Postcards From Myself

If such is the way of your country, I hope that you and yours have a great Thanksgiving. I am spending the day with family, actually probably the weekend, so am just stealing a few minutes away for a quick post. Oh, and by the way, I actually saw some wild turkeys this morning! I was driving down a remote road heading to the store to get a paper when I saw all these birds off the side of the road. At first I thought they were buzzards, but on second look they turned out to be wild turkey! How many people can say they saw actually wild turkeys on Thanksgiving day?!

First, I am wondering how many of you are going shopping tomorrow in the infamous “Black Friday” shopping frenzy? I probably actually will be, but more to people watch and get out of the house than to shop. I may or may not end up buying anything as it will just depend on what I happen across and what strikes my fancy.

Also, if you are an automotive person so inclined, please stop by my British car site at http://www.JustBritish.com. I am currently working on some revisions to the home page and general site look and feel. What you see there now is the old stuff. Hopefully the version will go live before the weekend is out.

And finally a word about politics. Does it seem that the rhetoric is starting to get nasty and become exactly what all the candidates said it wouldn’t be? Doesn’t it seem that the extremely polarizing positioning is starting and accelerating? Is there any hope at all?

OK, I will admit it. I love cars. I especially love European cars. And above all else, I am a fanatic about British cars. That is why when British Car Day rolls around every year here in Charleston, that I just have to go. I go to catch up with old friends, soak in the atmosphere and, of course, ogle British cars of all types and ages.

If you would like to see some real art on wheels, just check out the pictures I took this past Saturday. From Austin Healeys to Triumphs, from MGs to Allards, they are there. My gallery is here.

It has been a little heavy around here recently, so I think we should lighten things up. While lighter in subject matter this will still cause a few more wrinkles in your brain. Take a look at this mechanical aptitude test that was developed for budding Ford diesel mechanics. It is fifty questions long, so allow yourself enough time.

I will warn you though, it is fun and frustrating at the same time. But, I passed! Got an 86. If you take it, I would love to know what you made.

A few years back, back before hurricane Katrina, my wife and I drove down to New Orleans so that I could a conference. Just so happens that the conference was during the French Quarter Festival. How convenient! Anyway, it was a long trip and we actually ended up driving through severe storms with hail and tornados. Having never experienced this before, being woken up in the middle of the night in a hotel in Montgomery, Alabama, by the sound of tornado sirens was totally new. Hopefully that will be the last time too.

For me the entire trip was made a bit more enjoyable because we were in my 2002 MINI Cooper S. (Luckily it was not damaged by hail.) On the way back this little car really showed what ot could do. Let me just say that the speed limit was left far behind.

At that time there were not as many of these fine cars on the road as there are now, so there were quite a few enquiring looks and more than a couple of people making comments or asking question. But, that entire trip for me is wrapped up in a picture my wife took of the car sitting on Bourbon Street in front of Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop. This was taken early on Sunday morning just after a rain and before the sun had risen very high or the residents and tourists had started hitting the streets. The picture to me is very serene and conveys a great sense of the old and the new, and of two of my real loves - New Orleans and great cars.

Call me foolish and sentimental, but I love this picture.

Who said the British car industry was dead? This is the new Farbio GTS – sometime known as the Farboud – and it is now officially in production, near Bath.

The GTS was initially developed as the Farboud GTS, produced by Arash Cars, which is owned by Arash Farboud. But earlier this year Farboud sold the majority of his rights to the GTS, to concentrate on a new supercar project.

And so, in June, the Farboud GTS became the Farbio GTS, to clear up any potential confusion over the two different cars. Confusion cleared? We didn’t think so.

There’s certainly no confusion over the make up of the car, and from the spec sheet it looks likely to be a cracker.

The GTS uses a spaceframe chassis and carbonfibre body, with a flat underfloor and venturi to aid aerodynamics. Power comes from a 3.0-litre V6 – believed to be a Ford Duratec unit – that produces 262bhp in standard form, and shoves the GTS from 0-60mph in an estimated 4.8sec. Go for the supercharged version and that comes down to an estimated 3.9sec.

The kerb weight is a pretty slimline 1066kg for the supercharged car and 1048kg for the standard machine, making the power to weight ratios 360bhp per tonne and 250bhp per tonne respectively.

Braking is by four-pot AP Racing calipers, with 350mm vented discs up front and 328mm discs at the rear. Suspension is by Eibach springs with adjustable dampers.

Farbio says the GTS is suitable for touring thanks to a 76-litre fuel tank and a 220-litre boot that can fit a set of golf clubs. Sat-nav is standard.
And the price of all this promise? It’s a lot less than you might think. The standard car is £59,925 and the supercharged version £71,675, and there’s an eight-month UK waiting list.

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