A Day in Heaven

On the way to visit my grandad yesterday I had an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.

It came in the form of a car dealership called Cummings, which is situated in Bodmin Cornwall. This dealership stocks the latest supercars (not many as it is rather small) and as a young car fan I just had to stop. On show were the new Mercedes SLS AMG, a Bentley Continental GT, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Aston DB9, a sold awaiting collection DB5, a not for sale Mercedes 300CL and a BMW M5. This was just the showroom. On the forecourt I noticed a new BM Z4 sDrive35is, a Porsche 911 (997) Turbo amongst other things.

I've visited many times before but I don't remember the cars ever being unlocked and available to be sat in! I naturally took the opportunity with open arms. I decided not to be too cheeky and made a three car sit in wish list. I started with the Midnight Blue M5. I didn't stay long because there was a weird grinding noise coming from inside somewhere. It's the sound you get as an electric motor struggles to operate something. I then sit in the already open SLS.

I look down the long bonnet and find visibility down it to be surprisingly decent. I then poke and prod at some of the buttons and switchgear. This was mainly to learn the difference in quality between a £159,000 Merc supercar and a ten year old £1,000 (to be optimistic) Ford Fiesta. All the buttons click with more purpose and are softer to the touch is what I found. I think to myself about the issue of the Gullwing doors, "Just how easy are they to close?" I reach up and find my elbow to still be at a noticeable angle when I clasp the door handle. So they aren't hard to close then. At least, not for 6ft of humanity it isn't.

I move on to my last car, really enjoying myself I might add, and arrive at the door of the Aston V12 Vantage. I take time to look at the naked Carbon Fibre on show and think "wow, this is a serious machine!" I open the door with no trouble and raise my foot to step inside when all of a sudden the baby Aston cried for mummy. I explained, with humble contrition engraved on my face, to the attendant that it wasn't my intention to steal it. She then told me to go get the shop attendant who could sort the problem out. He did so brilliantly and I was allowed to sit inside. I look for a moment at the buttons and the craftsmanship that is the interior of on Aston. I then depress the clutch to go through the gears and find it nicely weighted and purposeful in feel. I try to engage reverse and decide it must be, push down and away up. Since the lever didn't budge I decided not to force the issue. This was especially since I had already suffered a minor heart attack, brought on by the cars alarm, and this was a car in a dealership. I then find to my astonishment a lever to move the seat forward and press down the throttle pedal. The thought that I had just pressed the pedal that releases 500 horses entered my mind.

I then just sat there, hands on wheel, and smiled. I smiled some more, and some more. I then decided that I had absorbed my fill of supercar atmosphere and must get on to visit my grandad. I was there for a total of ten minutes. Sat in two £100,000 plus cars and gawped at other cars of not much less value. I had set off a car alarm. Felt a bit like a Jag driver when explaining what had happened but most importantly; visited my idea of heaven.

Here is a link the companies website if you are interested in them. http://www.cummingsofbodmin.co.uk/homenf.htm

I didn't take any images as I felt that would've been too cheeky, even for me.