about £100K.  I won't be putting in a bid because it is in Bicester which is a long way to go from here and also I can't afford it and have absolutely no use for it whatsoever.

I probably could afford the one from the Car+Driver story though:

 

As you can see, it is also a Mercedes Benz Arcos and it will be about £150 when it goes on sale next month.

Going Back to Hippier Times

Car & Driver have improved their site recently. They've turned their news section into a Blog, very much like my favourite site, Autoguide.com. They had this story today which tells Americans something that we've known for ages...

...that you can still buy the old-style VW Camper vans here in Europe.In fact, the hippy in this picture looks remarkably like (because it probably is) Tom Ford - ex-of Fifth Gear, and still of Top Gear Magazine, fame. Fifth Gear did an item on this vehicle a few years back.

These vans are still being built in Brazil by Volkswagen. They call it a Kombi and they look a bit different...But it is still basically the same old van from the '60s.

A company here in the UK ship over the Brazilian models (be careful if you type those two words into Google), customise them and sell them on at a premium price.

Everyone is happy apart now from some Americans who feel they are missing out.

Judging by some comments on the Blog, they blame their Government - do we have Republicans and Hippies sharing common ground?

Anyway, to placate any miffed Americans, here's an expensive version that will be on open sale over there: