What Top Gear's Reasonably Priced Car Taught Me About Kia

We've got it all wrong. We've been so far off the truth all this time. You see for years I have been in numerous pub discussions where the conversation has involved something along the lines of "if you drive a Kia, you drive a washing machine," or "Korea can't make cars." Well I've got news for you pub go'ers, Kia don't make washing machines, and Korea can make cars. I know because I've driven one, a special one. So special that it's been seen by tens of millions of people and met Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. The Kia I'm talking about is the ex Top Gear Reasonably Priced Car, one of the 3 manual ones that know nothing outside of being thrashed ruthlessly on track by A list celebrities.

Well one sunny Thursday, it was my turn. I was given the keys to the world famous C'eed, which the Kia event girls told me was standard, barring a roll cage and bucket seats. So essentially, I was climbing into a 5 door hatchback that competes with the likes of the Ford's Focus and Vauxhall's Astra. Unsurprisingly then I didn't expect it to be much of a thrill, plus this was a Kia, the boring washing machine makers that don't make washing machines.

Now I had ridden in a 400bhp Evo X FQ400 earlier, plus I'd thrown my far quicker Clio hot hatch around the track all morning, but for some reason after just a few corners the car I loved driving the most, was the Kia. And this was strange, because if you were beside me in the C'eed, you'd see 3 fairly generous sized rear spaces for passengers, a full working selection of electronic luxuries including a radio, climate control and steering wheel buttons, and that impossibly unsporty Kia badge staring me in the face. 

Yet as I flicked the car into the flat out banked left of the Rockingham straight, the car felt nimble and eager. The engine didn't provide tonnes of neck snatching power, far from it actually, but it was more than happy to rev freely all the way to just shy of a cheeky 7000rpm. And the nose, what a nose. The C'eed was one of the most compliant and nose happy cars I had ever driven, with every turn of the wheel seeing the front point sharply at the apex like an excited puppy jumping at a thrown stick. The rear was more than happy to just about hang on, seeing me 4 wheel drift a 5 door family hatchback through Rockingham's high speed turns, with unbelievable commitment and the biggest grin on my face.

What was I experiencing, why was this happening? How could this car be so happy away from what I thought would be its comfort zone, parked outside an OAPs house? I still don't fully have the answers for that, but I do know that I have now completely changed my opinion of Kia. The chuckable car, the chatty event girls and the lack of washing machines in the line up all tell me one thing, Kia is a modern, fun car maker with high ambitions set towards taking on more established European brands. They're so set on doing this, they're prepared to offer their brand new cars to Top Gear with inevitable deathly fates awaiting them. Who can forget the Kia bloodbath at Twickenham only a couple of seasons ago? It made the Kia girls very sad, as they stood on the sidelines and watched their "babies" being smashed to bits. But full credit to Kia, they do it all in the name of good fun. 

And it's doing wonders for the brand, because people like me step out of their Reasonably Price C'eed and say "Can I have another go?" What a great thing for a manufacturer to hear about their car. Plus with the sportier ProCeed now on sale, Kia have firmly entered the hot hatch market competing against far more established European and Asian names. 

So yeah this brand Kia, they don't make washing machines apparently, but they're up for a bit of a laugh and make some pretty fun cars. Not what you expected right?

If you fancy grimacing at some awful commentary, as well as giggling at some interesting shots of my knees, here's my onboard footage from Rockingham where I sampled the ex Top Gear Kia at racing speeds.

Lewis Hamilton: Best When Behind The Visor

Lewis Hamilton, viewed by many as one of the fastest drivers to ever grace an F1 car. Phenomenal performances and aggressive racing, Lewis has brought some serious entertainment to World Championships of late. For this you'd expect him to be universally admired, yet there seems to exist more dislike for him than you might expect. So what does Lewis have to do to gain full respect amongst the world's elite racers?

I like Lewis Hamilton I really do, and that would not normally be expected for someone who has a soft spot for a pair of scarlet red cars. I often find myself admiring Lewis as a driver, but outside of the car he really hasn't made it easy for himself to become very popular. You may remember Lewis' misinformed accusation that Jenson Button, his team mate at the time, had unfollowed him on twitter. It was an incredibly awkward mistake that inevitably led to an embarrassing apology. You may also remember when Lewis revealed secret McLaren telemetry on his Twitter account, which created visible tension between McLaren's seniors and himself. Both of these very public incidents seemed to show a slightly hot headed Lewis that was unsurprisingly harder to like than say, the Felipe Massas of this world (what a nice guy).

Stevenage's (or is it Brooklyn's) Lewis Hamilton looking pretty Hip Hop

Thankfully, Lewis now seems to take an air of caution with his words on Twitter, recently only creating offence to the eyes of followers through his decisions to post pictures of himself dressed like an East Coast rapper. Although I suppose dressing in his native Stevenage colours wouldn't improve the situation much (Air Max tracksuits aren't great on a grown man).

Lewis has suffered 'hiccups' in other areas however, not least with the press. The lowest point came after his Ali G comments resulted in an unintentional racism storm back in 2011. Perhaps as a result of that, it does seem that he has now begun to manage his answers when faced with tricky questions, meaning he's joined the ranks of drivers who shield their true feelings behind a wall of generic "we'll see" and "maybe" responses. In many ways this is a shame as most fans want to see real emotion from drivers, but it's sure to keep the teams and particularly the sponsors happy, and they write the cheques!

Hamilton was fantastic through the junior ranks

Nevertheless, in my opinion Lewis doesn't even have to say anything to the cameras, or have to add a new twist to his Tweets; he just has to drive. I mean there's no denying it, Lewis is fantastic behind the wheel. From looking across his entire career, Lewis has demonstrated raw talent and natural speed in a range of racing machinery. It is true that he was fortunate enough to have had a push and significant funding from McLaren to get him to where he is today, but nothing can take from the fact he has demonstrated his worthiness and ability throughout. Even ignoring his successful junior years, his arrival in F1 was more than spectacular. Partnered with World Champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren, it was fair to assume it would be a very steep learning curve for Lewis. This didn't seem to phase him however, as he even managed to beat Fernando with competence and control not normally seen until several years into a driver's F1 career. We can't forget that had it not been for just a couple of costly errors and unlucky mechanical issues, Lewis could have been F1's first rookie World Champion.

Lewis celebrates his 2012 Canadian GP win

"But he's always been in a competitive car" I hear you say. This is true for the most part, but even if we were to ignore the results and focus entirely on his driving, his on track ability is nothing short of outstanding. Of all the current F1 drivers, his choice to set up the car in such a way that allows it to move about underneath him, creates some of the most fantastic on board footage and highly impressive driving. His style seems to be most prominent when he is on the absolute limit, where he seems comfortable with a significant amount of rear slip. This style was even evident not long ago on the BBC's own Top Gear, where Lewis managed to reduce the fastest Top Gear track lap time in the 'very normal' Suzuki Liana, by over 1 second. Stick him in anything on 4 wheels, and you can be confident Lewis will wring its neck.

So despite his colourful antics in the paddock and less than perfect image, when he sticks on the helmet and is belted into his car, I am a big Lewis Hamilton fan. Let's hope that 2013 will be the time he does the talking on track (but not in the Kimi Raikkonen "leave me alone" sense however!). Maybe then Formula 1's wider fanbase will begin to finally accept Lewis for what he really is, a phenomenally talented racing driver and wholly deserving World Champion.