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I did a driving safety course. It was the biggest waste of money of my life.

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  And not just any driving safety course, I was at the Linthe driving safety center in Brandenburg, Germany, one of the biggest and most advanced in Europe, run by the ADAC, Germanys automobile club and Europes biggest motoring association. You may remember them from that one TopGear special where the trio had their cars inspected by the ADAC in a state-of-the-art mobile inspection center. The training I did went beyond a basic driving safety course, it was called "intensive training for frequent drivers". So I figured it would be well worth the 200€ (about $240 USD) price tag and I would surely learn something about myself, my car and car control in general. Boy, was I wrong. So if you consider doing a driving safety course yourself but money is a very finite ressource for you, please read this. The first hour or so was just introductions. The trainer introducing himself, us introducing ourselves, questions, expectations, experiences, blah blah. Afterwards we finally went to
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The NFS franchise needs to learn from an entirely different industry to regain glory

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  Forza Horizon is the new open world racer in town that everyone is talking about. Until its release, no one really tried to compete with Need for Speed, the now 26 year old franchise on its turf. And for good reason. There aren't many video game titles that seemingly just about EVERYONE has played. However, among titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Halo 2, everyone you ask will definitely remember losing his BMW M3 GTR to Razor in Most Wanted or driving Rachels green Nissan 350Z in Underground 2. So when did Need for Speed kinda slide into obscurity? Because I don't see anybody ever really talk about new NFS titles. Maybe a little between announcement and release, but NFS Heat for instance, the latest title as of the time of writing this piece, is barely 4 months old and I honestly see more Forza Horizon 4 and Gran Turismo Sport stuff on my feed, games that came out 1 and 2 years earlier respectively. That's heavy. Funnily enough, I see a
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How owning meme cars actually is

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Look at it smiling at you! It's like someone's puppy that always wets your leg because he's as happy as he's stupid. I mean, you're a complete stranger, why is he so happy? Is it because he's got a pure heart? Only puppy knows. Why did you click on this article? Is it because you have no idea what the Renault Twingo is and you got curious? Or is it because you know  exactly  what it is since you pass your time scrolling obscure car memes in different forums but you want to find out  how  it is? Maybe you're just looking for a beater because you live in Europe and before knowing it as a meme-mobile, you got to know it as the French shitbox it is? Doesn't really matter - I'll be glad to tell you about owning it. I've bought mine just about a month ago for a whooping 400€. That's $445 or  £365. BUT. This is not a rustbucket waiting to die, it's a very nice 2003 example with the 16 valve 1.2 liter engine. It has electric mirrors,
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Why the Citroën SM is not a GT car

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It's the opinion piece many have been waiting for. Having started as a heated debate in the realms of obscure automotive humour on Facebook, the whole thing became a joke in itself, consisting mostly of me arguing with a horde of angry admirers of the car. Jokes aside though, it opens the door to an important debate. Before I start to make my case, I want to put on record that I love the SM. It looks gorgeous, the Maserati engine is a unreliable yet beautiful unit and there's no denying that it put a giant stamp in automotive history by outperforming much of that era's competition. It's not that I don't like the car to not grant it the title "GT" for 'Gran Turismo' or 'Grand Tourer". It's a matter of terminology. Not just once have I been made aware of the Citroën SMs Wikipedia page, where under 'class' it's clearly listed as a "Grand tourer". However, on the same table it reads "three door hatchback&
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What is 'homologation' and why are todays rally cars stupid?

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Photo: Car Magazine It's winter and the roads are snowy. You drive along a B-road to avoid the congested main road. They're really just three corners but also the three best of your life. The car's sideways, the blow off valve of your Subaru is whistling while the winter tires are burying themselves into the snow. You're in a small town but you could swear you're on the Monte-Carlo rally stage and your name was Colin McRae. This might have to do with the spirit of McRae living on in every single Subaru STI. The fact that we have cars like the these are thanks to motor sports. Lancia Delta Integrale, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Dodge Charger Daytona have all one thing in common: Their heritage. Because these cars are so-called "homologation models". Homologation, at least in a car related sense, is a motor sports term and describes a technical permission for car to compete in a sport. So when Toyota is having its Le Mans prototype inspected by
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We need to talk about the modern American sports car

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Photo: Ford I'm seeing a pattern. Remember when I stated that the Lamborghini Centenario is an utter failure ? The first time I've put my thoughts about the Centenario together was actually back in March 2016 . Just a month later, my collegues from Jalopnik basically stated the same thing . Or when I declared the legitimacy of the Bugatti Veyron ? This was also an opinion from March 2016  and, yeah, not quite half a year later the same damn thing happened . Both articles were written by Máté Petrány, reckon he used to read my stuff back when I first started writing about cars in German? Anyways, so what I meant to say with this little intro is that I kinda seem to know what I'm talking about. A while ago I stuck my head out and questioned the BMW M2 . Much more controversial, though, was the fact that I recommended potential buyers to, instead, look at what the American car market has to offer since they build just as potent if not better sports cars for less mon
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Why does everyone like the BMW M2?

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Photo: BMW Why do people think the BMW M2 is something special? They'll go "Well it's light and powerfull". Ain't that what sports cars are about? What's missing these days? Lightweight, rear wheel driven cars that work as an extension of your body. So what's my problem with the M2? It's 1.5 cm narrower and a whole 21 cm shorter than a BMW M4. Yet it only weighs 11 Kilogram less. Eleven. That's 24 lb of a difference for my American readers. And since it's a BMW you still have to lay out 56,000 Euro for it. There's not a whole lot to be said about it. Sure, it has some clever carbon pads inside the gearbox making it shift smoother. It also takes its oil pump and oil pan, pistons and some other bits from the M4 but all in itself there's nothing special. In my eyes the M2 only demonstrates how utterly fat cars have become. Because dimension-wise it's closer to the M3 E46 than anything else. It's what the M4 was supposed to
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