ARK 666Y - The true tale of a haunted Ford Capri

No, this is not a joke. For in deepest Sussex there lives a Ford Capri that is allegedly haunted. And it seems, not even the 'cloth' can stop it.

When Keith Tagliaferro (pictured above with the Capri) purchased the car in 1997, he thought he had simply bought a 16 year-old banger for which to get from A to B in. He didn't realise that he had also bought the devil's personal choice of transportation which had a thing for killing other cars that came close to it and often had mysterious floating black mists in the shape of a female being seen sitting in, and passing through, the car.

He blames the purple car for a string of bad luck and strange events, including being struck by lightning, the death of a family pet, ghostly faces appearing in the rear view mirror and rust appearing on the bodywork overnight. He has also witnessed countless phenomena at which ever address he and the motor reside at, including poltergeist activity and evil ghostly apparitions. The Capri even seems to have a hatred for journalists - any of us who have come into contact with Keith and the car have had something horrible happen to them, including their house being burned down and being the victim of a grizzly car accident. Even as I write this, I'm sure I just saw something over my shoulder...

After putting up with the ghostly activity for a few months, Keith called in a local clergyman to perform an exorcism on the car. During the event, Keith was told that the car's number plate represents a conflict between good and evil and that might be the problem.

"I bought the car because I deal in number plates and it is very eye- catching. But the man who sold it to me appeared very keen to be rid of it," Keith told his local newspaper at the time.

Mr Tagliaferro, from Hambleton Close, Eastbourne, East Sussex, added: "The final straw came when I parked the car outside my house and got hit by lightning when I was inside.

"When I looked out at the car it appeared to be glowing with a strange sort of mist around it."I've got a very open mind about things like this. At first I thought it was just a string of coincidences but it is beginning to get a bit deep now".

The exorcism ceremony was carried out by Mr Kevin Carlyon, the High Priest of British White Witches. However, rather than cure the problem, as in many instances, it seems to have merely exacerbated the problem.

In 2002, the Capri was being a little devil, and was royally playing up. This time, the battery wasn't working, so Keith and his friend Paul attempted to jump start it. Before Keith even had time to connect the jump leads properly, the car jumped into life and the spark from the battery came close to burning his hands. Slightly rankled, he shouted to Paul that it was too early to turn the car over. As he was saying this, Paul was jumping out of the car in sheer fright. When asked what was wrong, Paul claimed that the keys turned in the ignition without him doing anything, and then a "cloaked figure in black" came from the back seat and exited via the passenger door into the bush!

Keith even personally witnessed the black figure again at 3.30am in his house in January 2004, as he was woken up by some banging downstairs. When he opened his living room door, the figure was seen to be looking at a picture of ARK 666Y that was hanging on the wall. Stuck rooted to the spot in sheer fright, the figure looked straight at him, and appeared to be a sixty-something year-old male. With that, it just disappeared...

So what could be behind these paranormal occurrences? Some experts have suggested that it could be the car or the licence plate that is haunted. It may even be that it is neither, but rather that his houses have been haunted, or that Keith is somehow projecting these images and events through his subconscious. The main suggestion has been that it is Alistair Crowley, the famous black magician that is using the car from beyond the grave; or perhaps it is one of the women that committed suicide after being used by him.

The truth is that we will probably never know whether this is all just pure coincidence or a true haunting. But as of this year (and after three years in storage), ARK 666Y has been available to hire for anyone brave enough to find out...

New Kid on the Block

I've been watching Formula One since I was five years old. I don't know why I have this passion. To be honest, I don't know where it came from. I just know it's there. Somehow it seems intrinsic to my very being.

I think the first race I ever saw was the final race of the 1986 season when Nigel Mansell suffered a catastophic tyre failure which saw him crash out and rob him of his championship dreams. That was the first time I think F1 made me cry.

I've never forgotten the second time. It was Sunday May 1st 1994, and I was watching the great Ayrton Senna, my true hero, crash head-on into a concerete wall on lap seven at the Tamberello corner during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola.

I had the amazing moment of meeting Senna once, as he used to fly model aeroplanes at Prospect Park, next to where I lived in Reading in the mid-80s. At this point, he was just starting out on the most amazing career of all, as he was proving his spurs at Toleman. Anyhow, being a cheeky little wotsit back then (and not knowing who he was!), I squeezed past one of his minders and tagged at the bottom of Senna's jacket, pleading for a go. He smiled and politley declined my request, before pressing a model car into my young paws. I ran away delighted with my new found motor, and went to play with it in the sandpit with my mate Kevin. Then my mum came over and gave me a clip round the ear for disturbing Ayrton Senna, whoever that was. Anyway, it was worth it for my new set of wheels.

So there I was ten years later watching Senna's final moments. I didn't think it was that bad at first - I had seen worse accidents. But the tone of Murray Walker's voice said this was serious. And he would know.

When Senna's head began to violently jolt as he sat otherwise motionless in his Rothmans Williams Renault FW14, I thought this was a good sign. He was alive. But it later transposed that this was a final throw of the dice by his brain, as he lay dying. Live on BBC TV. I watched my hero die on a mid-Sunday afternoon on the telly. Just like that.

I never thought I'd see anyone again with the balls and charisma that Ayrton Senna da Silva had. Even Mansell was a bit of a moaner, despite my staunch patriotic support for him. And Schumacher was truely gifted, but was aligned to cheat to win. And that's not in the spirit of F1.

Then 13 years later, I sat back to watch the Australian GP kick off the 2007 season. I wasn't expecting much. But how wrong I was. I saw Lewis Hamilton drive.

I thought Jacque Villeneuve's debut in '96 was stunning. But this new guy was - well, f**k me, brilliant. Totally brilliant.

A true racer at just 21 and in a foreign car to him. Destroying the opposition, cutting through the traffic like a carving knife cutting the Christmas turkey. I thought that this wouldn't last though, that he would soon get destroyed later on in other races by the established names and made to look like a kid who has just peeked into an adult party.

But I was proven wrong, just like Alan Hansen for his infamous comment that you can't win anything with kids. Just like Manchester United in the Busby Babes years and then again in the late 1990s, here was a kid showing the world how it should be done. And in style.

Lewis Hamilton has proven to have more than burning ambition and talent. For the first time since I last saw Senna, I now think that here is someone else who had a meeting with God and was given something special to come to Earth with. The way he saw off double World Champion Fernando Alonso in his rookie year (and made Alonso quit in a huff) was simply remarkable. No-one has ever beaten a teammate like this before, not even Herr Michael. Granted, Alonso made some ill thought out choices (like ratting on his McLaren team during the Spygate saga), but what was it that was pushing him into making these rash decisions? It was the pressure that Hamilton was putting him under. And he collapsed under the weight of it.

So eventually, Hamilton would win three GPs and a host of other accolades for his trophy cabinet. He even finished runner-up in the world championship to Ferrari's Kimi Raikonnen at the final race of the season in Sao Paulo.

But his biggest victory was how he took part with style, panache and sheer determination that was reminicent of the late Senna. Hamilton says that Senna, too, was his hero and inspired him to become an F1 driver. I know what he means, as I tried karting once as a youngster with a friend of mine who's dad had a team. Whereas I didn't have the talent to succeed long term, this new kid on the block does. Which is why Senna fans have now taken him to their hearts.

So what next for Lewis Hamilton? Hopefully, not the Gazza and George Best route, as our young maestro does seem to like a party or two. I predict that he will shatter every record in the book. There is no reason why he can't keep racing for the next 20 years as long as he remains competitive with that innate hunger to win, and stays within the confines of a top team. If he can do this, he will shatter every record going.

Absolutely every one of them.

I think I'm in love with the new Ford Mondeo

Sometimes a car comes along that simply takes your breath away. A car that combines flair, extravagance, solidity, passion and soul. A Ferrari has it. So too a Jaguar E-Type. And an Aston Martin. Now there's a new car that has it - the new Ford Mondeo.

In the pouring rain last Saturday, I cought a glimpse of one on my local Ford dealership's forecourt. I simply had to stop. Despite the rain hurtling down to earth, I stood in awe at this latest Ford offering. I was mesmirised like a small boy in a sweet shop or the young man who sees a car in a showroom and vows to have it one day. I guess this was my moment.

The rain trickled down the Ford's sleek bodyline and over the curved headlamps just as two young people in love during the throws of war. There were no boundaries, no time to take notice of the world around - only the sheer passion of this car and how it channelled my emotions. I think I may just have fallen in love with the new Mondeo.

I didn't think it would happen with a Ford. Yes, I've had brief flings with the marque before, but never a true, real passion. But as I stood there, the sun suddenly came out and the storm clouds passed, revealing a patch of motoring heaven.

Its striking Aston Martin-esque figure presents a bold new image for the fleet market sector, and the really unbelieveable thing is that prices begin at a staggeringly cheap £15,195 for the entry model. Fifteen grand for a baby Aston. Why even entertain the thought of paying more for a BMW or Merc now?


The mk3 has a bigger cabin and an even more polished driving experience than its preedcessor. It's no wonder that it was James Bond's hire car of choice in the latest 007 film Casino Royale. Already, it has been crowned as a champion of its class, and rightly so.

As I peered through the tinted glass, I was astounded at the level of equipment on offer and amount of room on board. It seems that Ford bosses told the designers to come up with a modern day Titanic, considering the high quality of decor and wood coveting the interior. In the opposing window, there was a reproduction of an Auto Express test, where they praised how well the car cruises comfortably at high speed and deals with coarser surfaces better than any rival.

And it seems there is a Mondeo for everyone, with a 75 model line up that proves yet again how Ford is the people's car. Even Ford themselves believe that this car breaks new ground. I would agree. I would genuinely say that this car is as beautiful as an E-Type and will be a future classic one day.

But this car isn't about the future, or indeed a homage to the past. It is a car very much for the here and now, a car for the modern 21st century citizen. So as I left the forecourt, I vowed that one day I too would have the new Ford Mondeo. It's simply the car of choice.

The Top Cop who failed to Stop

Poor Meredydd Hughes. He's just been disqualified from driving and fined £350 by Wrexham magistrates for speeding. Oh - and he is the former chair of roads policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). Oops.



Of course, when this happened, the usual rent-a-quotes lended their two penny's worth. Jools Townsend, of road safety campaigners Brake said Hughes' offence was "shocking" and called the sentence lenient. "By committing this deadly crime, Hughes undermines the work of traffic police to protect the safety of road users, both within his force and across the country.



"He should seriously consider his position as a result."



The only problem is that he has already resigned, as he only intended a three year stay in office. And is Hughes really undermining the work of traffic police accross the country? Okay, he has been banged to rights for doing 90mph in a 60mph zone, but was he driving a stolen car? No. Was he caught with no insurance, tax or MOT? No. Was he even driving recklessly? No.



It is also worth pointing out that speed itself doesn't kill - human error does. And I bet that Townsend has sped in her car at some point during her life. We have all done it. Therefore, I think that it's time we all got of Mr. Hughes' back and let him do what he does best - making his community a safer place.



So yes, he was foolish, ignorant and a bit stupid for driving at that kind of speed in a 60 zone. But it's done and dusted now, so lets concentrate on the real evil against motorists - Ken Livingstone.

Sir

Two years ago this week, the best teacher I ever had passed away, aged 68.

Mr Dare was simply referred to as 'Sir'. He was the one who nurtured my passion for cars, and would often take me and a few friends away to see buses, trams and cars of yesteryear. Indeed, he was highly active, being the founder of The Reading Transport Society (now the British Trolleybus Society) and Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum. As a famed author on buses, he was always dressed in his favourite attire - bright red socks! (This was the colours for Reading Transport). One Christmas, he came in wearing red socks and shoes - a real sight to behold!

For me though, Sir was inspirational. I can remember the day he gave me the lead role in the school play. Because Sir was well-known throughout the area, a school play also meant that you would go to other schools and nursing homes and perform it.

"I'm not ready", I pleaded, aged 10.

"Nonsense, young man," Sir retorted. "You are playing the lead."

If I was aware of swear words at that age, then I probably thought one right then.

So, there I was, Christmas 1990, playing Mr Fitzwalter, a miser who learned the true lessons in life. On the first night, I thought I had given an amazing performance, despite being so nervous that I was having trouble not to shake. Yet the buzz was the best I had ever experienced. I felt alive; I felt that I was on the crescendo of a new wave.

Even when I had to 'donate' some money to the local hospice for the homeless kids, and dug into my pocket only to discover that I had left the most important prop at the side of the stage. On one of the tables, there was a pen and paper, so I grabbed them and wrote the hospice an 'I owe you' note, adlibbing the whole time. What was supposed to be a serious moment had turned into a sketch a-la Fawlty Towers.

Still, I thought I had rescued it.

Not so.

Sir gave me the biggest bollocking of my life, and said that unless I improved, I would be dropped! He gave me the Fergie hairdryer treatment, for which he was well famed, in front of all the entire class. Of course, I didn't want this again, so the next time I went on, I remembered my props!

The subsequent performance (and the next 20!) went very well indeed, and we were even invited to perform the play at the Reading Hexagon in 1991. Sir was convinced that I had a future in the business. So he made me dress up in funny clothes and join his new boyband 'The 3 Boys' with two other school pals. Again I protested - I felt that my inability to sing and hold a note may play a crucial role in the failure of this latest venture. But again Sir would have none of it. So there the 4 of us were on each and every lunchtime, practicing our singing, with Sir playing the piano and orchestrating the entire event. And back on the road again, too, entertaining the elderly war veterans on the 11th November 1991. Then came the surprise - he had entered us in a Battle of the Bands contest that went across the South of England. I think we ended up finishing third, with a mixture of hymns and Beatle songs!

But I really remember him for his compassion. At the time, I was really struggling with my school work and it was truly terrible, way off my usual standard. One day, I arrived home after school to find Sir in my front living room caressing a small whisky and chatting with my father. I knew I had to be in some serious trouble this time. I was instructed to sit down and explain why my grades were so poor. Sir explained that he thought I might have Bipolar, where I experience 'highs', where everything I do is to the best of my ability and play like a world-class player in the big matches, and then 'lows', where my performance wouldn't warrant selection in the pub team. Of course, within these stages, there would also be ecstatic highs and miserable lows, which could be triggered by the smallest things. Sixteen years on, I think yet again, Sir was right. Thankfully, he took me under his wing and helped me to 'manage' the situation. When I eventually left for Big School, I was back to being near the top of the class.

However, I'm not saying that Sir was faultless. If you annoyed him or couldn't get along - and there were quite a few that didn't understand or co-operate with his methods - then life could be hell. It was reserve team football for them, all the way.

I popped back to my old school a few years ago, to see some of my old school friends and catch up. Sir was still there, but now on the brink of retirement. All of the other teachers had been and gone, with some unfortunately passed away, and Sir remarked that he didn't quite understand this newer school world, where kids could shout and swear at him and other teachers and not give two-hoots. He felt 'out of his time' and said that we were the last of 'His Generation'.

At his funeral, his coffin was carried to the crematorium on his beloved Routemaster bus, with the museum's Trust giving his coffin a guard-of-honour send off, with the buses lining his final route. His ashes were interned in the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft’s Garden of Remembrance. Although he has gone, I think there is still a bit of Mr Dare left in all of us who knew him.

Goodbye, Sir.

Somerset's bid for 'The Worst Road in Britain'

Back in early August, another top transport blogger - Christian Wolmar - labelled the Devon/Somerset A396 Tiverton to Minehead road as being the worst in Britain.

He cited that Dunster has the "worst traffic management system" in the country, as the narrow streets "encouraged" drivers to see "how quickly they can accelerate up to 40 MPH.

"Since there is virtually no other way to get from one side of the little town to the other, pedestrians therefore have to cower in doorways as the traffic, which never seems to slow down for them, hares past," he wrote.

Ok, on the face of it, this may seem a fair point. I often agree with most of Wolmar's post, but this one I couldn't support.

In counterance to his argument that it is showing the need of the car is above all else, perhaps it is in reality, the opposite - the town is winning the battle against the car. If these streets have been like this for over 400-odd years, why change them now? And how exactly are you going to alter the Grade 1 Listed properties that overhang the area in question? Cut them back, or demolish them completely?

In addition, the competiton to see who can reach 40mph the fastest simply doesn't exist. With myself having actually lived on this section of road, all of us locals know two things - that drivers actually intend to set their quickest time from the top of Dulverton Hill to Minehead, and that Dunster is a mere inconvenience - and secondly, that the grockles actually cause the problems, as rather than "cower" in shop passageways, they really wander all over the road, in complete oblivion to the cars who may actually want to occupy the same bit of space. Therefore, local drivers are able to rack up a very high score in Hit the Grock, when assuming that it is 50 points per individual. Incidentally, we all know that the quickest ever time set from point-to-point is unlikely to be beaten - 12 minutes 42 seconds to drive the 18.8 miles, which was set by a Radio Rentals engineer in 1997, in a Vauxhall Astra estate equipped with the 1.7 turbo diesel engine from Izuzu. And yes, it was white.

Wolmar also indicates that the area around the Yarn Market is "terribly difficult to walk on", because of the cobbled streets. Is he really suggesting that we should actually have the Edwardian cobbles ripped up in the name of political correctness?

Instead, maybe Dunster should be simply demolished and have a nice dual-carriageway put through it. At least we would then be able to set faster times and finally beat that stubborn old record.

eBay Car of the Week

Fancy a new 'Tina?

Yep, that's right - On the 'bay this week, is a delightful Mk5 Ford Cortina 2.3 Ghia of 1981 vintage.



But the best bit of this little beauty is its mileage - a stunningly low 2250 miles from new!



The car was purchased on September 9th, 1981, from W. Harold Perry Ltd, the local Ford dealership in Edgeware, Middlesex. After a service at 1500 miles, the owner was taken ill, and parked the motor in his garage, where it would remain for the next 25 years.



The seller - lovett1969 - reckons that this example is probably "the best and most original Cortina available for sale today." With the original tyres, number plates and tax disc from 1983 still in place, this car is a must for the serious Ford collector.



I would urge you to place a bid - when will you ever find a unique Ford such as this again?

Details: eBay Item number: 290168258080.

Current bid: £2300 (5 days, 20 hours remaining)