Alex Unleashed on Cars

  When the oil crisis hit in 1973, the US car market was devastated. They’d gotten used to big powerful engines with single digit MPG figures and then to suddenly have to create small and frugal cars was a big upset. America did try to make muscle cars in the oil crisis era, but they were mere shadows of their former selves. This lasted throughout the 70s and 80s until 1988, when Chrysler engineers decided to make a car in the image of the Shelby Cobra to put America back on the map. I’d also like to clarify something; the Vipers engine is not literally a truck engine as the block in the Viper is aluminium and the truck’s block is cast iron but apart from that they are both very similar. In fact, the block was made by Lamborghini (who were owned by Chrysler at the time). The Viper really did reignite the love and pride Americans had for their cars, here was a 160 MPH no-compromise supercar that could out-gun all but the most expensive exotica. That said, owning an early Viper...

  At times the future of the car and the motorist can seem scary. The oil will one day run out and there are those in the media and online who try to convince us that the electric car is some sort of satanic contraption whilst those aforementioned folks and governments also ignore other solutions to the issues of going net zero and powering the cars of the future. But, those who read and write about cars know that the future is actually pretty good and that the present day mirrors that of the very early days of the car when there were multiple choices for what powered cars, in the old days, it was petrol, steam and electric. Now it’s, electric, hydrogen and synthetic fuels. Both me and James May agree that BEV’s (battery electric vehicles) are a stop gap solution, in that, for now they are the closest thing to the solution that will solve the issue of cars and pollution, much like hybrid cars did in the 2000s and early 2010s prior to the likes of Tesla and Renault EV’s taking o...

Fiat has many ups and downs over its lifespan. On the one hand, you have forgettable and poorly built drivel like the Stilo, Multipla facelift and Doblo. But then you also have the 124, Panda, 500 and of course, the Coupe. Fiat’s Coupe really did define the era that gave us almost too many affordable coupes to choose from, everyone from Alfa Romeo to Volvo had a coupe for you, with varying degrees of excellence, from Ford’s Puma and the VW Corrado down to the Vauxhall Calibra and Alfa Romeo GTV. First thing you have to talk about the Fiat Coupe is the looks. I’m not it’s biggest fan, but I do think it is very striking indeed as did a lot of people when it was first unveiled in ’92, it caused quite a stir, I mean you’ve got the slashes along the wheel arches, the rather butch looking front end and inside you get a strip running across the dashboard with pininfarina in the middle. But what is even more interesting is it’s chief designer, Chris Bangle. The man who was hounded for his ...

  The year was 1996 and a certain someone had lined up an Aston Martin Vantage, a Porsche 911 Turbo, Lotus Esprit V8, Caterham 7 JPE, Dodge Viper RT/10 and a TVR Cerbera for a 1 mile drag race. In the end, the ballsy coupe from Blackpool took a decisive win. I bring up this story because it’s just one of several events that propelled the Cerbera to fame. The second was a year later, when the TVR faced an even bigger challenge than a turbocharged Porsche, a Panavia Tornado jet. Yes, long before Richard Hammond raced a Bugatti Veyron against a Eurofighter, Top Gear Magazine had a TVR race a Tornado. And lost. But not by much! These 2 events for me sum up the Cerbera, an underdog from (until then) a small brand from a seaside town capable of great things, taking the fight to cars far more expensive and exclusive. The general consensus among road testers was you’d need at least £300,000 to beat a Cerbera in a straight line. When first being conceived, the Cerbera was originally goi...

  When we talk about cars that saved their manufacturers such as the Porsche Boxster or the Bentley Continental GT, we’re normally talking about class-leading cars, cars that do the job better than anyone else. And yet I’d argue that the Aston Martin DB7 is probably the only car that can claim to have “saved a brand” but isn’t best in class. Why? Well: the chassis is derived from the Jaguar XJ-S, the build quality is still sus, the interior is full of Ford switchgear it wallows through corners and the price was very high. So I ask, did it deserve to be the success it was? Now at the time of conception, Aston Martin had been on the verge of collapse (again) so Ford bought a 75% stake in 1987 and then fully in 1993, Ford later bought Jaguar and then Land Rover from BMW. The DB7 was conceived as a cheaper entry level model that would bring back the glory days of the 60s when Aston epitomized cool and sophistication, consider the fact it was the first Aston to have DB (insert num...

  When Audi took over Lamborghini, much like when BMW bought Rolls-Royce or when Ford bought Aston Martin. There were those who thought Lamborghini would lose all the character and passion that had made it the legendary marque that it is. But to everyone’s surprise, as is often the way when small manufacturer’s get bought by big ones, things get much better than they did before. Whilst the last run Diablo’s did have Audi’s input, the Murcielago was the first made under Audi’s full control. One clear example is that the Murcielago wasn’t designed by Marcello Gandini but by a Belgian, Luc Donckerwolke who’d previously designed the Audi A2 & Audi R8 LMP car to name a couple. The Murcielago sported an increased engine size, (6.2 litres over 6), which meant more power, 575 to be exact, which can power the 1650 KG supercar from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and all the way to a colossal 205 MPH top speed. Everything about the Murcielago was extreme, though the price tag was “only” £163,000...

  If you read my Greatest Cars Ever, you’ll know I championed the Ford Focus as one of the greatest cars ever made and I’ll stand by my decision. For those of you who didn’t read that blog, I championed it because it was such a giant leap forward over the old Escort and its various rivals, and in general was a great car in all aspects particularly as it was both a nice car to drive but was also well built. The Focus was actually teased all the way back in late 1995, where frankly, it looked out of this world, especially when most other cars of that type and time were boxy and looked like saloons with the boot chopped off.   Amongst the various plans for the Focus included a planned a Mazda sourced V6 engine option though that was later scrapped. Either way, everyone was excited at the prospect of the Focus going on sale in the near future. So, if the hype when the Focus was teased was high, then the excitement when it reached show rooms in late 1998 was ecstatic. And unlike ...