Next Year and Ford Focus ST

I am presently sitting at home and looking out of the window I see that we have approx. 5'' of snow-bloody horrid stuff. Snow always makes me laugh as it does seem to affect the speed of drivers on the UK roads, some people get so worried. Anyrate enough moaning!

I have been thinking about next years motoring plans and what events to have a go at in 2011. At present the following come to mind:
March: Oxford MC Bocardo Autosolo @ Silverstone (Spitfire)
April: Club Triumph HCR (2.5) and CSMA Autosolo (Spitfire)
June: International Auto Ecosse (GT6)
July: CT Historic Autosolo (GT6) and Warwick MC Autosolo (Spitfire)
August: 7oaks & DMC Autosolo @ North Weald (Spitfire)
September: Club Triumph 10 Countries Run (2.5)
October: Oxford MC Autumn Autosolo @ Silverstone (Spitfire)
Plus I also hope to have a go at the two MGoT Track Days that CT will be invited to participate in.

Regular readers of this Blog will know that my company car is a Ford Focus ST, a car that I can honestly say is possibly the best everyday vehicle I have ever used. The car is a 5 door model and has no extras at all, no tracction control nothing is a blast to drive. The car has now done 100,000 miles and apart from a one new driveshaft replaced under warranty has been extremely reliable. I am not sure how much longer I will have her as she was due to be replaced last March, luckily for me my employers have stopped leasing new cars and told me to stick with the Focus for another year until March 2011. I have been reading in the motoring press about the new ST that is due at the end of next year and I do hope that I can manage to get one of those. The only issue being that the new one will dispense with the characterful Volvo 5 pot lump and be fitted with a 4 pot Ford engine. This will mean no more 'Quatrroesque' 5 pot induction roar at engine speeds over 3,000rpm-not sure if I will be able to take that! All my work colleagues take the mikey out of the ST, but where else can you get 230BHP for such little money, it makes cars like Audi A3s, Golf GTis and the like seem over priced. I'd love a Focus RS, but these are outside my budget and only have 3 doors which is not acceptable to my employers.

So next year will be hopefully an interesting time, with lots of change in my motoring life.

The next use of my cars will be when I attend the informal New Year luch that CT member Nick Jackson puts together down near Amesbury in Wiltshire. This is always a nice little meeting and I hope that Nick's efforts are rewarded by a good number of people pitching up.