Letter From Europe; '76 British Grand Prix, Masada, Monaco, Maranello ansd More Ferrari, Prius,

by Andrew Frankl
European Bureau Chief
The Auto Channel

This months assignment started as always with a quick trip on Virgin Atlantic’s new 787 Dreamliner to London and my new “home”- the Royal Automobile Club.

To make things even better, to commemorate the 1976 British  Grand Prix James Hunt’s winning car was displayed in the Club’s  rotunda. The fact that the car was several weeks later disqualified was neither here or there, on that day 80 thousand Brits came to see James Hunt’ take the chequered flag. And yes, I did start the riot which got James to the restart.

The icing on the cake was the dinner to remember James in the presence of Murray Walker, the BBC’s much loved TV commentator who is now 90 years old and going strong. His tales of James misbehaving are amazing, no driver could get away with that sort of thing today. As this is a family site I will skip the details.

This was followed by a quick trip to Hungary where I saw numerous Ferraris, the local dealer seems to be thriving.

On to Monaco courtesy of Wizzair, one of those new Southwest type airline sprouting up all over Europe. An hour and a half later I was at my Monaco home of some 33 years, the Meridien Beach Plaza. Same room, same great staff. Same awful food. Certain things never change.

It was good to see Lewis Hamilton win, it was well overdue.

From Monaco it was a quick, very quick trip in Maserati’s excellent Quattroporte to Maranello. This has to be one of the nicest long distance cruisers in the World.

The speedo was showing 130, I can only assume that it was in kilometers. As always, it was a great pity that we had to return it to Modena, Maserati’s  HQ where we are on first name terms with the man on gate having known him for well over 10 years. Digressing slightly I should mention that Maserati are the  No 1 luxury brand in Israel.

Ferrari are also present – I sat in the latest 488 spider in their immaculate Tel Aviv showroom but I think the numbers are pretty small. Still, there are no Lamborghinis, no Aston Martins or any other exotic cars so they have the field to themselves.

Returning to Maranello for a second, we had our traditional lunch at Montana and a quick drive in Ferrari’s latest California. As I am driving one at present in San Francisco it was familiar territory. Unfortunately it was raining so testing the special handling package was out of the question. When I got off the tarmac to take some pictures the Pirelli's and the wet gravel had a very unhappy relationship. Still, as always, I’ve managed to get the car back in one piece. There is now a huge local industry in letting people drive Ferraris for anything from 10 minutes to an hour. And not any old Ferraris-if there is such a thing but 458s, FFs, some pretty quick machinery. 10 minutes is enough for a quick photo op to make the neighbors envious in Oklahoma, for a few hundred euros a real trip into the hills gives these eager punters a taste of the real thing.

On Israel's roads there is an amazing mixture of cars from all or the world. Kia Optima, Prius, Mazda, Renault –something you don’t see in the US any more-plus of course Mercedes taxis for the grand hotels. All cars large and small are air conditioned, it would have been difficult to make the trip to Masada in anything else as the temperature was around 120 degrees but as it was bone dry it didn’t particularly effect me. Masada is an amazing place from the historical point of view and is one of Israel’s foremost tourist attractions. 5 million people visit the Jewish State every year, many of them from faraway places such as China and Japan.

Before I left for Europe I had a chance to spend some time in Kia’s excellent Sorento.  My best friend just bought his second . Loves it. Not really surprising. Although the price is now up to 46 thousand dollars the list of standard features is astonishing. 

Since my return I have  been driving the latest Toyota Prius. These days most people just say Prius, this name is now a generic term. The so-called car buff magazines didn’t think much of it when it first came out, now after sales in excess of 6 million they are changing their minds. My wife is on her third one and has tested the latest one.

There is no doubt that dynamically the difference is chalk and cheese but her current one is doing just fine. The test car did not have electric seats and I personally hate those clumsy levers you have to use instead. This of course is the base model at 25 thousand dollars, there are other, better equipped ones at around 30 thou. I found it fascinating that the mpg gauge never moved below 50 miles per gallon, a truly remarkable achievement-especially with the cheapest gas. 

Our third Prius is only a year old but there is no question in the family’s mind that Prius No 4 cannot be too far away. The fuel consumption is a genuine 55 miles per gallon and the car is more robust than ever.  And still on the subject of Toyota I went to a pre-race press conference in San Francisco where their man Hamlin was talking about the trials and tribulations of racing at Sonoma.

For those who don’t know the track let me explain. Unlike most Nascar tracks this one has lots of twists and turns so the skills required on ovals are not the same as on what I would call a proper race track. Hamlin did predict that it would be a bit like dodgem with lots of cars bumping into each other. He should have been soothsayer-he was nudged out of the lead on the very last corner of the last lap! That’s motor racing. And that's this months letter from Europe (and Israel), see you next month.;.