Just a typical day when you've got a MK2 MX-5

I was impressed today. I heard a Justin Bieber song which I didn’t completely hate and wasn't forced to aggressively push random buttons on my car stereo until the ‘Biebs’ was removed from the cabin of my mx-5. But I was also impressed by my little mx-5 while having a nice quick fang around a mountain road near where I live, which is in the sticks.

It was an absolute beauty of a road, it was like asphalt spaghetti draped over a mountain top with tight turns massive drops which if fallen into would easily allow you to phone your insurance company – how nice - and long straights where I could crank up the 1.8 liter four pot. To my surprise, the mx-5 is a speedy little fella.  

It was blast, so much fun. Obviously the 1.8 liter engine in the mx-5 isn’t the most powerful of internal combustion engines, but I tell you what, keep the revs above 3000 and it shifts, it feels pretty ruddy urgent too.

Where the mx-5 belongs...

The balance of the chassis was mighty impressive too despite the road being pretty craggy with all sorts of weird cambers. But there wasn't a moment where I felt the unsure push of an understeering front end or even uncomfortable in my bucket seat, it just stuck so well. But of course, being a manual rear drive sports car with no traction control, you can provoke it into some hooniganism, which is jolly good fun, but not very good for rubber consumption... It sucks being poor.

But I had so much fun in the morning winding through mountain back roads I just had to have another go in the afternoon. So after  collecting my sister from school - she was pleased to find I was beginning to warm to the ‘Biebs’ by the way – I took the long way home and had another go and it was even more fun the second time, as I was able to push the car that little bit harder. The silly grin made an appearance.

The practicality is truly phenomenal. On some days you can even
go hardware shopping. This isn't my car, thank god..

As you can probably tell, I’m finding the mx-5 ownership experience quite enjoyable, the car hasn't missed a beat in the two or three months I've owned it, the roof doesn't leak – massive relief the first time I washed it – the tiny boot is able to carry most of my things most of the time, it’s not bad on fuel either if when you’re not doing flat out mountain passes twice a day – which is a struggle, trust me.

But all in all, I think its right to say the mx-5 and I are bonding nicely. It’s a terrific car. 

Hold onto you're toupee's rich elderly men! The Aventador Roadster is here!

Hold onto your toupee’s rich elderly men, because Lamborghini has just unleashed its 217mph Aventador Radster. In fact, if you’re rich enough, and hence elderly enough, you'll want to hold onto you’re whizzing little head, because at 217mph it might just come off and make its way into the enormous air intakes that feed the fire breathing (literally, click here) 700hp V12 engine. Not nice.

Someones pretty good with a pencil ay? Damn it looks good!

But we’re in the 21^st century now, and Lamborghinis don’t really want to kill people as much as they once did. They much prefer to just break you’re neck and make pooh come out these days. But, just in case, to stop you’re head from coming off at 217mph Lamborghini have installed this ingenious device called a wind deflector which, if it’s anything like the one on my car – will do absolutely nothing at all. So, there are also new pillars and a new engine cover – which is very angley, and cool looking- to create a pocket of undisturbed air around the cabin, to keep you’re passengers hair in check and you’re hair – if you can call it that – stuck to you’re head. 

And thanks to the carbon composite tub of the Aventador, no extra pig iron needed to be added to the structure of the Aventador in order prevent 690nm of V12 torque twisting the chassis into a knot. Lamborghni, erm, ‘purists’ will be happy too, because in whisking the roof off of the Aventador, there has been no loss of torsional rigidity, and it should feel exactly the same to drive as it’s hard topped sibling, except for the aural delights of that thunderous V12 engine whose noise is one of the wonders of the automotive world, obviously. Acceleration is virtually identical to the hardtop, with the roadster giving away just 0.1 of a second to the hardtop, so 0-60 takes just 3 brutal, sick inducing seconds. And if you think you’ll notice the acceleration differences between the roadster and the coupe, you’re probably more of a GT-R nerd than Lamborghini’s target audience is.

The detailing on the engine cover is just awesome. Cool color too.

The roadster also comes with two new types of wheels, which are 20” and 21”, and very fantastic looking. And there are also many new colors which are exclusive to the roadster. The green one looks very cool. Very Lamborghini. 

Yep. Still looking good.

But, there is a but. And it’s not something that would bother me, but it might if you’re getting on a bit. The roof is manually operated. It’s made up of two carbon fibre pieces which weigh a total of 6kg, and need to be stored under the front bonnet of the car. While it “only takes a few seconds” as Lamborghini says, I can see it drawing out into the minutes, and then if you’ve got to ask you’re plastic fantastic passenger (all Lamborghini owners have these. Fact) to help you out then you’re not going to get very far.

The Aventador Roadster will cost around $789,000 here in Oz, or around 300,000 Euros... What ever way you look at it, it is a lot of money. You’d have to be pretty ruddy old to have saved up that much, that’s for sure!

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RawDriving's slightly idiotic Car Of The Year Contest!

It’s been a good year. The Olympics were on, so BMW painted a heap of 3 series’ gold and we all sat on the couch for a couple of weeks and became enormous while watching the worlds greatest athletes compete for glory. The Americans nearly named their president after a small, cute, glove. And the Ice-Man, Kimi Raikkonen, returned to Formula 1 and told his engineers to leave him alone in a flurry of Finnish fury which we all found hilariously entertaining.

Golden BMW 3 Series - Shiny! 

And despite all those crooked bankers ruining the economy it’s been a fantastic year for cars as well. The Toyobaru twins were launched, AMG went mad and released what seems like a million new models, so we picked the best one, the SLS AMG Roadster, Porsche gave us a new and controversial 911, as well as the new Boxster, Ferrari replaced its terrifying 599 with the fantastic F12 Berlinetta, Pagani finally stopped making the Zonda and released the slightly hard to pronounce Huayra, there was a new BMW M5, and of course Nissan updated the GT-R, again. All of these fantastic cars have made it to the final rounds of Raw Driving’s car of the year competition, and our panel of experts -which essentially comprises myself, and well, no one else – will decide which car is crowned the winner.

Now, unfortunately, we couldn’t find anyone who would lend us a Pagani Huayra, or any of these cars for that matter, which does seem odd, since the annual RawDriving Car Of The Year award is such an esteemed and prestigious award, we thought manufacturers would tripping over each other trying to get their cars in with a chance, but that clearly wasn’t the case. I was literally stunned to hear that Pagani wouldn’t send us a Huayra, stunned. So our judging criteria have had to be condensed a little. It is essentially what we think looks and sounds good, and has received some kind of praise from a motoring journalist who evidently knows some people at Pagani and the like.

After lots of in depth thinking and watching of Youtube videos, our field of nine cars was now just three; the Pagani Huayra, Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, and the Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster. And from watching Youtube we can tell you that these three cars are absolutely magnificent.

The Mercedes SLS Roadster is a seriously cool car, which unlike its hardtop counterpart isn’t fitted with explosive doors which open vertically to announce proudly to the world that the person inside is a complete spanner. The 6.2 litre AMG V8 is a snarling tower of power that sounds simply incredible and can be heard all the better with the roof down. And provided you leave all of the safety systems on, it’ll even almost go around corners in a sophisticated manner. But that’s not the AMG way. Switch everything off however, and you’ll be giggling like a child, it’s a complete maniac, and it’s flipping brilliant because of it.

Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster

However, it’s not quite as brilliant as the Ferrari F12. The F12 looks more beautiful for a start, and at 730hp its V12 engine even more powerful than the AMG’s. The engine is a masterpiece it howls and screams, crackles and pops, it does everything you would ever expect from a super car, but it can be comfortable and civilized as well, it’s a proper luxury grand tourer. But turn everything up to eleven and you’ll be amazed at just how easy the F12 is to drive, the steering is razor sharp, completely alive, and super quick, the throttle pedal feels like its connected directly to the drivers brain, and the gearbox is mind blowing, its so fast and so seamless that there is no evident loss of power between gear changes, it just keeps on pulling.

mmmm Ferrari F12 Berlinetta

But then you get into the Pagani Huayra. You’re greeted by a sumptuous combination of carbon fibre and leather, the amount of jewellery and detail that has been lavished on this car is simply incredible. I love the exposed gear shift lever; it almost renders the paddles on the steering wheel pointless. I say almost because you’ll want to keep two hands on the wheel when you drive the Huayra hard. It’s an insane beast. Its twin turbo V12 produces the same 730hp as the Ferrari but these two engines couldn’t be any more different. Where the Ferrari is very linear and controlled in its power delivery the Huayra feels savage, insane, and to be honest, a little bit terrifying. You hear the chatter of the wastegates, the turbos constantly whistle and wheeze as the engine makes its way up to its red line. It’s a seriously exciting machine the Huayra. The best way to feel how exciting the Huayra is probably to buy some illegal brown stuff or to think that it has the same power to weight ratio as a Veyron, except drive goes purely to the rear wheels – so Kim Kardashian better be awake if she does in fact buy a Huayra and ruin Pagani forever. Sure its gearbox might be clunky at low speeds but go a bit faster and it’s really well suited to the car. The steering does feel a little slow, especially if you've just hopped out of the Ferrari, but we don’t mind. I would have to say the Huayra is worth every bit of its million dollar plus price tag, it’s an incredible car.

If you couldn't already tell, we like the Huayra quite a lot, and so it is the winner of our Car Of The Year award, mainly because it has flaps all over it like an aeroplane wing which is really pretty awesome, and it makes a great noise, and looks very nice, and goes very fast. Yeah, definitely the Huayra.  

And here's a video of why I love it.....

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