Mother of Invention

The co-founder of Matchbox Toys, Jack Odell, died recently, aged 87.

His idea for matchbox sized cars came from his daughters school who banned all toys which couldn’t fit into a matchbox.

He will no doubt be buried in a slightly bigger box but is guaranteed his place in toy heaven.

Ugli Tree Rating:  An essential part of growing up (for boys)

Green is the new sexy

Changing all your light bulbs, lagging your hot water tank and getting a bus to work, while beneficial for the environment, is not exactly sexy stuff. However the Tesla Roadster is about to change all this.

0-60 in 4 seconds at 135 mpg effectively combines the performance of a Lamborghini with the fuel consumption of a scooter.

Oh yes, it doesn’t look too bad either.

Ugli tree rating: Plug me in and turn me on

Conspicuous Consumption

In a recent survey, the average horse power of all the cars reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson has been calculated at 318 bhp (in fact this has now gone up as today in the Times he reviewed a 500bhp Mercedes E Class AMG). This is enough power to accelerate the average semi-detached house from 0 to 60 in 6.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 157mph (or a Porsche Cayenne). Now I’m sorry, 100 bhp is really enough power for anyone yet Clarkson described the new Jaguar XK8 with 300bhp and a top speed of 160mph as being a “rather sluggish”.

We can’t complain I guess – we all have mountain bikes but spend all our time cycling on flat tarmac roads, we stroll to the shops in boots designed to conquer Everest and we keep our 4 wheel drive vehicles in town even though their purpose is to traverse the Gobi desert.

Ugli Tree Rating: Give up hopes of owning a Porsche and cycle to work in your plimsoles.

The Back End of a B**

Its hard not to go out and see the back end of a BMW (as it cuts you up on the road or fails to stop at a crossing).

What make’s matters worse is the view you get of its rear end as it speeds off. We are of course talking about the design job on the rear of the 6 and 7 series. One theory suggests that the designer, having done an OK job on the front of the car, simply gave up and left it up to the office boy to finish off.

Another theory is that an executive left his briefcase on the clay model of the 7 series just before it was scanned into the production system.

However, a recent photo of the designer’s wife leaving the BMW offices in Stuttgart suggests another more beleivable explanation.

What do you think?

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