Social spotlight 📱

Sharing more Speirling content this week. Some cars claim to create so much downforce when driving quickly that they could theoretically drive upside down in a tunnel, amazingly, due to its fans, the Speirling creates that much downforce standing still and can drive upside down at a crawling pace. What a party trick!

Car of the week 💰

Is there a more marmite car than this customised ‘00 Plymouth Prowler? Powered by a 3.5 litre V6 engine producing 253 horsepower, paired to a rear-mounted four-speed automatic transmission. The Prowler’s aggressive hot-rod-inspired look, complete with flared fenders and a low-slung stance makes it…stand out. Limited production and unique styling have since made it a collector’s item (apparently), representing one of Plymouth’s last daring designs before the brand was discontinued in 2001.

Small screen scene 📺

Jonny Smith gets a tour of Dario Franchitti’s car collection. I’d not heard of Dario, but he’s an Indy 500 winner and is currently a development driver for Gordon Murray Automotive. What a life. The collection isn’t enormous, but it’s like a greatest hits of the last 30 years. What a dream.

Hot off the press 📰

One of our favourite news stories of late. This is ‘Project Safari’ from Get Lost. You heard that right, their founder George Williams says “If you get it, you get us. If not? Get Lost.” I get it. I spoke to a Porsche 911 Dakar owner who said it’s the perfect sports car for London, because it can handle the potholes and speedbumps without issue - as an Exige owner I can relate to those daily challenges and I actually love the idea of an Exige Safari. My favourite part? That floating roof scoop.

Seen in the wild 👀

I spotted this Mini Park Lane near a KFC in Preston. It’s sat on upgraded minilite wheels, and it looks to have had replacement seats at some stage. I can deduce those facts from this original brochure for the Mini Park Lane, 1 of a series of Minis based on ‘posh’ areas in London. It only came with 40bhp, so took a monumental 17.9 seconds to get to 60 and only managed a maximum of 80mph.