The MINI owners with 25 million tunes choose from

IF YOU’RE the sort of motorist who can never make their mind up about what music to listen to then you might be interested in a new optional extra for the MINI.

The company has joined forces with music download gurus Deezer to make their downloadable iPhone app link up with MINI models, meaning owners can have access to up to 25 million tunes while at the wheel.

A MINI UK spokesperson said: “Using Deezer in-car is secure and intuitive using the MINI joystick, steering wheel buttons and high-resolution colour display of the on-board monitor, where functions are displayed in the familiar MINI style.

 “The addition of Deezer to the MINI Connected line-up is yet another example of MINI’s future-proof and intelligent interconnection between driver, automobile and outside world.”

 The car must be fitted with the Radio MINI Visual Boost or the MINI navigation system to be able to use the service, and you must have an iPhone to access the tunes.

What is the best petrolhead album ever recorded?

IN REALITY it was a cold, drizzly night somewhere in Southport but in my head it was a sunny afternoon in southern California.

That's what music does for your motoring - ever since someone Hillman fitted a radio, quaintly titled the Melody Minx, to one of their cars back in the Thirties stereos have been lifting the moods of drivers ever since. So what, pop pickers, is the single best bit of petrolhead music ever recorded?

Music, of course, is even more divisive than cars themselves are, so from the starting grid this is going to be an entirely subjective thing - I, for example, struggle to understand the appeal of N-Dubz, but I appreciate a lot of other people do. It's also true that, in the same way white wine goes with fish, some music and some cars just belong together, for all sorts of boring cultural reasons that belong in supplements in The Sunday Telegraph. What I'm after is music of the particularly petrolhead variety - tunes which just go with chewing up a winding bit of road in a great car.

In a post last week I pointed out I'm a Fleetwood Mac fan, and I think there's an argument to say a certain Anglo-American rock band's biggest seller is the best bit of petrolhead pop ever recorded. For starters it's got The Chain on it - the de facto Formula One theme music since the dawn of time - but it's also packed with catchy melodies and lyrics which ostensibly cover the traumas of dumping someone but in fact seem like mantras for thrill-seeking motorists. Don't stop, you can go your own way!

 

Even Rumours, I reckon, isn't the most petrolhead album ever recorded, because that honour goes to some chaps in Texas with big beards. You don't even have to listen to ZZ Top's Eliminator to know it was created by chaps who've got Castrol R coursing through their veins, because its cover star is ‘34 Ford given the full hot rod treatment. Then you stick into your CD player and you're treated to what must be one of the most full-throttle rock riffs of all time; the opening notes of Gimme All Your Lovin'. Then you're treating to another tyre-smoking tune, and then another, and then another. Subtle it ain't but I can't think of any album which goes better with the rewards you get from doing a challenging bit of driving and doing it just right.

Disagreements from N-Dubz fans to the usual address, please.

Sixties style, Teenies tech

IT'S nice to think that when people go onto West Lancashire Borough Council's website to sort out their council tax, they might well be granted with this wonderfully evocative image featuring my very own MGB GT.

I only discovered this poignant picture of MGs from years gone by the other day when I was checking a possible Champion story out but I'll let you into a little secret; I haven't actually driven the bumble B much since that sunny Bank Holiday weekend. In fact, it's been holed up in a garage since then, undergoing a series of subtle but hugely beneficial upgrades.

First off, it's been treated to a much newer and less holey tailgate, which should do wonders in preventing the small lake which lives in the boot appearing every time it rains. Until it's finished I've been limited to taking the MGB out on days when I know it isn't going to rain, which with it being Britain means I've taken it out twice in the past month. It's frustrating, but my luggage will thank me for it!

Another essential bit of kit Santa's brought early is a new fuel tank which - trust me - isn't as dull as it sounds. My biggest bugbear with the BGT is that thanks to having the original fuel tank it suffers with the same problem as every other fortysomething smoker; its lungs are filled with muck, so it coughs and splutters if you ask it go for a run. A new fuel tank means not only less time coughing and spluttering at the side of the road but should actually mean it'll be able to dump more fuel into its two enormous carburettors, more of the time. Which'll make it faster.

But what I'm really looking forward to is the new stereo I've just had fitted to it, which moves the MGB's in car entertainment from a very stodgy Pioneer radio job from the early Eighties straight through to the very latest MP3-ready, USB compatible, digitally futuristic job I could afford. Get this; it's a a 1972 car with a DVD player!


This immediately begs two questions.

Should a 40-year-old classic have such a defiantly modern stereo? Admittedly, I did agonise over whether to fit a retro stereo, but decided against it because a) they're expensive, b) life is too short for a shoddy Seventies eight track stereo and c) the old stereo wasn't the original anyway, so I figured fitting an even newer one wasn't about to dent its originality. I'm sure the purists will sneer at classic car shows, but that'll be twice a year. Enjoying the right accoustics, on the other hand, is an everyday delight.

Do I need a car stereo with an inbuilt DVD player? I've tried to kid everyone that it's to keep me entertained on camping trips but the answer's a tad simpler than that; I am male, and all men love needless gadgets, especially ones in MG-style retro packaging. If I had enough time and expertise I'd build the world's first WiFi-equipped MGB, brimmed with weapons grade technology and gadgets that'd give a Porsche 959 a run for its money.

Which the leaky tailgate would immediately ruin...