Notorious

Another year, another GT3 RS and another plethora of Car of the Year crownings. It’s undeniably one of the finest sports cars to ever be produced, but there’s a sense of inevitability and monotony about any group test where it’s a protagonist.

It was a good victory for F1 when Vettel took the title last Sunday afternoon. The likable young German had shown his inexperience during the mid portion of the season, but equally had a rotten run of luck with reliability. With his 10 poles and awesome race speed over 2010, he’s a worthy champion.

I recently had the chance to join good friend Jason for one of the photography courses he hosts at the Brooklands Motor Museum, near Weybridge in Surrey. The course is designed to give would-be professional snappers tips on camera angles, zoom, lighting and capturing a car in one of those evocative poses that we admire so much in our favourite mags.

The plan was simple. Photographer Jason was to collect me and fellow petrolhomie Al in his new Megane RS 250 and then drive to Dieppe in France, the home of Renaultsport HQ. Simple enough and a good day out… you would think.

I recently had the opportunity to poke around the new Mini Countryman and, my word, what a ridiculous car. For starters it’s a fat old hector, not just for a Mini, but for any quasi-4x4. And secondly, this particular example cost over £30,000 which will get you a nice 997 Carrera S with not many miles on the clock. I have to ask, who would buy one?

Last Sunday we made the short trip over to Reims in Northern France for the 4th L’Excellence De Reims auto show, a sort of mini-Goodwood hosted at the old GP circuit made famous by Fangio and Hawthorn in the ‘50s.

So what's it like to approach the infamous Green Hell for your first time. In the damp. Notorious MWB volunteered to find out.

Bugatti's Super Sport has reached nearly 270 mph, but so what? Is it 6 times as good as a Ferrari 458?