Mad About Cars

The Peugeot 406 was one of Peugeot’s most popular cars of the early millennium. Introduced in 1996 the 406, much like its predecessor the 405, did not feature a hatchback edition, with saloon and estate versions available. However, a coupe version was also introduced. Styled by Pininfarina, the coupe became a huge sales hit, and is still a desirable car with used coupe prices considerably higher than equivalent saloon or estate cars.

The 406 was especially noted for its diesel engines. Initially powered by either 1.9 or 2.1 litre turbo-diesel engines, the line was replaced by a 2-litre common-rail diesel engine, coinciding with a mid-life facelift of the car in late 1999. Diesel engined cars are still sought after, and hold their value much better than petrol equivalents. A 3.0 V6 petrol engine was available in the higher-series ‘Executive’ model, delivering good performance, if a little thirsty.

One of the most endearing qualities of the car was the excellent quality of the ride. Compared to many of its rivals the 406 was smooth, comfortable, well built and quiet.

The car was especially popular in the UK with fleet buyers, with 90% of sales being to fleet buyers. In addition, the car’s powerful yet reliable diesel engine made it a popular mini-cab, with 406 taxis a common sight on UK roads.

During its lifespan, the 406 was campaigned in touring car series across Europe, with success in France and Italy, although it was not quite so successful in the UK. The car was also noteworthy as featuring in the French-produced movie trilogy ‘Taxi’

The Peugeot 205 GTi is remembered as one of the iconic hot-hatches in history, and one of the defining cars of the 1980s. Voted as ‘Car of the Decade’ by Car Magazine in 1990.

The GTi was available in 1.6 and 1.9 editions and whilst both were highly regarded, the 1.9 carried the most appeal with a 126bhp engine, along with additional features such as larger 15 inch alloy wheels, disc-brakes all round and half-leather trim.

Coupled with the car’s attractive Pininfarina styling, the 205 GTi became a huge sales hit, and a Group B rally version of the car was campaigned in the World Rally Championship with some success during the mid 1980s.

The car is known to be rewarding to drive, with good feedback to the driver when cornering, and is regarded as one of the first front-wheel drive cars to be as rewarding to drive as a rear-wheel drive cars. However, by modern standards the car can be difficult to drive for the unwary, lacking electronic driver aids commonly seen in modern hot-hatches, and with a tendency to oversteer whilst cornering (should the driver lift dramatically off the accelerator mid-corner)

Many 1.9 205 GTi models were modified by transplanting the 1.9 16-valve DOHC engine from the Peugeot 405 Mi16. With both engines being very similar, it was a straightforward modification giving a dramatic power increase of up to 60bhp.

Sadly, rising insurance premiums led to the 205 GTi’s demise in 1993. The car is now becoming something of a collectable classic, and with so many examples being thrashed to oblivion and tastelessly modified by boy racers who use window film for colour tinting, clean, original examples are now worth several thousand pounds.

Subaru’s announcement that they are to cease their participation in the WRC brings to an end one of the most prominent, and popular World Rally teams of the past 20 years. Subaru’s involvement in world rallying has also changed the company’s image completely, from a constructor of rough, tough, workhorse vehicles, to an exotic performance manufacturer.

The team was founded in 1989, when Subaru teamed up with the UK-based Prodrive group, known as one of the world premier motorsport engineering groups. The company initially used the bulky Subaru Legacy, with young Scot Colin McRae enjoying some limited success. However in 1994, the newly-launched Subaru Impreza was used for the first time. During the mid to late 1990s, rallying enjoyed a golden age as Subaru did battle with rivals Mitsubishi.

Instantly recognisable for their striking electric blue and yellow colour scheme (due to tobacco sponsorship), Subaru took the world manufactures title three times in a row between 1995 and 1997, with Colin McRae taking the world drivers title in 1995.

At the turn of the millennium things became tougher for Subaru, with the resurgence of Ford, along with competitive cars from Citroen and Peugeot. Despite this, Subaru took the world drivers title with Richard Burns in 2001 and Petter Solberg in 2003.

Since then, Subaru have found success hard to come by in the WRC, thanks in some aspects to the dominance of Sebastien Loeb and the Citroen team. Subaru’s last WRC win came in 2005. However the team remained an iconic part of the WRC and was one of the series’ most popular teams with the fans, much like Ferrari in Formula One.

Subaru’s withdrawal from world rallying leaves just Ford and Citroen as official manufacturers in the WRC for 2009.

The ‘Ace Café’ situated near Willesden on the north-west outskirts of London is one of the most famous and iconic meeting places for petrol-heads from across the UK.

The café was originally built in 1938, and was designed as a transport café to serve traffic using the (then newly built) A406 North Circular Road.

Following extensive damage by bombing raids in World War 2, the café was rebuilt, and during the 1950 and 60s cemented its place as a key icon in British youth culture, with young car enthusiasts, along with ‘Rockers’ of the 1960s regularly meeting at the site. During this period, the Ace Café was seen as a central part of the Rockers movement.

The original café closed in 1969, and various attempts were made to re-open the café during the 1970s and 80s on different sites, although these were generally unsuccessful.

However, in 2001, the café re-opened on the original site. The café operates as a meeting sport for petrol-heads across the UK, and it is more popularly known amongst car enthusiasts as a meeting place rather than a café. Whilst the café remains as popular as ever with motorcyclists, the café is a key part of the classic car scene, with organisations from across the country catering for various makes, models and generation of car meeting at the site.

Today the Ace Café stands as a symbol of petrolhead culture, the most famous location for car enthusiasts to meet and enjoy their passion for cars

In the world of Formula One, the act of the ‘giant killer’ often seen in football’s FA Cup rarely occurs. The difference between the backmarkers and top teams in terms of equipment and development means that plucky minnows can rarely surprise the big boys. However, for one lap in the 2007 European Grand Prix, a local driver in the slowest car on the grid suddenly found himself ahead of the world’s best.

Born near Stuttgart in 1980, Markus Winkelhock comes from a fine racing family, his father was the late Formula One driver Manfred Winkelhock, and his uncle, ‘Jo’ Winkelhock, also enjoyed a brief Formula One career before a distinguished touring car career.

Until 2007, Markus Winkelhock had enjoyed a modest career in single seater formulae, along with a career in the DTM touring series. In 2006, Winkelhock had signed as a test and reserve driver for the Midland team. Bought from Eddie Jordan and renamed as ‘Midland’ the team were a shadow of the great Jordan team of the 1990s. When the team was re-sold, and re-named as the Spyker team, Winkelhock stayed with the team, and had his big break when driver Christjian Albers left the team due to sponsorship reasons. With no driver lined up, Winkelhock was promoted to drive for one race only, the European Grand Prix at Nurburgring, before being replaced by Japanese pay driver Sakon Yamamoto.

In front of his home crowd, Winkelhock qualified last on the 22-car grid. However race day was overcast, with heavy showers forecast. With no rain, Winkelhock and the Spyker team gambled on starting on full wet tyres. As the race started the heavens opened, and as every other car in the race either span off or immediately pitted for tyres, Winkelhock went right to the front of the field after the first lap, even passing Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as he struggled for grip. Officials soon sent out the pace car, stopping the race shortly afterwards, with Winkelhock leading six laps of the race.

At the restart, Winkelcock again gambled on wet tyres, but this time the rain stayed away, and he fell down the pack, retiring on 15 laps after a hydraulic failure.

Winkelhock was replaced by the well-backed Yamamoto for the next Grand Prix, and lost his drive when Spyker was sold at the end of 2007. Winkelhock returned to DTM for 2008 and it seems unlikely he will be seen in Formula One again. But in his only Grand Prix, he has the honour of leading six laps of the race, and is believed to be the only driver to start last on the grid and go on to lead his first Grand Prix