The Halloween motoring ghouls

The nights are dark, the wind is rustling the trees and Halloween, with its evil trick-or-treaters, is upon us. Aaargh... But when we think of scare stories, we don't imagine masked children terrorising the neighbourhood with their demands for sweet rewards - we instead cast our minds back to the cars that have given us…


The men and women who drove Group B rally cars in the 1980s really did have something to be scared about. The road-going Audi Sport Quattro is a toy next to the all-conquering S1 Quattro competition car it was built to homologate but it still had my eyes out on stalks. The one Audi bravely let me drive was in mint…

Well, once, maybe… Getting behind the wheel of the Chevette HS in a post Euro NCAP world was a very scary eye opener. A road trip over the Route Napoleon – in particular coming down hill – cooked the brakes. Cue frantic mashing of the middle pedal and desperate down changing to try and use the engine braking. SC

The Noble M12 GTO would give you the heebie jeebies on sight alone with that racing car-esque spoiler. In fact, driven with respect, the M12 was a sublime machine with masses of lateral grip and horizon-destroying acceleration. I drove it eight years ago for a a car magazine. My driving partner at the time was a sub-editor…