Anyway, here’s a selection of pictures from today…

Y.M... oops wrong song

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You've Come a Long Way, Baby. Latest mk4 Seat Ibiza with the mk1

Seat have been operating in the UK since 1985, and it’s fair to say they’ve come on a lot since then. Sales are up (and increasing in the currently shrinking market) to a record market share of 2%, to give that some perspective, year to date they’ve sold more than Volvo or Mazda, equal with Land Rover, and snapping at the heels of Mini & Fiat! So on to the cars…

Seat Ibiza FR

The baby of the line up is the Seat Ibiza, a great looking supermini, and so it should be the designer has form, previous work includes the Lambo Diablo, Murciélago & Gallardo no less… Available in 3 door ‘SC’ coupe, 5 door & ‘ST’ estate versions, with engines ranging from the economic ‘Ecomotive’ range with the 1.2TDI up to the rip snorting 1.4TSI petrol with 178bhp in the 3dr SC.  On the day I drove the Ibiza FR 2.0TDI & the Cupra Bocanegra 1.4TSI, first up I’ll cover the FR diesel. The FR is pitched at the sporting end of the Seat line ups, so this model comes with 141bhp 2.0TDI, 17″ alloys, sports seats, FR ‘styling details’, twin chrome exhaust pipes and costs £17,720. On the road it was pretty quick, handled the road nicely and even after a day being driven hard around a handling course by a bunch of journos was returning an average of 40mpg, so friendly on the wallet too, but despite any ‘sporting’ hot hatch aspirations, it didn’t tingle your soul.

Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra

However, for a miserly £200 more, you can have the Ibiza Cupra, or for a further £800 the Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra (black mouth in case your Spanish isn’t up to scratch), and in my opinion this is ‘the one’. It features the VAG 1.4TSI with 178bhp and is mated to the 7 speed DSG semi automatic gearbox. OK you’ve lost two doors, and you’re more likely to see 30mpg than 40mpg whilst giving it a good thrashing, you’ll get to the other end with a huge huge grin. On paper it’s only a second quicker than its diesel brother, on the road though it feels so much faster. This then is a proper hot hatch, unlike the diesel stirs you heart & leaves you grinning. It has lots of useable power, and not too much grip allowing you to take it round your favourite A/B road giving and just drive & enjoy it, without having to keep such a constant watch on the speedo. It was so much fun I took this car for an extra loop of the handling course. The ride was firm but not too harsh, and despite so much power in such a small car, the traction control or tyres were rarely troubled in the dry. I was harsh of the DSG box earlier in the year in the Golf, but in this, it seemed much better set up & suited to it, which is probably fortunate as it’s not available with a manual box.

Bocanegra Rear

Styling wise the Bocanegra will split opinions, you’ll either love or hate the black mouth, if you dislike it, then go for the Cupra which has a body coloured bumper. Both feature aggressive front & rear bumpers, with a matt diffuser on the rear with a nice chromed central exit  trapezoid opening around the exhausts, though I still have a thing against ‘fake grills’ in bumpers etc.

Ibiza Interior

The interior is well specced, and I rather liked the red quilting in the Bocanegra, standard kit includes paddle shift, climate control, cruise control, MP3 compatible CD player,  aux in, & plenty of airbags. Some of the plastics if you were being harsh are a bit cheap & glossy, but I’ve had some years of driving old Audis which had bomb proof matt plastics. It didn’t matter though, I still loved this and got out with a real “yes I’d buy one of these”.

Seat Leon FR+

Next up is the Seat Leon, based on the Golf but with sportier styling (the designer of the Leon is responsible for amongst others the Alfa SZ & GTV, Audi R8 & Leica M9 Titanium (neatly tying in my other hobby)). I drove the Ibiza FR+ and Cupra, on paper, the FR+ sounds pretty much like the Golf GTI mk6 I drove & hated earlier in the year in my post accident grumpy state. Matching 208bhp, DSG gear box, though at least the Leon comes with the much needed 18s as standard to fill the arches. Unfortunately inside, it loses the excellent Golf seats & chunky steering wheel, but turn the key, get it out on the road & all will be forgiven. Where the Golf rode harsh, the Seat has revised front suspension and covers ridges in the road a lot more smoothly, a much better drive. I’d also be tempted to say the DSG ECU has had a bit of work too, but hard to say for sure in a 10 min drive. You also get a lot more toys for your bargain £22,700, not only are those 18″ wheels standard, but you get the essential Bluetooth & DAB, touch screen sat nav, Xenon lights, parking sensors, cruise control…

The Explosive Leon Cupra R

Top dog in the Seat hot hatch line up is the Leon Cupra R, the most powerful car from Seat with 261bhp being sent to the front wheels via a manual 6 speed gearbox (strangely unlike the Golf R DSG isn’t an option on this car). It’s got a lot more presence than the Golf R too with more agressive front & rear bumpers (though prefer the rear diffusers in the matt style as per the Ibiza than the gloss on the Leon) & 19″ wheels as standard. Actually it’s hard to say what it hasn’t got as standard, standard kit includes quilted black leather, bluetooth, cruise control, DAB, touch screen sat nav, parking sensors, 19″ wheels… I think I’ve found four options, which are rear airbags (£230), sunroof (£700), wheels painted white (£300), & two styles of metallic paint (£420/560). Tick the lot and you take the price from a bargain £26,000 to £27,800, but a similar specced Golf R is £37,000.

Cupra R Interior © Seat

It’d be easy to look at the Cupra R as a loaded FR with a bit more power, but it’s soon clear that it’s not. The R engine is a different beast to that in the FR+ and Seat have done a lot of work in changing it’s aural qualities. The delivery is a lot more savage and it shouts about it too with a pleasant roar as you push the throttle down, encouraging you to flex it’s muscles. Delivery of all those horses to the front wheels is kept well in check by the electronic diff so you can push on in confidence as torque steer & understeer is kept well in check, and if you push too hard the brakes are superb, quickly reeling in any excess speed. If anything excess speed is possibly this cars worst feature, in order to explore the car as a driver, you are very soon the wrong side of the posted limit. No doubt this is a faster and more rounded car than the Ibiza Cupra, but it’s for that reason I prefer the Ibiza, it’s more accessible fun on UK roads (and I don’t need a 5 door).

Most common view of the Cupra R

But still the Cupra makes for a great all rounder, practical, base Golf GTI money, lots of toys, happy to tootle comfortably to shops, and a monster lurking beneath the bonnet for when you find yourself on a great bit of tarmac.

Zumba is one of the new keep fit crazes and in attendance were 342 ladies, and 3 blokes. It’s a very high energy dance aerobics, lots of fun, and below is a sample of pictures from the session.

Zumba!

Santas in the Fountain

and attended today as their official photographer. So here’s a selection of images from today

(PS I know I gave my card to a few parents today, if you know I took a picture today & it isn’t here and you want a copy please contact me and I’ll email one over)

Santa Gets Funky

Darth using dastardly tricks

Santa Love

Santa Baby

Last Wednesday at work the phone rings “Hi, this is David at Top Gear, you won a drive of the Reasonably Drive Car down at Dunsfold Park, it’s next Tuesday…can you get here.” I’ll be there by hook or by crook I don’t care. It’s a bloody good job my 9-5 is quite flexible, so getting the time off was a simple “I’ve won a Top Gear prize, it’s next week, I won’t be in” email.

At the event there was 24 taking part (12 winners, 12 guests), and we were split in 4 groups, and we all had 5 events to take part in.

These were Blindfold Driving, Head to Head, You in the Reasonably Price Car, Advanced Instruction (or Magical Mystery Tour as also called), and a ride with ‘The Stig’ in an Ariel Atom.

“Blindfold Driving” was pretty much as described, we were assembled in to a pair of Kia Sportage and off to a pair of identical set out courses laid out in cones. It was basically a mini autocross course, do a slalom, 450º round a roundabout in to a box stop, back in to another box, then right and back over to a finish box. Simple. Well till you actually try closing your eyes, or even with the blindfold on. Think I managed to keep my attempt on the tarmac & posted a fairly decent time

Not all kept it on the tarmac though

Next off was the ‘Head to Head’ challenge. Time for a car change & into the funky Kia Souls.

Kia Soul

This was a slalom circuit with a cone to do a 360 round at each end, but there was a start/finish line on each side, whoever does the full lap and back in to the start/fin box first wins.

Head to Head

Sitting on 18s these took some serious chucking about between the cones, reassuringly grippy, shame about the derv engines up front in these ones though.

All finished we all jump in to the Souls to head back to the Top Gear production office for lunch, our race driver radios over to the other race driver, shall we make sure the tracks all OK before we leave…

After lunch we were on to the bit that had got us all down here, a drive in the ‘A Star You in the Reasonably Priced Car’ around the famous Top Gear Track. Spied when we first parked up that I’d parked next to one of the old Chevy Lacetti’s

The old Reasonably Priced Car

though evidently not the one crushed under a pair of chimneys. There’s also the even old Suzuki Liana kicking around for the F1 drivers but that wasn’t to be seen on the day.

What was very clearly visible were the two manual boxed Kia Cee’d that they use for the series. There’s apparently an auto equipped car for the yanks that can’t comprehend stick shifts but we wouldn’t be needing that.

The Reasonably Priced Cars with some TG stylee grad filter

We got took out with the pro’s for an acclimatisation lap, then 3 practice laps. I’m usually a quick driver, but even for me it was a surprise just how fast you could get these to hang on round the bends when with a big wide runway you’ve not got to worry about running wide too much. Even that first left hander is faster than you realise, and then the follow through & tyres, you just keep planted and let the tyres worry. Then on to the timed lap “you’ve been good on the practices, reckon you’re in for one of the fastest of the day here” nothing like a bit of pressure…, in to the first left hander, I thought I’d entered too fast, the pro reckons I was looking at the apex and not the exit, whatever, I ended up going backwards on the damp grass on my one & only timed lap. Bollox, bollox & thrice bollox. No second chance, so a rather lowly time for me. Fastest guys of the day were posting 1.47-1.49s and I’d been on par with those guys, probably never know now. Spin meant I’d got a 2.10. I was also in the car equipped with a camera, so no doubt this footage will be on the Top Gear website soon

Nothing like a bit of a distraction...

The ‘Advanced Instruction/Magical Mystery Tour’ was basically a drive around the perimeter road, what you wasn’t necessary aware of that you were being scored. Apparently only one of us would pass our tests, though few of us (self inc) got commendable mentions, unlike one who carried on through the 15mph limits by the two schools on site at 70mph.

Whilst we sat around waiting for our turns in those, we had a neb around the production office. Rest assured this is not where the team spend the budget

The ‘swanky’ production office complete with leaky roof & ‘swish’ celebrity green room

“Richard Hammond is an enormous slobbering cu…” , nothing is thrown away, recognise these doors?

Cool wall in a box, and the ‘Audi Do That?” high speed tracking car

Anyway back to the fun stuff, to wrap up the day, we were to get a ride in an Ariel Atom

Splitting the Atom

with a tamed racing driver in a white suit.

OMG this thing flies, I think ‘awesome’ was bandied about plenty after the rides. It shifted, and cornered like nothing I think any of us had experienced before, and the whine of the supercharger behind our heads…, and it was smooth too, was expecting more of a roller coaster ride, but except the hard braking into the corner that had you pinned in to the harnesses, it was all very smooth. A great finish to a great day.

Have to say a big thanks to the BBC Top Gear Team & Kia for arranging the day, the pro’s for teaching us how to drive, & Ariel for the loan of the awesome Atom.

*also credit to @majorgav for the ‘splitting the atom title’.

It very much wasn’t though, went out to watch the first practice, out comes a lot of TR6s, some Lotus 7s, a Dino, and a pair of 3.0 Capris and they evidently weren’t hanging about. So much so two laps in to practice and the Dino locked up on Devils Elbow, jumped the gravel trap, & then flipped over the armco and dropped on to its roof. News was quick to follow that either the car or one of the barrier paddings had also hit a marshall.

It was a very heart in mouth 10 or 15 mins, we feared the worst when heard there was a marshall involved too, but glad to report that both the marshall & driver are OK. I can’t give any more info than that as I don’t know the details, & didn’t ask. NB The final shot was only fired off after we heard both were OK. As ever it’s a credit to the marshalls/safety teams etc who are the unsung heros of many a motorsport event for their quick responses in dealing with this accident, and in repairing the damage to the safety rails so the rest of the days events could carry on. It’s also a start reminder that just because you are behind the ‘safety’ rails at an event, you should still be on your guard and be keeping an eye on the cars when you are close to the track.

In to the afternoon & we were on for some fast close racing, car of the day was a beautifully turned out mk1 3.0 V6 Ford Capri, which sounded absolutely awesome, and went like stink too. Mallory Park will definitely be on our revisit list too, for a photographer, plenty of clear close (and safe) vantage points to enjoy the action, and the bogs were decent too (Donington with your dirty little blue cubicals take note)

To begin it all went well, I arranged to finish work early to get up there for dusk, even managed to get payroll done early so I could. Got up to Sheffield, went into the Peace Gardens as they were being turned red from dusk and started firing some test shots, and then it all went horribly wrong, a hair appeared on the pics stuck to the sensor.

I’ve been using a Canon EOS 400D for the last 3 years, which has a built in sensor cleaner which will shift most crap off the sensor, but I’ve moved to a camera that lacks this feature, and haven’t got round to carrying a blower. No problems I’m quite adept at blowing crap off the lenses, I know you shouldn’t, but I’ll just do it manually. Big mistake.

The time when it’s really crucial you don’t spray, you do. Now the hairs gone, but I’ve got a wet sensor. Bad times. Very bad times. It’s 5:10pm on a Monday, it’s dusk shortly, it’s rush hour, homes an hour round trip at a good time, which it isn’t, and the event kicks off at 6pm.

Now I’m not one to sing Jessops praises, but I knew there was one not to far away, so I rushed round there in the hope they’d have a sensor cleaning kit, preferbly a wet cleaning kit. Didn’t get lucky on the latter, but did manage to pick up a “Lenspen SensorKlear Pro” kit for £34, expensive, especially when it’s £18 at Amazon, but at this point the choices were go home, or get the camera clean and cover the event, so took the plunge. Time was ticking on, asked the staff if I was ok do this right here on the counter, this was a good move I think I could at a push use Eclipse out in the field, but the Lenspen sensor cleaner is a tricky to use, and not that fast cleaner, especially not for the mess I’d made of the sensor. The staff gave me plenty of time and space to just get the job done properly and no problems not locking up bang on the 5:30 close time, so many thanks to the Jessops staff for that. 5:35 I’d managed to get the sensor just about acceptable, and head back out to shoot. This kit comes with an extra rocket blower, I’ll make sure I’m carrying this on me in the future now. Not making that mistake twice.

The work & heartache was worth it in the end though. Whilst the Peace Gardens weren’t that successful lit, the Wheel of Sheffield worked really well esp on long exposures, and managed to get some shots I’m really happy with

Wheel of Sheffield in Red

The SensorKlear didn’t fully shift the water marks off the sensor, and I prefer the theory of the Eclipse cleaners, trying to shift dirt is easier with a wet wipe, and I used a swap and Eclipse once I got home to shift a stubborn water mark I hadn’t shifted with the SensorKlear, but luckily it didn’t really affect any shots.

Two years ago I went along with the camera to do some photography, came back with some great pictures including the rather fun “Synchronised Santa’s”

Synchronised Santa's

which the BHF are using on their promotional materials for the event (inc the application form). Details of the Sheffield event on the 20th December are here on the British Heart Foundation website.

This year I’m entering too, though I’m not actually intending to do the run, I’m just going to do the photoshoot in Santa outfit instead for a laugh. But come along too, join in, these events need support and entry to survive (last years had to be cancelled), if you can’t make the Sheffield event on the 20th, see the British Heart Foundation site for events in your area.