MASERATI AA VAN
RESPONSE
Ever had a long wait for a recovery van? Not any more. TopGear is about to come to the rescue. With a slightly reduced toolkit...
WORDS OLLIE MARRIAGE
PHOTOGRAPHY OLGUN KORDAL
The AA Christmas calendar had found its cover model... the car, not Ollie
Of course it’s a Disco. It’s always a Disco.
First call out of the day and I’m first on the scene. That was the plan of course, and it’s worked a treat. Now, what had Dominic told me it was likely to be? Ah, that’s right, it’s a Land Rover, therefore... almost anything: blown turbo, glitchy electrics, belts, water pump, front diff, front wheel hubs, air suspension, cracked engine block...
I open up the MC20’s toolkit. It contains a towing eye. Nothing else. Hmm. Hang about, Dominic shoved a chunky battery starter pack in the Maserati’s footwell earlier, seeing as battery issues account for about 20 per cent of callouts. I connect it up. Much clicking, no life. And that’s me done, out of ideas. All I’m good for right now is tea and sympathy. My shoulders sink as I realise I left my flask at the hotel this morning. I smile wanly at the beleaguered Disco driver, “At least the sun’s out...”
We’ve all heard the horror stories, people waiting for hours for the recover y services to turn up, stranded on the hard shoulder of the M40 for two hours (that’ll be me), broken down in roadworks on the M4 after a piston went through the block (also me). How to solve this? Get to people faster, duh. Where some would suggest more patrol vans, TopGear suggests speed. We’ve built the AA a rapid response vehicle.
Well, I say built, but what we’ve actually done is livery up Maserati’s 620bhp mid-engined supercar, sucker some lights on top and headed off to help one of the UK’s most remote patrols cover his Highland patch. My thinking was that he must have a huge area to cover and on these corking roads I could get from one end of the Highlands to the other a mite faster than a 113bhp Ford Transit. True though that may be, it’s not how it works. Instead a 62 mile radius is drawn around the patrol’s front door and that, literally, is their sphere of influence.