automotive

RIP Max Power 1994-2010

The rumour-mill is grinding away and word on the street is that Bauer magazine Max Power is no more, closing it’s (lambo) doors for good.

It’s not much of a surprise to those into the modified car scene but it’s a shame nonetheless.  Over the years the title has been out of favour with it’s target audience after shifting focus onto scantily-clad women rather than modified cars but even an editorial change in 2007 wasn’t enough to save it.  Under Emap, Max Power was at one time the most popular magazine for car enthusiasts and hosted a number of live events.

As the Peterborough-based title employs a number of people locally hopefully they’re being moved to other titles but the outlook is bleak.

Do you work for Bauer?  Can you offer any more insight into rumoured closure of Max Power?  Leave a comment below

Renting a car in America in 2010

When it comes to driving in America, choosing the right car is half of the fun.  When you’ve got endless miles sat with the cruise control jammed into “on” you need to make sure you’re in a happy place so choosing the right car is essential.
Even with the price of fuel being so much cheaper in the US, I’ll be ignoring the thirsty supercars in favour of something slightly sensible.

So looking ahead to what the car industry has to offer in 2010 I’ve found there’s quite a few models that tick the right boxes.

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Paston Parkway Footbridge

This story begins on the A1139 where the Paston Parkway meets the Frank Perkins Parkway. The roundabout serves virtually all of the traffic from the A47 that is heading to the South of Peterborough or beyond to the Southbound A1 or A605 / A14.  Being fairly wide and as visibility is usually quite good, traffic can be at a rapid pace if you’re caught unawares and are a bit slow on the old gear change. Generally speaking, it worked and I don’t think there were any more accidents there than were to be expected.

This was fine for years until some bright spark decided it would be a great idea to slap a petrol station on this notoriously busy roundabout, adding an extra entrance/exit between two of the busiest approaches.  Not only that, the petrol station became some kind of bastardised Somerfield with a KFC restaurant nestled in behind.  It’s probably worth mentioning that the backdrop for this setting is a glorious landfill site which has a fine whiff to it if the air is in the right direction.  Mmm fried chicken.

Before you read on, this story is covered much more accurately at the Paston Parkway J8 (Eye roundabout) website so you may find it beneficial to visit that site once you’ve finished digesting my spiel…

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Edoya renamed to Misaki

I’ve been meaning to make a quick blog post about this for a while now, but it slipped my mind.

For whatever reason, Edoya (Peterborough’s damn fine Japanese sushi and noodle bar) has been renamed to “Misaki”.  The staff are the same, the menu’s the same (i.e. bloody fantastic) and well, it’s the same.  Just a different name.

So if you’re struggling to find Edoya, or wonder if Misaki is the same place, then now you know!

Light up your life

One of the downfalls of being a freelancer is that you’re often just working solo, probably from the spare room / study and don’t have much call to leave the house, especially when the weather’s as miserable as it has been recently.  Add to that the clocks going back the other weekend and now it’s dark outside even earlier.

So with that in mind, I’ve been thinking lighting and more specifically lamps and even more specifically, desk lamps (I do work from a desk, so it makes sense!).

What I hadn’t expected was the vast array of lamp designs and styles – upright necked, jointed, goosenecked or even keyboard lights.  Once you’ve sorted that, then you need to consider the type of bulb!  Thankfully what could be a potential nightmare is made so much easier with websites like ShopWiki.com that crawl the internet looking for the best shopping deals.

I found several fantastic looking desk lamps, but they were all from shoppers in the US… the hunt continues!

Don’t forget your Christmas Cards!

This year I’m being all proactive and have already purchased my boxes of Christmas cards (or “holiday” cards for those of you in America) to hand write and send out to clients and the accountant. I’ve probably not sent personal Christmas cards out since I was in primary school and even back then it was just a competition to see who could get the most cards from the cute girls, so going to the effort of writing cards again after so long was a bit of a shock. Making sure the handwriting was all neat and tidy felt like I was about to be judged!
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New Fiat 500 – THE car of 2008?

I don’t really remember the Fiat 500 the first time around.  I mean, I recognise the now all too familiar headlamps and iconic front grille, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one on the road.

That can’t be said for the New Fiat 500 though (Fiat Nuova 500 for those in the know) as it’s fast becoming THE car to be seen in.  You can keep your sports cars and your tank-like 4x4s, if it’s attention you want then the smart money is going on the quirky little Fiat 500 with it’s gorgeous interior.

One thing the Mini had going for it right from the off was the customisation that owners could do to make their car stand out from the rest (and there was a lot of “rest” about).  The Fiat 500 needs the same if it’s going to have the same impact and thankfully it’s already on it’s way.  The interior and exterior colour options, the bodywork graphics and of course the aftermarket modifications like a Remus exhaust, will all do their bit to make the car every bit as desirable as it should be.

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The week that was

The first week of July’s been a little hectic and has seen the launch of the new Remus UK website for performance exhausts, the purchase of a new car (dapper Focus Zetec in a grey colour – probably called Sunset Blue or something by Ford’s fartarse design department) and the discovery of a new (well new to me) Indian takeaway in Peterborough.

Oh yes, curry is that important to me I feel I need to put it in writing! The establishment in question is the Donner & Balti Express, but don’t be put off by it’s dubious name, this is in fact an award winning curry house! Chef Mohammed Abdul Hakim has been awarded Peterborough Curry Chef of the year for three years in a row.

I’ve also discovered this week that Moo have finally added business cards to their already fantastic range of moo minicards, stickers, greetings cards and postcards.  Arriving in a pretty-much-standard 84x55mm, you get to choose from a couple of paper options and can upload images and designs to make the cards stand out. What makes Moo even more appealing is that you can have a number of different designs printed in the same batch, giving you an assortment of different cards!

If you’ve had your head in the sand for the past few years then you won’t have seen Moo cards before, almost like cigarette cards of old, these are often used by aspiring designer types as a cheap by eye catching business card alternative.  But now they’re an alternative no longer.

Who knows what delights next week will bring!!

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