Blowing the dust off...

Good grief, would you look at the dust around here? Disgusting. 

Look, I haven't abandoned this place, I assure you, it's just that I find it really difficult to achieve that perfect work/life balance and, with it, produce quality editorial for my own website while contributing worthwhile stuff for Hooniverse. The fact that I clicked onto RoadworkUK only to be welcomed by "This domain name is parked" is embarrassing, to say the least.

Anyway; the image above is a taster of a raft of stuff I'm about to feed into the big, hungry jaws of Hooniverse, and if they don't want it then it'll more than likely turn up here. RoadworkUK isn't dead, just neglected. I owe it a lot, and still love it. Meanwhile; click over here for my Hooniverse musings.

But please, please keep coming back.

Roadwork Library: Cars by Stephen Bayley.

Weighing in at 6lb 2oz this is a tome of considerable stature and presence. The year before last, while Christmas Shopping for “other people” every time I passed into a bookshop this spellbindingly presented volume caught my gaze, and having the name Stephen Bayley embossed into the spine served to further arouse my curiosity. My girlfriend bought it for me as a particularly generous Christmas gift, and it has proudly featured in my library ever since.

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Zero degrees East.

Wikipedia tells us that the United Kingdom straddles the geographic mid-latitudes between 50-60 N from the equator. It is also positioned on the western seaboard of Eurasia, the world's largest land mass. These boundary conditions allow convergence between moist maritime air and dry continental air. In this area, the large temperature variation creates instability and this is a major factor that influences the often unsettled weather the country experiences, where many types of weather can be experienced in a single day. Sometimes, shit happens.

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Driven #8:- Mk 3 Mondeo 2.2 TDci

 

In 1997 Grand Theft Auto was released in all its anarchic, top-down glory. Here was a game where you were encouraged to steal any and all vehicles found prowling the mean streets of Liberty City. The choice was huge, with public utility vehicles like ambulances, coaches and police cars, as well as motorbikes and supercars. Some of these were recognisable. The Ferrari Testarossa made an appearance, as did the Escort Cosworth, both iconic machines. You could understand their inclusion.

One car, though, stood out to me. Why have they included that? Also, why have they awarded it such an insulting in-game name? That car was the Ford Mondeo. And that name? Mundano. And a new cliché was born.

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Uninsured? Undeclared? Unintelligent.

Kids like cars, kids like going fast in cars, so kids like fast cars. And kids will do everything they can to try to create the illusion of speed in their own cars, whether it be the sound of speed by fitting oversized, over-loud exhaust systems, or what they perceive as being the look of speed, with wide wheelarches, extra grilles, spoilers and wide alloy wheels, all of which ironically add to the weight of whatever 1.2 litre shopping trolley they’re nailed to.

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The Dark Side of Lighting.

Fair enough, you want to be seen, that’s cool. You guys in the ‘States have had DLRs and orange side marker lights for years. It was mandatory. All you chaps in Northern Europe, too, used to have permanently engaged sidelights. We became quite fond of 245GLEs cruising about with their little lights reminding us of their presence, not that Ye Olde Malmo Brick was particularly easy to miss anyway.....

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