12:43 am, August 21, 2011
FIVE cars on route to Wales for a special feature in the magazine. Sounds like the perfect dream, doesn’t it?
Sadly though, the fact of the matter is that the dream only really comes to life once you’re IN Wales – as we have painfully found out.
That’s because we probably chose completely the wrong day to head to Wales for our annual Road Test of the Year.
It all started to go rather badly when we got onto the M3 – literally a few miles away from where we set off in Gosport. AA signs told us that a motocross thing was on and news that a coach had broken down was spelt out on Radio 2 which effectively meant the M3 and the A34 had ground to a halt.
Add to that service stations which seemed to have the whole populations of Wilmslow and Newton Abbot combined together inside their eateries, V-Festival on over the weekend – I’ve since gathered this is a music event with loud music – and smatterings of heavy rain, you can understand our pain.
This could become a regular occurrence...
But all of this slow driving on motorways has given us one good thing – we now know which car gets the most looks. A convoy of an Audi RS3, a BMW 1M, a Mini Cooper SD and a Caterham R400 all following neatly in line behind a black on black Porsche 911 GTS is bound to get looks at the best of times. But it’s the 1M which is, so far, the people’s favourite.
And rightly so. The 1M really is a stunning thing to both look at a listen to. It has a completely different soundtrack compared to the fluuughhh of the 911 and the braaaaapp which comes out the side of the Caterham.
Surrounded by such automotive ‘look at me’, I felt a little short-changed with the Cooper SD. With only a little red ‘D’ badge and an ’11’ plate to suggest it’s anything new, you can see where I’m coming from.
However, once we had eventually left England and Wales’ delightful roads welcomed us, the Mini came right on form.
While the GTS and RS3 were exchanging places and the 1M and R400 were taking it a bit easy on wet roads strewn with sheep, the Mini was hanging-on in there in true British spirit. The diesel Mini – it’s the only diesel here on RTOTY – makes a fine case for itself as being the best all-rounder so far. It’s the most comfortable and economical but it’s far from being afraid of showing its red underwear when it’s necessary.
Tomorrow we’ll be scouting out for photo locations. And then on Monday our five cars line-up becomes seven. Ferrari’s 458 and the new Aston Virage join our famous five.
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