Thanks Aston Martin

Aston Martin Test drive at Millbrook proving ground today - no pictures because of security. I took the Saab too as it was raining heavily all day. Drive the following cars:

2015 Vanquish - using paddle shift on hill circuit light rain - Strong performance - felt heavier but no less fast than V12 - looked a bit fussy inside. More GT than sports car.

DB9 - ont he high speed bowl - left it in automatic - felt very bumpy - hands off the wheel at 90mph - topped out at 125mph - 200k

Rapide on city circuit - felt big although it was ok.

Rapids S - hill circuit - instructor saying when to accelerate and drive - in sports mode different car - huge power and felt smaller than vanquish and faster but that was confidence of experience.

2915 Vanquish - 140 mph on the 1 mile strait and raining so hard I could not see the road - then hitting the breaks at 120 and taking my hands off the wheel to let the electronics do their stuff. It shuddered a bit but stopped in a dead strait line. Made you feel so confident.

Vantage V8 - Taken round the performance circuit by the instructor. In the wet in the heavy rain - so controlled a slight twitch but solid as a rock at insane speeds. 

Alpine Spring

Almost not that cold - roads still a bit wet and greasy though so no V12.

Alpine out and about though.

Sunday Snow

Looking at the cars in the garage again as it's soooo cold 0 or 1 degrees all weekend and only a hint if the let-up.

Alpine out Saturday with new overdrive switch fitted.

4-6-12-6

Alpine, E-Type and Aston. The E-Type again.

Mid Feb and there is a hint of sun in the sky.

Aston still brutal.

Too cold still for P0

Back in the swing

Winter ticks on and the SAAB ticks on too.

188k+ now

Signs of the electric car not taking off - but a re-launch this spring I think

Zero Grip

Pirelli P0 Corsa have no grip in the cold and wet as I found out when I thought I could take the Aston for a spin.

Spin I almost did - even as I left the drive it twitched - so fierce is the beast.

Then I read up on them and found out that 6 deg is the lowest practical use. Not 2 deg as I found out...