Steve Cropley: Lessons learned from lockdown

Valuable lockdown lesson ensued from Bentayga photoshoot

Savour the sights from your rare trips out and don't take history in the making for granted

This week, Steve reflects on what he's learned from lockdown, finally spills the beans on the worst car he's ever driven and ponders the up-and-down history of Jaguar.

*Monday*

This week has been bookended by lockdown lessons. The first came when I nipped across to the Lambourn Downs to meet photographer Max Edleston so he could create the Bentley Bentayga pix you’ll find in this week's issue. We met about lunchtime, by which time the pervading mist had dispersed in favour of beguiling sunshine.

The job took an easy two hours, but what made it special (apart from meeting a cheerful colleague) was that I picked all the best roads to go there and back – out via Faringdon and Wantage, back through Lambourn and Shrivenham. No rushing, beyond the odd impetuous attack on a few well-loved corners, and maximum appreciation of the scenery. Arrived home elated at having made the best of something that might have been routine.

*Tuesday*

Now we’re seeing signs of an end to lockdown, it feels safe to talk about unsafe subjects such as the worst car I’ve ever driven. In recent days, three friends have independently pressed me for an answer to this vital question.

My memory takes me rapidly back to a mid-1980s four-car test we labelled ‘The Untouchables’, featuring a Zastava, a Polonez, a Lada and a Reliant Robin. The first three were depressingly poor Fiat copies of an Eastern Bloc persuasion; the fourth a spectacularly awful all-British confection with one less wheel than it needed.

The Reliant was the worst by a generous margin, so bad in crosswinds that my colleagues and I drew straws to see who’d drive it across the Severn Bridge in a stiff breeze. And I remember another colleague cornering for the camera and rolling so far onto two wheels that all present were afforded a fi ne view of the puny exhaust running along its undersides.

Comparatively speaking, we live in an age (as the cliché goes) where there are no bad cars. But I always bridle when people assume this means cars are all the same: they emphatically are not. What is true, however, is that compared with those days, today’s cars are far more reluctant to kill you.

*Wednesday*

Now that we know Jaguars are about to change completely, I find myself drawn to old Jags, even those that weren’t standouts in their day. It’s hard to think of a brand with higher peaks (D-Type) and deeper troughs (X-Type) but my eye has particularly started to fall on the late-1990s V8-engined XK8 coupé, which in the right colour and on the right wheels is now looking downright sensational. I had a lovely deep blue launch edition but, at the time, I allowed my good opinion to be affected by its forever-warped front discs and lack of a manual gearbox. (As I remember, there was no room in its tiny footwell for a clutch.) Anyway, this car is looking great to me now, especially at £12,000 for a pampered low-miler.

*Sunday*

Lockdown lesson No2: on Sunday mornings these past few months, I’ve joined a Zoom-based military history group: a clever friend chooses a subject he thinks we’ll enjoy and gives an absorbing hour’s talk. What I’ve learned from this (apart from particulars of the Battle of Jutland, and what happened at Tobruk in 1942) is that many momentous phases of history are, in hindsight, amazingly short. It makes me all the more determined to watch and savour the tumultuous developments of current car history, the breakneck implementation of electrification, and the consequent metamorphosis of companies like Renault, Ford and Jaguar. The danger of living with this stuff is you can think it’s routine. It is not.

*And another thing...*

You’ll read in this week's issue about a 250cc Bond-based kart, designed and built as a schoolboy by Jonathan Palmer, circuit boss and former Formula 1 ace. He now counts selling it as a big mistake and would love to know if it survives. Anyone know?

*READ MORE*

*James Ruppert: How to pull a lockdown turnaround *

*Covid guidance: Car dealers can offer test drives during lockdown *

*Can virtual reality replace test drives in lockdown? We find out*