It Looks Like a Slivine!!!!

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 07 November 2006 15:03:15

We spent Saturday at the MPH 06 Show in London. We had a really great time.

There was a live "performance" that was really a Top Gear show in all but name. It had some great features including:

Human 10 Pin Bowling - Tiff Needell sat in a shopping trolley fitted with handle bars. This was to be "gently" pushed by Jeremy Clarkson in a G-Whiz - a small electric car. In reality he used a Ford Mustang 500. The previous day this had led to James May breaking his arm after being pushed by an over enthusiastic Clarkson.

Half Car Racing - In an effort to reduce the costs of motor sport, and thus make it accessible to all, Clarkson had the idea of using only half a car. You therefore had 4 guys racing around the arena with only the front half of a standard car. The rear being cut away behind the door pillars. The rear had small ski attachment to avoid destroying the arena floor. Much spinning of cars and several crashes.

Car Football - This is football played using 6 VW Foxes. Very entertaining and could have been far more punishing on the cars than it was that day. However, when you saw the car's in the paddock area afterwards you saw exactly how much damage was done over the previous rounds.

Mobility Modding - If you've seen the small mobility scooters that disabled people have you will know how slow these things are. They have a top speed of 8 m.p.h. (12Km/h). Tiff Needell added rockets to his; very fast but no stopping until the fuel ran out. Clarkson used 2 banks of 4 fire extinguishers - more control but not quite as quick. James May turned his into sail power. Unfortunately this failed to work at all.

Jet powered bicycle - This is a normal bicycle that could be used by the general public in London to avoid the Congestion Charge. At present you are charged £8 per day if you drive within a certain area of Central London. However if you use an LPG, electric or hybrid vehicle you are exempt. The bicycle has a rear mounted model jet engine. You have the fule tank - containing 95% paraffin amd 5% jet fuel in the front basket. It is capable of reaching 70 mph and is street legal but requires no tax and is classed as a hybrid and thus exempt from the Congestion Charge. It is really funny to see this little bike powering around the arena, knowing that it's not quite right but seeing that it works.

The headline was spoken by FW while touring the classic area of the arena. We saw the chassis and bonnett for a pre-restoration Jaguar racing car. It did indeed look a Slivine head-on. For those not in the know a Slivine was a alien featured in the updated Dr Who.

We also got to see several cars that we would otherwise never see - including Ferraris, Lambo's, Mercedes McLaren SLR and Aston Martin DB9's, DB5's and Vanquish. In the words of Clarkson this is "porn for petrolheads".

FW also bought me my Christmas & Birthday prezzie but I'm not telling you what it is. Only that I'll be able to strike something off my "Things To Do Before I Die" list.