'Today I Saw British Car Culture In a Nutshell' A #blogpost by Gurminder Bains

Running. It’s actually quite good for you, and if your good enough you can make a decent living out of it. Some people run to get healthier, some run for fun and some run to clear their heads. I run for all those reasons and more, I run because it gives me a chance to listen to my music and it gives me a chance to spot some of the great cars on the British roads. Today whilst out running I witnessed a sample of British car culture and why it’s so diverse, it seemed like a sign to me to write about it because I just kept seeing these amazing cars that stood out from the crowd amongst the mundane and common German exec’s and Euro hatches.

Where I go running is amongst industrial estates, slight woodland, suburban areas and massive car garages. There are two roundabouts where all these areas meet and that is where I saw the abundance of cars that make up British car culture. First off coming to the first roundabout, was a white 2016 Nissan GT-R originally I thought it was one of two at the local Nissan dealership, I’d seen it once before but I thought it was just a one off that time. Following the GT-R was a dirty black Ford Focus RS which I presumed came from the massive Ford plant (The same plant where I did my work experience, that saw me work and test various Ford Performance models) directly after it was a silver and ever so happy first generation Mazda MX-5 with an exhaust system and a driver with a heavy right foot. At that moment I thought I’m seeing some great cars today, I wish I could take my phone out from my armband and get some pictures.

Now running towards the second roundabout, which is the slightly bigger one which links the Ford Plant, various car garages and a Michelin tyres factory I saw a sleek and menacing grey shape, my ‘car spotting radars’ immediately going off trying to guess what it was. Once I saw the big grille which the silver emblem on the front I knew it was a Mustang, laughing to myself at the Mustang’s EURO NCAP score but also awing in its beauty, thankfully it was a V8 and man alive did it sound godly, over my headphones that Mustang drowned out the seamless violin’s Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now. Once I had negotiated the crossings of the roundabout I was passing the biggest car dealership of the four Vauxhall, noticing that they had two MK2 Focus RS’s for sale, then moving on to Peugeot and noticing a RCZ, 308 and 208 GTI’s. Up next was Nissan who always have something good and I wasn’t disappointed, two 2016 Nissan GT-R’s one in black the other in white, and finally there was Renault with a Clio RS Cup.

I approached my turn around point, and proceeded to head back home only then to yet again have my thumping bass of Tchami X MALAA’s Prophecy track being drowned out. Only this time it was a different sort of noise, high pitched, almost screaming, but still like the Mustang bloody loud. I kept facing forward not looking behind to then be surprised by a modified, black EP3 Honda Civic Type R which sounded unbelievably good. I ran back past all four car garages and approached the roundabout crossings again, I looked over my shoulder to see a blood red Jaguar XKR-S, the owner stopped at the roundabout and then went when safe I heard that beautiful V8 pop as he changed up into second. Finally, as I ran back towards the first roundabout I had my music thwarted by a jackhammer V8 soundtrack one that could only belong to one brand of car. Mercedes. A black and very dirty 2013 Mercedes AMG C63 roared past with all 6.2L sounding amazing. I neared the crossings of the first roundabout and thought that was it surely there were no more cars that I could see today. But, I was proved incorrect by a FK2 Honda Civic Type R showing what that front diff is for as the owner chucked the car right and the left as he exited the roundabout.

The point of this post is a statement, a statement that proved me very wrong indeed. There is car culture in England you just have to go find it. What I saw out on the streets today proved to me that the term ‘British Car Culture is undefinable’ is codswallop because it’s a mix of every major car culture in the world. We had American muscle, Japanese imports, European elegance and of course the British favourite Hot Hatches. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next post.

Till Then…

Gurminder Bains (I <3 England)