Drove my Plus up to Bruntingthorpe proving grounds today to meet Autocar for the photoshoot in a feature they are planning for the 7th or 10th February 2010 - Unconfirmed as yet

Day started at 7:30 am - with a drive up to Leicester. Once there (9:20 am) I had the chance to meet the other guy's in the shoot. The cars present were .....

2000 - Fiat Coupe 20VT Plus (modded with custom cat-back)
2005 - Renault Clio 180 RenaultSport (modded with sport cat and custom stainless)
1999 - Peugeot 306 'Rallye' (Standard)
1998 - Honda Integra Type R (Standard)

Started with a sit down and a chat about the cars with the article writer (a girl called Vicky, "what a girl?" I hear you cry - she knew her stuff!), then a chat about how the day would run and the positioning for the cars for the various shoots to be held - drawn by hand

The shoots were...
- Rolling 4's
- Rolling 2's (Fiat & Integra)
- Test driver by article writer
- Fast speed cornering shot
- Best interior for interior driving shot - (guess who won
- Static interior, engine and body
- Static mug shot by car
- End of day chat and finish




Best part of the day? At the end, we needed to head back from one end of the runway to the exit - the other end. Somehow it was decided that we should have a drag race (ala top gear). We lined up, Stu the photographer gives us the 1,2,3 ... and we went. Of course the coupe won by a huge margin ..... losers and if I had my Steely it would have been by even further

Got to say that most of the day we were standing around doing nothing but talking amongst ourselves, but they were a great bunch, so the day flew by really! We also took it upon ourselves to park the cars (while not being tested/used) to park them under a 747 that happened to be there! (Photo's below)








End of the day, Autocar filled our cars up with fuel and off we went.

We end up with a free copy of the mag and a copy of the photographs (this is the interesting bit to me)

All shots taken by me - not the photo guy. Hence why the coupe is the man focus is most



Last one - Is this the ugliest plane in the world?

great stuff patch, and a great advert for the top model of the marque....

Great stuff - looking good

And, yes, that plane sure is fugly.

Sounds like a really good day Patch.

Nice bit of memorabilia.

When does the article get released?

Looks like you had a great day Phil, some great shots there

Thanks all




Read the first post Insy and all will be revealed

Sorry. Lazy Fridayitis has set in!

Will make sure I buy a copy on release.

Looks good Patch - you had your cam-cover re-crackled?
Is that one of them Guppy planes - agreed Fugly

Has this article been released? I keep checking Autocar every time I'm in Morrisons but not spotted it yet!

No, there is a delay, I posted an email I got in the original photoshoot thread.

All I know is that will be featured 'soon' at the moment Vicky, the journo, will email us when.

I am growing impatient too!

Car looks great Patch, credit to you

Any update on the publishing date yet?

Nope ..... I'm getting pretty annoyed with this lot too, day off, let them drive your car, hang around for hours on end

I keep on looking each week (and reading the section that says 'next week') and it's never mentioned

every week I am looking in the magazine section at the local tesco express, in the vain hope it might be there

At last, we have some news! (all be it from a little pressuring by my good self!)

Email response below
________________________

Hi Phil,

Yes, sorry it’s been a bit of a wait for this. It’s going to be published in the 30th March issue, and the Fiat gets a very favourable review in it!

Hope that’s okay – I’ll get some copies of the mag, and some of the pics sent out as soon as its published.

Vicky

___________________________

Result, well done. I will definitely get a copy of the mag.

sounds like a cracking day! good pics too, so you won the drag, are you running standard, or are you modded ?

It was running bog standard. How boring!

impressive though....it still beat all the others!

Phil, did you have a Flea map on the car at the time of the shoot, or was that after? (I see it's not mentioned on your post)

That came after Duncan I did have a Longlife 2.5" cat-back on though! Forgot about this

Very very nice - will keep my eyes open for new Autocar's..

Car looks fab Patch and well done for stonking them all in the drag lol!

What plane is that by curiousity?

I don't know Did, but Nello thinks it's called a 'guppy'

I think it's the plane they use to transport wings

I went there last weekend to have a look around. The Super Guppy was originally designed to support the Apollo space program;
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Graphics/B377SG/index.html

And here she is!



In the shadows to hide the dirt!

Is this it's latest incarnation! The BELUGA!!

It sort of looks like some kinda deformed fish!

Yeah, that or a 'Beluga' whale

Oh! what a coincidence - lol

I remeber posting a drawing of that plane on here a couple of years ago lol. I saw it flying overhead and thought what's that

Is this magazine out now then? Is it worth buying?

Bought this weeks Autocar and in the section that says 'NEXT WEEK' is... Patch's car

Should be an interesting article!

Glad you had a great day mate, nice one for showing them the old girl still has it which came in 2nd was it the 'teg?

Clio 172 with full sports exhaust including a sport cat. The Honda guy pulled off well for the first 100m or so then was quickly left behind. The Ralle Pug chap had left early as he had a pantomime to go to?

I wonder if the race will get a mention?

Oh no he didn't

A Pantomime haha, crap excuse he must have foreseen a mullering!!

yeah those little clios are suprising quick the 'tegs dont have any torque but i thought it would have done better!!??

Was he "Behinnnnnnnnnnnnnd You"

Well, the show had to go on!

"Oh no it didn't!"

Should be in the shops tomorrow guy's, I'll be at the news agents at the crack of dawn, I may even set a tent up this evening!

ill be outside my local tesco at midnight

Right then, I'll .......... I'll......... travel to the printers and take one before they are loaded in the delivery trucks....

And I'll be lying in wait to nick you for theft

And then I'll impound your magazine and read it whilst you bang on the cell door!

You rotter or is that rozzer?

Tell you what Stan, I just hope that all the police are as well balanced and mindful as you my friend I mean that seriously by-the-way!

Back to the thread - HAS ANYONE GOT IT YET? I can't get away till lunchtime!

Well-balanced?

I'm going to have to do something about that, maybe create some snow angels in lane three of the motorway the next time it snows!

I'm waiting until someone confirms that the article is definitely in this issue before running out to buy it, just hope our local shop still stocks it.....

Yes, it's in this weeks; dated 31st March. Page 38 if you want to flick & check before you buy.

Just one page? Darn it!

Thanks Ian

Should have been clearer: it starts p38. Four page spread; the usual multi car test format - quite good but looks like it must of been a filthy day weatherwise!

Just read this in WHSmith, Coupe came second to the pug, good article.

Yea I just read it. It now seems like a lot of effort for little result! She got some facts wrong and the winner, definitely got that wrong

okay im munching a sandwich and reading.. done well patch

Fair write up I think

That Rallye for £2500 sounds like a stonking buy: accomplished and rare: I'd love to try one.

You're right Yella, I'm just a sore loser!

Right thats it.

I'm selling the Coop and buying the Peugeot.

Goodbye everyone.

i got mine at 6am this morning,read it on my break,and was a little disapointed with the viee ws,however the coupe came 2nd behind the rallye,id have thought the clio cup might have came 1st. ps the highlight for me was when i showed the comment about the coupe outruns the focus st for less than a qtr of the price to a member of staff(she owns an st)

Tight !

Picked up a copy today, fair write up but not enough of it based on what you have told us patch. Could have put pages 28 and 29 to better use rather than a repeated contents page me thinks!

Beaten by the French though....

Just bought my copy (last one left as well!)

thermostat, big fix?? ... although, I am impressed the £1200 engine-out cam-belt didn't get mentioned

I got a copy, nice one Patch the car looked good.

Cheers, I still think the article was a bit poo though! - I should clarify - long long way to go, long long wet day, loads of questions and writing - content in article - limited!

I'm suprised at the lack of technical content too, but that went for all cars

Didn't they wedge you up though ?

No, I'm 6ft, and the deemed me high enough

Filled the tank with fuel for me! That's it!

Hey patch, just got my copy... Must say, a plus does look better than my tatty sprinty!!

fair play mate! Looks lovely!

Still gutted though...

Cheers Marco - You didn't miss much mate! Still, bit of exposure for the coop and something to save for future posterity.

Well done Phil

Something to show the kids mate....well done
A bit jealous actually.
If that was me,I would have let his tyres down and won......lmao
Paul

Ahhh i have saved this into my phone so when i pop to asda before my night shift again tomorrow night i can get it to have a look at it.........

I know how you are feeling as i had an article done on coop's in AUTO-ITALIA years back and one of the 3 coops was my baby girl Angelica and she was there on the front cover in all her glory (granted all be it at the bottom of the front page but even so) and then we had a few pages with group pictures and then i think it was 2 pages on each car ------- when that mag came out my dad was the first one up to the local papershop and bought up all the copies they had

so i now have a nice copy i keep safe in my bedroom on the shelves and a rough one thats seen some mileage (and hands looking through it) in the boot of her gotta LOVE the coops

Got my copy this morning, although what is with security guards in shops these days? I was only taking it outside to read it, honest!

Anyway, good write-up, bit of a bizarre result though, not sure I follow the logic employed there, but then again, why allow the facts to get in the way of a good story?

I guess we're biased on here, and given the chance we'd have the coupé beating everything and we'd ignore all the heartache we have with these cars from time to time.

Oh, and I do prefer the Plus wheels

Very nice looking Coupe and the black set it apart perfectly from the other cars in the article.

Kind of know why they went with the 306 though since it's the most complete package of all the cars there - if you're after a hot hatch that is. Trouble is they were kind of comparing chalk and cheese. If the author was after a Coupe or a genuinely fast car then the Fiat would win.

I'll be keeping the Coupe of course but that hasn't stopped me having a look on Autotrader to check out the prices of those pesky 306's. Now if only I had space for more than one car!