Sunday Drives - American Muscle, Devil's Beef

Spring has sprung! And in a much more wholesome way than we’re used to in Scotland.

This brings the obvious benefit of good weather, but with that sunshine comes a litany of motorbikes, cyclists, horses and sun-seekers with caravans-in-tow out of hibernation and on to the road network.

I don’t have a problem sharing the road with other road users, but many of us who prefer to travel on four wheels know the frustration of hitting the umpteenth mile of 40mph pootling behind a caravan that just won’t yield, while all the bikers zip past astride their insectoid machines.

This past Sunday, however, I was happy to trundle along at a sedate pace, in a fair-weather convoy of a rather different kind. On my jaunt back from visiting family in Dumfriesshire to Edinburgh on one of my favourite stretches of road, I came upon quite a special cavalcade.

Sun, Sand and, er... Steel Wheels? - Almost a Week in Spain with a Renault Clio 1.5 dCi

Back in October, I got my first taste of continental driving on a short holiday in Spain. Having contacted our rental company in the run up to the trip, we’d been told by email to expect a Nissan Micra or similar – that last part being the roll of the dice in the lucrative “Class C” market at Tony’s rent-a-car. We’re not talking Mercedes here.

On arrival at Malaga airport, we were met by two representatives of Tony’s (one of whom could have filled out the handover form in his sleep if he’d had to) and, speedy paperwork behind us, we were led outside with our bags to a bustling bank of rental pick-up-and-drop-off activity. Here we were introduced to our car for the week. A car, which, in the bleary, dank darkness looked almost Micra-shaped, but was not itself a Micra.

Hey, that cloud looks like a Clio... kind of... if you squint maybe?

A Bit of an Update...

It’s been very quiet here on McMotors – TheScottish Car Blog of late, partly that’s due to my usual lackadaisical attitude, but this time it’s also down to the fact that I’ve been working on another project.

Back in October I started writing for Supercars.net as a contributor. Below are links to some of the pieces I’ve written for them, including most recently their Car of the Year 2016 posts. 

Part of the One Per-Cent - Aston Martin DB7 Zagato

It's not often the chance pops up to get up close with a one-of-100-built piece of automotive history in the metal, never mind the chance for an audience with such a machine.

Yes, the Lamborghini IS striking

Which is why, when I heard Aston Martin Edinburgh had a pre-loved DB AR1 DB7 Zagato in stock, I rushed along, camera in hand to take a peek at this rarity.