When I became a motoring journalist, a whole new world opened up to me. I’ve travelled the world first-class, eaten in the finest restaurants, and slept in some of the best hotels in the world. I’ve driven hundreds of cars over thousands of miles, met a lot of fascinating people, and seen things that I can never, ever write about. (If for no other reason than you would never believe them.)…

It’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m freezing. Genuinely bloody freezing. And tired. And confused. I can’t concentrate and I’m lost in the middle of no-where. I can’t pinpoint our location to within 2 miles. I just want to curl up and go to sleep but I can’t. I’ve got to concentrate on finding out where the hell we are. ***** No, this isn’t an Army exercise designed by…

Continuing our weekly Wednesday ritual, we spent yesterday at Brightwells classic car auction in Leominster. No automobilia this time, which meant that any mistakes would be more costly and with more serious domestic consequences… We went with half an eye on a rare Lancia Beta Spyder in dark blue. The photos in the catalogue looked superb – and how often do you get a chance to buy one? The estimate…

Invitations to drive new cars are part and parcel of a motoring journalist’s life and I have to confess to a weakness for one-marque days, when a manufacturer invites you to drive their range over a period of a few hours. There is something honest and open about exposing an entire model range to back-to-back scrutiny that signals strong confidence in the product. Such an invitation came from Renault recently,…

Continuing our (by now) traditional Wednesday classic car auction, we visited the Herefordshire Vintage Auction, held in the delightful grounds of How Caple Court just outside Hereford. Automobilia predominated, with just 14 cars on offer, the majority of which were vintage. Those attending were well-versed in identifying oily bits in isolation and their knowledge was astounding; I overheard several conversations in which they debated not the model that a part…

A bit of a misnomer, this, as it wasn’t a day out at all, but an evening at Glyndwr University, Wrexham. No matter, semantics can be conveniently ignored in the interests of neat taxonomy, because it was a fascinating couple of hours in the company of legendary speed king, Sir Richard Noble, there to talk about Bloodhound SSC. As a motoring journalist I’d heard a bit about Bloodhound (can we…

Bonhams’ November auction of Collectors’ Motorcars, Motorcycles & Automobilia was held at the Yorkshire Event Centre, in the spa town of Harrogate, and attracted an eclectic mix of wealthy car collectors, autojumblers and impoverished classic car buffs. As such I felt right at home falling very firmly in the latter category and it won’t come as a surprise to hear that I drove away in a new (to me) car……

We’ve just returned from the Footman James Classic Motor Show, held again at the NEC in Birmingham, tired but happy. The format – filling five vast halls with classic cars, motorbikes and assorted goodies – is a tried and trusted one and despite fewer first-day visitors than last year the atmosphere and quality of displays remain first-rate. We arrived via Hall 4 and were immediately seduced by an SL R107…