Cars
The art of street furniture
On his lockdown rambles, Christopher Howse finds beauty and solace in London’s street furniture
Why I won’t patent my brilliant idea
In the past 30 years, I have driven about 8,000 miles in France in right-hand-drive cars. And I would be…
Drive-in cinemas are back – but for how long?
Tanya Gold on the rise and fall of drive-in cinema
I wish John Chamberlain was still around to crush this hideous toothpaste-blue Ferrari
For three months art lovers have had nothing but screens to look at. As one New York dealer complained to…
Cars weren’t invented for transportation, but conversation
When I first heard Abba’s magnificent 1982 swansong ‘The Day Before You Came’, I’d never come across the Americanised use…
A museum-quality car-boot sale: V&A’s Cars reviewed
We were looking at a 1956 Fiat Multipla, a charming ergonomic marvel that predicted today’s popular MPVs. Rather grandly, I…
What I learned on my speed awareness course
Speed is in my blood. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather all used to race cars in their youth. We even…
The consequences of the new EU car speed limit
A once famous question posed to job-seekers at Microsoft was ‘Why are manhole covers round?’ The question was revealing not…
Female unemployment has just hit an all-time low. So yes, Britain is working
At any other time, news that Honda intends to close its Swindon plant in two years’ time with the loss…
Portrait of the week: Resignations galore, Honda’s announcement and Islamic State’s brides
Home Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party and sat in the Commons (next to the DUP) as the Independent…
The UK car industry is reversing back to the 1970s
When I wrote a fortnight ago, in the context of Nissan’s decision not to build its new X-Trail model at…
Why have I bought a car I don’t actually like?
I am currently in Brittany with the family, having made the 11-hour drive from London on Monday. It sounds like…
Ferrari – heavy, expensive, wasteful, dangerous and addictive
Has a more beautiful machine in all of mankind’s fretful material endeavours ever been made than a ’60 Ferrari 250…
The era when you could love a car is over
There are four of us in this relationship: my partner and I, his horse and my truck. His horse is…
Why confront the ugly lie of Islamic State with a tacky fake?
Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries
Nine angst-ridden men
‘Insufficiency’ is a favourite David Szalay word. The narrator of his previous novel, Spring, suffered from ‘insufficiency of feeling’; in…
Always obey your satnav? Then you can vote rationally on the EU
In many ways a satnav is a miraculous device. A network of US military satellites more than 10,000 miles above…
Perfectionism isn’t the same as integrity – as VW has shown
Not that I was much of a boy racer, but the sexiest car I ever owned was a 1982 Volkswagen…
Driving test advice from 80 years ago
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
It really must be a mid-life crisis. I’ve fallen in love with a pony
Because I’m reckless, stupid and irresponsible, I normally get landed with the biggest, most obstreperous hunters. But the other weekend…
Cars are our cathedrals
Stephen Bayley hails the automobile – a miracle of technical and artistic collaboration – and mourns its demise
I went looking for a used car – and found my inner boy racer
A bit late, I know, to put in a bid for Jeremy Clarkson’s old job. But I think I might…
The perils of planespotting
A dangerous hobby Three men from Greater Manchester were arrested and held in the UAE after being seen writing down…
Songs for the road: through his music and his classic car collection Neil Young hopes to escape his childhood traumas
Why do people talk about ‘experimenting’ with drugs when mostly they just mean that they’re doing them? Perhaps, as I…
What Germans are worst at
What Germans do worst Some things Germans aren’t very good at: — Making reliable car engines. According to a survey by Warranty Direct…
