Classy travellers

Teeth. Teeth.

Chunk. Chunk.



Decision time, brown

Lando has more than double the grand prix experience of Oscar but fewer wins. I like Lando. I saw him race at Brands Hatch in the Ginetta Juniors a few years back. He’s a quick boy and it doesn’t hurt that he has boy band looks and good marketing people making the most of that. He needs to spend some of that cash getting his head together.

Until Lando sorts out the mental stuff there’s no chance they’ll be engraving his name on the fancy pot at the end of the year. Mac need to throw their full support behind Oscar and kill off the prospect of a Red Bull resurgence.



Racing worth watching

If you’re looking to be entertained by cars driven fast, here’s what I enjoy.

In the UK

International

  • IMSA, particularly the MX-5 cup. John and Shea might be the best commentary duo in motorsport.
  • Nitrocross formerly Nitro Rallycross. I think this series folded but it’s well worth a watch, especially the 2021 season. Coley and Jared are also great commentators.
  • Hillclimb Monsters is not a series per se but all the craziest hillclimb builds you could want
  • K4 Movies film all the craziest off road events in Europe, from ATVs to 8x8 trucks.
  • Formula Offroad Iceland, also broadcast by Jakob Cecil, is just nuts and commentator Kristian is fantastic.

Let me know what I have missed, via hello@nicoboyce.com



Horner had it coming

Ecclestone said (I’m paraphrasing) people will put up with you being difficult so long as you’re winning, but the moment that ends then the knives are out.

No one wants to bump into someone they know from work when they are on holiday but it looks like Toto and Max picked the same spot off of Sardinia to anchor their yachts. Awkward!

With Max at Merc and Horner potentially a free agent eventually (though likely he has to buy out his RBR contract to 2030) we’re faced with the delicious prospect of Horner and Hamilton in red versus Max and Toto in grey. Given how these guys obsess over each other, my money would be on Piastri being a double world champ come the end of ‘26.

I’ve written further nonsense here



Car photo dump, no logic

Plato Petrol with Plato

Lambo Limited edition Lambo

Tidworth on the tank course

f4 F4 rivals

Mac Michael Andretti McLaren

Marlborough Marlborough

Thruxton test day Thruxton test day

purple NA purple NA

Alfa Breakfast club Alfa

NB drifter NB drifter

tyres tyres

fezza fezza

alpine alpine

big mac big mac

scoob scoob

japanuary japanuary

fiat fiat

grubby nissan grubby nissan

concours concours

triumph triumph

mog mog

brute brute

pop pop

route 66 route 66

cortina cortina

rosie rosie

evo evo

rocket rocket

deployment deployment

jdm jdm

pop pop

yellow fire yellow fire

tent tent

launch launch

Tingram Tingram

it's on it’s on

turbo turbo

torslander torslander

after you after you

action action

yuk yuk

he ain't heavy he ain’t heavy

rivals rivals

watcher watcher

battle mr2 battle mr2

relics relics

venom venom

beem beem

5 5

robo robo

spitfire spitfire

safari safari

rx150 rx150

lap lap

tour tour

doom doom

vetted vetted

wagon wagon

scimitar scimitar

patina patina

angles angles

rx monster rx monster

minis minis

mean lean mean lean

stanley stanley

rarity rarity

badge badge

champ champ

cheek cheek

star time star time

session session

doran doran

transporter transporter

vip vip

victory victory

pressure pressure

chicanery chicanery

saxo saxo

warp warp

apex apex

peeking peeking



Prescott, BHC round 1

green green

gold gold

blue blue

orange orange

red red

chrome chrome

black black

Top day out.



On the street

Lancia Lancia.

Fisheye and I Fisheye and I.

Miata NA Miata NA.

Chevy Chevy.

Volvo Volvo.

Lambo Lambo.

Fords Fords.

Chevy at Brands Chevy at Brands.

Granada Granada.

Jeep. Jeep.

Scoobs Scoobs.



The F1 thing was embarrassing

Guys the superbowl was a week ago and people were buzzing. F1 gathered all the teams to the millenium dome to unveil show cars with maybe a couple new minor sponsors.

If this is what F1 is (and it is but it’s not nice to admit that) then honestly I’m going to start trying even harder to kick the habit. I could live with the greediness if it was at least entertaining.



Dakar 25 showed the big dogs their weaknesses

In case you missed it, M-Sport turned up at Dakar with a new Ford and some not-so-quiet confidence and established big names Ekstrom and Sainz. Prodrive were positively bragging about the tech in their Dacia and brought Loeb and Al-Attiyah, the statistally greatest ever rally driver and rally-raid driver, along with Gutierrez who is up and coming and basically there in a support role with a mechanic in her co-driver’s seat.

Meanwhile, with no fanfare at all, Toyota machinery dominated the event and the eventual winner was in a privateer Hilux entry. Toyota have developed that car year after year and Team Overdrive driver Al-Rajhi is a Saudi local who navigates the Empty Quarter for fun.

Check out the Dakar channel on youtube and see how it was won.



Bike rebuild

Grabbed a bargain jump bike and it needed some customisation. Popped on a super narrow and sharp looking Cinelli handlebar, a comfy GT saddle, some sick ODI x Vans grips and DMR pedals. I need to take some proper pics.

Purples. Purples.

DJ. DJ bike.



Fast track

Forget team Max or team Lando. My driver of 2024 has to be Connor Zilisch. Youtube is over there if you need to catch up with this guy.



Jag marketers are the cat's whiskers

All they needed to do is make one clumsy and dated video dragging them in to the 21st century and they have suddenly ceased to be the brand of golfists and top gear culture warriors. Okay so John Prescott showed you can spend your life standing up for workers and still enjoy a comfortable commute. But now they have set fire to all that in search of something interesting.

Eddie Irvine told Clive James that Jaguar was the one brand that could find that sexiness of the likes of Ferrari. Maybe at last they have got it right. Regardless, people are talking about Jag in a way that no one has since the second E Type was driven overnight from Birmingham to Geneva. I’m backing it.



Pimped my bmx

Bmx. Bmx.

Tyres. Tyre.

Chain. Chain.

Park. Park.



Macau F3 GP

Macau is crazy but not such a great circuit to actually race, they should reinvent it as a time trial. Nevertheless that was a mighty performance from Ugo, who nailed every restart to confirm what plenty of us have been saying for a while. This kid is the real deal. We were there at Brands Hatch when he won his first car race and now the sky is the limit. Full feature race on the youtube but be prepared to fast forward…



Mac and cheese

I’ve been a McLaren fan since Coulthard joined the Woking squad and as such I have always considered Ferraris to be tacky and poorly assembled and the Scuderia to be a bunch of cry babies leaning on their history to try and get preferential treatment. Ferrari are the Manchester United of F1, the idiot’s choice, the team who are more likely to license their logo for keyrings and pencil sharpeners than string a series of good performances together.

But I’ve been looking over the more affordable end of the silly cars on Autotrader lately and there’s no way I would spend money on a Mac when you put them up against the equivalent Ferrari (or even Aston or Lambo to be honest) even if I could make sense of their model lineup.

I don’t know what’s a 575 or a 620 or an Artura (why does that one get a name?) and honestly I don’t care. They have all the personality (from an onlooker’s perspective) of a household appliance and I would rather walk.



Lydden Hill snaps

Pack. Pack scrap.

Doran. Doran.

Bennett. Bennett.

Crosscar. Crosscar.

Ford. Ford.

Launch. Launch.

Roof. Roof.

The fireworks were way better than most displays where they are the main event. Of course at Lydden it’s all about the horsepower. Top class RX cars will beat an F1 car off the line up to about 100mph. They can race on any surface and take jumps you wouldn’t believe possible. The UK is the birthplace of rallycross and it’s a great format for families and people new to motorsport. Get to Lydden Hill when you can. Also make sure you get some of that mayo from the paddock cafe when you’re there. Watch the final on the youtube



E30 M25 - birthday present

Got myself a birthday present.

Trailer. Hired a trailer.

Fleet. At Fleet, paying our respects to Scott Mills.

Home. BMW at home.

Victor drives. Victor gets comfortable.

Plenty of work needed to get it all ready for action but isn’t it a great piece of kit?



Prescott hillclimb - classic day out

We went to Prescott (which is the Bugatti Owners Club place in Gloucestershire) for the British Hillclimb Championship which is all on the youtube if you want to see it in a video format here

We looked like this

Us. This is us.

Here are some of the cars:

Abarth.

Bugatti.

The hill.

Prescott.

Prescott again.

Cigar.

Frogeye.

Glow.

Hill.

Legend.

Mitsubishi.

Paddock.

Porsche.

Radical.

Rapid.

Semi-circle.

Seven.

Subarus.

Traction.

Can you spot which were taken with the Nikon D3300 and which were taken with the Fujifilm X-H2?

It was one of the best motorsport events I’ve been to, a really great day out. Looking forward to next year.



Naples car culture

Naples had a weird car thing going on. I loved seeing the Lancia and Dacia stuff that never made it to the UK and the splutter of air cooled Fiats is pleasing to me.

Fiat. In Naples you leave your door open and your handbrake off. If someone is determined to enter or move your car, just let them.

I’ve got to get me something like this.

Cars.

Cars.

Cars.

More cars.



Applying logic and maths in Monte Carlo. When to pit at the Monaco Grand Prix?

Formula One is a sport made almost entirely of maths, but the commentators rarely use the full toolkit of logic while talking viewers through the races. Maybe they think it won’t be exciting to examine the competition in this way? Regardless, let’s throw some logic at today’s grand prix and see what bounces back.

Max Verstappen's Red Bull car Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car, photo from my own archive.

If you haven’t seen the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix but you’re planning to catch up, do that and then come back to this article.

Read more!

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