COMMENT
7 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 23
THURSDAY
Rusty about the sheer, eye-grabbing power of
fabulous cars on video? To tell the truth, me, too.
But an amazing thing happened in the offi ce
t o d ay: w e p o s t e d t he pr e m ie r e of M r P r ior ’s
24-minute Bruntingthorpe super-strop in the
McLaren F1, McLaren P1 and McLaren Senna
- the fi rst time that trio has ever been brought
together – and it was amazing. All work had
to stop. It’s 25 years since Autocar’s ground-
breaking full test of the F1, in which I took part.
But I still wasn’t prepared for the sheer spectacle,
the noise and the amazing feeling of intimacy.
The only thing I got slightly sick of was normally
ultra-cool Prior grinning like an advert for his
local dental practice.
By the time the fi lm ended, the audience had
swollen to 2500 people who should have been
working. Now this production is heading for
much grander things. Our biggest-ever vid has
so far attracted 18 million viewers, and we’re
backing this one to do better. Google ‘Autocar
YouTube’ and you’re away.
SATURDAY
Set off in our VW California to visit friends in Rye,
a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Gloucestershire
if the God of Destinations is with you. But he or
she was not. An unfortunate family in the traffi c
ahead had their holiday plans incinerated when
their car caught fi re near the M25/M23 junction.
It caused hours of M25 mayhem and played hell
with the Gatwick access of 1000 eager bucket-
and-spaders. We sat stationary, radio playing,
watching increasingly desperate drivers forge
fruitlessly up the hard shoulder, only to be picked
off by the police. Our own diffi culty (being late
for a £25 campsite) hardly compared.
`
Friends reckon it’s a weird
machine to have bought
a
MY WEEK IN CARS
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AND ANOTHER THING...
surprisingly racy no-frills fi ve-door launched
here in 2016. It has been summarily dropped,
having fallen foul of the new rule of car
manufacturing (there’s no margin in small cars)
and the much older rule of car retailing (they’d
rather sell you a Fiesta). But it was a nice car in its
own right, far more capable than you thought it
was going to be when you stepped in. Such honest
machinery deserves a better end.
WEDNESDAY
A rifl e through the camera phone reminds
me that one of my private joys at the recent
Festival of the Unexceptional was clocking
t h i s u lt r a-r a r e Cat e rh a m 21 (ab ove), c a s u a l l yabandoned in the car park while its owner
surveyed other people’s crazier motors. In the
early 1990s, the 21 was the brainchild of a very
talented designer called Iain Robertson – whose
day job was writing news in Autocar. The
emergence of this car made us all pretty damned
proud at the time, and to my eye, the 21 looks even
better now. It didn’t sell, probably because the
buyers of the time felt true Caterhams needed
Seven bodies. But that didn’t stop it looking
lovely. Too late to bring it back?
McLaren video fest: F1
vs P1 vs Senna. Catch it
on our YouTube channel
GET IN TOUCH
[email protected]^ @StvCr
Steve Cropley
W h at a m a z e s me a b out t h i s Ve eD ub i s
how serene it feels, even when surrounded by
mayhem. It rides higher than a Range Rover,
so you see better and further than anyone. It’s
spacious (you can walk through the interior) and
the seats are fi rm and supportive. The secondary
ride is a bit delivery van, and there’s an annoying
rattle in one door, but the long-wheelbase, primary
r ide i s br i l l i a nt. A nd a s lon g a s y ou’r e ok ay w it h
light steering, that’s great, too. Friends reckon
this is a weird machine for the Steering Committee
and me to have bought, given our car history, but
we’re quite fi rm it’s one of the best.
MONDAY
Few may care, but I’m rather upset about
the demise of the Ford Ka+, the cheeky and
Fewer than 50
Caterham 21s weremade, more’s the pity