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New Cars

New British Supercar – Keating TKR

The 1,000bhp club has a new member – and it’s British! With 1,500bhp, the Keating TKR delivers even more power than the Bugatti Veyron supercar. The mid-engined two-seater is designed solely for track use. But don’t panic, as there is a roadgoing model, too. The latter is called the SKR, and looks the same as its more powerful stablemate. It’s available with a choice of four engines, offering outputs ranging from 404bhp to 656bhp. The fastest street-legal car does 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds and can hit 205mph. All models use the same General Motors-derived 6.0 and 7.0-litre V8s, and engineers have used superchargers and twin-turbos to boost power. The Keating’s sleek lines, tall rear spoiler and air vents look as if they are straight from the race track. And with a bespoke steel spaceframe chassis and fibreglass bodywork, it’s light, […]

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Corporate Business

AC Cars Returns Home

Legendary British sports car maker AC Cars is returning home to Britain to build its cars at Brooklands in Surrey. The company that built the iconic AC Cobra had been based in Malta but a legal dispute over the factory has prompted the return to Britain. Owner of the AC brand, Acedes Holdings LLC, struck the new deal with AC specialist Brooklands Motor Company, which has been based in Jack Brabham’s former workshops in Weybridge, Surrey, for the past two decades. The company will make the original AC Ace, the AC MK11, the AC MK11 FIA and the AC MK111 at the Brooklands facility. A new factory in Michigan is also planned where AC will build cars for the US market. It is expected that about ten cars a year costing £150,000 will come out of the Brooklands workshop and […]

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Corporate Business

Roewe 550 Unveiled

This is the car which will put MG back on the map – in Birmingham. It’s called the Roewe 550, but Auto Express can exclusively reveal that an MG-badged version is on its way, and is likely to be made at Longbridge. The 550 has been designed to appeal to British buyers – the lines were penned by a team of leading UK stylists working for Roewe’s owner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). The Chinese firm recently bought NAC MG, and is now looking to use the famous octagon logo to give it a slice of the lucrative European market, as SAIC has decided not to bring the Roewe badge here. A car based on the 550 will be the first MG to go on sale.

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Corporate Business

Geoff Polites, CEO of Land Rover and Jaguar, Dead at 60

DEARBORN, Mich., April 20, 2008 – Geoff Polites, chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover, has died peacefully in his home country of Australia. He was 60. Mr. Polites, who is credited with leading the team that returned the Jaguar Land Rover business back to profitability and successfully steering it through its ongoing sale process to Tata Motors, had been battling serious illness for the past two years. “Geoff’s untimely passing robs his family and friends of a man who was a real inspiration to us all,” said Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer, Ford Motor Company. “His drive and determination, combined with his clear sense of vision for the business, played a huge role in turning round the business at Jaguar Land Rover and returning it to profitability. Geoff ensured that Jaguar Land Rover was not distracted and […]

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Corporate Business

More Doubts Over MG At Longbridge

The last car to be manufactured at Longbridge may have already rolled off the production line, industry insiders fear. They said the decision by main supplier Stadco to stop manufacturing body-shells for the MG TF sports car, as The Birmingham Post revealed on Saturday, could effectively sound the “death knell” for the Nanjing project. One influential source said he doubted whether Nanjing parent SAIC would ever produce cars from Longbridge.

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Corporate Business

MG Is Back … Sort Of

Ever since MG Rover went bust in 2005 and was bought by Nanjing Automotive, rumors have flown about when the automaker’s Longbridge factory would resume production of its iconic roadster and other models. Well after a long wait, to the delight of enthusiasts MGs are once again available in the UK…just not ones made by the Chinese parent company. A new endeavor launched by Englishman William Riley called MG Sports and Racing Europe has begun selling a supercharged coupe called the MG X-Power WR. Based on the old company’s most expensive model, the new sports car is built in Eardiston, UK, and priced between approximately $150,000 and $175,000, with seven models sold so far and 35 additional orders in the pipeline.

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New Cars

Jaguar XF

With the launch of the XF sedan and the deletion of the S-Type and X-Type from its U.S. lineup, Jaguar now offers cars in America powered only by V8 engines. The XF’s hard points come from the S-Type, which it replaces. But Jaguar is using the V8 engines, suspension, subframes, six-speed transmission, propeller shaft and differential from the upmarket XJ sedan and XK sports car. Despite all the parts scrounging, the XF has little in common with the rest of the Jaguar lineup or its predecessor. This could be the car that carries Jaguar into the modern age and out of the wood-and-leather ghetto.

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Corporate Business

Triumphing During Economic Slowdown

According to MotorTrend, the economic slowdown is actually going to be a benefit for the British car industry. Cardiff Business School car industry guru Professor Garel Rhys is predicting that the falling value of Sterling will make British built cars easier to export, despite the gloomy economic outlook. He said that some 76 per cent of UK car production was for export, and Sterling’s value fall would make these vehicles more profitable, helping to justify inward investment in the UK car industry, notably from emerging economies such as China. The latest UK vehicle investor is Indian industrial combine Tata, which has recently bought Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford. Other investors include the Russian backers of the LDV van making business. He added that the currency value shifts would cut the profitability of imported cars, which currently account for 86 […]

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Aston Martin

Aston Martin GT2

Aston Martin has revealed more shots of its new Vantage GT2. The latest Aston racer was first shown as sketches in January. It also was seen at a test at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France in March. The Vantage GT2 fills out Aston Martin’s GT lineup, giving it a competitor in each category. Three teams have signed up to drive the Vantage GT2: James Watt Automotive, Drayson-Barwell and Gigawave. The car will make its race debut in the first round of the Le Mans Series on April 5 at Barcelona, Spain. The Vantage GT2 can run on standard fuel or E85 ethanol. It’s based on the V8-powered Vantage road car. Source: AutoWeek