OUR CARS 2021 ROUND-UP
“During its time with Pete, our Puma clocked up close to 30,000 miles”
Ford Puma
Mileage 29,983 MPG 44.3
Pete Gibson Senior photographer
ISSUE 1,688 IT was perhaps the most unlikely shot of the year, but when senior photographer Pete Gibson headed down to Llandow circuit in the Vale of Glamorgan, he couldn’t resist lining up his grey Ford Puma beside a green BMW M3 and a red Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio. The Puma might give away three cylinders and 350bhp to each of the super-saloons, but Pete reckons that on the right road, the Puma can still elicit the same kind of grins from its driver.
Pete’s journey from Essex to south Wales was made all the more memorable because it was one of the first road tests he was able to shoot after this year’s lockdown restrictions were lifted, and he maintains there wasn’t a car he’d rather have done it with.
It wasn’t the only time Pete took his Puma to a track, though. He also joined Thruxton’s circuit instructors, who use Ford’s brilliant small SUV to teach those attending its driving experience centre the circuit’s challenging lines. As unlikely as it sounds, the instructors think their Puma STs fit the bill perfectly, and while Pete’s car was a rather more workaday 1.0-litre ST-Line, he found it to be the ideal all-purpose partner. In fact, during its time with Pete, it clocked up close to 30,000 miles, taking him around the country, and the Gibson family on various trips.
