The weekly Car debate: Malta Car Culture, The Grand Tour and Your 2018

After a Year or so the weekly car debate is back. Feel free to disagree with any opinions i or other present but be nice!

Malta Car Culture
i was very fortunate to be able to visit Malta as a relative invited me along. Car culture there was totally different to anything i had seen before. The modern cars were drab and boring, more often than not cheap but uber-reliable hatchbacks such as the Toyota Yaris. Taxi services had some of the best cars strangely. I took a ride in a Renault Fluence, car which i had no idea existed, and at the that it was the best fun i had. I thought the fluence was turbo charged but a quick google later i found out it was an electrically assisted hybrid. It was pretty quick around the rough, narrow and twisty roads and generally pretty fun the driver wasn’t being very safe though occasionally going up 80 in 50 zones and 100 in 70 zones- in all fairness to him it was around 2am in the morning and the roads were dead empty. Still pretty irresponsible. It was the old cars that surprised me though- these guys know their heritage values and i was lucky enough to see alot of old Porshce’s 70’s and 80’s 911’s, Targas and Coupes galore. And i was lucky to see one 993 911 which was just special- unfortunately i couldnt get much of these on camera as they usually just flew by the narrow streets unexpectedly. On top of this there were some old Alfas and Fiats that looked nice but i dont really know much about old school Alfas and Fiats besides the 124, so didnt know if they were cult classics (still great to see them nevertheless). Like most places, however, there were some ricers and i was sad to see a fully ruined Smart Roadster (which i did manage to get on camera- will be published in another post as i cant find it on my phone right now). The trip was great and seeing the classic cars was a very special experience strangely i saw no modern performance car only retro ones which could suggest that Malta is shifting away from performance oriented cars in favor of affordable vehicles. That left a bitter taste to a brilliant trip.

The Grand Tour
Not much to say on this but the Grand Tour returns around mid January. The trailer can be seen below:

The Grand Tour Christmas special is also out and was made available for all fans to view for free on Youtube

(Spoiler alert; James May reads a book)

Your 2018
2018 was a Roadtrip. A massive journey twisty roads, bumps and insurmountable hills. But here we are. We all made it through and we all learnt from it.

I want to know what 2018 gave you? Car related or Un-car related. What did you learn? What would you do differently and how will you spend 2019, and finally i want you to summarize the year in a car. For example if you had an amazing year but there were times where you wished things would be different you can consider your 2018 a Mazda Rx-8. A car full of fun but has the occasional blip. be creative!

For me 2018 was self-discovery. Most of the year wasnt exactly the best for me- the second half of 2017 wasnt very great for me in terms of studying and it tailed off into the start of 2018. The Summer onwards though the year picked up and with 2018 ending i feel like i have been left at a good place. because this year was about redemption, re-birth and improvement i feel the best car to describe it with would be an 05 Mustang GT- a car which came after a string of poor mustangs and right before what would have been considered the end of muscle cars had it not arrived. Its a car that symbolizes resurgence and hope which perfectly describes what 2018 meant for me.