I'm Liam Bird, a freelance Motoring Writer based in the South Shropshire Marches. I currently write car reviews and road tests for a number of regional lifestyle magazines and newspapers which are distributed throughout Cheshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, most of Wales and beyond.
As a member of the Welsh Group of Motoring Writers I'm as happy behind the wheel of a super-mini as I am in the latest super-car. I have press accreditation with most of the major motor manufacturers, meaning that as well as always being on the look out for further commissions, I always have a number of cars arriving each month ready to review.
The Ford Fiesta first hit the tarmac here in Blighty in 1976 and ever since then it’s been instantly familiar. It was the car that many moons ago I passed my test in, and in XR2 guise was the first proper hot-hatch I ever drove. (I “borrowed” my cousin’s C-reg example one evening). I’ve even raced one, albeit briefly and against the clock; a red ST at the now defunct Cholmondeley Pageant of...
The arrival of Suzuki’s new Swift complete with Boosterjet engine and in SZ5 spec I might add, here at Chez Bird also coincided with a Ferrari GTC4Lusso being here too. I know, go on… say it: how I suffer for my art. And it’s at this point that you’re probably thinking “I bet that Suzuki didn’t get much use then did it?” Well, you’d be wrong.
You see, both the Swift, and, err…...
Figures were never really my strong-point, so let’s get them out of the way first shall we?
Ferrari’s GTC4Lusso is a 680bhp, 12 cylinder, 4 seater, 4 wheel-drive, 4 wheel-steer, 0-62 in 3.4 seconds, 0-125 mph in 10.5 seconds, 208 mph all-out super-coupe. It weighs 1,920kg, has a 7 speed dual-clutch gearbox (in fact it has 2 gearboxes, we’ll get to that later), and is...
From January onwards you’ll no longer be able to walk into your local Volkswagen dealer and order a 3-door Polo, they’re not going to make them anymore. You can’t buy a 3-door version of the new SEAT Ibiza either, or the Skoda Fabia for that matter either. As people downsize (and ironically cars get bigger) the people in (the predominately German) suits have declared that there’s no...
Quite where the line is drawn between what makes an SUV an SUV, and what constitutes a crossover these days is hard to determine, but what can’t be argued is the fact that we car-buyers love ‘em – and especially so if they’re considered “premium”.
At the time a writing, and just a couple of weeks after their glitzy unveilings at The Frankfurt Motorshow, I can name at least another...
Think of a GT car and your thoughts quite naturally turn to the likes of 1960’s Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, and Jaguars; exquisite luxury leather-lined coupes with effortless power, sleek styling, and more-than-likely astronomical price-tags. GTs are cars in which an intercontinental drive would be a pleasure not a chore - GT stands for Grand Touring after all GTs. They’re...
When Porsche announced they were going build their Cayman and their Boxster with four-cylinder engines rather than their more familiar (should I have said legendary?) flat-6, the car critics quite literally went into overdrive. “It’ll never feel as good”. “It’ll never sound as good”. “They’ve stolen its character”. “A Porsche with a 4 cylinder engine – it’s sacrilegious”. I’m paraphrasing...
The last time I drove a SEAT Ateca was in Manchester, as part of its UK launch, and like many motoring writer that day I returned full of praise for what is the Spanish manufacturer’s first foray into the ever-growing, and indeed ever-popular, family SUV market place.
It was Autocar Magazine however that really put the Ateca on the map by bestowing upon it their “Game...
A friend of mine, we’ll call him Tim, often asks me if I can come up with a one word review for the car I’m currently driving. Over the years I’ve used words such as imperious, luxurious, capable, charming, swift, brilliant, stunning, dreadful, awful, excellent, challenging, and many more besides to succinctly describe my feelings for everything from Adams to Audis, Fiesta to Ferraris,...
I’m pretty sure that if you asked a teenage boy to draw you a sportscar the end result would bear a striking resemblance to a Subaru BRZ. Long bonnet, short tail, two doors, coupe roofline… and if the sketches were anything like the ones I used to scribble on the back of my exercise book during double biology, wheels that look a tad too small and struggle to fill the arches. I never could...
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