Seat belt

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Sunday – Ministry of Sound

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Jeremy Don’t try this at home readers but there must have been at least one moment in your driving career when you have set off from a standstill with a door open?

Today I was in a mad rush to post some letters in the quietest village lane in Gloucestershire when a horse lorry appeared from nowhere behind me. I slammed the items in the postbox and, in a bid to prevent a delay, attempted to drive off in the Peugeot with the door still open.

Now, cars have warning noises for perfectly good reasons – think safety belt, boot open and parking sensors. However, the RXH has more driver alert sounds than a wayward space shuttle.

The safety belt warning is quite calm but insistent, the parking sensor chime nothing too offensive. Then you hear the ‘door left open’ blast and it makes you skip a heart beat. It’s the sort of wailing noise you imagine they sound when a nuclear reactor has gone in to meltdown…

It actually scared the hell out of me and I won’t make a habit of it. Of course, the solution is not to try and drive with you car door open – except the sound is so terrifying I almost fell out and under the horse lorry instead. I’m not sure which is worse…

 

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Friday – Conflict of Interest

593863_P90102781_highResJessica There are a range of contrasting emotions evoked by the Mini GP ….

On one hand, it sits there looking the epitome of a boy racer toy, something that a young lad would aspire to which, as a parent, would fill me with cold dread. On the other hand, it is a Mini and it does look rather dashing with its sporty flashes of red and matching mini spoiler with gimmicky wheels (move over Herbie).

Does that make me a secret boy racer? Or have Mini managed to make a ridiculous car appealing to a wide range of speed merchant tpyes?

Once inside, I feel a little mutton dressed as lamb. Especially as I strap myself in with the racing red seat belt and see the vast Mini centre display with red stitch detail around every part of the dashboard, presumably to make me feel it is worth spending £29,000 on a little car.

It certainly takes me back to friends of my youth, who had old Minis as first cars. I seem to remember then that everything seemed fast and they certainly did not have anything like the power of this little monster.

I must say though that driving it does bring a smile to the face. It is remarkably like driving a go-kart (in a great deal more comfort) with super responsive steering and handling. Yes it is fun, I could not keep the grin off my face … The great thing is it feels like you are going fast without breaking the law, so there is little need to test the impressive speed available.

Ultimately, I feel I should be a disapproving parent but the GP is fun. I should also be a little over the hill to be enjoying the frivolity of it all but ridiculous though the car may seem on first viewing, it is a little gem. I’m rather sad I did not have my enough time for own Mini GP adventure with it this week, a missed opportunity…