No ordinary drive
As I stared out the window day dreaming about it not raining for at least one day in the UK, a phone call snapped me back to reality.
Not that it was a bad thing, I worked for a known car review magazine with a guy who had a habit of finding me odd balls to review and one of a kind machines to shakedown.
As I expected, it was Mac.
M: Glad to hear you're still in the land of the living Victus.
V: More like the land of the utterly sarcastic,
what's new?
M: How would you like to drive some real oddballs?
V: More odd than a GTi Lupo?
M: Yep, speaking of which, quit dragging your heels and get that write up done.
V: Yes your Highness,
what cars are we talking about?
M: A motorbike engined Caterham, A safety car from BMW and a experimental shooting brake from Subaru.
V: Not even gonna question how you got hold of these cars.
M: It's in your contract not to question it anyway.
V: Fair point, I take it that the regulars will be there too?
M: Baron and myself will be, Jack is catching a plane there.
V: Ok, see you there.
After hanging up, I muttered to myself, "No rest for the wicked"
and went to get packed.
On the flight over, I knocked out the Lupo's review, saying it's a simple yet effective Hot Hatch which handles great and is decent successor to the original Golf GTi. Worthy of the sleeper badge. 👍
Seeing the 3 cars parked in the pits, I decided to stick with the 'keep it simple' premise and took the Caterham for a drive.
I say I got through about 3 turns before I decided it was a Beater.
I expected a close ratio 6 speed, but instead got a 6 speed with first and second longer than some marriages.
It didn't matter that the car handled good, the gearbox completely killed the fun, so I drove back to the pits and got out, muttered to myself that there's a place in hell for the guy who set up that gearbox and jumped in the BMW.
Before I took off, I overhear that the M4 has been opened up for tuners to go nuts on, I make a note to vist one to work on my Frozen Black M4 and launch the safety car out of the pits.
Aside from the light show on the roof and the M colours all over, it drove like a normal M4 which is not a bad thing.
It handled well, had good pulling power and above all else, a decent ruddy gearbox.
I pull back into the pits with a sly smile. Despite the lack of a good sound, the M4 is still a force to be reckoned with. I step out and say it's a sleeper whilst searching for a decent BMW tuner.
The Subie Shooting brake was up next and judging by the smile on Barons face, it looked it was fun.
He wasn't lying either....
The sound was intoxicating to say the least, properly captured what a Boxer engine should sound like at wide open throttle.
It also handled well despite sending most of the 650 horses through the front tyres.
I came back to the pits and decided it's the best sounding VGT projects so far by quite a way.
Me, Baron and Jack came to the conclusion that the Fireblade was a beater due to the gearbox but if corrected could be a weapon on the track.
The Safety car got a Sleeper verdict desipte being lit up like a Christmas tree and the Subaru also got an unanimous verdict of Sleeper for that noise and it's perfomance.
That wrapped up another shoot for us, we left wondering what Automotive shenanigans Mac had for us next time.
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