12 cars of Christmas

06 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas continues with the jaw dropping (in the 1950s) Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.   Could you pick better.
Our previous nomination in 12 cars of Christmas

Mercedes 300SL Gullwing

Another car that’s, ‘a little before my time’.  And I’ve only been in the passenger seat in the Mercedes #300SL, but in the 1950’s this was the stand out car. (If you could get out of it) 

Super cool doors, a folding steering wheel so you could climb in and Stirling Moss credibility with the #300SLR variant.

Even if its performance would be easily overhauled during the next 10 years. Driving one today would still be a memorable trip.

** You may be wondering where all the modern cars are **

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

12 cars of Christmas

05 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas continues with the nerve wracking Lancia Stratos. Could you pick better.

Lancia Stratos.

OK, disclosure time.  I’m slightly biased towards the Stratos, my dad was one of the Lancia mechanics who worked in it during those wet and winter forest stages in the 1970’s.

The road car had stunning presence, a Ferrari engine with a great sound track and the requirement for super human driving skill to avoid spinning off into the nearest tree. Now that is cool.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

12 cars of Christmas

04 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Our festive 12 cars of Christmas continues with a 1933 Bentley. Each car was unique.   Could you pick better.
Our previous nomination in 12 cars of Christmas

1933 Bentley. 3 1/2

A bit our of left field this one. You need to find the right model.  I suggest you start with the coach built 1933 3 1/2 litre, two door coupe. Designed as a super grand tourer, with the strap line – “the silent sports car”, the car to waft the owner to the South of France at over a 90mph. (With an advertised 9mph top speed that might have been optimistic.

Few cars could touch it, perhaps an Alfa 8C or a Bugatti.  But they were a little bit too raw.  The Bentley said speed with style, especially coming off the back of a rack of Le Mans wins. True Style.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

12 cars of Christmas

03 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Ford Mustang. -3/12 of our cars for Christmas. Do you have a better car.

Ford Mustang 1965

This is a style issue.  I would understand if American’s replaced a mark 1 Mustang with a C2 Corvette, but for me the fastback version always had that bit more style.

The engine needs to be the V8, but either a small block or big block. Neither handled particularly well, but the noise could be great.

It may have been Steve McQueen smoking tyres in Bullit that did it for me.  The car continues to be cool.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

12 cars of Christmas

02 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

BMW M3 Evolution II. 02/12 of our cars for Christmas. Do you have a better car
Our previous nomination in 12 cars of Christmas

BMW M3 Evolution II

Again, an early model gets the vote not the latest V8 turbo charged barge.  The #M3 Evolution II model, featuring Audi Quattro esq flared arches wins gets my vote. 

Such a pleasure to drive, sure, it didn’t stick to every road surface like the Audi, but there was real pleasure to be had taking it to my own meagre limits.  It I were to drive the same way, in the latest version, I would end up running out of road.

An M3 built for the road driver not the race track.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

12 cars of Christmas

01 / 12 Cars of Christmas

A combination of style, ‘coolness’, driving pleasure and sheer personal preference. If you have a better list or just one model you want to add the list, let me know.

Lotus Elan Sprint. 01/12 of our cars for Christmas. Do you have a better car.

Lotus Elan

The original. Copied by so many since its launch in 1964.  But I’m not looking at the original 1500 model, my eyes are focused on the 1971 final rendition Sprint version.

Still using the original Ford engine this little rocket only produced 125bhp.  But could get to 60mph in around 6.5 seconds.  Mainly due to its meagre weight of 1,500lbs.

Not a car for the American market, where the Corvette of the day (C2) dwarfed it with power and top speed.  But it did weighed twice as much at more than 3,300lbs.  The little Elan was near uncatchable on a twisty road.

The list is the personal preference of our Director, Guy Winter. A car fanatic since the 1960’s, he eats’, sleeps and dreams everything Motor Trade. For the past 25 years he has worked for Cymark providing digital and telephone marketing support for individual retailers, groups and manufacturers alike.

If you want to stay on top of the latest Motor Trade chat either subscribe to this blog or find Guy on Linkedin.

Alfa Romeo - Italian class

Alfa Romeo GTA Corse

The classic Alfa Romeo GTA Corse ages into the Totem GT-electric.

The 1962 Alfa GTA Corse was a classic the moment it was conceived. To be fair, even the picture doesn’t do it justice. In real life the car is tiny. Small but perfectly proportioned.

A modern twist on the fabulous 1962 Alfa Romeo GTA Corse.  Now Totem have the all electric version

And today you can get a modern rendering of that car. Watch the video below of the fantastic Totem GT-electric. Performance is staggering. But, so is the noise. Totem have manage to maintain 60’s style with a truly modern build quality and safety features.

Given that the modern version uses original body panels (sourced by Totem) but combines them with the very latest in electric battery and drive train technology you can see why are lucky few are queuing up to be owners in the 21st Century.

The video is worth watching, so are the links on the companies website (below) they even include a ICE engine sound that is linked to the output of the car. It sounds like a highly strung Italian racing engine is pulling you along.

Like marketing in general. Totem have focused on something that works, something that attracts the buyers and decided to ‘do it again’.

There is no age limit on a good design, be that a motor car, a piece of artwork or an advertising campaign.

If it worked once.  It will work again.

In the Motor Trade we routinely run ‘Man from the Bank’, ‘Man from the Factory’, ‘VIP’ style events. Why? because they work.

Cymark is in the fortunate position in being able to provide a telesales and enquiry follow up service that works. A process that has been working since 1995.

Unfortunately not fortunate enough to own either a GTA Corse or a new GT-electric.

All our Motor Trade programmes are here – have a look at <lost sale>, <event appointments> and <email marketing>

Fantastic Totem GT-Electric Images and video c/o www.totemautomobili.com/gt-electric/

EV Batteries – A lighter note

Every time I read the quote below from BMW I have to smile.

With the launch of the latest EV vehicles from Munich – the Neue Klasse – in September at the IAA Mobility Show, it has come up again.

“The platform will use the newly developed cylindrical batteries that BMW says will improve the energy density”

So that will be, round, cylindrical? 

Will it have a gold top?

Cartoon image of an EV battery

#evbatteries #bmw #neueklasse #iaamobility

August 1st, 1987

Hands up if you remember August 1st in the 1980’s? It is certainly a different world today.

Fresh out of Pendle training, the showroom was open at midnight, customers everywhere. Great cars to sell, and the #Cossie was a great car to drive.

Thankfully I didn’t have to sell Austin Rover like my mate, that #MG Montego Turbo wasn’t a patch on the #Ford and used to leap sideways 3 feet when the turbo kicked in!

I seem to remember lots of white XR3i and the RS Turbo’s. (Anyone who drove a steel wheeled XR3 couldn’t believe how much better the RS was – mine cornered on rails, but was chipped up)

I seem to remember a 17% market share and great PPU. Today we need to know all about the #CustomerJourney and the #pointsofinterest. Getting the most out of every enquiry.

We still sell cars, and I certainly still enjoy the trade. Even if it’s not the same – I’ve stopped eating bacon sandwiches at 10am every morning!

August 1st, 1987 was a great place.