Cars
Speed talking
When I first heard Abba’s magnificent 1982 swansong ‘The Day Before You Came’, I’d never come across the Americanised use…
A museum-quality car-boot sale: V&A’s Cars reviewed
We were looking at a 1956 Fiat Multipla, a charming ergonomic marvel that predicted today’s popular MPVs. Rather grandly, I…
What I learned on my speed awareness course
Speed is in my blood. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather all used to race cars in their youth. We even…
The consequences of the new EU car speed limit
A once famous question posed to job-seekers at Microsoft was ‘Why are manhole covers round?’ The question was revealing not…
Female unemployment has just hit an all-time low. So yes, Britain is working
At any other time, news that Honda intends to close its Swindon plant in two years’ time with the loss…
Portrait of the week: Resignations galore, Honda’s announcement and Islamic State’s brides
Home Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party and sat in the Commons (next to the DUP) as the Independent…
The UK car industry is reversing back to the 1970s
When I wrote a fortnight ago, in the context of Nissan’s decision not to build its new X-Trail model at…
Why have I bought a car I don’t actually like?
I am currently in Brittany with the family, having made the 11-hour drive from London on Monday. It sounds like…
Ferrari – heavy, expensive, wasteful, dangerous and addictive
Has a more beautiful machine in all of mankind’s fretful material endeavours ever been made than a ’60 Ferrari 250…
The era when you could love a car is over
There are four of us in this relationship: my partner and I, his horse and my truck. His horse is…
The great pretenders
Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries
Nine angst-ridden men
‘Insufficiency’ is a favourite David Szalay word. The narrator of his previous novel, Spring, suffered from ‘insufficiency of feeling’; in…
Directions your phone can’t give you
In many ways a satnav is a miraculous device. A network of US military satellites more than 10,000 miles above…
VW and the truth of engineering: say what you do, do what you say
Not that I was much of a boy racer, but the sexiest car I ever owned was a 1982 Volkswagen…
Barometer
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
It really must be a mid-life crisis. I’ve fallen in love with a pony
Because I’m reckless, stupid and irresponsible, I normally get landed with the biggest, most obstreperous hunters. But the other weekend…
Cathedrals on wheels
Stephen Bayley hails the automobile – a miracle of technical and artistic collaboration – and mourns its demise
I went looking for a used car – and found my inner boy racer
A bit late, I know, to put in a bid for Jeremy Clarkson’s old job. But I think I might…
Barometer
A dangerous hobby Three men from Greater Manchester were arrested and held in the UAE after being seen writing down…
The driving force of an ageing rocker
Why do people talk about ‘experimenting’ with drugs when mostly they just mean that they’re doing them? Perhaps, as I…
Barometer
What Germans do worst Some things Germans aren’t very good at: — Making reliable car engines. According to a survey by Warranty Direct…
A mystery in the middle lane
I am convinced that when I took my driving test in 1983 I was asked by the examiner, ‘What lane…
Driving me crazy
My various Oxford dictionaries define bizarre as eccentric, whimsical, odd, grotesque, fantastic, mixed in style and half-barbaric. By so many…
