Driving

Ah, England. Land of Shakespeare and soccer hooliganism. Afternoon tea and A Clockwork Orange. The Royal family and The Long Good Friday. What I'm trying to get at is that old Blighty is a place where genteel doesn't always mean gentle.

Researching an article is always a troublesome thing for the easily distracted. One moment I'm attempting to simply put together a timeline of rallying in Africa, the next I'm looking at old pictures of Volvos.

A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird: Mazda renovates NFL player's ride Oh those professional athletes - so overpaid, so prone to flashy spending sprees, so obsessed with wealth.

Remember the New Beetle? No, not the current new Beetle, which is technically the new New Beetle, but the old New Beetle, which was the new version of the old old Beetle - oh never mind, I'll just come in again.

For eight long years, Lexus has kept the smallest of its sedans as is, without much in the way of updates. From the looks of things, this strategy has made the new model very angry indeed. My word, this is one aggressive looking car.

This weekend the Ron Howard Formula One biopic Rush comes to theatres. At time of writing, I have yet to see the film, but friends and colleagues who've had a sneak preview assure me it's well worth the price of admission.

This past weekend, much of Vancouver's glitterati attended the exclusive and expensive Luxury & Supercar Weekend at the VanDusen Garden. There was a Bugatti Veyron there. They also had a Pagani Huayra.

Cars these days are sensible. For the most part, they've all got improved fuel economy and cleaner emissions. Safety ratings are up across the board. Comfort is a focus for many manufacturers. Performance benchmark standards are higher.

LAST week found me barrelling along the interstate behind the wheel of a turbodiesel Mercedes-Benz EClass, headed towards the beardy and heavily tattooed epicentre of the hipster universe, Portland, Ore. I was, as they say, putting a bird on it.

WITH the 40th anniversary of American Graffiti just past, many people have been telling me, "youngsters these days with their mePads and facetwitters - they'll never know what it was like to grow up when hot rods were around." Oh, horsefeathers.