My original draft of this story had underscores _____ where the name of the sports car went. Despite the fact that Top Gear is somewhere on Freeview every day of the week I didn’t know enough about ‘Supercars’ to actually name one, especially since I really wanted it to be a British car. Davie is Gallifreyan on his mother’s side, but he’s British on his father’s side. And fiercely proud of both. But a good quality British car is actually a bit of a tall order. Jeremy Clarkson bemoans that fact all the time.
It took a bit of research and discussion, and watching some Top Gear reviews on You-Tube to decide on the McLaren F1. Like most people, when I heard the name, I thought of the Formula One race car, and Lewis Hamilton. But when I saw the F1 road car that was developed from the racing technology I decided it was going to be the one Davie would have bought to replace the DeLorean he had to destroy when the Dominators invaded. It’s a car for a petrolhead, which is a description I have used for Davie Campbell on many occasions.
When I looked closer at the F1 I was definitely sold. The unusual arrangement of the seats – the driver’s seat in the middle and two passenger seats either side, not only made me think immediately of Davie’s unusual love triangle with Brenda and Spenser, but also meant that he was slightly hamstrung when he was carjacked by having a harder time getting out of the gull winged doors from the centre in that way. It fitted this story perfectly.
However, the F1 is an incredibly EXPENSIVE car and until a very late rewrite it actually made no sense that Davie could have bought such a car and then complain that he needs funding for his energy cell project. Surely he would have paid for that FIRST. Originally, he simply bought it in a bankruptcy auction in 2009. But even if an owner of a McLaren F1 went belly up in the recession that car would still sell at least half a million pounds. So I made a change in the dialogue so that he bought it as a grunge covered scrap car with a seized up engine and painstakingly restored it. This is a bit more convincing, I think.
“Where did you get it?” Susan asked.
“From a bankruptcy auction in Finchley, in 2009. It was hardly used, in near perfect condition and a fraction of its real value. I brought it back in the TARDIS. I’ve made a space in the console room… like a carport, so I can take it to places where I can drive it properly. Next week, I thought I’d take it back to the 21st century and try it out at the Nürburgring.
Susan had no idea what the Nürburgring was, and right now she didn’t want to ask. She might not like the answer.
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“Where did you get it?” Susan asked.
“From an auction in Finchley. It was in terrible condition when I got it. The engine block was completely seized up and had been for decades and it was missing a lot of electrics. It was covered in grunge. I don’t think the people selling it even knew what it was. I think it had been in a parking garage since before the Dalek invasion! I got it for scrap value, would you believe! When it was new, it cost nearly three quarters of a million pounds. I had to go back to the late 20th century to get some of the parts for it. They just don’t make cars like this any more.”
“I’m not surprised,” Susan commented. “You must have worked hard on it. It looks nearly new.”
“Labour of love. It’s a beautiful car,” he answered with a smile. “I’ve made a space for it in my TARDIS console room… like a carport, so I can take it to places where I can drive it properly. Next week, I thought I’d take it back to the 21st century and try it out at the Nürburgring.
Susan had no idea what the Nürburgring was, and right now she didn’t want to ask. She might not like the answer.
The Nürburgring, which Susan had never heard of, but anyone who follows motorsports or watches Top Gear knows, is a race track in Germany. It is part of the Formula One season, hosting the German Grand Prix, and is also open to the public on non-racing days. Anyone with a car, motorbike, or any motor vehicle is allowed to pay a surprisingly small fee and take their vehicle onto the twelve and half mile circuit. I can’t even drive, and I think that is possibly the best thrill ride next to a trip in the TARDIS, so Davie would definitely go for it. I may well write a story that features him, Spenser, Brenda and the McLaren at the Nürburgring just as soon as I think of something that could happen there that qualifies as science fiction. It would at least justify bringing this car into the storylines, because it feels slightly indulgent at the moment.
The boxing in technique that allowed Davie’s car to be hijacked in broad daylight is one that can be seen quite often on progammes like ‘Road Wars’ where the police use it to stop stolen cars. I used it once before in Torchwood to stop a police car being driven by an alien. Here, on the M25, I needed four vehicles, not three, in order to get Davie’s car onto the verge where, in fact, the McLaren would be in big trouble, being quite low at the front like most supercars. The sliproad for the M23, was chosen using Google Earth to trace his likely route from Richmond to Brands Hatch where he was travelling to. It was roughly as far as he should have travelled in the implied time, and the wide left turn off with trees and bushes around it was a perfect place for a carjack. At least in a future time when there weren’t many traffic police.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_F1
http://www.mclarenautomotive.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring
