Alpine A110 review: meeting the hype beast
You’ve met the Alpine A110 before. You will have done somewhere, whether it’s on telly or in a magazine, or perhaps even in the flesh, when one of the few lucky owners that have taken delivery flashes past in a pert little ball of blue Frenchness. And were that the case, you might have wondered […]
DS – A Luxury Brand Recreated
Depending on the way you look at DS, the brand is still a baby. But that’s just the prestige version belonging to Groupe PSA. The other is a memory – a name from yesteryear. Let me explain. Citroen DS was around between 1955 and 1975. The DS 19 was ushered in during October 1955 after […]
The Peugeot 309 GTI – Why it outclassed its more famous brother
If you apply the successful siblings’ theory to a pair of classic French hot hatches – then the Peugeot 205 GTI (1.9-litre of course) would be Michael Schumacher in his pomp, and its less successful brother, the 309 GTI would sadly be Ralf Schumacher. In other words, less famous and living in a considerable shadow. […]
Economical ingenuity: 70 years of the Citroën 2CV
The ‘umbrella on wheels’ or the ‘tin snail’, the unmistakable Citroën 2CV has also been a 24-hour endurance racer, a James Bond film star, a delivery van, a beach buggy-type fun machine, and, in twin-engined four-wheel drive ‘Sahara’ versions, a go-anywhere mountain goat of a car. Along with the original Fiat 500 and Mini, and […]
Peugeot 106 Quiksilver
Your first car isn’t really meant to be anything special. It’s a runabout, a box, something just to get you mobile in the initial period after obtaining that most precious of things – a driving license. My friends all had battered old Fiesta 1.1s, or worse still, a Citroen AX with clocks instead of rev-counters. […]
Renault Clio Williams: a hot hatch hero
Sorry Subaru, Renault rocked the blue-paint-and-gold-wheels look first. Like the Impreza, the Clio Williams’ colour scheme was inspired by racing, specifically Alain Prost’s 1993 championship-winning Williams-Renault FW15C. Instantly iconic, it was the icing on the gâteau for one of history’s greatest hot hatches. Twenty-five years later, a blue and gold Clio has been disgorged from […]
Matra: Sports Car Innovators
Which company won the European F2 Championship, F1 World Championship (drivers and constructors), 24 Heures du Mans, the World Sportscar Championship, built its own racing V12 engine AND was involved in the production, first as a supplier then as a manufacturer, of the world’s first mid-engined production car? Hint: it’s not Ferrari. The answer, mesdames […]
Super Cinqs: the small Renaults 5s of the 70s and 80s
It’s 1976. ABBA, Elton John and Queen are riding high in the charts, the Queen opens Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, and when kids weren’t riding their Raleigh Choppers up and down the streets of Britain, they were glued to the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (the rest of us had George and Mildred and The New Avengers). […]
Driving Peugeot’s 308 Racer
Since I was a child I’ve always loved the idea of being a driver. I recently received an invitation from Peugeot to test the new 308 GTi at Ascari Circuit, which was appealing enough, but spotted that it also included trying a new race-prepared Peugeot on the longest and toughest circuit in Spain: the 308 […]
Citroën GS
Has there ever been a more innovative small car than the Citroën GS? Consider the evidence: when launched in 1970 its specification included power-assisted disc brakes all round (with the front units being mounted inboard), hydropneumatic self-levelling, anti-squat and anti-dive suspension, air-cooled OHC flat-four engine, centre point steering and an aerodynamic body that could comfortably […]