Hah, quite interesting. Certainly created a good car, and could be said to have influenced similar treatment on 911s in the following decade (albeit without the price cut...)

Didn't know about the tax aspect, but sales were certainly a factor. The 968 was very expensive when it came out (£35k in 1992) so it was barely selling. Clubsport was about £29k. Didn't turn the 968 into a roaring success exactly but made it way more competitive.

Yeah, they're high on my list too. Never driven a 924/944/968 but they're very my kinda thing.

A few more Rustival shots. Realised I've not really seen many of the new Pandas, so it was interesting to see three generations together.

We had a few of these in the family. "Boring" is probably fair for the model overall, though the 16v versions were anything but. Really well built too - apparently they sold very well in Germany.

Interior of my brother's old GLX. Always liked the design and the ergonomics are excellent too.

Work trips are never long enough I need to check bags but my carry-on is about half the allowed size so I always travel light.

I always over-pack for long trips though. Wish I'd packed like half of what I did for last year's Japan trip. Big luggage is a pain in the hole.

Such a good spec. I'm still all about the sedan with these (if it's good enough for the rally cars, etc) but the wagon somehow feels more "just earned enough money in Gran Turismo 2 to afford something genuinely quick".

Sadly, its fate is probably to end up VW scene'd to death.

Centre exit exhaust is great, like an old Mini. Dials are funky too.

Would be quite tempted, but deserves better than to be left on the street, which is what would happen if it ended up with me. Seems to have been garaged for much of its life.

What a sweet little thing. Lupo Sport with the 1.4 16v was the one below the GTI. Not many about and £2495 doesn't sound bad at all for this. Looks great, MOT history is fairly tidy too www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25746177...

The reporter for Auto Express actually mentioned this one too.

I still think on balance, and across all its bodystyles, the E36 is the best-looking 3-series. The E46 is nice but it's just an E36 with a few melted bits. E30 was great obviously, but also "busier" than the very chiselled E36 shape. And I'm an E90 fan but it's no E36.

Yeah. Though that's basically "welcome to batteries". Looking at the stats it's the same height as the Renault 5.

Someone mentioned CR-Z in a Discord group I'm in too. Not a bad thing, always liked the CR-Z, and I really dig this too.

Love this, the second shot in particular. Both designs look great to me, and the white paint strips them down to their basics.

First thing I thought of too...

Eagerly awaiting the end of Merc's "bar of soap" era.

Black is a really bad colour for a Seven as these things can hide in people's mirrors and behind A-pillars at the best of times, but this does look absolutely brilliant in this spec www.carandclassic.com/l/C2046845

Exploring the museum of Japan's weirdest car maker In the global automotive ocean, Mazda is a pretty small fish. It's also one of the bravest, as its spectacular history shows

If you didn't manage to pick up the issue of @evo-magazine.bsky.social with my feature on the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima, you can now read it online www.evo.co.uk/features/208...

Essential, yes.

Exactly this! Sort of feels anticlimactic.

Yeah exactly, if they press a button once the launch sequence has began it's more likely to stop it in an emergency than to start it.

I hope the Artemis button was at least slightly larger than the ones near it and bright red or something.

Like when you start a Spitfire or an old 1920s racing car you go through banks of switches for fuel pumps and ignition and eventually you hold a button down and a starter motor slowly whirrs things into life and the cacophony starts, which feels well-matched to the driving process.

Trying to think of ways of setting it off that have appropriate gravity. Enormous handle, like the lights in an old warehouse? Really long fuse that fizzes for ages like a Looney Tunes cartoon?

Artemis discussion on @smithandsniff.bsky.social and pressing a button to launch the rocket makes me realise there's no means of doing that process that equals the spectacle of the rocket actually going up. Ultimately someone probably pressed a button right?

Yup, it's always the car I end up coming back to. Whatever else I've driven over the years I still get the most enjoyment from MX-5s.

Oh, already remembered at least two I didn't put on this list: an NA 1.6 and an NA V-Spec I drove briefly to take photos of for the book in 2012-ish.

Understated the number of MX-5s I've driven. This is what I can piece together from photos/memory, and I'm probably forgetting a few here and there.

Total miles probably not that high - 25k in ones I've owned (12k in the NC alone) and maybe 10k in the long-termer, plus bits in all the rest.