Anyone else thinking that the Dornier might have partly inspired the design of The Manadalorian’s space ship? It’s what I think of every time I see it anyway, but then I’m odd...

Welp, at least we can now close the case book on finding the worst TV intro titles of all time. 

This will be meaningless -- meaningless, I say -- unless the Japanese Lamborghini Owners’ Club is involved in some way.

Doesn’t need it. I literally just drove one across the Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian Arctic with studded winter tyres and it didn’t miss a beat. Tyres not driveshafts, folks.

Fiat Ritmo. A used Fiat Ritmo. That is all.

Please say he’s going to do this to an Alfa 75...

Good to know!

Mazda did let us drive a couple of MkIII RX-7s that day too, which were ENORMOUSLY good fun, and still properly quick by today’s standards, but my heart was won by this one. 

I have two. One was at the age of 17, on the West Cork Rally, getting to see an MG Metro 6R4 Group B rally car in action for the first time in my life. The second was many years later, in 2009, at my first Le Mans, standing at Arnage with a good friend, approaching sun-down, listening to the Corvettes and Aston…

If you’re nuts enough to buy one, always, always check a Touareg V1o for damage to the sump, front suspension, and nose. They’re incredibly under-braked for the torque and weight, so have a habit of going straight through/over such road impediments as kerbs and roundabouts.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot today and am actually writing this while watching night quali live from Le Mans. While it would be sad if Porsche pulls out (not least because in all likelihood that would mean the end of Toyota’s campaign too) I’m thinking that this might not be the absolute end of the world.

MDL also built Mazdas (early model 323s) and the odd Merc 190. Had the distributorship for Citroen for a while too, but I don’t think any were built here. MDL still has the import gig for Mercedes incidentally and the factory building is still in use, albeit mostly for offices and storage these days.

Here’s an anecdote that illustrates the pointlessness of crossovers such as the 500X, even though it’s quite a likeable car. Case in point. I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland. My parents live in Ballydehob, West Cork, literally at the other end of the island of Ireland and about a 6-7hr drive, with stops for coffee…

John Hindaugh from Radio Le Mans wear Pilotis. I believe this makes them almost unbearably cool.

Dunno – I’ve been driving cars professionally for nearly 20 years now and I’ve still not driven one that I liked. Some that are tolerable, but none better than that.

I’ll have to take your word for that – neither is offered with a CVT in Ireland. We are getting the nice new nine-speed auto in the CR-V though. Still haven’t driven a CVT that was entirely satisfactory, although in fairness, Subaru does a better one than most.

Nice piece. I also have a soft spot for the Outback although thanks to the Yen/Euro rate they’re crazy expensive here in Ireland. One thing to pull you up on though – Honda CVTs are OK? Definitely not. The CVT version of the Jazz (Fit) is appalling, in comparison to the really quite pleasant manual version.

Agreed. Macintyre’s books on Kim Philby, the Double Cross system and a biography of Ian Fleming are also well worth a read. By the way, the whole ‘masterminded by the man who created James Bond’ thing is a bit of a misnomer. Fleming came up with the vague idea of planting fake papers on a corpse, but it was Montagu…

Oh god. Renault dumped a bunch of Fluence (Fluences? Fluenci?) on the Irish market at savage discounts in 2009-2010 to buy up market share. You could get one for close to €10k when most competitors were €20k. Dullest. Car. Ever. Yes, duller than a Corolla and not hugely reliable either. Depreciation was savage. I have…

Soooooo... You’re saying there’s an opening for an experienced European-based car writer? *polishes resumé*