Do you believe in love at first sight? Sometimes, just sometimes, a test car smacks you hard between the eyes. It is simply right. Intuitively you know this one is a licence to increase market share.
Enter the Mini Cooper delivered on Tuesday.
Now I know there are those who see the Mini as a car that should have been preserved in aspic along with a pair of Mick Jagger’s jock-strangling strides and a Quant mini dress but what a shame it would have been to only have memories of the infamous sub frame and the even more infamous front seats that tilted forward then slammed down on unsuspecting back seat lovers.
The new Mini Cooper is a masterpiece of exterior design with an interior as dramatic as falling off a bridge. Oh, and top engineering with a flawless drive. To find out just what is so special you’ll have to track down one of my columns. But let’s just say it would have been interesting to see, had the 1945 result gone Germany’s way, what they would have done with the Spitfire. The fighter not the upside-down Triumph sports car which was about as clever an idea as naked sunbathing in Basra.
The fact that the Mini’s design, especially its porthole speedometer, striking switchgear and radical use of scrap plastic garden furniture shows how tastes are more adventurous today.Once concept cars were shown to shock. Today I have seen pictures of three from Geneva. The Toyota Hybrid X looks like a tadpole’s head. Seat’s Altea Freetrack is almost old fashioned but the Vauxhall GTC Concept is simply desirable and no madder looking than a Nissan 350ZX.
Anyway sorry, I hadn’t meant to write about cars. Ikea in Gateshead is selling flat-pack housing. No doubt it will be called something like Fishblder or Blashburger. I think they should name the houses Politikat. Or Prescott.
You know, one misplaced screw and the whole cabinet goes wobbly.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »