David Gandy on the future of electric cars

David Gandy tries out the Jaguar I-Pace on a dedicated test track in northern Sweden Credit: Andy Morgan

By David Gandy
telegraph

It's a stereotype that Essex boys love their cars, but in my case it's true. Cars are of absolutely no interest to my father, an entrepreneur (he wouldn't notice if you arrived in a Ferrari and left in a Vauxhall Nova), but they've been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, before I could read, a friend and I would spend hours leafing through his grand­father's car magazines, gazing at the pictures of Sierra Cosworths and Lancia Deltas.

[post_ads]Things didn't change when I started school. By the age of 10, I had an encyclopedic knowledge of every car on the road and how quickly they could do 0-60. If my A levels had been based on the history of cars, car design and how clean my car was in the car park, I'd have gone to Cambridge with top grades.

The first car I really fell in love with was the Ferrari F40, which starred in a poster on my bedroom wall, but the car that changed my life was a little different - a 1988 Ford Fiesta 1.1. It was second-hand and had belonged to one of the businesses my dad owned at the time. No one else wanted to drive it, but it was my pride and joy. I named it The Beast and it had electric windows that quite often wouldn't work, and doors that sometimes refused to open.

David Gandy has had a lifelong love affair with cars Credit: Andy Morgan

That car was one of the greatest things that had ever happened to me, but it didn't help my love life. On one occasion, the door-handle cables snapped on both sides of the car, meaning my date and I had to climb out of a window. I thought it was quite cool - all rather Dukes of Hazzard - but obviously she did not, as I never saw her again. Things didn't improve when I swapped my Fiesta for a Peugeot 106 XSi - even though at the time it was one of the best hot hatches around. I loved driving that car: it was fast and handled like a dream. It's still one of the most fun cars I've ever driven.

I was not a favourite of Billericay Town Council, as I inadvertently trimmed a few hedges and ploughed a large grassy bank more than once - but I had one advantage over the average Essex boy racer: after leaving school, I landed three months' work experience at Auto Express magazine and started going to racetracks where professionals taught me to drive around a circuit.

That was a great job and I think I would have become a motoring journalist if modelling hadn't come along. I still watch a lot of car programmes - my Sky Q box is full of restoration car shows, much to the annoyance of my girlfriend - and I spend hours reading books about the history of cars.

The Ferrari F40 was the first car David Gandy fell in love with Credit: Tom Wood/Alamy

Restoring my Mercedes-Benz 190 SL took two sometimes painful and frustrating years, but it didn't put me off a project. I currently have another two restorations on the go - a 1965 Porsche 356 and a Jaguar XK120. I wish I could say I am doing it all myself, but I don't think I'd feel comfortable driving a car that I'd built, so I leave it to expert restorer Parry Chana and the team at Jaguar Classic.

One of the most thrilling experiences of my life has been driving a Jaguar XKSS, the world's first supercar and the model that Steve McQueen used to drive. A road-going version of the Jaguar D-Type racing car, the XKSS was made in 1957. But although Jaguar planned to create 25, nine were destroyed in a fire at the company's Browns Lane factory in Coventry, meaning only 16 were ever completed. And I drove one. It is valued at somewhere between £18 million and £20 million, and it was an incredible experience to drive this beauty around a testing ground at speed.

The Jaguar XKSS was the world's first supercar and driven by Steve McQueen Credit: Stuart Collins/Stuart Collins

They don't make cars like that any more. And, of course, they can't: today's safety regulations mean the old designs wouldn't be allowed. But, while I like all the mod cons - heated steering wheels, multimedia systems - there is another side of me that craves the excitement and romance of the cars of the 1950s and '60s.

[post_ads]The closest I have ever got to all that is the Mille Miglia, a classic car rally every avid driver dreams about, consisting of about 1,000 miles of local roads in Italy. I've done it twice in a Jaguar XK120 and it is absolutely mad - 400 of the world's most beautiful pre-1957 cars racing against the clock through spectacular scenery. The first time I did it, with my co-driver Yasmin Le Bon, we crashed down a bank in the rain, ending up with the car on its side not far from a row of trees, a crowd of spectators and a house. It could have been a lot worse.

But, although we were shaken, as soon as the engineers told us the car could be fixed, all we wanted to do was get back in the race. The competitive spirit takes over and you don't think about the danger. I once sat next to the head of Mercedes F1 at dinner, and he told me the Mille Miglia was the craziest, most dangerous race he'd ever taken part in and he'd never do it again. I hope to race in my own XK120 in two years' time.

The Jaguar I-Pace in warmer climes

The only other four-wheel adventure that has come close to the Mille Miglia was a trip to Arjeplog, in northern Sweden. Close to the Arctic Circle, Arjeplog is where car makers go to test their latest models. Between January and March, temperatures can drop to -40C, and manufacturers take advantage of the extreme conditions and large frozen lakes to push their cars to the limit.
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It's an extraordinary place, a vast wilderness of snow and ice, and all anyone seems to do there is drive cars fast and sideways, which to me is heaven. I tried Jaguar's new all-electric I-Pace with the company's Formula E racing driver Mitch Evans. I've been rather negative about electric cars in the past, but this one won me over. It's beautifully designed, ridiculously fast and with an awesome all-wheel-drive system. Jaguar offers superb Experience Drives, teaching you how to drift and slide under full control - even if it does go a bit wrong and you spin, there's nothing for miles around to collide with.

So am I ready for an all-electric car? Yes, if it's a Jaguar I-Pace. But will I also be giving up my classics on the weekends? Absolutely not!

For information on Jaguar's Ice Drive Experience, Arjeplog, visit jaguar.com/experience-jaguar