Hello all – I have a new love, the Fiat Panda. I’ve just come back from a week in sunny Tuscany with Kate, we’ve been all over it in that time, and it was great fun, especially as our chariot (I’m using the lingo you see, although I may be a few thousand years out of date) was the bargain bucket Fiat Panda. Ok, so it wasn’t the base spec one, as it had air conditioning and the optional stained rear seat (I think that option is only available to hire companies) but it’s 1.2 litre engine did hussle it along nicely on the autostrada, it was competent and actually simple fun going up and down hills in Chianti (got to love those switchbacks and hairpins) in it. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone and everyone. Is it wrong that I now hanker after the newly launched 4×4 diesel model recently seen on Top Gear?

Well the Club100 race was a bit of a disappointment today. After not drinking at the work Summer Ball last night (although various things about that make me feel sick for other reasons) I was well repaired for the race at the circuit I’ve got the most experience on.

The rest of the team had done the morning test day so surely we were in the for win this time? Unfortunately not. This time the god of the kart maulfunction had decided to take a sharp look in our direction. While our speed was there, the combined efforts of a pusher kart crashing and blocking the pits when John was coming in, the wheel bearing breaking when I was going round and finally the throttle cable snapping for John. As if you needed evidence of how well we were going, the kart we had at the end after the throttle cable snapped was a lot quicker than the one we’d started off with. Who knows where we would have been if we’d had that kart.