I’ve been to the Le Mans 24 Hours once before, in 1990. I flew down with a colleague in his light aircraft and we slept under the wings, which was novel, if a bit exposed.

Since then, the urge to return has been minimal, but the success in recent years of the Corvette Racing team in their mighty Corvette C6-Rs, and the fanaticism of some of the UK Corvette owners in supporting them, convinced me it was time to see these (supposedly) close cousins of my Z06 race in the flesh.

Like others, I’ve been wary of the reports of 10,000s of Brits abroad with the express intention of drinking solidly for (over) 24 hours, but I didn’t personally see any unruly behaviour and my decision to join members of the Classic Corvette Club UK in a modest hotel 30 minutes away from the track proved to be a wise one.

Sadly, despite having the loyalest and most vociferous of fans, the Corvette Racing team failed to win GT1 this year, being narrowly beaten by one of the gorgeous Gulf liveried Aston Martin DBR9s.

The Corvettes did have the honour of being by far the best sounding cars there though…

There has been a furore of controversy about the new Ferrari California in some of the more earnest enthusiast publications.
Apparently the idea of a less powerful, front-engined V8 folding hard top GT does not sit well with some commentators’ idea of what the Ferrari brand stands for.

However they seem to have forgotten that Enzo Ferrari always made comfy GTs to support the funding of his beloved race cars.
And Ferrari have always had a more practical GT at the top of the range, currently the 612 Scaglietti.

So bearing in mind the success of the Aston Martin DB9, I think it is obvious this new model will be extremely successful and get Ferraris into households that would previously not have considered one.

No, the styling is not outstanding, with the rear a direct copy of the ungainly Lexus SC430 with IS-F exhaust pipes, but it does look a lot better not in red and with the hard top up.

As expected nowadays, a new Ferrari debuts new technology and in this case it is a fusion of the 599’s F1 Trac stability control with a brand new 7 speed dual clutch paddle shift gearbox, helping to contribute to a 0-62mph time of “less than 4 seconds”. More than enough to blow any competitor into the shrubbery.

Company President Luca di Montezemolo is on record as saying that Ferrari would never produce more than 5,000 cars a year, but this model is set to raise overall numbers to well beyond 8,000. It appears that exclusivity is not as desirable as a fatter bottom line. Who are we to argue?

Only 5 days left until your opportunity to finally rid London of its snide, self-aggrandising, edifice-building egomaniac Mayor.

Don’t let apathy sneak the idiot back in. Vote Boris!

In case those of you outside of London/UK are wondering what the politics of The Mayor Of London has to with cars (and the far wider issue of personal freedom in my opinion), read my previous editorial HERE. Since I wrote that, independent figures have now confirmed that congestion in London is WORSE than it was before the “Congestion Charge” was introduced!

And in case you missed it, his latest stroke of genius is going to be to introduce a BLANKET 20mph speed limit across the whole of London.

If that happens, I can guarantee the accident rate will go up exponentially as drivers focus 100% of their attention on their speedometers (most of which are hopelessly inaccurate at such a low speed anyway) and none on their driving environment.

It is also guaranteed to massively raise pollution levels as everyone crawls around in 1st and 2nd gear, even at 11pm on an empty road.

If you Londoners let this fool back in for a third time, you deserve to reap what you sow…

I have often been accused of being a horsepower junkie, but I vigorously deny that. I simply choose to keep buying cars with around 500bhp and wantonly modifying them to produce more. I can stop any time I want…

However when it comes to race cars, I have yet to drive anything with a great deal of power (my Caterham Roadsport only boasted 120bhp) and the Team Auto-Journals Fun Cup racer (link) is not going to be any different.

Producing a stalwart (and apparently very reliable) 130bhp from its naturally aspirated Audi 1.8 four pot, the Herbie lookalike only weighs 740kg, even with that mahoosive GRP bodyshell.

The engine is mid-mounted, as indeed is the driver, in a cozy central seating position. Hell, if it had a passenger seat on either side, people would doubtless mistake it for a McLaren F1…

First impressions were of it being both very slow and very low geared. However when I took the time to look at the rev counter and saw that I was changing up at under 5k due to the cacophony of the engine behind me, I let myself rev it to the recommended limit of 6,300rpm and the gearing, at least, seemed to make more sense.

I know Donington Park fairly well and I was surprised to find myself keeping up with and overtaking far more powerful machinery (which, let’s face it, was almost everything else out on the track).

Despite running rather skinny Uniroyal “rain” road tyres, the mid-engined spaceframe chassis ekes out an incredible amount of grip from all four corners and the car was capable of carrying dizzying pace around the corners.

It is certainly going to be a challenge, learning how to conserve momentum rather than using power to accelerate away from corners, but I hope to be able to master it well enough over the 25 hour race at Spa in July so that the main view other drivers get is this one.

(Of course, considering there are going to be 160 identical cars on the track at the same time, that is pretty much a certainty for most of the cars over the race. It’s keeping them there that is going to be tricky…)

I know this might come across as another anti-British car rant after my dissing of the Aston Martin range below, but I had the misfortune to see a couple of Jag XFs on the road recently.

This shot is as good a one as you’ll ever see of an XF, as the dubious 1970s style models are doing their best to obscure most of the car and in particular make sure you can only see one of its ridiculous “startled” headlamps, lending the poor thing a Roger Moore-esque “raise one eyebrow” look.

Any complete view of the car is an entirely forgettable, bland-o-rama moment:

The extremely tall rear is far too close to the new Ford Mondeo, the side profile is a borderline lawsuit copy of the Lexus GS and the front is just plain ugly.

This is all made worse by the fact the C-XF concept car that presaged it was a very handsome car:

Yes, all the mags say the interior is great, as is the traditional Jaguar ride/handling compromise, but they are very wrong when they say that it “looks better in the flesh/metal than it looks in photos”.

No it doesn’t, sadly, and with the recent ruining of the once perennially elegant XJ range with its new pursed lip gurn, I fear new owners Tata will have their work cut out making Jags once again desirable enough to be successful.

I hope they will manage to, as I used to vow I would rather have an XJR rather than its BMW 7 Series/Audi A8/Merc S Class rivals if I needed a large saloon…

Ferrari have made the dual-round-rear-lamps a signature, but with the 599, they look like they’ve finally abandoned it. I made a list of all other the manufacturers I could think of who had made use of it, and surprised myself I could think of this many. Anyone else know of any others?

Following on from my controversial slamming of the E30 M3 and 964RS (link), I thought I would swing the spotlight onto Aston Martin.

How far can one model go? Since launching the DB9 in 2003, Aston Martin appear to have decided they had reached a design zenith and could not possibly produce another.

So since then we have had the DB9 Volante, which understandably is based on a DB9, but unfortunately despite all the much-vaunted advantages of using a high-tech bonded aluminium chassis possessed all the structural integrity of tofu.

Then there was the V8 Vantage which was a sacriligeous use of the Vantage moniker in my opinion, as it always used to denote the fastest and most exclusive in the AM range, and this model was the exact opposite

And it was also clearly a shortened DB9 with a Jag V8.

There then followed the inevitable AMV8 Volante. Except they decided to call it a Roadster to avoid confusion.

Later, supported by a (not very good) feature length commercial called Casino Royale, Aston launched the DBS, a DB9 with a bodykit.

Undergoing final pre-production testing right now, is Aston’s forthcoming four-seater, the Rapide, which is unashamedly a stretch limo DB9.

Exhausting all possible combinations of body length and engine size, they have just confirmed that production has been greenlit for the Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS, which is an AMV8 with a V12. Or put it another way, a stumpier DB9.

Oh and of course, there is going to be a DBS Volante. Or perhaps, bearing in mind it will be open to the wind and be as rigid as flaky pastry, it will be more honestly called the DB9 Halfords Edition Vol-au-Vent.

Now all of this could be forgiveable if any of these models were in some way superior to their competitors.

However I cannot think of one instance where an Aston Martin model is better than any of its competitors.

Yes they are undeniably pretty and clearly, for some, that is enough.

But if performance, reliability or handling are in anyway important to you, there are always better alternatives.

And before you go away thinking I have an irrational hatred of all things Aston Martin, I very much enjoyed driving fellow auto-journalist Jon Honeyball’s old school V8 Vantage and I adored the Vanquish which managed to conquer its woeful interior, reverse-dished steering wheel and pitiful flappy paddle gearbox by being both the sexiest looking and sounding car of the modern age.

There seems to be a pattern for recreating the recent past, what with Ashes to Ashes (aren’t the DOS inspired closing titles the best?), Mad men (which really does feel like the sixties) and No Country For Old Men really feels convincing.

Getting the right cars in a period film, certainly from a recent era where there might be enough of those cars around today, is tricky. We’ll be used to seeing those cars today as old bangers, but they won’t have been old then, of course.

It’s interesting that these three projects deal with this differently. Ashes to Ashes takes some artistic liberties (how many plods drove around in Audi Quattros?) to make use of the iconic coupe, and somehow the show seems weaker for it. Mad Men simply avoids it by staying in the office and smoking. A lot.

The Coen Brothers’ film gets it just right. The cars are perfect: boring, everyday sedans in showroom (but not too shiny) condition. The real stars of the show, however, are the rattly pick-ups in all their gurgling, utilitarian glory. Somehow, they seem to really add to the menace of the film.

As most of you know, I have a left hand drive Corvette (link) in my small collection of cars and drive in the UK, a right hand drive country.

I’ll admit that I initially rejected any idea of owning a left hand drive (LHD) car over here until I was tossed the keys to a Lancia Delta Integrale way back in 1989.

I was converted from “never going to own one” to “must own one” within ten minutes. LHD was simply not the problem I had pre-judged it to be. Once I got used to hugging the near side kerb I never had to think again about the positioning of the car on the road.

After buying my first Integrale, I then had no qualms about replacing it with a LHD Integrale 16v and that was in turn replaced by a LHD 1990 L98 Corvette. I then dabbled with a RHD Ferrari 308 and a couple of RHD Nissan Skyline GT-Rs before returning to the LHD fold with a Ferrari F355.

Basically, if you are even a halfway competent driver, having the steering wheel on the “wrong” side is not a concern, as the millions of Brits who drive their RHD cars in Europe (and vice versa) will attest.

However, a recent holiday in Turks and Caicos, in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, showed that there are entire nations (albeit small ones) that have the majority of their cars with the steering wheels on the “wrong” side.

Look closely at this photo (taken in the aftermath of a hurricane a few years ago) and you will see that the roads are driven on the left (a legacy of their British origins, complete with British road signs), but the majority of cars are LHD as they are brought over from the nearby US.

Now I don’t know what their accident rate is like, but I did not personally witness any fiery smashes caused by having steering wheels on the wrong side whilst I was there (although there were a few rather hairy taxi journeys it must be said).

Just to throw extra spice into the mix, there are also quite a few Japanese imports on the islands that have their native RHD interiors, but everyone seems to cope.

So the next time you automatically reject a tempting purchase just because it is “wrong” hand drive, give it a try.

After all, if a rich uncle left you his F40 on the condition you would not sell it, would you refuse to drive it just because it was LHD?

To any petrolhead, Nissan is the company that makes the fantastic GT-R, and the 350Z, and…er, well…

But, step away from the performance dimension and think about Nissan as a brand. It’s quite hard to define. What does it stand for?

Many other car brands stand for something: Honda for engines, BMW for driving, Mercedes Benz for solidity, Mini for fun etc etc.

The first edition of the Matter box* contained an item from Nissan about their brand–a set of crayons that are in fact Soap because Nissan is not what you expect it to be. I liked the idea and when I thought about their range (and read the little book that comes with it), I could see their point.

But, to get a more informed opinion, I asked John Barker from EVO whether he thought this was true and John pointed out that if you look at the Nissan range nowadays, it’s almost all made up of crossover vehicles: cars that don’t quite fit in one box or another (the unfortunately named Qashqai being the most obvious neither-fish-nor-foul product).

So, does this idea fit your idea of Nissan? It’s an engaging proposition that could really make Nissan quite distinct (not dissimilar to Citroen many years ago).

*Let me register my self-interest: Matter is a new advertising idea I’m working on, so while David’s on holiday, I thought I could slip in a quick plug.