More thoughts on Torque.
Its a prime example of that particular breed of US movies, where the frantic pace on screen is disproportionate to the speed being shown on the instrumentation.
For example, there is a chase sequence. Lots of shots of strained faces in helmets. Cut to a speedometer - the needle is creeping around to 80 miles an hour, to 85, to 90...
Hello?
If they were having a similar race on the roads over here, they would have been overtaken by my grandmother in her ancient Astra. And she's dead.
It seems that the older and more battered the vehicle is over here, the faster it goes. The fastest vehicle on earth is not made by Ferrari, Porsche or BMW. Nope. Its made by General Motors.
I give you - the Vauxhall AstraMax van. No matter what you're driving. No matter how fast you're going, one of these will be on your tail, flashing its lights and trying to overtake. On the dashboard will be a copy of The Mirror, or The Sun or (and this is a sign of a true performance driver) The Daily Sport. There will also be enough sandwich wrappers to fill a moderate sized landfill.
They don't allow these vehicles in Formula 1 or Nascar because it just wouldn't be fair.
Time to go to work...
(this post is brought to you by the 'my car comes back from the paint-shop department today - hurrah!')
