Four Play

Autocar are playing with what the new Renault 4 will look like.

I have to say I was quite excited when i saw what the new Renault 5 is looking like - so were Top Gear Magazine - you'll have to buy the February edition to read the article:

Anyway, Renault are planning a retro-style electric vehicle called The Renault 5 which is an obvious nod to the old Renault 5.

They are starting with:

and coming up with:

Which, let's face it, is pretty cool.

There was also speculation that the same thing was going to happen with the Renault 4.

Now, that is a much uglier starting point:

A horrible, utilitarian 2CV rival.

Autocar got confirmation that it is going to happen and decided to produce their own rendering:

I'm afraid I just don't see it.  I could see that as the modern take on a Clio Williams but not a 4.

And let's be honest, we all know that the new 4 will be another bloody SUV.

Which is a shame, because if we are having a 21st Century Renault 4 then it has to be ugly and not an SUV - somebody I've never heard of called David Obendorfer did a perfectly good job of exactly that ten years ago - check out the pictures in this Carscoops story.

Much truer to the original - and hopefully available in brown.

Tripping

Three linked stories from America.

Although the first one is really from South Wales.

But it is reported by Fox News.  It is about a guy called Gary Egan who has to commute 187.5 miles each way every day between Porthcawl and Watford.  He uses a Renault Clio Diesel which Fox describe (quite accurately) as a "subcompact car" - don't know what they'd call a Twingo though.

Fox suspect this commute would be a World Record if such a category existed.

Which it doesn't.

A category has been invented though for the second story - also from Fox News.

The category is “the least non-driving time to cross the United States in an electric vehicle.”

Tesla are going to drive two Model S's from L.A. to New York to try to take this record and since this is a new category, if they get there they will take the record.  Speed records of this nature are not allowed, presumably for safety reasons, so this will be measuring the least time stood still - ie recharging.

The third story also involves a Model S going on a road-trip - up against a Model T - a Ford Model T from a hundred years ago.  It's basically a race from Detroit to New York and it is a brilliant article from Car & Driver.

Now I've always found C&D to be quite anti-electric cars so I did read it with some trepidation expecting the Model T to win (which it didn't) and C&D to be quite scathing (which they weren't despite the closeness of the result) - but, in the end it was just a very, very interesting piece.

Many of the readers' comments praised the article and several likened it to something Top Gear would do.

I concur.

And I really liked this picture:

Holiday Photos

I've been on my holidays!

 

Did anyone notice that I hadn't posted anything for over two weeks?

 

Why not?

 

Anyway, I went to Gran Canaria.

 

Whilst there I read two books and the September issue of Top Gear Magazine.

 

The two books were "Me Of Little Faith" by Lewis Black which had nothing to do with cars whatsoever and "Back Story" by David Mitchell (the comedy actor/writer not the author).  This had almost nothing to do with cars apart from the revelation that when he tried to learn to drive at the age of 17, his instructor stopped the car and told the young Mitchell how he had seen an alien spacecraft land.

 

David Mitchell never went on to get a licence.

 

I've been meaning to mention Top Gear Magazine for a while now - they "refreshed" it again a couple of months ago.

 

This is a term used by marketing people and Tesco Store managers for moving stuff around.

 

In Tescos this means you can't find anything so I stop going there. The Top Gear Magazine refresh wasn't too bad and they've introduced a couple of new features like "Ask Uncle TopGear" and "James May's Almanac" that are quite amusing.

 

Now for the photos I took while I was there:

A fine example of an elderly Fiat 500 - the original one.  You can really see just how small it is when parked in a car park amongst ordinary vehicles. 

Talking of small, here is a Renault Twizy.  I saw one here in Britain once but it was covered in the car-dealer's logos and travelling in the opposite direction to me so it was a fleeting glimpse.  I actually got to take a peek inside this one.  When I posted on this car a while back I implied that I didn't like it.  Now, having seen one close up, I still think it's horrible. 

Talking of horrible, that is a word I would never use to describe this Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia. 

I might use it to describe the Dacia Logan (or budget brand Renault - I think it's based on an earlier shape Clio but don't hold me to that).  This car is probably quite common-place if you are in Southern or Eastern Europe but they don't sell them here so I took a photo of it. 

Talking of "they don't sell them here so I took a photo of it" - here's a Mark 2 (I think) Ford Mustang.

 

 

...and the weather was nice and I got a bit of a tan.

Sacré Bleu! - le Maire de Paris est un Bouffon

If that title doesn't make any sense, blame Google Translate, it's meant to follow on from my Post from 12 months ago entitled "The Mayor of London is a Buffoon". His Parisian counterpart, according to caradvice.com.au, wants to ban cars built before 1997 from the city centre of Paris.

This is the chap - Bertrand Delanoe. I'm surprised Fox News haven't picked up on this one yet - it's a good excuse for some Socialist-bashing.

Now, I'm not a fan of old French cars - I'm not particularly a fan of new French cars either - but this is flippin' ridiculous.

and why 1997? This will exclude some servicible Clios, 405s and BXs - and that's just picking on the French manufacturers. The proposal would also outlaw pre-1996 trucks and delivery vehicles from travelling inside the A86 motorway that surrounds Paris, as well as all motorcycles that are more than 10 years old. Motorcycles! They last longer than cars and pollute considerably less.

Bert says “This is for our citizens. It’s a public health battle and we’ve been fighting since 2001 to try and make the air here more breathable.” Except this will affect 3% of cars in Paris and we would assume that those affected will just have to buy younger cars so the overall gain will be small. Whereas the financial effect on, presumably the poorer, car owners will be proportionally great - especially if they can't sell their old cars on to other Parisians. The only upside I can see is that you will get less of these

clogging up this: