Christmas. Snowdonia. Mud. Ice. Mountains. Yr Wyddfa. Logic suggested I should be flinging a rally-spec electric Mustang up the side of Eryri National Park like some sort of eco-conscious mountain goat. Reality, however, intervened. I took the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally to The Ritz instead. Champagne. White tablecloths. Soft lighting. Our own table, suspiciously close to David and Victoria Beckham.
A Proper Festive Audi SQ6 SUV Test, Puddings Included
Images By Hayden Povey.
The modern SUV has become the de facto family chariot. Tall, comfortable, laden with technology and more often than not, about as likely to see mud as a Dyson showroom. Yet for all their polish, there’s a sense that the SUV has lost touch with its original brief: utility.
Images By Hayden Povey
I’m feeling rather smug about this analogy, which came to me while wistfully gazing into a warm pint in my local. Jonah Lomu, the insanely powerful New Zealand wrecking ball is, I’ve decided, the perfect way to describe the BMW M5 Touring for anyone in need of an automotive frame of reference.
For the Alpine A110 R 70 Tour, we took that feather-light French racer—the automotive equivalent of a bespoke Yves Saint Laurent dinner jacket—and let it loose on the winding backroads of Sussex, heading to the rather fabulous Star Hotel in Alfriston.
I have officially entered the realm of the middle-aged man. Because for a little while now, I have been yearning for a bit of rose-tinted, unfiltered wanderlust. The kind where you simply go wherever the wind (or Google Maps) decides to take you. And while the grim realities of motorway snarl-ups and the endless dual carriageway roadworks have been quietly airbrushed out of this scenario, I’m going to roam up and down England and Wales – just for the sheer love of it.
Predictive damping, torque vectoring, regenerative braking and active aero might all sound well and good but what if you just want less of all that? What if you just want to reconnect with the outright physics of driving again? Enter the A110: a lightweight, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports car that does away with all of the above.
The BMW 5 series is widely regarded as being the key stakeholder when it comes to executive driving. It just sort of materialises like a very well-dressed civil servant who’s read the briefing, made a cup of tea and is waiting for you to catch up. It doesn’t shout because it doesn’t need to. Instead, it diligently follows its own plan to be the most complete saloon in BMW’s existence.
Seeking a respite from the everyday drizzle of London, we decided that only a weekend in Paris, ensconced in the sybaritic embrace of a Sweett Apartment, would lift us out of the doldrums. Thus, we crossed the Channel, lured by the siren call of café life and the promise of existential wellness, Parisian-style.
Touring in the Touareg, a pleasing bit of alliteration, is surprisingly comfortable. However, one cannot help but raise a quizzical eyebrow. It is undeniably striking, possessing a visual gravitas that rivals the Audi I recently reviewed. Has Volkswagen, in its apparent wisdom, decided to engage in a form of sibling rivalry? As if the automotive landscape were not already a complex tapestry of challenges.
