Nissan Navara

Meet our new Nissan Navara Aventura. Yes, it looks pretty much like the last one (other than it being red, obviously) and that’s because it is. Last year we were so impressed by the all-round capability of the Navara that we tried to coax Nissan into extending the loan. They said no, but very generously offered a shiny new one instead. And it’s a good job they did, because it was pressed into service almost immediately.

One of its primary roles is to tow race-cars to photoshoots or trackdays. The first machine that required its services, however, was our Grand Challenge Peugeot 205, which had refused to start after being left for a month without being fired up. No amount of bump-starting could coax the battered little thing back into life, not even Meaden pulling it flat-out around the car park behind a Porsche Cayenne. So it had to be carted off to the Paragon workshops (minus the parts that had fallen off).

Now, I wasn’t in the office for any of this, so trailer-loading duties were left to Peter T and the rest of the gang and this simple task soon degenerated into a pantomime as the jockey-wheel collapsed and the front of the trailer hit the deck. However with most of the office standing on the back, order was restored and the trailer hitched.

The Navara is a great tow-car, remaining level and stable. In fact after a while you can easily forget that there’s anything behind you. The 2.5-litre diesel engine may not be the last word in accelerative power, but it’s got enough torque for it never to be troubled while towing and it only makes a small dent in the usual 26mpg fuel economy figure. Of course its other strength this time of year is that it can go places the rest of the Fast Fleet can’t. Last summer, you may recall, our blue Navara rescued half of Harry’s flooded village, and recently parts of Northamptonshire have been similarly soggy, and yet you never worry about not being able to get home. I’ve yet to test the full off-road capabilities of the Navara, but I reckon it’ll make a good mud-plugger and I plan to test it fully this time around. All’s well in the Nissan camp, then; I’m just going to have to teach the rest of the team how to use a trailer. The reversing lessons should be fun…