Rally - Mull on BBC

Thoroughly enjoyed last night’s BBC Landward programme and especially the wee bits about the rally. I thought the production company did a terrific job of capturing some of the competition flavour and event atmosphere, especially for newcomers to the ‘race’ weekend.

In fact, they’ve done such a good job I wonder of they could possibly stitch together all the clips they took and make a decent half hour programme dedicated to the rally. For sure they took enough footage and enough interviews.

Some of the out-takes might be good too. For instance, one of the ‘local worthies’ who was interviewed had to do at least four re-takes due simply to the fact that a load of yee-haaas and ‘good friends’ were hurling abuse in the background, with one even hanging out the window of a passing van to hurl a few extra mild profanities. Fortunately, the production folk took the banter in good humour. In fact I think they rather enjoyed the hurly burly of the rally circus itself.

But for me, the star of the programme, as ever, was the island itself. Didn’t it look glorious in the autumn sunshine? I wonder how they managed to airbrush the rain and storms out of it!

The programme is on iPlayer for those who missed it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03k4wq9/Landward_2013_2014_Episode_23/

By all means, drop the BBC a line and ask for more:

https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/faqs/forms/?eid=&id=NV66UFDKGIMFP607Q87RBNLEB6&mid=&uid=442607097

Road - Picasso's Citroen?

This week’s car is the Citroen C4 Picasso, a big improvement on the original Picasso wean-bus. First impression? If I was a family man, I could be tempted, but there is one nagging doubt. Like so many other new cars these days, it has more electronics than the Christmas toy display at John Lewis. The dash display looks as though it has been lifted from an iPad – with a multi-confusion of Apps. In other words, I’ll need a 7 year old to work out all the Menus and Options. See what I mean? Ideal family car! 

Full report soon. Now where’s the Long Wave radio button option ...

Rally - Hanninen for WRC

Juho Hänninen has been confirmed this morning as the driver of the second Hyundai Motorsport i20 WRC car at February’s Rally Sweden in the 2014 WRC. Hyundai has yet to reveal who will join team leader Thierry Neuville in the second car at the opening round of the world series in Monte Carlo. 

The choice of the 32-year-old Finn comes as no real surprise since he has been involved with Hyundai Motorsport throughout 2013 and completed 3,500 kms of testing with the new car.

Hyundai has already stated that a number of different drivers will share the second i20 WRC throughout 2014, which is good news for aspiring and talented youngsters. There is a distinct lack of available seats these days at rallying’s top level so this move has to be welcomed.

Rally - New Clio R3T

Renault Sport Technologies unveiled its new turbo engined Clio Renaultsport R3T at the Rallye du Var in France last weekend. 

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/2013/11/26-nov-clio-renaultsport-r3t/

Road - Say it with flowers

Beaten by a bunch of flowers. The Ford B Max can be a delightful wee thing to drive at times, but it can also be infuriating.

http://www.jaggybunnet.co.uk/car-reviews/26-nov-ford-b-max/

Rally - Mull on TV

Now don’t get too excited, but next Friday evening, 29 November at 7.00 pm, the Tunnocks Mull Rally will feature on the BBC Landward programme. It’s not a rally report, so don’t let your hopes and expectations run away with you, it will only be a small part of BBC’s countryside magazine programme.

The Landward team were on the island covering a number of topics including a wildlife project at Glengorm, a floating pier used for timber extraction contracts and a couple of interviews with farmer Iain MacKay and wood carver Matthew Reade.

The programme will also feature a couple of wee reports on the event as the production team realised that the rally is now an integral part of island life. However, a word of caution, there are a couple of interviews with a ‘local worthy’ where it would be advisable to send the kids to their room and put your pets outside for a wee while. Anyway, it will provide the chance to see ourselves as others see us.