Mad About Cars

The British motor industry was delivered a cruel double blow in the middle of this decade with the 2005 collapse of MG Rover, shortly followed by the closure of Peugeot’s Ryton factory near Coventry in January 2007.
It was a huge blow for the United Kingdom’s car industry, and to the Midlands also, with the two major car plants both situated in the West Midlands.
Ryton’s closure signalled the end of a proud history of car production. The plant, situated on the outskirts of Coventry was first opened in 1939 to make aeroplane engines for the war effort.
Following the end of World War II, the Rootes group took over the factory, and car production began. The factory was used to produce Sunbeam cars, with successful models such as the Hillman Minx being produced at the factory. Despite the popularity of the Minx during the 1950s, the Rootes group fell into financial difficulties and was taken over by the automotive giant Chrysler in 1964.
The Chrysler period saw the plant come into its own with production of the Hillman Hunter and Hillman Avenger being conducted primarily at Ryton (although the Hunter’s production was switched to Scotland in 1970).
The next chapter of Ryton’s history came when Chrysler sold much of its European operations to the PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) group, with Peugeot resurrecting the Talbot brand.
Talbot was not a huge success, with Peugeot quietly retiring Talbot Cars by the mid 1980s. For Ryton this led to production switching to Peugeot models, with production of the 309 commencing in 1985. This was followed by the 405 and later, the hugely successful 206, with a large proportion of cars being built at Ryton.
Sadly, Ryton was closed in early 2007 and production of the 206 switched to Slovakia with cheaper labour and logistical costs.
The site was sold to an investment company, and initially used as a distribution centre for a UK catalogue home delivery company before demolition started.

One of Peugeot’s most successful cars of the early millennium was the Peugeot 206 small hatchback. The car was initially launched in 1998, as a replacement for Peugeot’s iconic 205. The replacement was somewhat belated, with Peugeot initially deciding not to replace the 205, giving buyers the choice of the 106 supermini and mid-sized 306. However the plan backfired with buyers choosing to buy small family cars from rivals such as Ford, Renault and Vauxhall, leading to the development of the 206.
At the end of 2005, over 5 million 206 cars had been produced, with a wide range of bodystyles available including the standard hatchback, a coupe-cabriolet, and an estate version.
The 206 was a huge hit in world rallying, carrying Peugeot up to the heady heights they enjoyed during the 1980s in world rallying. The car first participated in the WRC in 1999, with French tarmac specialist Gilles Panizzi narrowly missing out on the drivers title. However in the following years Peugeot managed to break Mitsubishi’s stranglehold on the WRC, winning both the drivers and manufactures titles in 2000 with Marcus Gronholm taking the title. Peugeot went on to win the constructors title between 2000 and 2002, whilst Gronholm added another title for Peugeot in 2002.
For many years, the Peugeot 206 was made in Britain, at Peugeot’s Ryton plant near Coventry. However Peugeot controversially decided to close the plant in 2007, leading to many job losses.
The 206 was replaced by the 207 in late 2006, but the 206 still continues to be produced and sold in other areas of the world, with Peugeot intending to continue making the car until 2010. Currently, the 206 is Peugeot’s best selling car ever.

One of America’s most prestigious motor races is the Daytona 500, where NASCAR’s leading drivers compete in one of the most widely watched races in the world. The event carries one of the largest winning purses in motorsport, and much like its IndyCar rival, the Indianapolis 500, is the event that all team owners, sponsors and drivers want to win. Unlike most major sporting events, the race takes place in February, being unique in the fact that most ‘showpiece’ sporting events occur either during, or at the end of, the sporting season.

The event started in 1959, and was a continuation of the popular stock car races that were held on the beaches of Daytona Beach, Florida, and as NASCAR as grown in popularity, so has the popularity of the Daytona 500. As one of NASCAR’s earliest races, and one of the few races that retain a direct link to NASCAR’s origins, it is seen as the jewel of the crown in the series calendar. In recent years, owing to NASCAR’s huge surge in popularity, the event has gained more American TV viewers than the Indianapolis 500, traditionally seen as America’s premier motor race (however ‘Indy’ still has higher event attendances along with worldwide viewing figures)

The race is synonymous with the famous Petty racing family, Lee Petty won the very first Daytona 500 in 1959 whilst his son Richard won an unprecedented seven Daytona 500s between 1964 and 1981.

The event has also seen tragedy, none more so than when legendary driver Dale Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 race. The joy of race winner Michael Waltrip was soon replaced by sadness over the terminal injuries suffered by his friend Earnhardt.

2008 saw Indiana native Ryan Newman take the chequered flag from Penske team-mate Kurt Busch, the win being notable for being Penske Racing’s first ever Daytona victory.

The 51^st running of the event takes place on Sunday 15^th February, with practice and qualifying commencing from February 5^th.

One of the most famous names in the world of in-car entertainment is that of Kicker. The company was founded in 1973, under the name of Stillwater Designs, named after the town of Stillwater, Ohio where the company was originally based (and still remains to this day)

The company originally started by building specialist audio equipment for sites such as churches and auditoriums, moving into the world of car audio in 1980, where they made one of the world’s first high-performance specialist audio systems.

Today, the company is seen as one of the leading names in the world of car audio, with modifiers around the world choosing to equip their cars with Kicker equipment. Modified in-car entertainment systems featuring Kicker equipment have countless car audio competitions or ‘sound-offs’ over the years.

Kicker are well known for being one of the earliest producers of square subwoofers and loudspeakers, which are said to produce clearer sound quality, even from relatively small ten and twelve inch subwoofer systems. Although the company is famous for its subwoofer and large speaker systems, they produce a complete range of speakers, including high-range tweeters and general mid-range speakers.

Although the company is better known in America, in the last ten years the company has made real inroads into the UK market, against traditionally strong rivals like Alpine and Kenwood.

In the long, proud history of Formula One, everyone remembers the greats of the sports, famous names such as Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Clark and Fangio. But quite often the rest of the cast disappears into history, long forgotten by most.

However, a pair of hardened Australian Formula One fans keep alive the memory of some of the sport’s less noteworthy drivers alive with their unique website ‘F1 Rejects’ (www.f1rejects.com)

The site has been operating since 1999, and features biographies of some of the sport’s least successful drivers and teams (judged by number of points scored in Formula One). Along with this, the website has regular reports and podcasts with topical Formula One discussion, and a number of correspondents have submitted articles about some of the sport’s less noteworthy achievers.

To the outsider, it may appear that the website serves to mock the ‘reject’ drivers, but upon reading the site’s  description and the driver biographies, it is obvious that the site serves to honour the memory of Formula One’s failures. The creators are fully aware that even the least successful driver is nonetheless hugely talented, and this shows in the quality of the writing. Even many of the drivers featured have gladly assisted the website with exclusive interviews about their Formula One careers.

All manner of drivers are featured, the young prodigies who failed to make the step-up (Corrado Fabi), gentleman clubman drivers (Desmond Titterington), drivers with more money than speed (Phillipe Adams), drivers who simply had no luck (Perry McCarthy) and those whose racing careers were a huge success with the exception of Formula One (Hans Heyer, Eric van de Poele)

What makes for interesting reading is the wide manner of stories, backgrounds and anecdotes these more obscure drivers produce. The site is a real labour of love and is well recommended for the Formula One fan who is after something a little out of the ordinary.