As a: user I want to: not

I'd somehow been able to avoid auto-dubbing on Youtube videos until now but it's just popped up randomly in a Best Motoring video and Youtube won't let me turn it off. Click on "Japanese original" for the audio track and it instantly resets to auto-dubbing.

Still need to edit most of them, but a quick snap of today's photography subject, courtesy of @boosplodge.bsky.social junior. 205s are great, aren't they?

Not quite a supertourer, but this Vectra Challenge car does a pretty good visual impression, and at £12k it's probably about a tenth the price (or less) of a genuine supertourer now www.facebook.com/marketplace/...

One grotty car park negotiated at about 3mph and it looks like I've just done the RAC frigging rally.

Shout out to the guy in the AA van who was the only person who actually gave way at one of those "priority to oncoming traffic" areas in a village. I appreciated him raising his hands in sympathy as the six cars in front of him all barged through rather than waiting for me...

Wonder where £16k's worth of Bentley Arnage T ranks in the pantheon of risky barge buys, alongside Conti GT, Quattroporte, E60 M5 etc. Looks magnificent www.carandclassic.com/l/C1972720

Really can't remember my first cars from every country, but last is probably a bit easier: US: Mustang Dark Horse Japan: MX-5 NC (mine) Germany: Audi S2 Italy: Ferrari 12Cilindri UK: Aston Martin DB7 Sweden: Volvo 850 R France: Alpine A110R Ultime China: 🤷‍♂️ Korea: Hyundai i20 (I think)

Calming the mind by watching a dude in Vietnam casually cutting engines to bits and making new ones from the pieces www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-5I...

£60k asking price has conveniently removed any temptation I might have had for this DC2 R in indisputably the best colour combo for one of these torque-gt.co.uk/pages/showro...

Also for clarity I'm not seeing whether "the coast is clear" here, if Steph was on Bluesky I'd address this directly. And I'm not taking pot-shots, this is more a case of timing because I'm starting to see the "hurr hurr journos don't know what they're on about" stuff a lot these days.

I don't think Steph's on here right? I like what she does but not a great title on this vid. The answer's neither: the Estelle/Rapid etc never actually got particularly poor reviews, but the reviews it did get were, like the majority from professional reviewers, fair and accurate to the vehicle.

We have to go back

After the cars in anime convo the other day: some cars in visual novels. Integra in Narcissu, Suzuki Carry in Robotics Notes, Fiat 500 in Anonymous Code, and a Legacy in Steins Gate 0.

Not sure if I'll ever get around to a Fiat Coupe, but I'll never tire of the shape www.carandclassic.com/car/C1956166

When you zone out and start setting multiple laps within a hundredth or so of each other without really putting the effort in... (Fair way off my fastest, but again, zoned-out)

Yup. When I was in Japan I got several messages seemingly relating to one of my bookings. I ignored them as I was certain I'd already paid, and on the app my booking was still showing as being valid even after the messages suggested it would be cancelled without payment by a particular date.

2. rear seat speedometer

Also one for @stvcr.bsky.social regarding a mix of composure and ride quality in a relatively compact package: most Citroen family cars between the 60s and 00s. But specifically, probably Xantia Activa. 4.4m long so not huge by modern standards.

Re: "Looks like a Jaguar" in the latest OTOSOT, @sniffpetrol.com. Firstly, that song was 25yrs old just a week or so ago so that might have been why people were sharing it on social media (I think I did myself...)

#FOTU fans: anyone in vaguely the east midlands with a FOTU-suitable car able to spare a couple of hours at some point in the next couple of weeks (and don't mind potentially bringing it out while the weather's a bit crap)?

This and the "Lantis" 323F that followed are still among the best-looking C-segment family cars ever. Real stand-outs among some pretty tedious-looking competition at the time.

The ever-present danger of writing about something you know you like. Started looking at FN2 Civic Type Rs again. Honda nerds like to bore on about the rear axle, but these drive better than EP3s out of the box. Better driving position too www.ebay.co.uk/itm/37678850...

Well this sure is a thing www.facebook.com/marketplace/...

Love how this Kodak Charmera shot looks like a screenshot from Return of the Obra Dinn.

A Mazdaspeed-kitted NC to tempt @roadsidetypist.bsky.social with. Looks fab. Only two probs: MOT website doesn't recognise the plate (other websites call it up just fine) so can't see if it's rusty, and that front right wheel is different from the others (!) www.ebay.co.uk/itm/31765783...

Ten grand per cylinder. But love how these Super Sprints look www.carandclassic.com/car/C1907129

Tangentially related, but 80s/90s Renault/Alpine have some of my favourite OEM steering wheel designs. Slim rims, no-nonsense metal spokes, but didn't look like aftermarket wheels thrown in there with no thought to the design of the cabin.

You'll never guess who lives in one of the regions given one of the lowest ratings in the entire country for pothole repair. (Me. The answer's me. *I* live in one of the "red" regions.)

File under the ever-growing subgenre of my work which I’m calling ‘Inanimate Object Has A Massive Go At A Person For No Reason’

Obviously I get served a lot of MX-5 vids on Youtube, but among them there's a bit of an overabundance of "I took my MX-5 on a road trip" and "I daily drive an MX-5" vids. Folks, it's an MX-5, not some brass-era thing. It's about as hard to live with as a Golf.

Companies are so *needy* now. Listen, I'm giving you money for a good or service. That is the transaction we've agreed to. If I'm not happy, I promise you'll hear about it. I don't need to be constantly reminded that you exist; indeed, I guarantee that will make things worse.

The lorry driver kicking it to move made me laugh.

Slightly diminish a game: Life is Normal

One of the wildest Individual specs you'll probably ever see on this E36 316i Compact. Fiji Green, with a Fiji Green and yellow interior www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/bm...

Watching Masters of the Universe. Skeletor saying "I must possess all, or I possess nothing" seems a little on-the-nose through the lens of 2026.

Somehow there are *three* M2-1001 Roadsters on Carsensor at the moment (plus two M2-1028s). None are cheap (this one's just over £24k), but they're easily among the coolest "factory" MX-5s www.carsensor.net/usedcar/deta...

Not unrelated to Victoria's piece, I've read a few things and listened to a few podcasts recently about the new Jag. Now I'm kinda looking forward to that car, mainly for the styling and what people say about the ride, but less so for it having a thousand horsepower for no good reason.

Nearly spat out my drink.

Not quite in a position to do any racing right now, but ten grand for what seems like a very nicely-prepped MX-5 Cup car doesn't seem too bad racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Detai...

Only a short video, but this is one of my favourite Hot Version battles. A car from one of the top Roadster tuners (RS Aizawa), versus an EG6 from one of the top Honda tuners (Seeker), plus Tsuchiya's AE86. Shot in 2004, but could've been shot in the early 90s www.youtube.com/watch?v=08IL...

I know by most accounts the old sporty Escorts weren't much to drive, but they did look jolly good www.carandclassic.com/auctions/198...

Helped out with this @auto-express.bsky.social 1990s shoot towards the end of last year. Lot of cars I'd not experienced before - Cossie, 850R, DB7, E34 M5, S2 www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-group-te...

Feel like I've seen a lot of W124s around this winter, and that maybe the universe is trying to tell me something www.carandclassic.com/car/C1824151

Twenty-five years old today www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMb...

Trying Lightroom. Or rather, I would be if you didn't have to log in online to everything these days, through a portal that just sits there spinning endlessly. I just want to open a fucking programme and use it, stop trying to make everything part of your shitty ecosystem.

If in doubt, Rallye everything

There are a lot of groups of people that nobody should take seriously, but the people who turn up every year to promote their idea of a flying car are very near the top of the list. In fact, I'd go as far as saying they should be actively laughed at and shamed into dropping their damn idiotic ideas.

Sometimes all you can do is make the world 0.0000000000001% less awful by being a good person and it feels very meaningless but it’s also the only thing that really matters