My mate had  – with some caution it must be said – manoeuvred the not-unsubstantial 2014 Range Rover Autobiography down our narrow driveway and it was as I reached out to the passenger door handle in order to open it and greet him that my attention was diverted from the grinning fizzog of the car’s evidently proud pilot by the sight of a mechanised running board/step arrangement gliding smoothly from the lower sill in the general direction of my shins.

Emblazoned with a ‘Range Rover’ logo I gawped at it as I realised that this latest 4-wheeled automotive marvel to which my chum had treated himself was in another league again from the already well-appointed old-shape item he’d recently chopped in.

Much as one might once have marvelled at the now increasingly de-rigeur hands-free flush in public lavs, I found myself opening and closing the (soft-close, natch) door in order to watch this mechanical ballet play out over and over whilst in my mind the question of how I had existed for so long without access to such a remarkable feature on my own personal transport nagged away at my addled braincell..

Labour-saving features on cars have of course traditionally appeared at the higher end of the market before filtering down to those of us mere mortals and functions once considered to be the province of the luxury boys such as electric windows and climate control are now pretty much standard fitment on the majority of vehicles in the UK’s showrooms.

So, in order to go at least some way towards justifying the inflated prices demanded of those who would travel in the cosseted world of the opulent, manufacturers are continually striving to alleviate the apparently onerous tasks presented by the action of piloting – or indeed being piloted in – their vehicles.

On the face of it, the Range Rover’s robotic aid to ingress/egress might seem an exercise in overkill and complexity – a practical demonstration of the perceived laziness commensurate with the sort of coddled target market to which the brand is pitched – but it does illustrate the point that in order to attract & retain the custom of those for whom the outlay of a six figure sum on transport is a familiar decision – the high-end manufacturer is compelled to keep pulling ever more ingenious labour saving functions out of their corporate hat.

In the case of the Range Rover, just opening the door and being offered an easy way of embarking or disembarking is the rather elegant first step – literally – towards being conveyed in comfort which only a few years ago would have been the preserve of those used to travelling behind a fluted grille and a shiny bonnet mascot.

Such is the gamut of luxurious gewgaws and luxury touches that one can waft along in a wonderful bubble of isolation – cushioned against the hectic pace of life outside by double glazed windows and constantly adapting air suspension as one’s buttocks and lumbar regions are warmed/cooled/kneaded by expansive leather seats adjustable in every conceivable axis so that the lucky occupant experiences nothing so troubling as a stiff sacrum or a chilly bum cheek..

And these features certainly have a place – anyone shelling out the previously mentioned £100k plus for the privilege of travelling Business Class on the nation’s increasingly crowded and stress-inducing road network can rightly expect a lot of luxury for the outlay – but at what point do the labour-saving accoutrements start to become distractions or conversely so indispensable that we neglect our duty to scan the road ahead because the radar nestling in the front bumper is doing it for us?

For the driver, aren’t these ever-present comfort features in danger of diverting him or her  from the actual purpose of being in the vehicle in the first place?

And are we, as those charged with safely piloting machines with the capacity to kill, not at risk of allowing ourselves to rely too much on the driver aid technology at our disposal – whether it be the blind spot detector the or the radar-controlled cruise control – at the expense of actually driving the car using our inbuilt sense of hazard perception and spatial awareness?

Indeed, it seems that the lines between what constitutes a comfort feature and a driver aid are becoming increasingly blurred & not just in the rarified, climate-controlled confines of the latest Range Rover either. As more and more functions previously only available to those with a penchant for the posh start to trickle down to mid-range, mass-market fleet metal, we’re starting to be presented with a bewildering array of technology each time we climb behind the (increasingly optionally-heated) wheel.

This might well be a bit of a double-edged sword, not least for the reasons alluded to above: more distraction + more reliance on the technology could very well add up to a loss of focus on the actual act of driving with the inherent disastrous consequences.

We certainly live in interesting times – technology is advancing at such a rate that we can only be but a couple of years & some diligently-applied legislation away from encountering fully autonomous vehicles on our roads, despite the recent well-publicised and tragic death of a US Tesla driver at the wheel of a car in “Autopilot” mode.

But the fact remains that for the foreseeable future the vast majority of cars on our roads will be being conducted not just by a battery of computers fed by a multitude of sensors but by flesh and blood utilising the Mk1 eyeball and the grey matter number-crunching engine between our ears, and for that reason I believe that whilst the onward march of technology definitely has a part to play in helping us get from A to B with minimum fuss and in the safest way possible it shouldn’t become so overbearing that it reduces the onus on the driver to use his or her own judgement & most certainly shouldn’t affect their ability to maintain control of his vehicle at all times.

Now, don’t get me wrong – not one of us here at UKMotortalk could be classed as a Luddite – we’re not going to berate the march of technology and with open arms we welcome anything which advances the cause of safety for the road user and in particular that which eases the burden on today’s hard-pressed car driver.

But equally we would strongly advocate that those who find this technology increasingly at their disposal recognise when it is a hindrance rather than a help.

Whether it comes in the form of a vast TFT infotainment screen in the middle of the dashboard (*cough* Tesla *cough*) or a trick self-parking mode, applied science in the cockpit should surely be as unobtrusive as possible – particularly in the case of gadgetry and switchgear.

We as drivers in our turn should perhaps be encouraged to accept the increasing assistance with which the motor manufacturers are so keen to provide us but not at the cost of distracting ourselves from the art of driving or the risk of dulling our own skills.

Mind how you go..

Dave Wakefield

The post The Rise of The Machines? first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

Now, perhaps you’re one of those really outdoors-y people who like to spend as much time as possible careering down sheer cliff faces on a thousand-speed mountain bike with your mates, or maybe you’re a classic motorcycle fan & enjoy showing off your pristine 1959 BSA Bantam all over Europe.

All well and good, but what are your options if you want to stay over and make the most of a long weekend at your sheer cliff face/classic motorbike meet?

Hotel? Pricey, and if it’s a big event you’re at, probably booked up way in advance.

Caravan perhaps? Ok if there’s room but probably not ideal if you are heading off the beaten track a bit.

The good old tent then? Maybe, but they can take up a fair bit of valuable space in a car, especially if you’ve got all your other gear to lug about to & from your event.

Well, what we discovered on our trip over the road to the more retail & entertainment-focussed part of the Revival might be just what you’re looking for..

Resembling  the progeny of a one night stand between an Ifor Williams trailer & an Ariel Atom, the SylvanSport Go appears at first glance to be a pared-down version of the sort of thing your local gardening firm might use to cart lawnmowers around in if designed by Jonny Ive (for those of you not in the thrall of Apple’s every product release, he designed the iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc).

However, look a little more closely and you start to notice that all is not as it might seem, as mounted atop the smart silver-painted tubular framework is what resembles a slimline version of the seemingly-ubiquitous Thule roofbox favoured by Audi A6/BMW 5/Volvo V70 owners up & down the land.

Look a little closer still & you’ll discover some intriguing ring-pulls not dissimilar to the kind you only yank out of a hand grenade if your next action is to lob it as far away from your current location as possible..

Parked next to this apparently compact trailer on the stand was what appeared to be a funky-looking trailer tent from which emerged Steve Downey, the friendly & avuncular proprietor of Valke Outdoors, the Somerset-based importers of the Go, and a man who was about to demonstrate to us just what a clever piece of kit it is.

Steve began by telling us that whilst Go is a well-established & well-known product in its native USA – no less an authority than National Geographic calling it “The Coolest Camper Ever” – a slogan prominently displayed on the frame of one of Steve’s demo models –  it’s new to our shores, but he reckons it’ll be a hit once people realise just what it can do.

So, we asked him, what exactly can it do?

Essentially, he explained, it can go from being the low profile futuristic-looking trailer we’d just been wandering round to the airy & spacious accommodation we were now currently sat inside, because, in a feat of packaging of which the afore-mentioned Mr Ive would be proud, all the hi-tech, ripstop fabric currently sheltering us from the West Sussex elements stows neatly away into that deceptively slim roof-box we’d spotted earlier.

And, into the bargain, the trailer was capable not only of transforming into a place to rest your head after a hard day’s quad-biking, it would transport the quad bike as well..

It’s the versatility of the Go which is its real USP it seems. The compact framework we’d seen on the first of the two rigs parked up in Lord March’s back garden actually adjusts in height from 1.3 metres (51 inches in old money) in closed ‘Travel Mode’ up to an impressive 2 metres (79 inches old skool) when transporting your quad bike, jetski, 1/2 tonne of garden waste for the tip etc.

And for those of us who stand somewhat above average height the good news is that in full-on camping mode, the roof height is a vertiginous 2.2 metres (colour) or 87 inches (black and white) so if rock climbing in 6 inch (15cm) heels is your thing, you’ve been thought of too..

Adjusting the height of the trailer to the different configurations is as simple as removing the hand grenade safety pins and winding the mechanism up or down to the required setting using a hand crank attached to the front of the trailer – although Steve can sell you an adaptor for an electric drill if you’re knackered after a day’s hooning in the boondocks. Or just idle.

Other, somewhat more useful accessories offered to complement the Go’s already pretty comprehensive kit list (it comes with self-inflating mattresses for instance) include a handy solar-power system for running low-current LED lights, as well as 12v & USB outlets, essential for charging your iPhone in the middle of nowhere or the Silverstone GP campsite (much the same thing if we’re honest).

Steve sees the Go as a bit of an automotive Swiss Army Knife – today taking the remains of an old kitchen down to the council dump, tomorrow ferrying you & some Lycra-clad chums off to the Fells for a couple of days’ charging up and down on mountain bikes & we’d have to agree, it’s a versatile & clever machine whose rugged construction & ability to travel on less than perfect surfaces might also lend itself to use by the emergency services for use at incidents where a temporary R&R facility could be handy. Even if’s just somewhere to sit & have a warming brew, it could prove attractive to organisations such as HM Coastguard who routinely find themselves stationed away from civilisation when called into action.

At £8994(GB) it’s not exactly cheap – a fairly decent trailer tent will set you back around 5 & half grand – but that’s not the point. The Go will get you there & shelter you in reasonable comfort but it’ll also take all your kit into the bargain  – or ‘toys’ as Steve smilingly referred to them – & that so far as we can see is a unique proposition.


Dave Wakefield

The post Tow-tally Impressive first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

Let’s hope we they’re wrong, eh..?

The post Get thee (further back) behind me? first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

The post Mirror, mirror on the door.. first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

The post What now for Robert Kubica? first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

Takes a breath, slurp of tea and one of those little pink pills the nice doctor said would reduce that twitching vein on the temple.

Suffice it to say then that the misuse of foglights is normally guaranteed to elicit a certain consternation here at Motortalk Towers – this particular outpuring of ire being triggered by the usual commute into West London this morning from the leafy Surrey/Hants countryside where many of the team are based.

The signs weren’t good as the temperature fell like a stone last night and the mist started rolling in to the valley where we live early in the evening – and as I chiselled the ice off the car this morning with the temperature gauge bleating a bracing -2 deg C I just knew that we were in for a dazzling display of motoring ignorance all the way up the A3 & beyond..

And, we weren’t to be disappointed as, joining a busy but flowing A3 south of Guildford there were more than a few vehicles within plain sight of each other with their foglights on front and rear for no apparent reason other than at some point their drivers had experienced fog and had switched them on.
Yes, it was quite foggy in places – particularly in & around the country lanes which link home to the main roads but honestly, not one of the people I found myself driving alongside on the roads this morning could justifiably have claimed that having these extra lights aglow on their vehicle was neccessary – apart, perhaps from the bloke in a Fiesta whose offside headlight had failed; we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt..

Now, don’t get us wrong. Used correctly, foglights are a very effective and worthwhile fitment in a country such as ours with its, er, changeable weather patterns, and an extra bright rear lamp can be a real confidence boost when stopped in fog on a blind bend or travelling slowly on a misty & poorly-lit dual carriageway where distance judgement can be tricky as visibility is dramatically reduced.

In fact, there’s a growing acceptance of the use of – in particular – rear fog lamps in territories where they are not manadatory as they are here in the EU, indeed Mini owners in the ‘States successfully lobbied BMW USA to make them optional on cars sold over there and web forums relating to other models not fitted with the feature as standard regularly feature ‘how to’ instructional posts for those keen to add the functionality to their vehicles.

So, on the whole then, they would seem to be A Good Thing if used correctly & not as an additional piece of posing equipment chosen from the options list (BMW 1 Series owners, you know who we’re talking about here) or as a light-emitting cloak of invincibility which renders the user impervious to danger in foggy conditions.

To that end, perhaps it bears repeating that, according to none other an authority than The Highway Code (last read by approx 99% of drivers the day before they passed their driving test):

“You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.”

And ‘seriously reduced’ is usually taken to mean less than 100 metres, or 328 feet if you can’t get to grips with that new-fangled decimal nonsense.

So, to all those who press every single lighting button on the dashboard, a plea.

Why not take the time to read two quite important pieces of literature?

1) Your vehicle handbook – it’ll be that tatty thing stuffed under the seat, in the glove box or propping up the leg of the dining table which has never been the same since that incident with the gin & the hacksaw.

It’ll tell you all about what those buttons which look like they switch the headlights on actually do & what the lights they’re actually connected to are for.

2) The Highway Code – No. No, we’ve no idea either – probably long gone and unlikely it’s ever been looked at since you ripped up the L plates – well, here you go, here’s the bit you need:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069859

pretty much the first line on the page..

You’re welcome.

Dave Wakefield

The post Blindingly simple – or so you’d think. first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

The post Revival time again. first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

It may be the car you have faithfully driven for a decade at a particular speed to conserve petrol – a tool to get from A to B.

You don’t speed up before red lights.

Maybe it is the type of car you walk back to after a stop at the supermarket to find a young couple taking turns to pose with it.

It might be the car Lewis Hamilton drove to success at F1.

One day it will become a scrap car, sad but true. That is where Giveacar come in to make the difficult (sniff) process easier to handle. They have a positive spin for you…donate your scrap car to charity and have 85% of the weight of the car recycled.

The post Breaking up is hard to do..? Not with this charity. first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

The post Melbourne Grand Prix – Immediate reaction first appeared on UKMotorTalk.

Graham Benge, Andrew Denyer and Dave Wakefield discuss the forthcoming 2010 F1 season…:

New Cars
New Teams
New Driver line-ups
Who will be Champion?

For more, visit http://www.ukmotortalk.co.uk/

The post It’s what you’ve been waiting for…! – UKMT’s F1 briefing for 2010… first appeared on UKMotorTalk.