Page 103 - Cool Britannia

1032pm on Sunday afternoon, I am at a table out - side a bar in Piazzale Arnaldo at the end of Viale Venezia in the Italian town of Brescia. It is a sunny 28 degrees whilst I eat my lunch with a glass of ice cold local white wine. I am waiting for the frst cars of the Mille Miglia to arrive. First let’s rewind to 2am on Friday morning when my alarm sounds, by 2:30 I am in the car heading to Gatwick for a 6am fight to Munich. I land in Munich 30 minutes early (there’s German effciency for you) and take a cab to AEC in the city centre. As I enter the street I can see my ride way ahead in the distance, standing out from every other parked car in the road. As you may have gathered by now, at Paddock Life, we like to have a bit of fun and do things differently. So choosing a car to follow the Mille Miglia, last minute as usual and not knowing what to expect, I turned to our friends at AEC to take a car I’d seen when Chris and I collected the Charger Hellcat. The Hellcat was insane, but this was equally crazy, bright fre engine (or in Italian Ferrari) red and sharing the same 5.7ltr Hemi as the Hellcat, but in a very different way. This is a Dodge Ram Rebel, complete with covered aero loud space, four cab and air suspension. I entered my destination in the satnav, The Grand Hotel Palace Rome, directly at end of the second stage of the Mille Miglia, and pulled this monster of a truck out onto the streets of Munich. I was soon out of town and settled into the 9 hour motorway Jaunt out of Germany, through Austria and over the Alps into Italy. My aim was to collect my passes and join the Mille Miglia at its half way point in Rome. Settling into my journey I have time to play with some of the Rams toys, the large screen in the dash controls most of the functions, the navigation system is very simple to use with clear instructions, which is exactly what you need on European motorway intersections. The telephone hands free was easy to sync and allows full access to all my iPhone functions. The media screen dives right into my iTunes so Dave Groll’s latest album now flls the four seater cab’s huge speakers as I devour the motorway miles. Catching up on a week’s phone calls I have no diffculty in being heard on the hands free. One of the most impressive things about the Ram is the easy to use lay out the cabin space. Obviously, it’s a wide cab so there is plenty of space to play with. This is ergonomics at its best. The armrest hides a double layer storage box, the lower part is big enough to store my cameras, while the upper holds glasses and change. It also houses the USB ports and auxiliary input jacks with a neat slot to allow the cables through. Usually we all end up with our phones in cup holders or trays, but Dodge have come up with a really simple, but very effective device. In the large tray compartment the front edge just under the navigation screen, there is a rubber groove with two cut-outs at the bottom, so two smartphones can be held whilst plugged into the USB, giving both driver and passenger easy access and views of their phones. This was so simple it was genius.... There’s a few cars I’ve been in recently that could learn a lot from the layout of the Ram and most of them retailed at over four times the price. After a few stops, for refreshments and one for €150 of fuel, I rolled in Rome. The Ram flled the hotel forecourt as I slid down from the cab, I certainly didn’t feel as if I’d been in the saddle for eight hours. The hotel staff had never seen such a vehicle so there was no problem leaving it there whilst I collected my passes. Now, I’ve been to Rome many times, traffc-wise it’s like Marble Arch at 9am the week before Christmas, but all day every day. Romans mostly drive Smart cars, or other tiny city cars and they feel the need to jam themselves into any space, the net result is nobody gets anywhere and Rome is one huge traffc jam. So here I am in a huge wide, long red truck, my bonnet sits at roof level with the other traffc as they buzz around me like fies. I work my way around to a street off the side of the square. The police allow me through to park outside the hotel just yards from the buzzing square of expectant Romans. Pass in hand, I join the media scrum at the fnish line and watch the pre-1957 cars take to the ramp one at a time to record their times and do quick interview with the host before driving to the evening’s hotel. Before these arrived, the cars of offcial Ferrari Mille Miglia tribute run came through, they leave ahead of the others, taking the same route with the same rules. I watch the last of the cars come in before heading out to dinner with some Roman friends.6:30am and the Ferrari’s are lined up to start, one by one they mount the podium ramp, stamp their time cards and roar away to cheering crowds, yes even at 6:30am the streets are lined with fag waving Romans. The cars leave on one of the