Catacleansed

This is devastating news and probably the only time I've done a serious post since the very start when I didn't know what this Blog was.

Here is a statement from the BTCC.

There is nothing on the Cataclean-Plato Racing website (at time of me writing this) - although there may be nobody there to update it.

A bit more digging brought up this story.

It looks like Plato Racing has gone out of business less than a year after it was formed.  It has lost a lot of cash but just started to have on-track success and the team will probably go on to thrive.  The administrators are saying as much - although they are basically salesmen here.

I hope Jason (and driver Dan Rowbottom who is also an investor) get something back out of this. They were basically talked into this venture and things were looking up for Plato after he hit rock bottom with two previous suicide attempts while he was there.

It's all a very sudden end considering the optimism back in April. 

I am a huge fan of his and there are massive numbers more out there - his loss to the BTCC will be significant - which is probably why they acknowledge,

Jason is unquestionably one of the BTCC’s greatest stars, and his exceptional record speaks for itself. He has long been – and will remain – a valued part of the BTCC family. Although his involvement with this particular venture appears to have reached its conclusion, we look forward to seeing Jason in the BTCC paddock in the future.

They seemed to have a decent amount of sponsorship and they were a manufacturer team - so how could Mercedes have let this happen?  According to Google AI, which seems to have watched a Kwik Fit video on YouTube,

A manufacturer team primarily benefits from larger financial budgets, direct corporate marketing backing, and enhanced logistical support compared to independent privateers.

The car looks very good:

I think Mercedes should have some spare cash they could splash - the fact they haven't means this story makes them look very bad.

I wonder if a lender has got nervous?

Whatever has happened, the team will be continuing under a different name and without Plato.

Maybe someone has seen a chance to cash in given that the team have finally found a winning formula?

Not sure how Rowbottom fits into this as he is supposed to be driving one of the cars.

I guess we'll find out more this coming weekend when the team show up at Donington Park.

Without Jason.

I wish him future success and good mental health.

Thinking About Plato

Here's Plato, in a candid shot, posing in front of a column with a statue on it.

Plato said, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

This is what America is suffering from right now.

And the rest of the World.

He also allegedly said, "Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy."

Yep.

And then there was, "They certainly give very strange names to diseases."

OK, might have gone off at a tangent there.

"My right arm is generally quite strong."

That last one is actually Jason Plato - ex-racing driver and ex-TV presenter.

And current racing team boss.

He has started up Team Plato in less than 12 months and intends to start winning races in the BTCC straight away.

Very impressive.  His former Fifth Gear colleague Jonny Smith spends an hour of his YouTube Late Brake Show discussing it with him here: 

There's no sign of Jason's flat cap but he does appear to be sucking on a mint through the video which is a bit off-putting.

But, mint aside, it is fascinating stuff - for example, the Mercedes cars they are using were all originally water damaged write-offs.  And they've sourced spare bonnets from scrapyards.

Which makes it sound like they are working on a shoestring.

But they aren't.

He's got a crack team of engineers, a state-of-the-art driving simulator and some bloody expensive components.

I always look forward to the BTCC Season.  This year it kicks off tomorrow at Donington Park.  I normally support the BMWs and West Surrey Racing. Have done from before and after owning a BMW myself but, this year, the livery is a bit bland - I wonder of they are no longer a manufacturer team? And I was hoping that Colin Turkington, my favourite driver, might be rejoining their line-up but it looks like they have other plans for him.

So I think I'll be cheering on the Mercs.

"And guess what? I've never run a team before."

Black Logos Matter

Ford US put out a cryptic tweet on Tuesday:

Circle, pawn, square, golf hole, spade, sunglasses, cross

That makes about as much sense as the emojis round in Richard Osman's House of Games.

Turns out that the only significant thing about the emojis is that they were black - like Ade Adepitan in that Osman clip.

The teaser, as Carscoops points out, is for a new "Black" package for the Mustang:

It even has a black logo.

Black packages and variants are nothing new, Mercedes Black Series is supposed to

"represent the performance limit of a model range, where everything possible is drawn out of that model. This creates a new quality standard. Black Series bring together everything that can be achieved in terms of driving technology at a certain point in time and put it on the road."

Ford want us to come up with a name for this new black accent package.

How about "The Car of the Black Horse?"

I'm banking on that winning but can't be sure why that idea popped into my head.

Flipping Chevrolets!

Earlier this week, Fox News asked the question, "Should you stay in your car during a tornado?"

The answer was "Probably not"

Just to sort of make their point...

The sixteen year old lad driving this Chevrolet Pick-Up had a scary experience.

It was turned onto the driver's side, spun around, then righted again by a tornado.

The local Chevy dealers though have offered him a brand new truck to replace it.  The story is here.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, and also from Fox News this week, here's a funny story involving KFC, Mercedes F1 and Twitter:

Wag-gone

I missed this Autocar piece last week.

But Car+Driver didn't - they did this piece on it today.

It is the rather depressing news that Mercedes-Benz’s chief operating officer, Markus Schäfer is predicting the end of the estate car.

And the main reason is the rise of the cross-over SUV:

Ugh.

I've owned two estates - one was even a Mercedes - I loved them both.

He also reckons cabrios could be on the way out.

The reason for this is two-fold:

• the Chinese aren't into them.
• electric ones would look naff because of battery location

Although he does say that vegan interiors won't completely replace leather.

Car+Driver point out for their American readership that by "estates" - we are talking about "wagons" - let's not bring "shooting-brakes" into this.

They also got Mercedes-Benz USA to give their take on the news:

"Station wagons, although occupying a specific niche, remain an important offering to one of our most loyal customer segments"

Their readership see it the same way as me and Mercedes-Benz USA:

Although one of those votes cast was me.

It's a shame that the vast majority of the World's car buyers aren't car fans.

#SaveTheWagons

Van Morrison River Dance

We are in middle of Storm Christophe.

Here in the North-West of England we have a lot of water - the BBC report it thusly.

They have a dramatic picture:

That is a Ford Ranger.

Unfortunately it is not a Ford Ranger Splash which I think were only available Stateside.

It is, however, a Ford Ranger splash.

If you have a Ford Ranger then you can confidently make a big splash.  More of a splash than was happening on my commute home this evening - but we still had to make a splash:

Apologies for the lack of sound, I guess I must have accidentally switched off the audio recording.

I was amazed that most of the other vehicle drivers didn't test their brakes after going through that.

They could have got into an accident - like the Morrisons van driver in this other story from BBC News today.

I always think that Morrisons vans look like UK ambulances:

So I tend to refer to them as Morrisons Ambulances.  The driver of the van in the story was taken to hospital although it sounds like it was precautionary rather than necessary.

He "had to be rescued from his overturned van after he careered off the road and ended up in a fast-flowing ford", police said.

The pictures are pretty dramatic so it looks like he was very lucky although how he ended up in there is a bit of a mystery - on the radio it said he was driving through the ford (in his Mercedes) but it was swollen and too deep.  The Web story talks about careering off the road and speculates about sat-navs.

In any case, I like Morrisons because they give me 10% off my shopping because I work for the NHS.

So I'll finish this post now without any of my usual comedic comments or puns despite the list of Van Morrison albums with very relevant titles.

 

Puddled

We've all heard of Ford Door Protectors.

Well now you can get AMG Door Projectors.

You can fit them to any car in the current Mercedes range - even the more lowly ones.

What a naff, gaudy, pointless, show-offy piece of kit.

I really like them - I'm going to have to buy a Merc!

nice.cheese.sandwich

Search for "nice cheese sandwich" on Google Images and you get lots of pictures of cheese toasties.

You do get some proper ones too though - like these ones:

So what piece of motoring journalism prompted me to look for cheese butties today?

This piece.

It's an Autoguide story about something that is probably the biggest thing to happen to maps in a very long time - and how Mercedes are getting on board with it.

Basically, someone has gone away and quietly divided the Earth into 3m x 3m squares and allocated every one of them a three word identity.  I have some in my front garden and even more in my back garden.  My property includes the words "boring", "slices" and "upset".

I'd love to know what algorithm they've used to allocate these words - and can they move them around?

For example, good.food.prices is in an industrial area in the town of New Tazewell, Tennessee - I'm sure a few supermarkets would pay good.money to have that in the middle of their canned goods aisle.

Not all words are included of course.  The nearest they have to "Iver Child Bollards" is over.chill.billiards (it's in the bit of Angola that makes it look like a jigsaw piece)

location.location.location is in Russia.

The uses for this are incredible - imagine your ship is sinking at misspellings.appendages.history (for this covers the sea as well as land) - you could summon aid to exactly the right spot before you became a victim of The Bermuda Triangle.

Pirate treasure maps would be a lot simpler too.

This amazing tool is called what3words and can be found at  https://map.what3words.com/daring.lion.race or on the Sat-navs of upcoming Mercedes models.

And my phone.

Incidentally, nice.cheese.sandwich is near the town of Los Mantos in Northern Chile.

Arthur Daley, Little Dodgy Maybe?

And I'm not just talking about the awful cardboard cut-outs:

 

Two stars of Minder are up for sale.  The story is here.  There's no doubt about the Capri - I remember it played a big part in the opening titles. But that isn't the reg no. of Arthur's Daimler that I remember.

Now I'm not sad enough to remember all the number plates from the cars of my TV youth.

But I'd know them if I saw them again.

And I knew this one when I Googled "Arthur Daley Daimler":

I ran a quick MyCarCheck on DYO979V and it isn't on the books.  VDU342X is.

So then I tried the Government's MOT History Website. I have been aware of this site for a while and tried it out once on my Jag when I saw a link on Facebook.  Then a blogging chum of mine inspired me to look at a car I used to own.

I found out that my old Merc is now a taxi.

And still has a lot of the niggling problems that Mercs built around the turn of the Century had that made me get shut of it.

And it confirmed that DYO979V is not on the road.

Although VDU342X only seems to have been around since March 2014 when it's Front Exhaust had a minor leak of exhaust gases.

However, I found a fan-site which seems to offer a solution to the mystery.

Now, even though I'm a Jag man, I'd rather have the Capri that Dennis Waterman drove in the series.

Actually, I 'd rather have the car he drove in New Tricks:

 I could be so good for you.

Now There's Two of Them

I've always hated the BMW X6:

I've made it no secret that I categorise it alongside the Fiat Multipla, the Google Self-Driving car and the Hyundai Atoz as a completely stupid looking car.

Unfortunately, it looks like 250000 sales means that there a lot of people who like it.

Including Mercedes:

Meet the GLE Coupe.

Or BMW X6 as I'd call it.

This interesting little article from caradvice.com.au, Mercedes-Benz’s global chief of design Gorden Wagener spills the beans - or the Benz.

Looking at the comments at the bottom of the article, the car fans of Australia tend to agree with me.

Wagener admits that BMW invented the SUV coupe segment but reckons it overcomplicates its designs with complex surfacing.  It may have been true in the Chris Bangle days but not so much now.

He goes on to say, "...in the end I think we managed to do a very unique car, a very clean car that is essential for our purity philosophy, it’s quite sexy and sculptured."

Very unique!  Very unique!   OK, I'll let that pass since English isn't his first language - but it isn't even slightly unique and it certainly isn't sexy.

Sexy like James Bond is sexy?

But then again, the Mercs are always driven by the baddies.

Simply Mercedes

Actually it's complicated Mercedes.

They are still having problems coming up with a naming convention for their product range.  Maybe that is the real reason why they have dropped the R-Class.  Then again, that had probably more to do with only selling 13 cars Worldwide.

Let me take you back two-and-a-bit years.

I picked up on an article in Car.  That article tries to explain how Mercedes were "simplifying" the naming structure as the old C-Class, E-Class, S-Class with added GLs, MLs, SLKs, CLCs etc. was confusing the stuffing out of their clientelle (and presumably sales staff too)

Good idea.

Only trouble is, the new system was even more confusing - trying to read the explanation in that article would make Stephen Hawking baulk.

But they went with it.

Then, in August this year, they decided to "tweak" it with some "sweeping changes".  Those quoted phrases come from this Autocar article from that time.

The article continues...

Among the changes is a renaming of the upcoming second-generation GLK, which will wear GLC badges which is meant to align the GLK with the C-Class in the same way the smaller GLA is tied to the A-Class. Mercedes-Benz also plans to abandon the long-established M-class name for an all-new GLE nomenclature.  As well as appearing on the facelifted version of the M-class, the GLE name is also planned to appear on the production version of the concept GLC Coupe, which will carry the name GLE Coupe into production.  Also, the GL is set to receive a new GLS name, positioning it as the S-class of Mercedes-Benz’s SUV line-up.

OK.  So far, so confusing.

Now, Mercedes have formally annouced these "tweaks" and according to Autocar, these tweaks are still "sweeping changes".

Here's a nice diagram:

Although, apparently, the SL is immune to these new rules because it is "iconic".  As is the G-Class (or G-Wagen)

 

“More clarity, more transparency, more consistency. The logic built up on the basis of the core model series will enable our customers to find their way round our growing product portfolio better,” said Jens Thiemer, head of marketing communications.

 

Maybe it translates better in German.

 

I could include another diagram about engine types being added to the names but let's not go there.

 

Actually let's.

 

These Mercedes-Benz model names will be graced with lower case letters indicating the type of engine used: c for compressed natural gas (previously Natural Gas Drive); d for diesel (previously BlueTec and CDI); e for electric (previously Plug-in Hybrid, BlueTec Plug-In Hybrid and Electric Drive); f for fuel cell (previously F-Cell); h for hybrid (previously Hybrid and BlueTec Hybrid).

 

Oh yes, and nothing for petrol.

 

And the numbers still bear no real relation to the engine size. 

Don't even mention 4MATIC.

 

I used to own a Mercedes C180 Sport - a C-Class with an 1800 petrol engine and with the Sport trim level.

 

Simples.

Beer Wagon

It is SEMA Time!

 

What is SEMA?  Well, SEMA stands for "Speciality Equipment Market Association" and every year they hold a big motor show with lots of pimped up cars, vans and other vehicles.  I first heard of it through watching American Hot-Rod with Boyd Coddington regularly unveiling his creations there.

 

The big manufacturers are also interested with contributions this year from Honda, Mazda and Toyota to name but three and some nicely tricked out vans from Mercedes that I particularly liked.

 

The SEMA 2014 Website is pretty good but does point out something I hadn't realised before - this is a TRADE ONLY event, mere members of the public can't go along!  I don't think writing a semi-serious car blog would class me as being part of the trade - shame.

 

Obviously, the American car press is full of SEMA at the moment but also the Brits and Aussies are also seeming quite enthusiastic.  That was acouple of links to cars that stood out to those journos.  Here's the one I like:

It started out as a standard, boring Kia Sedona but has been converted into a mobile bar selling Ballast Point products.  Ballast Point are a brewery/distillery formed during the last Century (1996 to be precise).  Autoguide have the story of this beer wagon here.

 

I like it because it combines two of my favourite things - beer and cars.

 

I had a look on Google Images to see if anything combined three of my favourite things - beer, cars and football. Plenty of interesting images did come up but none that met my remit - so here is a picture of Loic Remy: 

- a footballer found guilty earlier this year of drink-driving.

Spoiler Alert

Not that type of spoiler.

 

No, the more modern type whereby we get to find out what's happening in Coronation Street this month before it airs next month.

 

Or, in the case of this story from Autoguide yesterday, the new AMG GT is seen before its launch on September 9th  (aka Tuesday).  Mercedes were keen to get their car into the Driveclub Computer Game and footage of the car in the game has now leaked out onto the Web.

Meanwhile, over in The Middle East, as told in this Telegraph story, we have to presume that Aston Martin would not have been too chuffed with Oman Air deciding to publicise the fact that they were transporting the new Aston Martin Lagonda with undisguised pictures.

 

The car was being shipped out for warm-weather testing - it has not had its official debut and first deliveries aren't due until next year. 

Meanwhile, over in the USA, as told in this Car&Driver story, what is believed to be engine & brake information for the forthcoming 2016 Mustang GT350 has been accidentally included in Ford's own parts website.  Oops.

So, has the motoring industry become more leaky?

 Or maybe this was just an excuse to put in a picture of Alex Kingston...

Ditch the Peugeot

MSN seem very excited this week by this story of a crash involving Jeremy Clarkson & James May in a couple of Peugeots.

MSN summise that it must have happened while filming a new series of Top Gear.

 

Well, DUH!!

 

I actually knew that they were filming a new series because Jeremy mentioned it recently on something he was on that I can't remeber what it was.

 

Given the nature of Top Gear, this crash may well have been planned anyway.  Clearly nobody was hurt.

 

Unlike in this crash story that I also read this week.  It is in the Liverpool Echo and involves a three-car collision between a Rolls, a Nissan Navara and something called a "Daimler Mercedes".  Not sure what a "Daimler Mercedes" would be - I know that the two companies were once one and the same at board level but I don't believe they ever produced anything with that name.  Besides, Daimler the corporate entity was always separate to Daimler the car manufacturer which did happen to be named after the founder of Daimler the corporate entity.

 

But I digress.

 

Without any knowledge of what actually happened here, I blame the Navara driver.

 

It looks like the Rolls hasn't come off too well - but it should be repairable. 

Two of three cars were wedding cars so I bet there were a few frantic phone calls being made this weekend.

 

With hindsight, should have gone for something like this:

Put the Bloody Phone Down!

Quite often, I see people talking on their hand-held mobile phones while driving - sometimes in large vehicles.

This irritates me.

But at least they are looking out of their windscreens.

I've never seen anyone texting while driving but I know it happens.

This infuriates me and worries me.

According to this Autoguide story, a recent survey found that 69 percent of American drivers found texters the most aggravating, while the tailgater received 60 percent of the responses. Odd that the top two annoyances cover 139% of those responding.  Even odder is their choice of picture to illustrate text-driving:

It seems to depict a scene in 1990s Britain, where a woman is using a Nokia mobile in a right-hand-drive Mercedes which is heading for the grass verge while another rather silly woman is standing with two children in the road.

 

Now text-drivers have a good chance of ending up in a crash.

 

And it looks like they could then end up being filmed by other drivers using their mobiles in camera-mode.

 

The BBC have this story here.

 

Police Officers at the scene of a crash in Northamptonshire noticed motorists taking photographs as they drove past on the opposite carriageway.  So the Police then started photographing the offending drivers with a view to later prosecutions.

 

Strangely enough, the British story features a left-hand drive car interior.  I can neither identify the car nor the phone...

...but I would say it is from the 2000s and it does look a bit Opel-ish.

 

Mind you, put "phone driving" into Google Images and it looks like everyone is at it.

 

So...

 

Put the Bloody Phone Down!

Titchmarsh Borgward

There's two words you wouldn't expect to see together.  In fact I'd never heard of one of those words before today.

This is a Titchmarsh:

While this is a Borgward:

The former is a gardener turned TV host who I had heard of while the latter is a German car I had never heard of.

 

Alan Titchmarsh contributed this piece to the Telegraph motoring section this weekend about how he prefers to travel around in old cars.  He says that after passing his test, he "took to the roads in an assortment of cars that were owned either by my father or the plumbing firm that he worked for: everything from a Borgward Isabella to a Ford Capri."

 

That got me researching Borgward.

 

They seem to have existed from the late '20s to the early '60s when they went bust after producing a very large number of vehicles including trikes and trucks - I really don't understand how I could not have heard of them.  Were they not imported to the UK?  I don't know.  However, a quick visit to the UK Borgward Drivers Club website reveals plenty of right-hand drive examples, some on British plates.

 

Maybe we'll all get to hear the name in the future though.  The grandson of the original Herr Borgward has started up a new automotive company, called Borgward AG.  Their website uses lots of management-speak - but these days, they have to.  They use the word "revival" a lot - I hope they succeed - this project deserves to do better than the Maybach revival but even Mercedes money couldn't make that work.  I think it could be a long time before a popular UK TV gardener called Alan can go out and buy one to tootle around Yorkshire in...

 

...a long time before we see the Titchmarch Borgward.

Would you sell your Granny?

Somebody is.

And if I had £5K spare and some space and some time to travel down to East Anglia (as opposed to Ford Anglia - there's one of them for sale too) I would certainly be interested in making a purchase.

After all, she is beautiful:

It's the rarer 3-door coupe style as well.

 

So what alerted me to this sale?

 

This did.

 

It is a story from the BBC about a 1961 Triumph Herald up for sale with just 20 miles on the clock.  It is believed that the "one careful lady owner" never actually drove it. 

Sounds a bit like the story of the Merc I found in Swansea.

 

It goes under the hammer on Saturday together with the car you can just see behind it.

 

The car in the picture behind it interests me because my first car was identical to it.

 

OK, it had a different registration number and was three years younger but it was a Triumph Dolmite 1500HL in Vomit Yellow (aka Sandglow).

 

It must be in excellent condition because it is estimated to go for between £14K and £16K - although they've clearly got the colour wrong in the listing (brown) and the mileage too (69 - maybe they meant 69000)

 

I don't think they are too clever when it comes to the listings.  They have the mileage for the Herald that is making the headlines down as being 3750 (next to a photo of the speedo that shows 20).

 

3750 is still unbelievably low for a 50-year-old car and probably belongs to a second Herald the auctioneers are selling that they have listed as having 20 miles.

 

I would love to have a wander around this auctioneers site - the actual, physical site, not the website, although that is pretty interesting too.

 

For example, they have a 1988 Rover 213 - why on Earth would that be a classic?

 

Well, to answer my own question (and I bet you thought it was rhetorical) it only has 3101 miles on the clock and is expected to fetch £3K.

 

They also have Granny's successor for sale: 

Oh dear.  Maybe not.

Clerical Error

When Jim Bowen presented Bulleye in the 1980s, the star prize was often a car.

It was always a small, modest car though - like a Vauxhall Nova or an Austin Metro.

Now he has become Pope, he has made a decree in line with this philosophy.  According to Autoguide, he has made a plea to the Catholic Church’s priests and nuns, asking them to pick a car that’s more “humble” rather than the latest model that’s available.

Fair enough, although it was only last week that he took delivery of a new Merc:

Fox had that story.  It's a new M-Class and the keys were handed to him personally by Daimler CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche.  Maybe he doesn't practice what he preaches.

 

This is the latest in a longish line of Popemobiles - my favourite being this Mercedes 300 D from the days before D meant a Diesel.

I think that His Holiness will approve of Father Ted's choice of car, though - a battered old Ford Cortina.

Great, smashing, super!

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Fox today asks us "What would Spock drive?"

A Vulcan?

Well, judging by this picture, A Buick.

Apparently it's a '64 Buick Riviera.

However, what Fox have found is a brilliantly amusing ad where he drives a Mercedes CLS.

But it's not a Mercedes ad, it's an Audi ad...


Lots of Star Trek references in there but no mention of Star Trek itself.  Possibly because the Mazda 6 is the official advertising partner of "Star Trek: Into Darkness" so they wouldn't want to upset the sponsors.

I can't vouch for the film because I haven't watched it - yet.  But I can certainly vouch for this advert.

Missing it would be very illogical.

Bond Villain

My story last month about Roger Moore didn't really have much to do with James Bond but this one does actually involve Steven Berkoff who played General Orlov in Octopussy alongside Roger Moore.

Now, being a Daily Mail story, they do enjoy a misleading headline.

For example: Pay and dismay: Mercedes left marooned after builders excavate station car park around it

No it wasn't, the story here clearly states that the builders left an escape ramp.

Another good example: Mystery solved! Elizabeth Hurley's car found covered in parking tickets after reports it was stolen during shopping trip

No it wasn't - it had three on it. Story here. Nearly another James Bond connection though - she was a star of Austin Powers which is a very entertaining JB spoof.

Anyway, the misleading Berkoff headline is James Bond villain Steven Berkoff, 75, banned from the road for jumping red light when he heard police sirens

He wasn't. He lost his licence for getting 12 penalty points on it. He also rather naughtily tried to declare his Californian driving licence number but that didn't work.

He claimed he moved through the red lights to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, although he did it at 27mph!

It did get me thinking about what I would do if waiting at traffic lights and an emergency vehicle came up behind with its sirens blaring and lights flashing. What is the correct thing to do?

Well, thank you to Jerry from Lincolnshire who taught me something when he added the following comment to the Mail article, "It is absolutely never the right thing to do to pass a red light in these circumstances. It is absolutely not a defence to the crime of passing a red light to say you moved to allow a blue light vehicle to pass. If you do pass a red light and get prosecuted any compentent lawyer will advise you to plead guilty and try to minimse the sentce through mitigation. Emergncy vehicle drivers are trained that if they are behind a vehicle stopped at a red light they MUST wait for the light to go green before they can expect the vehicle in front to move. They are also supposed to turn off any siren until the light change but can keep blue lights on."

What he says is backed up here so I gave his comment a green up-arrow.


Now, basically, Berkoff jumped a red light at nearly 30mph, pretended he didn't have a British driving licence and claimed he was making way for an emergency vehicle. Worse than that, he was driving a Beetle.

General Orlov would not have been impressed.