Created by Petrolheads, for Petrolheads

I have just taken delivery of a set of beautiful Abarth 500 Team Dynamics Motorsport Custom Painted (Pasadoble Red) Pro Race 1.2 Alloy Wheels plus spacers. Plus a de-cat pipe is on the way to make the exhaust sound fuller. Hmmm now what else can I bolt on…

Hell Yeah has had a new nose and paint job, looking very sweet – she is a one off now (recently had a heap of coverage in  American Car Magazine) you can find out more at S197.co.uk which is the forum for stangs run by our man Nick.

A few pictures from a mental day. I have signed up to do 2013 in SPR.

Marcus decided as part of his 40th birthday celebrations that he wanted to return to the Green Hell in the Eifel Forest, but this time with a car which he did not care about, so the search started! A 10 year old Mitshubishi FTO was identified which we bought from an unsuspecting chap in Kent for £400. Next it was stripped to save weight (but Trevor then added this back by custom making a roll cage from scaffolding). A quick trip online bought new brake discs, Yellow Stuff track pads, braided cables, springs and a servicing kit – we proudly did all the work ourselves. Nick gave the wheels a quick paint job, and a few well considered vinyl decals later SHiH-TZU was born.

A date was chosen, Eurotunnel was booked, SHiH-TZU was loaded onto Marcus’s trailer and off we went one Saturday morning having only test driven the car around Trev’s garage forecourt – this was to prove to be a fatal error! Eight hours later we arrived, unloaded and took the ‘beasty’ for a quick drive only to find out that our race car juddered violently at 60mph plus… oops. A quick trip to a friendly garage on the Sunday uncovered a wheel balancing issue which was quickly fixed, but the juddering was still there, just less so (it proved to be a bearing gone in the diff)! So we just took her to the track and drove, the three of us had a fantastic day. It only ended late afternoon after the alternator belt fell off following a violent trip across the curbs and the battery lost charge, at which point we abandoned SHiH-TZU in a Lidl car park by the off at Adenau and went to the Pistenklause.

As ever the Ring took its fair share of casualties on the day, its still dangerous, and still shows no mercy if you go off line. Just ask Nick that question…

I could not believe what was parked outside The Mulberry on Sunday… only Chris Evans Magnificent Seven parade of cars for his Children In Need sponsored road trip.

I briefly owned a XR2 back in 1991 in red just like this one.

Here is the pick of the bunch this year:

Fell in love with this car in 2011 when Alfa unvalid the original concept, remember standing at Goodwood Festival of Speed on their stand for about 40 minutes just looking. Have now managed to secure an order (waiting list currently stands at 2 years) mine will arrive in June 2015 (long story). It will be a 2015 model which means fared in headlights and fingers crossed the new centrally mounted Akrapovic sports exhaust (recently shown on the Spider concept). Options include 19″ wheels, Rosso Competizone paint, full leather, race pack (includes, race tyres, race suspension, sports steering wheel and stiffer anti roll bars front and rear), black roof and sports exhaust. Excited not the word!