Behind The Wheels
方向盘之后——你不知道的汽车趣闻
The more nerdy car-spotters among you may be dismayed to know that the most interesting thing about a car is not its horsepower nor the cubic capacity of its boot. It's not the top speed either. Nor is it the price or the colour.
你身边那些比较呆板的汽车迷可能会失望地发现，关于汽车最有意思的事——不是马力，不是后备箱容积，不是最高速度，也不是车的价格或颜色。
After years of professionally writing about cars I've discovered that the most interesting thing about cars is none of those dry specifications. It's their drivers.
多年专业从事汽车专题写作的我发现，关于汽车最有趣的事不是这些枯燥的配置，而是汽车的驾驶员。
For example, while enthusiasts drooled about the Ultimate Aero supercar setting a new world production car speed record of 256mph (412kph) in 2006 - I was more excited that the driver was an unheard-of 71-year-old pensioner roped in as a test pilot.
举个例子，2006年当狂热爱好者们为Ultimate Aero超级跑车创造了256英里/小时（412公里/小时）的量产车最高速度世界记录激动不已时，更让我兴奋的却是，当时的测试驾驶员竟是一位名不见经传、被硬拉来帮忙的71岁退休老人。
The most fascinating fact about BMW? Nothing to do with "the ultimate driving machines." For me it's that around 53,000 British people google what BMW stands for every year (It's Bayerische Motoren Werke).
宝马汽车最吸引人的事实是什么？和“终极驾驶机器”没有丝毫关系。对我来说，最有趣的是大约有5.3万英国人每年搜索“BMW”代表什么意思（答案是巴伐利亚发动机工厂）。
So in between writing the usual road tests, new car reports and mechanical specifications for publications like Autocar and Top Gear, I've privately collected a massive archive of weird and wonderful human stories lurking behind the cars.
因此，在为《Autocar》和《Top Gear》等刊物撰写常规的道路测试、新车报告和机械规格相关文章之余，我私下编撰了一个大型档案，收录了一个个隐藏在汽车背后光怪陆离的关于人的故事。
I've started writing this treasure trove of extraordinary automotive anecdotes into books but the collection grows faster than I can churn them out.
我开始把这些精妙的汽车趣闻宝库编写成书，但藏品的增长速度却比我把它们写出来的速度还要快。
Am I the only one to think the motorists make better stories than their motors? Here's a chance to make your own mind up - with 7 favourite stories from my collection:
我是唯一认为驾驶者的故事比他们驾驶的汽车更有趣的人吗？这里有一个让你自己考虑的机会——请看从我的藏品中选出的7个我最爱的故事：
In 1896, the great inventive engineer Henry Ford finished building his first car, called The Quadricycle, in a small shed behind his Detroit house. He was to become one of the world's most successful businessmen - but this time he had badly miscalculated.
1896年，伟大的发明家、工程师亨利·福特（Henry Ford）在他底特律的房子后的一个小棚子里制作完成了他的第一辆车，名为“四轮车”。他当时即将成为世界上最成功的商人之一，但这一次，他严重失算了。
The completed Quadricycle wouldn't fit out through the workshop door. He'd built it bigger than the width of the door. Henry had to resort to using an axe and brute force to chop out the workshop's doorframe and knock out the bricks around the door to make the opening wider. Then at last he could get his pioneering creation out for its first ever drive.
完成的四轮车无法通过车间门，他造好的车子比门的宽度还大。亨利不得不使用斧头和蛮力来砍掉车间的门框，敲掉门周围的砖块，拓宽出口。这才终于把他开创性的作品搬出屋来，进行有史以来的第一次驾驶。
Millionaire rock star Noel Gallagher forgot he'd bought a pristine classic car for £110,000. The former Oasis guitarist was puzzled when a beautifully restored 1967 Jaguar Mark II arrived at his house on a delivery truck.
百万富翁摇滚明星诺埃尔·加拉格尔（Noel Gallagher）忘记了他以11万英镑的价格买了一辆崭新的古董车。这位前绿洲乐队吉他手在送货卡车将一辆经过精心修复的1967年捷豹Mark II运抵他家时，他倍感困惑。
It turned out he had ordered it spontaneously two years previously. Since then a specialist company had been painstakingly restoring it for him. At the time he ordered it he had hoped to learn to drive - but never got round it. He forgot the whole thing. So he has never driven the classic car he forgot he bought… and it still sits unused in his garage.
