Speaking of Cars...

Okay so we weren't but I'm going to anyway.

I have never won anything in my life. Not even a chook raffle.

Australia's best motoring mag, MOTOR, runs a series of tests annually to determine the Performance Car Of The Year (PCOTY). The journos like to pretend that the tests are arduous and hard work but really they can't hide that it is pure, unadulterated FUN. They do a competition allowing one lucky reader to join them in their tests. It was one of those "tell us in 25 words or less why..". So I did. And I won.



Scary sports car with fiery Italian temper







So, this weekend (14th 15th and 16th October), I will be touring around from a (secret) airfield in NSW to Winton raceway (I'm sure I've been there before) with a collection of MOTOR journos and the PCOTY finalists, which include: Porsche Cayman S, Aston Martin Vantage, Golf GTI, Subaru STI, Nissan 350Z, a handful of Falcon Turbo sixes, and some "wild card" entries which I've been told includes an Audi RS4, Mercedes CLK63 AMG and something called a Lamborghini Murcielago with a 471 kilowatt V12 Engine and all-wheel drive.

For those who aren't sure why I'm raving, here is a pictorial selection of some of the aforementioned vehicles.


Why is it that every Lotus Exige I see is bright orange? The one that pasted me at the Nurburgring last year was orange. This time, I might actually get to drive it!







Another Nurburgring memory. Emmmmmmmmmm Six








At last! Porsche have made something that doesn't look like a 911 or a Boxster. Instead, it looks like both...






Yes Miss Moneypenny...









A Datsun!! How nostalgic...






Umm....Wheeeeeeeee! (ran out of imaginative captions)







Sure, it would have been nice to win something that was transferable to cold hard cash, or, God forbid, something I could share with the rest of the family. But sometimes you just gotta do something that money can't buy (unless you have over three million dollars, of course).

Since the last competition was won, no doubt the magazine's lawyers swooped on the whole civilian-driving-performance-cars-fast thing and made the prize a little less potent. If you have the September edition of MOTOR you'll see what I mean. But hey, beggars can't be choosers and I will happily tag along and see what I get to drive/ thrash/ drool over.

It could be a real fizzer. We'll know by next Tuesday. But somehow I suspect it will all turn out juuust fine....