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2019 was filled with memorable moments for the Autocar team.
It's been a particularly busy year, with epic road trips, extensive group tests and big name car reveals to fit in around the usual calendar of major motor shows and launches, and the task of bringing you a weekly magazine packed with automotive news and features.
But what were the ones that stood out the most? Read on to find out what made the biggest impression on us over the last 365 days.
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Mark Tisshaw
A whirlwind 48 hours in Detroit in mid-summer saw Steve Cropley and I meet every single top Ford executive to hear about their plans for the future of the Blue Oval. It was insight and access Steve shared in his comprehensive eight-page feature, which I hope you enjoyed. Yet there was one character we didn’t include in the piece: Bill.
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Mark Tisshaw
Bill, a former narcotics cop, was not only our driver but also our armed guard. “I couldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you,” said Bill, surprised at why we thought it was newsworthy to even ask why he was carrying a gun. Bill kept a close eye, with sightlines at all times – presumably just in case we asked the wrong question and a Ford exec took it the wrong way…
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Jim Holder
It was less a moment of jubilation or excitement, more one of the penny dropping and life changing. It came just days after I’d handed back my Kia e-Niro longtermer and climbed aboard the hugely capable seven-seat SUV that replaced it.
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Jim Holder
There I was, standing on a garage forecourt, dirty diesel pump in hand, £75 bill for 500 miles of fuel racking up before my eyes, when I realised that driving anything other than an electric car that I could charge cheaply and easily and at home, while I slept, just didn’t suit me any more.
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Steve Cropley
Years ago cars were simple and uncomplicated objects of pleasure. Then about 20 years ago, with the emergence of events like Goodwood’s festivals, they changed to become passports to good times at special destinations. The snag was you needed something special: the size of the enjoyment was geared to how rare and expensive your car was. Now the world is different – and better. Today we have the Festival of the Unexceptional (aka Concours d’Ordinaire) which celebrates mass-market cars of the 1970s and 1980s that – despite their large role in our lives – used to run until they were worn out and die unmourned.
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Steve Cropley
Now we realise how much they contributed to our day-to-day existence and that we miss them. This year’s FotU was my first (there have been previous diary clashes) and it was my most enjoyable motoring festival in living memory. Wandering a field of Allegros and Metros, Horizons and Volvo 340s with a posse of like-minded car-nuts is something I never want to miss again. Fast-rising attendances this year show how many people feel the same.
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Matt Saunders
It’s all too easy to get very matter-of-fact about some of the amazing cars you get access to in this job, and the amazing places that just driving them can take you to. Perhaps I have, because my highlight of 2019 was sitting in a Silverstone pit garage rather than any particular car, with three blokes who I’ve long wanted to properly interview – but never imagined that I’d be able to interview together.
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Matt Saunders
Sitting down with three of the most celebrated and influential vehicle dynamicists in the car business – Porsche’s Andreas Preuninger, Aston Martin’s Matt Becker and Jaguar Land Rover’s Mike Cross – and getting them to simply compare notes on their favourite cars, the cultures of the companies by which they’re employed and their thoughts for the future of car enthusiasm was an enormous privilege. I came away from it filled with hope for what’s to come – not to mention walking about ten feet tall.
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Matt Prior
One minute we thought insurance complications would leave us unable to drive a McLaren F1 at more than 20mph, if at all. The next minute, it was sorted. (Long story. Another time.) Five hours later we handed it back having driven it long and hard enough to melt the rear number plate.
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Matt Prior
McLaren was kind enough to send us the number plate in the post a few days later. As far as souvenirs go, K1 MCL is just about the greatest thing to have ever landed in the Autocar in-tray - even if those of us that were there at the track that day have yet to decide who gets to bring it home.
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James Attwood
Snapper Luc Lacey’s brief was simple: ‘Rally cars. Sand dunes. Blue sky. Camels.’ Since we were in Morocco, watching the Future Terrain team of ex-armed forces personnel tackle the Carta Rallye in a Dacia Duster, that seemed easy. Except it was raining, the skies were leaden and the scenery featureless scrubland. Camels? Nowhere to be found.
But after hours of chasing rally cars the skies cleared, the scenery improved and then, at last, we spotted the camels. Gaunt, bedraggled camels, admittedly, but still… camels.
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James Attwood
As the Dusters neared, Luc quickly set up his kit. But the camels weren’t quite angled where the Dusters were heading. A videographer travelling with us tried to help, running at the camels, arms flailing, aiming to scare them into Luc’s shot. They bolted – in the other direction. Luc eventually filed numerous amazing photos – but none with camels.
Meet the injured armed forces team taking on the desert in Dacia Dusters
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Rachel Burgess
An unusual one, away from the inevitable joys of driving brilliant cars. Laura Schwab, Aston Martin boss in the US, was the keynote speaker at Autocar’s Great British Women in the Car Industry event in June.
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Rachel Burgess
Such was her story of rising to the top, told with humour, grace and brilliance, that the audience – both men and women – were totally enraptured. Her speech, available to watch on Autocar’s YouTube channel, left me buzzing for days and served as an inspiring reminder of how hard work and kindness pays off.
Aston Martin’s Laura Schwab on how to succeed in the car industry
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Tom Morgan
Choosing Britain’s best driver’s car and best affordable driver’s car are two of the biggest dates in the Autocar calendar. Joining the road testers to experience one for myself was pretty epic, especially as it meant borrowing the keys to some of the best hot hatchbacks on sale today – and a few that had yet to hit dealer forecourts.
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Tom Morgan
Back-to-back drives in the latest Ford Focus ST, Renault Megane RS and Honda Civic Type R were an eye-opener on just how far the hot hatchback category has come in my lifetime. The ever-reliable Welsh weather did try to put a dampener on things, but that just meant timed laps went out the window in favour of sideways action in a Mazda MX-5.
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James Ruppert
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the Mini is 60 years old in 2019. Despite owning a few I’ve not been to any of the special events around the country. What I did do, though, was drive to the Autocar Awards at Silverstone in my Mini Cooper and show it off.
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James Ruppert
The editor thought it was a jolly good idea to turn up in it, and anyway they had used it for a film, which would be shown on the night. The sun was shining and the A-Series was deafening. Wonderful. I took it upon myself to slot it in at the head of the awards entrance line-up that included an Aston Martin and a McLaren. The high point was a six-year-old who was dropping his dad off at Silverstone (mum was driving, I think) and insisted on a selfie, not with a supercar but with my Mini Cooper.
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Mike Duff
Absolutely no question on this one: driving the Continuation Aston DB4 GT Zagato at Silverstone in September. I had the Stowe circuit to myself for 40 minutes and a perfect replica of one of the most beautiful sports cars in the world to play with. Proper pinch-yourself stuff.
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Mike Duff
The DBZ is a hoot to drive, too, with lowly grip making it not only fun and predictable but also a hugely compelling challenge to push hard. It’s crazy money – not least as you have to buy it with a DBS Superleggera Zagato – but if you had the cash it would be impossible not to be tempted.
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Lawrence Allan
Want to feel as if Europe’s economic activity is insignificant? Spend some time in a major Chinese city. I’d been to Shanghai before for its annual motor show, but good weather and less smog meant this year I could actually enjoy the cultural experience beyond merely the cars at the event. Shanghai’s astonishing metropolis makes London feel pretty small and modest, and the fact that it’s all happened in the past three decades or so makes it all the more astonishing.
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Lawrence Allan
The show itself? Bigger and better than ever. It seems silly that only a few years ago a Chinese motor show was a place where European journalists came to giggle at copycat cars. Now European brands are designing cars with China at the forefront, finding tough competition with literally hundreds of home-market start-ups with huge backing and some of the world’s finest designers and engineers on board. Dismiss them at your peril.
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Simon Davis
I’m not the chattiest soul, so being ordered to help out with some commentary at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed brought with it a kaleidoscope of butterflies. I’d be in the chair for the Friday leg of the Supercar Shootout, and from the moment I stepped into the booth, lead commentator and all-round motorsport guru Toby Moody made it clear road cars weren’t exactly ‘his thing’. No pressure, then.
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Simon Davis
Nerves saw things get off to a bit of a stuttering, rocky start. The cars were coming thick and fast, and I felt like I barely had time to identify what I was looking at – let alone think of something interesting to say about them. But some semblance of rapport soon developed, and from that quite a heady adrenaline rush. I’d be the first to admit that I probably sounded like a complete amateur, but the sense of accomplishment was fantastic. Roll on FoS 2020.
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James Disdale
Whether it’s your first time or your umpteenth trip, any visit to Ferrari’s Fiorano HQ is to be savoured. From Enzo’s office through to the old stable garages, the place simply oozes history. Throw in the prospect of driving the new F8 Tributo, arguably the last of the pure internal-combustioned breed, and it’s a nailed-on number-one hit. Of course, lapping the hallowed circuit that has played host to everyone from Lauda to Leclerc was incredible, but the real highlight came on the road.
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James Disdale
Helicoiling its way through some of the hills not far from Modena, this particular stretch of Tarmac is a popular spot for filming and photography, and once we’d used it for just that I had just enough time for one last thrash from top to bottom in the F8 before handing it back. Those intense few minutes in that howling metallic blue missile easily stand out as the best of the year.
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Colin Goodwin
It might not sound very exotic but the most fun I’ve had in the line of duty this year was driving a Ford Fiesta ST all the way up to Scotland and then back down south via the Lake District, the North Yorkshire moors and north Wales.
Anything more powerful would have been frustrating (which is why driving the new McLaren GT in the south of France isn’t the highlight of this year) and besides, the Fiesta ST is great fun.
Luc Lacey was along to take photos and he’s good company, which is important on a three-day road trip. Glen Coe was a highlight and thanks to poor weather was deserted. As were the roads over the North Yorks moors.
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Colin Goodwin
We stayed in some great pubs and Lacey introduced me to the veggie full English breakfast, which up until then I had considered to be a culinary oxymoron.
The whole trip was intended to demonstrate that in order to enjoy driving in this age you have to make an effort and – if you live in the south-east of the country – be prepared to travel. It exceeded my expectations, and you can be sure I’ll be doing more of the same in 2020.
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Richard Bremner
Heading towards a towering wall of sand at 70mph was an eye-widening start to the year. The sand wall was one dune among thousands in the Atacama desert near Lima in Peru. It was bearing down on us because Dakar rallyist Kuba Przygonski was driving at it in his Mini Countryman as if he were trying to bat the dune out of his way. Instead, the Mini lunged to the right, its left wheels mounting the dune’s flank to fling us into a deep sand channel.
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Richard Bremner
This was minute three of 20 minutes of pre-Dakar shakedown, Przygonski romping about the lunar terrain in an attempt to thrash out any last-minute troubles. But there were none, apparently, this bizarrely tall, BMW X5 diesel-propelled Countryman eventually finishing fourth. The fact of having ridden in this very car was almost as thrilling as the light violence of riding in it.
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