Steve Cropley: Car lovers are having a helluva summer
This week our man heads to one of his favourite motoring events, and spends some time in a new Evoque
As well as heading down to the Festival of the Unexceptional, this week sees Cropley get behind the wheel of the smallest Land Rover, and reminisce about an often overlooked MG.
*Saturday*
The Covid concertina effect on dates has ensured there’s a blockbuster motoring event every day of every weekend for the foreseeable future.
I was delighted to be at an important one at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, the ‘25th+1’ anniversary celebrations for the MG F, a car ignored for far too long. I spent a cheery half-hour chatting publicly about it with Nick Fell (chief project engineer), David Knowles (who wrote the book) and Denis Chick (who ran the 1995 press launch).
The technical recipe for the F – lightweight K-series engine, transverse mid-mounted powertrain, spacious cockpit yet compact exterior, Rover Metro subframes carrying supple Hydragas suspension, pretty Gerry McGovern styling – still makes a desirable roadster today.
No wonder the 600 owners at the British Motor Museum were so conspicuously proud of their cars. The F always deserved respect, and now it’s getting some.
*Tuesday*
A Range Rover Evoque arrives – a timely chance to reflect again on this car’s unique shape and function. I find myself staring at the beauty of those short overhangs, the purposeful stance, the descending roof and the rising waist and wondering how the hell it can also be so damn practical. This one is a P300 plug-in hybrid, the first PHEV I’ve driven in a while, what with the recent blizzard of fully electric cars.
I took it on a 140-mile tour of outer Wiltshire and returned with the fuel computer showing 68mpg – a figure boosted by its initial 30 miles of electric-only propulsion but kept high by its sheer efficiency. I plugged the ‘empty’ Evoque into our home charger, and 90 minutes later, it was at 100% again. People decry PHEVs for weight and complexity reasons, but nothing else in the electrified ranks beats their beguiling versatility.
*Thursday*
When I heard about the launch of the Official Frank Stephenson Colouring Book – an opportunity for us punters to visualise the ex-Mini-Ferrari-McLaren designer’s greatest cars in liveries of our own – I reckoned the idea was a little bit barmy. But when I mentioned it to friends, they went crazy for the idea. Then the book arrived, costing less than a tenner, and I had to be restrained from getting the pencils out myself, there and then. Many won’t resist the urge. To make it all worthwhile, Frank has offered to choose and curate the best via his YouTube channel.
*Saturday*
It was 6am and I was inclined to stay in bed, but the Steering Committee struck a note of reality. “Don’t forget,” she said, “that this is your favourite day of the year.” I remembered in a flash that the 2021 Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional was getting under way this very day.
It was fully three hours’ drive away at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. I had previously been to a couple of these events – earmarked for Austin Allegros, Hillman Avengers, Talbot Solaras, Vauxhall Vivas, Lada Rivas and those who love them – and I definitely needed to be at this one. Within minutes, I was in the car heading north.
By 9.15am, I was inside the castle gates, smirking at a sign that read ‘The Bland That Time Forgot’. Many people will know by now that a Proton Black Knight (plaudits to the marketing type who coined that moniker) took first prize in the 50-car concours, the main event. But for most of us, the greatest joy was wandering the ranks of spectators’ cars, ordinary but loved, marvelling at their variety and condition.
And what a special pleasure to be at something so large and well-organised yet gloriously devoid of ‘commercial messages’, save for the benign presence of the sponsor, the Hagerty classic car insurance fi rm. If you didn’t make it this time, don’t miss 2022.
*And another thing...*
Given the indifferent efforts of its driver, my recently acquired Lotus M100 received surprising plaudits at a recent Prescott meeting for its looks, its colour and especially its non-standard multi-spoke 17in wheels.
I fielded lots of enquiries about those. I’m told they’re from a Rover, but does anyone know which one?
*READ MORE*
*The UK motoring activities you must try this summer*
*Used car buying guide: MG F*
*Exceptionally unexceptional cars for unexceptional prices*