MATT SAUNDERS
Testing, testing
“The Lamborghini? No, son, you’re taking the Honda Jazz home…”
The time is 4.40pm on a pleasant weekday afternoon. You’ve had a busy day of it, but your big multi-car comparison test has gone well.
All of the cars showed up on time and as planned. They are exactly the cars you were expecting (even that, believe it or not, can’t always be relied upon). You’ve done plenty of driving, helped your photographer mate get a full set of group test photos banked and rattled your way through a video shoot.
You might be on an otherwise deserted racing circuit; it might be a quiet moorland road. Either way, you’re here because you know the place, suspected you could get what you needed by coming here and were pretty sure you wouldn’t encounter any problems. So it proved.
Nothing has broken down. No policeman has taken down your particulars. No angry farmer has driven you from his county for making enough noise to disturb his flock. No local RAF pilot has shot down your camera drone. Most of these things do actually happen on occasion.