By Nigel Wigmore

THERE is hope yet for those of us that appreciate what was once called a “real motor car”.
That might sound a bit sad to a new generation of drivers that know nothing but nippy hatchbacks and all-electric vehicles.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with all-electric vehicles. But EVs have some way to go before they prove to be a totally satisfactory mode of transport.
On the satisfaction level for matching comfort and power the Maserati Levante GranLusso scored highly.
Of course, the magic is already there in the name. Maserati has a kudos that no online accessed new car brand can hope to match. Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

If you are going to go electric — and indications are that many more motorists this year will buy an EV (electric vehicle) — then you might as well do it in style.
And probably one of the most luxurious electric cars available to buy today is the new Jaguar I-Pace.
Luxurious it certainly is, and therefore consummately comfortable, as the interior displays the expected hallmarks of any upmarket Jaguar Land Rover model.
The ride is not so much a rumble along with the familiar fuel-powered engine upfront as an electrically driven glide through the byways of Britain. Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

THIS week I have been driving a car that eclipsed the range anxiety associated with all-electric cars.
Range — how many miles an electric car can go before the battery runs out — has been improved on all- electric cars now coming on stream.
Carmakers had to do this to entice motorists to buy electric cars. We are told repeatedly that electric cars are the future.
However, for distance driving and what I would term “normal” driving habits, the Toyota C-HR self-charging hybrid at present seems a much better bet.

Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

The Renault Clio has proved itself the ultimate stayer in the hugely competitive world of modern superminis.

The model of Clio I have been driving this week was aptly named the Iconic, for few cars attain the true status of iconic today.

But the antecedents are all there. The Clio has been with us forever, it seems. It was launched in 1990, and was in its fourth generation by 2012. Continue reading →

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By Nigel Wigmore

It was the ultimate boy’s toy – a superfast, super-expensive supercar. The 2009 Lamborghini Spyder’s throaty roar could be heard streets away and its good looks turned heads everywhere.

Indeed, my favourite comment as I cruised around Oxfordshire in the 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 Spyder was from a boy of about 14 who, passing on his chopper bike cast wise, young eyes over the car and said: “Sick!”

Apparently, in kid-speak this is the ultimate compliment for this ultimate boy’s toy. In the same way that if something is said to be bad, it is actually good, the Lamborghini Spyder being real bad. Continue reading →

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By Nigel Wigmore

It was one of those great moments in a motoring life that you appreciate because all of us seem to be constantly under the watchful eye of the politically correct.

Sure, no one should be racing cars on public roads these days and I adhere wholeheartedly to that.

However, I was at the wheel of the quickest new Kia Stinger, a model with a 3.3-litre V6 engine that produces 365bhp (that’s a lot) and sprints from 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds. So what are you going to do? Let’s just say my opportunity to put the Stinger through its paces came on a nice stretch of practically deserted dual carriageway. Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

Another country – that place that might occupy our hearts and minds – often appears more attractive than the one we live in.

And yet there are many unexplored parts of our own country of which we remain blissfully ignorant.

I have been trying in recent months to put this right by taking road trips to places I should know but do not know at all. Continue reading →

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By Nigel Wigmore

There was a moment — like all the best moments in a lifetime of motoring it was unplanned and unrehearsed — when out of the motorway mist came the lumbering shape of an aged Lamborghini.

This Lambo, battering along in the outside lane, was no new flash one fresh from the dusty streets of Dubai but an elderly, silver Countach, the one with a V12 engine like a wardrobe tacked flat on its back.

As it passed my drive, a Jaguar XKR-S Convertible, the Lambo’s driver glanced across. It was an appreciative look: the Jaguar XK in French Racing Blue the epitome of the ultra-fast, modern, road-going sports car. Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

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The magic of the Maserati name resonates across many decades of car manufacture in Italy, ancestral home of fabulous sports cars.

In the Sixties when the whiff of such exotic cars reached the eager noses of young British fans such as myself, the closest we got to even thinking about getting near a Maserati was something called Maserati air horns. Continue reading →

By Nigel Wigmore

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Rest assured that I had no intention of doing anything undignified such as “getting down with the kids” while at the wheel of this week’s drive, the hyperbolically named Vauxhall Adam Rocks S.

On the other hand, I do not see why people of a certain age cannot enjoy what young motorists are expected to love – small, zippy motor cars – as we did back in the day in those early GTIs.

Continue reading →