Month: March 2008

While I am as green as the next person, or maybe even more so, this just seems wrong on so many levels. The British cabinet is debating replacing their Jaguars with the hybrid Prius. As the Financial Times reports, “Gordon Brown’s cabinet clashed yesterday over whether to replace British-built ministerial cars with Japanese Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles, amid new evidence that the government is failing to live up to its green rhetoric. John Hutton, the business secretary, led the criticism of the plan to import more cars from Japan rather than use traditional British vehicles, saying it sent out a bad signal to domestic manufacturers.” Sad, very sad. You can read the full article at the Financial Times site.

Ford is on the verge of selling Jaguar to Indian company Tata after failing to see a return on its investment after nearly 20 years. What caused the British luxury car maker’s decline? When the Ford Motor Company acquired Jaguar in 1989, the American giant was aiming for a slice of the lucrative European luxury-car business – with ambitions to snatch sales from the dominant Germans. Nearly 20 years later, however, Jaguar has yet to post a profit, its sales continue to shrink, and the British brand is about to be offloaded to giant Indian company Tata.

Lola Cars has launched a specially designed 50th Anniversary poster at the Race Retro Show at Stoneleigh (14 to 16 March). The unique double sided A1 glossy poster depicts one Lola car from each of the fifty years, ranging from the first Lola sportcar built – the Mk1, through to the very latest LMP Coupe that will race for the first time in April of this year. The distinguished list of cars featured in the poster illustrates the true diversity of the company’s designs throughout the last From drawing boards to CAD stations, some of the UK’s most talented racecar designers have contributed to Lola’s 50 golden years in motorsport. Leading these talents from 1958 to 1997 was Eric Broadley, the founder of Lola Cars. During Broadley’s time at Lola his pupils included a long list of distinguished car designers […]

The legendary Ford GT super car has been given a makeover and incredible power boost by a British company to form the Avro 720 Mirage limited edition. Brooklands based Avro Motor Cars has teamed up with Ford engine experts Roush to produce just 10 Avro 720 Mirage – with a top speed in excess of 220mph. To achieve this staggering performance Roush has taken out the standard supercharger and fitted the Avro 720 Mirage with a larger, polished version.

Jaguar intends to become a copycat by following Porsche’s sales strategy of selling fewer cars with higher profit margins. The British luxury-car brand has targeted the German sports car maker’s successful business formula after years of losses and underperforming sales under American owner Ford. Jaguar, along with sister company Land Rover, is on the verge of being sold to Indian company Tata, a transition that is unlikely to change plans to abandon the previous (Ford) strategy of chasing big volumes. At the launch of the car maker’s new XF model in Monaco, Jaguar’s design director and senior figurehead Ian Callum said the successor to the S-Type signalled a fresh approach for the brand. “Our aim now as a luxury brand is to aim for about 100,000 units a year, not 200,000 or 300,000,” he said. “That’s about the right size […]

IT IS not a case of if, but when Land Rover will build its smallest off-roader. The LRX Concept was shown at the Melbourne Motor Show last month and Land Rover flew in its chief designer Julian Thomson for the presentation. He said the four-seater LRX “cross coupe” would go into production in three to four years and would look very similar to the show car. The LRX is smaller than a Freelander and features a rising waistline, no B pillar, a space-age interior with LED lights in the carpet which is made from recycled drink bottles, and it is powered by a hybrid electric/bio-diesel powerplant. “The exterior is close to what we will have in production – the mirrors will have to be bigger – but much of it will go into production,” Thomson said. “Car design is really […]

MPs have demanded a government-backed inquiry into the collapse of MG Rover is forced to publish its findings. The independent investigation began in June 2005 but has so far not reported any of its conclusions. In January it was revealed it had cost £11.8m. The Birmingham car maker went bust in April 2005 with the loss of 6,000 jobs. The business and enterprise committee of MPs has called for the findings to be made public, but the government has refused to set inspectors a deadline. The government called in fraud and insolvency specialists to help the official inquiry into the failure of the firm, which was bought by Nanjing Automobile Corporation in July 2005. ‘Community destroyed’ Mid-Worcestershire Conservative MP Peter Luff, who chairs the business and enterprise committee, said the inquiry had taken long enough.

Nice article in the LA Times on the new MINI Cooper Clubman. The article starts of by saying, “It’s my considered opinion that the BMW Mini Cooper is the most successful car design of the last 20 years. What can touch it? Here’s a car that puts a spearmint thrill through you every time you turn the key, a larking, capering, glass-and-steel nymph that nicks past other traffic like it’s mired in molasses. On top of the giddy charge of merely wheeling the thing, you’ve got this utterly charismatic styling, a po-mo masterpiece, a rolling tribute to the iconic Mini (1959 to 2000) designed by Alec Issigonis and built by the British Motor Corp. That’s Sir Alec to you, you peon.” For the rest of the story, got to the LA Times.

In June 2007, The Lightning Car Company announced its intent to develop electric technology for a luxury British sports car – the Lightning GT. Today sees the unveiling of its evolutionary design. This super car with its outstanding presence & performance is set to put British sports car innovation well and truly back on the map. Designed to accommodate the latest battery and motor technology and reflect its 100% electric power and performance, the electric Lightning prototype is being hand-built by a small team of passionate British engineers, designers and collaborators. Whilst the rest of the automotive world engages in the hybrid, hydrogen or electric debate, the Lightning Car Company firmly believes its 100% Electric Lightning GT will help kick start the market for performance EV’s. Without a significant positive shift in perception, electric motoring will remain a huge compromise […]

Ok, I know things have been going up in price and that Triumphs have really been undervalued for a very long time, but $44,000 for a TR-4A really is a lot of money. This one was beautiful though, with surrey top and everything. Check out the full story here at Autoweek, and please let me know what you think!

An entry list of 27 cars has been revealed for the 2008 Avon Tyres British GT Championship featuring 19 cars in GT3 and eight in the new GT4 class. Defending champions RPM will run two cars in the GT3 class and also expand into GT4 with a further three cars. Former BTCC race-winner Paul O’Neill will partner Steve Clark in the #1 entry while Nick Foster will be partnered by experienced youngster Oliver Bryant in the sister car. In GT4, the team will run three Ginetta G50s for the pairings of Steve Tandy/Phil Bailey, Joe Osbourne/Michael Broadhurst and Chris Cooke/James Harrison.

Vauxhall is overhauling the design of its famous Griffin badge and will give the new logo a much bigger presence on the face of all its new models, starting with this summer’s redesigned Insignia, the Vectra replacement. The Griffin badge currently shares space on the nose of Vauxhall’s models with a chrome V-shaped finisher, which will remain a feature on the nose of models. But the redesigned Griffin will be the dominant identity on the nose of the Insignia, with other models getting the new badge as they are facelifted or replaced. “Time has come for the Griffin badge to get an update, just as our new model range needs,” says a Vauxhall source. The move will bring Vauxhall more in line with German sister-company Opel, whose circular badge crossed with a zig-zag dominates the front of its versions of […]

The long-shelved Jaguar F-Type sports car, which debuted at the 2000 North American International Auto Show, appears to have secured the backing of Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, whose company is expected to take ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover within the next two weeks. Speaking to journalists at the Geneva motor show on Tuesday, Tata said of the two-seater, “I’d be delighted if we have one in the range.” Smiling to journalists as he was questioned about the car, Tata said, “I do have a strong view about it,” leaving listeners without doubt that he has interest in getting the F-Type into production.

Bentley is pinning its green future on more efficient gasoline engines powered by biofuel combined with lighter-weight body construction, rather than a radical switch to diesel or hybrid powertrains. “We don’t think our customers, particularly in North America and Europe, are ready for a diesel Bentley, said Uli Eichhorn, Bentley chief engineer, on Tuesday at the Geneva motor show. Although Bentley Chairman Franz-Josef Paefgen refuses to rule out a diesel powertrain, Eichhorn said: “Not ruling it out does not mean it is our top priority.” Hybrid powertrains don’t fit the typical usage cycle of a Bentley, according to Eichhorn. “(Hybrids) are very good in cities and stop-start driving, but that’s not where out cars are used.”

Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom Coupe brought in conquest customers ahead of its launch at the Geneva motor show on Tuesday. “Two-thirds [of the names] in our early order bank are from non Rolls-Royce owners,” said CEO Ian Robertson as he unveiled the new model. “It means we’re beginning to appeal to a broader audience. “We’ve already sold a clear 200 or more,” Robertson said. The Phantom Coupe was previewed by the 101EX concept car, which was shown at Geneva two years ago. The production model retains the look and many of the features of the 101EX, including the much-admired starlight headliner and the option of polished metal hood and windsheld frame. The Phantom Coupe is a sportier Rolls-Royce, said Robertson. “But it is still very clearly not a sports car.” The 200-plus orders for the Phantom Coupe mean that planned production […]

It looks like a regular Opel (Saturn) Astra, but the car that’s pictured is completely different. This vehicle is Lotus Engineering’s first attempt at creating a hybrid vehicle, and represents the launch of a branch of the British firm dedicated to engineering and developing hybrid and electric vehicles. Underneath its hood, Lotus Engineering has fitted a small 1.5-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine featuring a turbocharger that’s mated to a mild hybrid drivetrain system. The 12 kW electric motor adds power, but not at the cost of fuel economy, and because it isn’t a full hybrid system that allows the car to run on pure electrical power, it poses a price advantage. Lotus has also taken a load off of the main engine by switching over the water pump and the fuel pump to items that are purely electrical, a change that […]

We have covered it before, but I just can’t get enough of this “Green” Morgan. But there is another article on Morgan’s unveiling of the world’s first pollution-free sports car at the Geneva Motor Show. This car is simply gorgeous. For the full article, see The Daily Mail. What do you think of the styling? Would you buy one? How does it fit in with the other Morgans?