Letters of the week, August 9

Hole in one

The new £200,000 Ferrari 488 Spider has a button that lowers a back window, thereby “increasing the noise of the V8” (“It will blow away cobwebs at 203mph”, last week). There’s a better way — just bore a hole in the exhaust. You’d think all boy racers, however well-off, would know this.

Jim Hewit, Wormit, Newport-on-Tay, Fife

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Jam today

Ignoring the legality or otherwise of closing a motorway to provide a lorry park, I had to laugh at the Kent county council spokesman’s “We are looking at other options but this is going to take more than a few months to solve” (“Road to hell: getting stuck in operation stack (and is there a better solution?)”, last week). Well, it’s been 27 years so far and counting.

A facility should have been identified, constructed and financed years ago.

Malcom Brockman, Maidstone

Delivering first baby

You refer to a 1974 Ford Fiesta. Ford didn’t market the Fiesta until 1976, using the tag line “Ford’s new baby” — its first foray into the small hatchback market. At the time I worked for the Ford main dealer in Keighley and had the honour of driving the first Fiesta off the transporter.

Andrew Morton, Rochdale

Caught in the middle

With reference to Will Dron’s article on undertaking (“One daft move and I’m seen as a menace for years to come”, July 19), has anyone been prosecuted for persistent middle-lane hogging? The police must have known it is now an offence to keep to the middle lane. Why didn’t they go after the real culprit in this case?

Derek Conway, Wembley, northwest London

See it from both sides

Many countries have four, five or six-lane motorways and allow drivers to pass on either side of the vehicle in front. It is safe as long as everyone understands the need to check for movement on both sides of the vehicle. It works well in America and elsewhere, so why should it not work in Britain?

Jay Wijesekara, Chislehurst, Kent

Historic blunder

I have owned an historic vehicle for 24 years, but the process of applying for annual vehicle tax has reached Kafkaesque proportions. Each year, I walk to the local post office with the appropriate forms but pay no money. The post office in return no longer issues me with a tax disc, which I am no longer obliged to display. Given that the vehicle will never get any younger, it seems a number of steps could be cut out of this bureaucratic process.

John Jackson, Shropshire

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