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.