The weekend is nearly upon us and the VCARS Basketball League Semi Finals are fast approaching.
Here are the head-to-head stats for the weekend games. If you’re interested in coming along the first game starts at 4pm and both games are held at the Amaechi Basketball Centre, Manchester, M16 8GW. See you there! Continue reading
Yes your car looks ugly, strange and stupid, but don’t you realise it could look EVEN MORE ugly, strange and stupid? You need to slap some garish, pointless. possibly illegal accessories on there pronto. And you are in luck, as the world of car add-ons has evolved beyond the mere bumper sticker or decorative hanging air-freshener. There are some hideous devices out there, just waiting to be purchased and hinder your driving experience. Continue reading
Once, they were symbols of derision and ineptitude. Now they are highly sought after collector’s items. The cars of the communist era were often ugly, cheaply produced and mechanically problematic. But they have become beloved by history nuts and fans of the underdog with many of these smoke-belching, decidedly boxy vehicles changing hands for fairly astonishing amounts. Here’s just a few of these classic car-buncles of a bygone age. Continue reading
Used car website and title sponsor of the England Basketball Leagues VCARS.co.uk have unearthed an interesting social and political dimension to the latter stages of the VCARS.co.uk Basketball Season.
VCARS have identified that of the 32 VCARS Play-Offs teams competing during April, 18 are from Labour constituencies, 11 are from Conservative and three are from Liberal Democrat.
In the VCARS Play-Off Semi-Finals, there were eight teams each from the two main parties. In the VCARS finals, the current total is Labour 5 Conservative 1. Each party can claim one winner: Plymouth Marjon (Alison Seabeck – Labour) have taken the VCARS Division Three Play-Off title and Bracknell Cobras (Dr. Phillip Lee – Conservative) earned VCARS Division Four Play-Off honours. So far in the Play-Offs, there have been 12 head-to-head games between Conservative and Labour constituencies with the score currently tied at 6-6.
VCARS Spokesperson Paul Reaney noted:
It is fascinating to see how closely matched Conservative and Labour constituencies are both during the regular season and in the play-offs. The VCARS Basketball League truly is a property that touches every community across England and Wales. Ultimate bragging rights are still very much up for grabs. With just one weekend left in the season, and VCARS Division One and Division Two Play-Off Titles up for grabs, it’s difficult to predict whether the final play-off picture will be blue or red come Sunday April 28th.
VCARS Division One Play-Offs Semi Final and Final games take place on Saturday April 27th and 28th at Manchester’s Amaechi Centre. On Saturday 27th, Reading Rockets (Rob Wilson MP – C) will face Essex Leopards (Eric Pickles MP – C). In the other Semi-Final, Worthing Thunder (Sir Peter Bottomley MP – C) will take on Team Northumbria (Nick Brown MP – L).
VCARS Division Two Play-Off Champions will definitely emerge from a Labour constituency as NASSA Neptunes (Stephen Timms MP) take on Manchester Magic (Sir Gerald Kaufman MP) on Sunday morning. The VCARS Division Three Play-Offs picture is complete. Labour dominated as Plymouth Marjon beat Canary Wharf Lithuania (Margaret Hodge MP). In VCARS Division Four, Bracknell Cobras (Dr. Phillip Lee MP – C) beat Tees Valley Mohawks (Andy Macdonald MP – L).
During the Regular Season, it is the Conservatives who took bragging rights. Five of the eight Divisional Champions were from Tory constituencies: VCARS Division One Reading Rockets; Three North Huddersfield Heat (Craig Whittaker MP); Three South Worcester Wolves (Robin Walker MP); Four South West Bracknell Cobras (Dr. Phillip Lee MP) and Four South East Northants Thunder (Michael Ellis MP). Labour can celebrate Division Two success for NASSA Neptunes, Four North for Tees Valley Mohawks II and Four South for Barking Abbey.
Bitcoin is the hot new currency amongst uber nerds It’s virtual, meaning it only exists within the Interwebs and so can’t be used to bulk out your leather wallet. Continue reading
British designer Ross Lovegrove has unveiled the striking new Renault Twin’Z Concept Car.
Furniture designer Lovegrove contributed to the car by conceiving and creating the Twin’Z's impressive bodywork bumpers, lights, grilles, LED roofscape, wheels and interior. The result is a ‘fun, modern, artistic take on the citycar’, and it’s hard to disagree with Renault’s description. The all-electric rear-wheel drive, rear engine vehicle is just 3.62 metres in length with a high middle sitting on 18″ wheels; the compact footprint offers responsive handling.
photo credit: Colleen AF Venable via photopin
Modern technology means there really is no reason for drivers to be bored. Not only does digital radio offer you programmes to match any mood and iTunes/Spotify for personalised jukeboxes. But best of all? Best of all are podcasts. Think of podcasts as hand-picking your favourite radio shows. Podcasts can be anything from a professional radio programme to two or three friends sat in a room chatting about your favourite subject. It can include video but because we’re going to focus on having stuff to listen to while you’re driving, the following ten podcasts are the audio only.
An address at the Local Government Association Public Health Conference by England’s Health Minister, Anna Soubry, has re-sparked a row over moves to prevent drivers from smoking in their cars.
A former smoker herself, Soubry told delegates:
I would ban smoking in cars where children are present. I see it as a child welfare issue. I think it is something we should at least consider as government.
While banging the public drum, privately Soubry has less conviction. When subsequently asked if she was voicing a new piece of Government policy, she backtracked:
I expressed my own views on smoking in cars and the health threat it causes to children. We have no current plans to change government policy.
While there appears to be growing public support for a ban, the debate strikes at the heart of two interesting questions:
First, if the car is an extension of one’s private space and we accept smoking does not diminish driving ability, what right has the state to impose legislation to curtail smoking?
Second, if we deem smoking in a confined space to be detrimental to the physical welfare of a minor, what are the limits of that confinement? Should smoking within six feet of a minor be made illegal, for example? Children have significantly higher metabolic and respiratory rates than adults, making exposure to smoke in vehicles potentially very serious.
Simon Clark, from the Pro-choice smokers’ group Forest, wheezed:
There is no justification for a ban on smoking in cars, with or without children present. The evidence that it is harmful to other passengers is weak, to say the least. We don’t condone smoking in cars with children. It’s inconsiderate, certainly, but only a small minority of people do so these days. Adults have a choice, and they can choose not to travel in a vehicle if the driver is smoking.
In the UK it has been against the law to smoke in vehicles used for work since July 2007, when the ban on smoking in public was introduced.
While the British Medical Association have been calling for a driving/smoking ban since 2011, and parts of Australia already protect those under 16 from second hand car smoke, David Cameron has confessed to being ‘nervous’ about implementing a ban in the UK.
Nissan Note (MPV) £12,000
It’s going to be produced in Sunderland but there are more reasons to go for Nissan’s cost-effective MPV than simple patriotism. The 2013 will be more modern and stylish than its stoical predecessors. There’s the car’s Noteworthy (geddit) storage and plenty room for five grown-ups. A supercharged engine is expected to be added to the range the long-term but expect to see Nissan’s new MPV toward the year’s end. Continue reading
From Ford’s scripted oval to Volkswagen’s Germanic simplicity, from Ferrari’s swaggering black stallion to Volvo manliness, car logos aim to communicate unique brand credentials of the manufacturer, the car and indeed the driver. But what of the stories that lie behind logos? VCARS.co.uk’s Paul Reaney dug a little deeper and unearthed a few things you might not know about the logo on the front of your car.
Truly ubiquitous, a mainstay of modern logo design, the famous ford blue oval effortlessly balances modernity against heritage. The original badge was designed by an engineering colleague of Henry Ford. His assistant simply knocked up a stylised version the words ‘Ford Motor Company’. After experimenting with a winged triangle, in the mid-twenties the blue oval appeared. Ford’s Model A was the first car to carry the iconic logo. Apart from a brief flirtation with a squat diamond in the mid-seventies, the current logo continues to this day.
The famous VW logo was designed by Franz Reimspiess, the winner of an office-wide competition to come up with a new logo. Reimspiess was also the man who designed the engine for the Beetle. Interestingly, the original VW vehicles were inspired by a 1933 meeting between Hitler and Porsche. Hitler wanted an affordable car capable of transporting two adults and three children at a max speed of 62 mph (100kmh). After WW2, the British took control of VW and got rid of the German flourishes on the outer of the logo, stripping it back and simplifying to the third logo here – a forerunner of today’s more corporate look.
Upon direction from the company’s founder Jujiro Matsuda, Mazda’s name derives from Ahura Mazda, the Avestan name for a divinity exalted by the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster – the source of wisdom, intelligence and harmony! The current logo, designed in 1997, shows a pair of wings in flight. As well as communicating creativity, vitality and flexibility, it purports to show Mazda is ready to take flight.
Founded in 1989 by Louis, Marcel and Ferdinand Renault, the company were originally famous for their taxis (before building aeroplanes and tanks in WWI). The first logo was supposedly designed to capture the initials of all three brothers (can you see the F?) and updated during WW1 to include a tank. The now famous diamond was included in 1925 and yellow (symbolising joy, prosperity and optimism) in 1946.
Enzo Ferrari was inspired by the horse painted on the aeroplane of Italy’s heroic WWI airman Francesco Baracca. Ferrari has confessed: “In 1923, I met count Enrico Baracca, the hero’s father, and then his mother, countess Paulina, who said to me: Ferrari, put my son’s prancing horse on your cars. It will bring you good luck.” The black horse has become, perhaps, the most iconic image in the automotive industry. Did You Know, yellow was added as it is the colour of Modena – home to Ferrari’s factory?
Now part of the VW family, Audi was born in 1899 from the drive of German August Horch. Horch left Horch & Cie, set up AutomobilWerke Horch Zwickau GmbH. Due to legal wranglings over the similarity of the name, he launched a new company Audi which is a Latin translation of Horch, meaning ‘listen’. Horch and Audi were joined by DKW and Wanderer and merged to form Auto Union AG. The interlocking rings symbolising the four brands.
Fiat have been Italy’s household auto name since 1899 and the country’s industrialization. The logo’s most striking component is the semi-bent upper case A, appearing for the first time in 1901. Fiat’s logo has been perhaps the most changed, tampered with and ‘updated’ of any of the main car brands. The most recent logotype appeared in 2006, re-introducing red to the logo for the first time since 1959.
With a mission statement ‘create and develop advanced technologies and provide outstanding products and services that fulfil the needs of customers worldwide’, this logo has its work cut out. The current logo, three ellipses which co-join to create a T, is relatively simple while communicating quickly and effortlessly a harmony and creativity. The original logo, dating back to 1936 was designed to communicate speed and the result of another of those office-wide competitions. Today, Toyota explains their logo thus:
The two perpendicular centre ovals represent a relationship of mutual trust between the customer and Toyota. These ovals combine to symbolize the letter “T” for Toyota. The space in the background implies a global expansion of Toyota’s technology and unlimited potential for the future.
Founded in 1927 in Gothenburg from a company that used to make ball bearings, the Volvo name is derived from ‘I roll’ in Latin. The currently logo is the ancient symbol for Iron (circle with an arrow pointed diagonally right and up), as well as begin the symbol for Man. Grrrrr…
In wonderfully Germanic style, the three-pointed star represents domination of the land, sea, and air! It was designed by Gottlieb Daimler in 1909 and combined with the Benz laurel wreath in 1926 when the two partnered up. The ring joined in 1937.
