Final Week in London with the Astra GTC

Goodbye Astra

Having had the pleasure of driving the Astra for the past three months, it is almost time up!  I thought that for my final weekend with the car I would put it to the test in central London.

As always the car handled well in both heavy and light traffic, cyclists could see me coming and I didn't need to use the horn once.  In fact, I was amazed at how many cars let me in! I perhaps went a little mad with photos in front of land marks but as this is the final blog, I decided that you can never have too many photos. Check out horse guard parade - seating all ready for the beach volleyball!

To conclude this three month drive, here is a little evaluation:
Favourite features: Its magnetic look, Size of the boot, Sporty feel, Fabulous handling and 6 gears.
Worst feature: Automatic wipers - I almost always have to over ride them due to not kicking in.
Top tip: Practice using the clever little hand break button before setting off for the first time - it takes a bit of getting used to.

Finally, I would do almost anything to keep this car for another three months.  Not owning a car, it provided essential transport for the Kilimanjaro training team, taking us up to the highest peaks in the UK plus it has given me quite a bit of street-cred amongst the kids at school.  I have enjoyed every moment of every drive and I will be first in the queue to buy this car.


Thank you so much Peter Vardy for allowing this crazy chic to drive your car up and down the UK.

200 Mile Special Delivery

Another exciting week in the GTC with some added suprises.  I had a delivery arrive that should have been delivered to my sister (200 miles away).  Looking at the GTC and then the parcels my first reaction was “not a chance”, however not only did a flat pack sideboard and TV unit fit, there was room to spare. Amazing!

For the past two weekends the car has been on the M6 and M1 heading to and from the Olympic Park in Stratford, London.  I was some how selected to volunteer at the games so had to attend a training test event.  This happened to be the World Championship Diving Cup - result! The enclose picture shows me at 6:15am helping get the pool ready before the world class athletes arrive. My job was to call the boards  during training (tell the athletes when they can dive, so preventing them landing on top of one another). What a job!  The Olympic park is looking good and I have no doubt that London will be ready.

London 2012 - Aquatics Centre

The car handled brilliantly through central London and being bright red, meant that I was visible too.  My biggest concern was it being stolen from the hotel car park as again people were very interested in both its look and the journey sticker outlining my drive.  A few people did ask: "Aren’t you a bit off track?"

Next week: Centreparks in Nottingham.  I’ll try and put together another film showing some of the internal features of this amazing machine!