Driven: The New BMW M5 and it's Fiercest Rival
posted on 2022-02-22

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to find myself inside the snug, opulent cabin of the latest BMW M5. Key in hand, the Brecon Beacons on which to play for the entire day, it was going to be a good one. And it was - with just under 600bhp being fired at all four wheels, I have never driven a car like it. Stamp on the throttle and the M5 hunkers down, claws into the tarmac and pulls the scenery past your eyes at a truly alarming rate.

Arrive at a corner and, even in typically soggy Welsh conditions, the M5 carries huge speed and with an accuracy that betrays it's near two-tonne mass. Technically, it was every bit as good as you'd hope. Why then, after a day of hard driving, was I itching to climb out of one of the most competent new cars on sale, and into something very slow, slightly tatty and 52-years-old?

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ALFA ROMEO GIULIA
posted on 2020-08-02

Is there a more inappropriate car for a 20-year-old than a non-running, left-hand-drive Alfa Romeo Giulia Super from the 1970s? Having bought, rebuilt and owned mine for the last three years, I'm well equipped to answer just that.

Modern cars are all very well, but for unadulterated driving thrills it is older machinery that hits the spot. I was looking to scratch such an itch in 2017, and came across the 105-series Alfa Giulia Super - a peculiar, three box saloon with sports car underpinnings. Perfect. Less perfect, however, were the rotten bodies of the majority of UK-bound cars, so a cheap flight to sunny Italy ensued to begin my search.

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