Daily Archives: July 11, 2012

Stars line up for Celeb race at Silverstone

July 11, 2012   simon   No comments

This year’s Silverstone Classic will include a Celebrity Challenge race, with the famous faces racing each other in Morgan sports cars. Well-known names include Jay Kay (without which no such race would be complete), Heston Blumenthal, Hollywood actor Sir Patrick Stewart, ‘Comedy Dave’ Vitty from Radio 1, Sky Sports presenter Vicky Gomersall, Brian Johnson from AC/DC, Strictly Come Dancing’s Brendan Cole plus Wimbledon TV presenter Andrew Castle.
The latest name to be added is Julia Bradbury from Countryfile, who is driving in aid of the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research as well as the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the RPJ Crohn’s Foundation.
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De Tomaso gone bust – again

July 11, 2012   simon   No comments

De Tomaso, once famous for the 1970s Pantera, and sometime owner of Maserati, Moto Guzzi and Innocenti, has gone bust again.Alejandro de Tomaso seemed to thrive in inverse proportion to the profits of his companies – there always seemed to be another Italian government bailout around the corner. One of his 1990s designs, the Bigua even ended up as the pointless MG SV pseudo-supercar that MG Rover directors thought was so much more fun to play with than the hard work of running a car company.
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Classic Cars – 1960s was the golden age

July 11, 2012   simon   No comments

A survey of 3,500 classic car owners by specialist classic car insurance company, Footman James, suggests that classics from the 1960s are the most appealing. 64% of respondents said that decade was the most interesting for classic cars, while the two most popular classics are associated with that decade: the MGB, launched in 1962 and the Morris Minor (launched earlier, but available throughout the decade).

It should be said that the result of the survey was slightly predictable in that the most common age for someone to own a classic car is 50-59 years old. Such people would have been growing up in the 1960s and would therefore naturally be nostalgic about that period now.

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Row over cyclist ban in Olympic Games lanes

July 11, 2012   simon   No comments

Apologies to non-Londoners who are sick of Olympic chatter, but this one does seem a bit strange. Cyclists are to be banned from 80% of Olympic Games lanes – many of which have been converted from, you guessed it, bus and cycle lanes. There seems something ironic about organising an event all about activity and sport, and then making it far more difficult to use the one form of transport that gives people a good workout.
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