May

Remember when you were a kid and you put a strip cut from an old ice cream container on the frame of your bike so it flapped in the spokes making it sound like a motorbike? Well Ford reckon us kids may have been on to something and they’ve come up with their own versions.

Amongst the usual array of mainstream cars that are, by and large, Turners bread and butter – and the sort of cars most people want – there is a few oddballs that you don’t see very often. It’s these little curiosities that catch my eye. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the Panther Lima - a British sports car you may not have heard of...

It’s not a bike and it’s not a car but it sure looks like fun. This brand new Can-Am Spyder F3 can be ridden/driven on a standard car licence and is fast, fun and safe. It’s an unwanted prize with only delivery kilometres on the clock and a full manufacturer’s warranty. The only thing not new about it is the price.

At last month’s “World Car of the Year” awards the big overall winner was the Mazda MX-5. A car we first saw in 1989, that has changed relatively little in 27 years, still has what it takes to win over the world’s motoring journalists. So what makes the mighty wee Mazda so good?

In recognition of Leicester City football club achieving what most thought impossible by winning the English Premier League with a squad that cost, in Premier League terms, the equivalent of a box of beers and fifty quid, today’s blog is about a beautiful Italian underdog. Well we didn’t have any Noble hand built sports cars in stock (made in Leicester) but as the man responsible for Leicester’s giant killing season is Italian we thought an Italian car that costs less than it looks would be appropriate.

Yesterday I drove to Wellington from Napier and back again. On the way down the rain started in Featherston and never stopped until I got back to Napier. In Wellington it was torrential and the whole time, from the first wipe until the last, my wipers juddered noisily across the windscreen like a stick being dragged down a corrugated iron fence. With 150kms still to drive and with the sun below the horizon the rubber blades started to disintegrate leaving the metal parts to screech across the screen like a hyena with a guts ache. Could it be time for new blades?

The Final Falcon will roll off Ford’s production line in October this year and the plant will be decommissioned and sold. For the first time in nearly 60 years you won’t be able to buy a new Falcon once stock runs out. However, you will be able to buy a used one and they are actually pretty good value.