Andrew Frankel
@Andrew_Frankel
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Hack for hire. Autocar, MotorSport, Goodwood and others, now also The Intercooler: and on Twitter: @_theintercooler
Joined January 2010
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Michael Masi determined the outcome of this championship. He used his discretion to interpret the rules in a way they have never been interpreted before to create a restart from which there was only going to be one winner. That is not his job.
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Filmed ailerons of A380 as we came into land at LHR yesterday. Am I the only one sad enough to find this stuff amazing?
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So sad to report the passing of Norman Dewis at 98. He started work in 1934 aged 14 to look after his mum and basically never stopped. D-type, E-type, MkII, XJ6, the way they drove was his work. And he developed disc brakes for road use. A true great has left us. Rest well Norman
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When I relaunched
@Motor_Sport
I got a hand-written letter of congratulations from this bloke. 22 yrs later I’m still completely starstruck by Murray Walker. Quick lunch today turned into 3.5hrs of purest joy. Aged 95, he’s as sharp, funny and insightful as ever. Total legend.
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Thanks to the ace new
@autocar
archive, you can now see in one screenshot exactly what got
@MrJamesMay
fired nearly 30 years ago. Just read the drop capitals in order. A few of us were involved, but he alone took the rap. Not that his career exactly suffered as a result…
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Just seen
@LewisHamilton
congratulating Max. Can’t have been easy in those circumstances. What a pro, what a person.
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So sorry to hear Laura Nuttall has died aged just 23. In 2019 I failed to scare her witless in a McLaren 720S at a wet Silverstone. So cheerful, so positive despite an already terminal diagnosis. An example to all. My heart goes out to
@shitscaredmum
. You must be so proud of her
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Believe I am first hack to drive
@PorscheGB
911 Turbo S in the UK. Cannot describe the joy of being able to do my job again, however constrained, let alone in a car like this.
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Today I drove for eight hours to drive this for one. Rarely has my time been better spent. There never was and never will be another car like the Lancia Stratos.
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Anyone else a bit shocked to see
@LewisHamilton
not even nominated for BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in the season he became the first person to win 100 GPs and should have become the world’s first eight times F1 champion?
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There are fast cars and slow cars, expensive and cheap ones too, but very few sold today that are genuinely cool. But an swb Defender in a sober colour on steelies is one of them. And this one, I am delighted to say, has come to stay.
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Please join me in sending best 98th birthday wishes to my mate Norman Dewis OBE, the bravest bloke I ever met. Left school to support his family in 1934, turret gunner in Blenheims, works Jag LM driver, proved the disc brake concept for cars, binned an XJ13 and much, much more
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I’m sitting at the side of the road listening to an F40 cool down. Just thought I’d share that with you.
#smugbastard
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This is incredible. Can any pilot tell me if that’s likely to be a purely manual landing, all computer or somewhere in between?
‘From now on, that’s how you land!’ Earlier today at
@HeathrowAirport
:
@Airbus
A380
@EtihadAirways
, crosswind landing during
#StormDennis
. Video: 🇬🇧
@AirbusPRESS
@a380fanclub
@stef_schaffrath
@sara_rcc
@AirbusintheUK
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So, Twitter, what do we think of the Alfa Romeo Montreal? I drove one once and it was... reasonable. But the engine was fab and I’ve loved the Bert 1 lines for as long as I can remember.
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So
@Bloodhound_LSR
has hit 334mph. Early days but now beyond anything any road or circuit car can do. These tests are crucial, not just for data-gathering but credibility-building and therefore sponsorship-attracting too. Wishing them all the very best.
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Greetings from Goodwood. Porsches from left to right: 956 chassis 1,
82 LM winner, 84 & 85 LM winner, 87 LM winner, 87 Supercup winner. Mind officially blown.
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RIP Sir Stirling. I am so very sad you have gone, but proud and happy beyond words to known you. Rest well Boy Wonder.
#mrmotorracing
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After 23 seasons and 97 wins, the greatest touring driver this country has ever produced is leaving the series at the end of this year. The
@BTCC
will not be the same without
@jasonplato
on the grid. Enjoy it while it lasts. And if you haven’t already, read this. ⬇️
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So very sad to hear of the passing of Tony Brooks. He was a quiet, unassuming man, as kind and thoughtful as they come who just happened to have the most sublime feel for a car on the limit. Rest well Tony, and send my best to the Boy Wonder.
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In 1996 I left
@autocar
and moved to the country. This was my leaving present, complete with genuine Viper mascot. Far too wonderful to use, 26 years on it remains as new. But tonight we’re going to fill it with ice and alcohol to help celebrate my daughter’s 21st. No finer use.
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Best 10 minutes of my working life. Drove Mark Donohue’s Porsche 917/30 as fast as I could safely go. Grateful beyond words to those who trusted me with the greatest racing car ever built.
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First comment from 16 year daughter when she saw this pull alongside? ‘I wonder why he didn’t go for ceramics.’
#prouddad
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There’s rare, there’s rocking horse rare and then there’s a bog standard right hand drive Alfa Romeo GTA Stradale. This morning it provided three of the best on road hours I can recall.
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Max brake tested Lewis at 2.4g, approx double what a decent road car can manage in an emergency stop, for which he went effectively unpunished. 10sec changes nothing, points expire next w/e. Understand desire not to ruin championship climax but that’s not a good precedent to set.
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I don’t normally do personal posts here but, as of today, both my children are living in London with first class degrees in great subjects from fine universities tucked under their arms. As someone too thick and indolent even to get to a uni, I am in absolute bloody awe of them.
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Things I thought I’d never say: I’m in the back of a Princess.
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There is no such thing as any old Lotus Esprit Turbo. But this could be the most special of all. Colin Chapman’s company car comes home. Sent shivers down my spine driving this at Hethel today.
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Not just a real
@astonmartin
DB3S on M4 this morning, but works factory car 62EMU. 2nd place at Le Mans in 1958 to name just one of its successes. Sorry pic is fuzzy but it was going rather rapidly and almost out of shot by time Mrs F managed to grab the iPhone. Incredible sight.
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Bat’s back. BMW 3.0CSL - note no ‘M’ - 553bhp (up 50bhp) manual, CFRP body. 50 units only. Most power six cyl BMW to date. Price tba, but with that paint expect it to be plenty.
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Rushed, blurted, unworthy self-indulgent appreciation of the greatest man I’ve been able call my friend on DN now:
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Shocked and appalled to hear that de Cad has passed away. He was a fine driver, an extraordinary man and bloody good company. One of those who was so youthful you just presumed he’d go on forever. Sadly not. Remember him like this.
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RIP Burt Reynolds. Don’t know if you really loved cars, but you made some movies about cars that I really loved as a kid, and that’s good enough for me.
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I didn’t much rate the way this looked when it was new. Against likes of F40 and XJ220 it lacked presence and sense of occasion. Now I think it looks superb - a beautifully proportioned, integrated tasteful shape. It has aged brilliantly.
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If Max really did brake test Lewis, he doesn’t deserve to be champrion.
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Been working on my ideal three car garage for over 30 years. Think I may finally have cracked it.
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I have no loyalties to either but Horner complaining the Merc side pods are not within ‘the spirit of the regulations’ is absurd. Regulations don’t have spirits, that’s why they’re regulations. Imagine Adrian thinking of it and Christian saying ‘no mate, not in the spirit…’
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Met up with an old friend today. It’s been a while.
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5.00am alarm this morning. Well you would, wouldn’t you?
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Perfectly imperfect or imperfectly perfect? Dunno. But I do know this: it’s bloody brilliant.
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You may not even recognise it, but this smart, five door hatch is going to give the VW ID.3 hell. It’s better to look at, better to drive and a fraction of the price. Who’s responsible? Take a bow
@MGmotor
. The MG4 is, in many ways, the most surprising car I’ve driven this year.
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Does anyone actually spend their own money on motorway fuel? This is Membury today where fuel is 22p more per litre than national average. In old money that’s a pound a gallon, adding £20 to the cost of filling this Defender! Even if I were rich, I’d not do it on principle.
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Roger Penske just said hello to me. No, he has no idea who I am and, yes, hello is the only thing he said, but I’m still taking it.
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Look what’s just come to stay. Boggo 1978 Renault 5 TL. There’ve been supercars here I’ve been far less excited about driving.
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Very sad to hear that ‘Silverstone’ Syd Herbert has passed away. One of the most surreal experiences of my life was me and Senna being bollocked by him because Ayrton reversed an NSX up the pit lane because I’d forgotten my notebook. ‘I don’t care who you are…’ Rest well Syd.
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This is extraordinary
Amazing timelapse of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster returning to Earth from space after successfully launching the THAICOM-8 satellite.
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Just 12 people walked on the moon. Today four are left, and I’ve just spent an hour talking to one of them. Charlie Duke, 86, LM pilot of Apollo 16, Capcom Apollos 10 & 11, back up crew Apollos 13 & 17, he lived on the moon for three days straight. I should probably retire now.
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The Revival was not quite the last port of call for Sir Stirling’s Mille Miglia winning 300SLR. The following day it made its final journey before retirement to the home of its late, much missed master. Being there was as bittersweet a moment as I’ve had in this business.
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I’ve just driven a car and if I breathe a word about it before a given date, its manufacturer will bill me £50k. Sometimes I think they overestimate how well resourced motoring hacks are. A ten quid penalty would have been more than enough to guarantee my silence. Or a handshake.
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If there is one car that in ten years time we’ll be kicking ourselves we didn’t buy now it’s a manual V8 R8. Drove one this week and came away bowled over by it once again. Yet cars with fewer than 30,000 miles on clock are £35k.
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Ticket for parking in Notting Hill during carnival probably least of this person’s problems.
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Awful news that Richard Parry-Jones has been killed on a tractor. You know how we all bang on about how Ford transformed its product in the 1990s, turning the lame Sierra and awful Escort into the world beating Mondeo and Focus? No one deserved more of the credit than RPJ. RIP.
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Don’t understand those sneering at
@bloodhoundssc
. You may not agree with it, but there are livelihoods at stake and millions of kids globally who have benefited from it. It’s a pioneering project by decent, hard working, poorly rewarded people. They don’t deserve your contempt
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Drove this TZ1 at and around Prescott in 2016. Incredibly, it was almost as good to drive as it appears. The prettiest Alfa, surely?
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As a bloke who can’t reverse a trailer for toffee, I am in awe of these skills.
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I was a halo sceptic once. Not any more.
Wow. Incredible Canal Plus animation of
@RGrosjean
's accident. Most accurate I've seen to date.
Have collected the animation clips into one video here (footage was placed amongst interview footage in the documentary).
h/t
@RacingLines
#F1
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Every time I walk in these woods I hope someone will have come and saved this. Probably too far gone now. Don’t even know how you’d get it out now. Sad.
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Just four years ago. Murray was on cracking form over a pie and more than a pint. Thinking of him, his stories, insight, kindness and fabulous company on the centenary of his birth today. Very much missed.
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Ferdinand Piech has died. A true collossus of this industry. And he designed the Porsche 917, which wasn’t bad. RIP.
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Mustn’t forget
@LewisHamilton
not only person who lost out. Bizarre decision to let cars between Lewis and Max through, but not those between Max and Sainz denied
@Carlossainz55
a shot at victory. Would have been near impossible on old hard tyres, but he deserved a crack at it.
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Am grateful to the great Dr Uli Eichhorn for sending this image of me arsing around in an Azure many years ago. Or, as he put it, ‘the proper way to drive a Bentley’. Coming from its chief engineer, I’ll take that.
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Know it’s ‘only’ a GT4 but it’s got three pedals and after two cross country trips the length of Wales on consecutive days it might just be the daily driver I’d have above all others. Might change the colour tho’. Or I might not. Either way, loved every second in it.
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Just want you all to know I actually own one of these.
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Sir Lewis Hamilton. The first driver to be knighted during his racing career. I know plenty will not be pleased because he doesn’t live here, and I get that. But when I think of all he has achieved both in and out of the car, I can only conclude he deserves it. Well played. Sir.
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The
@PaddyMcGuinness
Eddie Kidd film. Possibly the best thing I’ve seen on
@BBC_TopGear
. Any era.
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Drove this 720S solo from Wales to Geneva on Sunday, and then back again today. Know no other car that combines such civility on the motorway with such savage brilliance in the mountains. Don’t think memory of pre-dawn run over an Alp this morning will ever leave me.
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Out in the old 500 today. Found a new one. Progress?
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Whoever you’re supporting you have to feel sorry for
@Max33Verstappen
. Until the last corner that was one of the finest qualifying laps I’ve seen.
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25 years? Seems barely possible. Still makes me sad. Often wonder what, in his 60th year, Ayrton Senna would be doing now.
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Twenty years ago I bought the UK’s oldest A-class from Benz. Ten years ago Benz bought it back. Today I appear to have bought it again. Some will scoff, but I think it’s a work of design genius. And thanks to Benz levels of TLC this last decade, it’s perfect.
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I know it’s just a silly old shed, it’s conceivable I’ve had a couple since returning home and I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I’ve never been unhappy and driving a ripple bonnet 2CV at the same time.
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This is such a fantastic luxury car, by far the best 7-series there has been. It’s just that… well, you know. Not even the lad can quite bring himself to look at it.
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Stunning image. Not seen it before. If you’re interested, from top to bottom it goes Ascari, Gonzalez, Hawthorn, Fangio. Ascari. Race held at Silverstone and won comfortably from pole by Ascari.
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Off to pub. Which should I take? Like for 500, RT for Deuche.
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Seen this footage many times, but never as clean as this. Pity the sound is out of sync but the loafer-work is superb. Contrary to popular belief Senna’s influence on the NSX was minimal, but he still seemed to be enjoying it!
Upscaled 92 footage of the the legendary Ayrton Senna giving it some in a 3.2 NSX Type R at Suzuka... In a pair of loafers.
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Night night you beautiful, brilliant machine. High speed demo of ‘87 Le Mans winner with 17 other GP C Porsches as the sun went down over Goodwood might just be the most magical thing I have done in a car.
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Just driven the
@McLarenAuto
600LT around the Hungaroring. It’s fast, fun and keeps you on your toes. The track, that is. Can’t tell you what the car is like to drive until September 26th. Sorry.
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Know what’s even better than the fab Gentian Blue paint? IT’S GOT THREE PEDALS! Worth the wait.
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How can a car based on a 14 year old Audi Q5 still be this good? To drive and in this category there is still nothing that gets close to the Macan.
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Bog 992, save wheels and pipes. What a lovely thing.
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Despite being a well known lover of French tat, I’ve never really gone for these until
@harrismonkey
turned up in one this weekend. But for a certain sort of journey (fully loaded, destination the pub) it was absolutely joyous.
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When this gripped, it was like a bomb going off behind me. 1100bhp, 800kg, you do the maths. Fairly sure at one point I forgot to breathe.
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Stock standard Caterham Super Seven. 1.6-litres, 135bhp. If you ever wanted proof of the ever more tenuous relationship between fast and fun, look no further. Absolutely bloody love it.
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