As you might be able to tell, this had rapidly descended into a week of BMW themed items. I’ll be honest, this wasn’t intentional, but once something has started there’s no reason to stop it. Today I was reading about the forthcoming BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe, revealed at this year’s Geneva Motorshow. To be perfectly…
Category: Opinion
Filling The Hole: The Polo
Yesterday I mentioned how I would save the details of the Panda 100HP’s replacement until today. As promised, here is the new contender to fill the (obviously quite petite) shoes left by the baby Fiat: Yes, like an errant homing pigeon finally finding the coop, I’ve returned to the Volkswagen stable. This 2006Â Olympic Blue 9N3…
End Of The Road: The Panda 100HP
Up until owning the Panda 100HP, I’d only ever had VAG products. Three Volkswagens and an Audi to be precise. This presented me with something of an existential crisis as someone heavily opinionated on cars and the motor industry. How could someone who had only owned products of one (albeit huge) manufacturing group, really offer…
EngageSportMode has returned
Whole numbers of people have noticed a distinct lack of posting on these here pages as of late. To try to address this issue, ESM has prepared a press release to deal with the questions asked. As a template I’ve used the recent example set by Group Lotus. Behold: False rumour #1:Mr John is no longer…
I Just Couldn’t Resist. Sorry.
After the seriousness of yesterday’s up! review, the desire to make a play on words with the new VW was too great. Volkswagen are clearly already aware of this, just look at the model names they’re already using: Take up! – Base specification, Move up! – Next model up with slightly more kit, High up!…
Sky Sports F1 HD First Weekend – Rated & Reviewed
The past three seasons of Formula 1 coverage by the BBC had made me forget just how bloody irritating advert breaks are in the middle of practice sessions and qualifying. Sky Sports F1 seemed to feature rather a lot of them during its broadcasting including, ironically, a lot for its own F1 channel. But, in…
The Final American Week Admission
The past seven days of EngageSportMode have featured a number of confessions; my love for NASCAR, the fact I like Avril Lavigne (who is technically Canadian) and that sometimes I can be wrong. Having been through all this, it’s probably worth noting that after so much discourse about products of the USA, I’ve never actually…
A Final Thought on the Ampera
I spent this morning trying to think of a good way to explain the Vauxhall Ampera through some kind of analogy. This involved a lot of thinking and research; including establishing whether there was any link between the Ampera and those leaked Christina Hendricks photos. For reference, unless it was a Fiat distraction ploy, I…
The Confessions Just Keep On Coming
Along with liking NASCAR, Engage Sport Mode is also willing to admit to other things. Like enjoying the music of Avril Lavigne (and seeing her live), thinking additional jalapeno peppers can improve everything and occasionally being wrong. In this instance, the “being wrong” relates to a prediction made on this very website back in January. In that post I…
What ESM Aspires To Be Like
Top Gear was on TV tonight. Whilst being better than the past couple of weeks, the cliched analogies from Clarkson are really becoming tired. I’ve heard the “gearbox doesn’t know what it is” line god knows how many times in the past decade. It just isn’t funny anymore. Also, the production is now so OTT…
Well I suppose quattro is four in Italian
The previous post on that turbo-cento got me thinking about a new car which it’s very, very similar to. Well, similar in that it’s essentially a small city-car with a turbocharger attached. So like two peas in a pod then; yesterday’s Fiat and today’s Audi A1 Quattro: I have to admit I am a fan…
A Further Update on Italian Week
After the Alfa Romeo-fest which the previous post turned into, I felt the need to redress the balance in favour of other marques from the boot-shaped state. I had to include this car somewhere, as it transported me back to a time long forgotten; before the dominance of the internets, twitter and public opinion in the…
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