Bristol BULLET Speedster
Bristol

Bristol BULLET Unveiling and Debut at Salon Privé

Hot on the heels of its public unveiling, is the news that reborn British marque, Bristol, will make its first full public debut with the BULLET at the upcoming Salon Privé event on 1st to 3rd September. As the UK’s most exclusive automotive event, Salon Privé attracts the world’s leading manufacturers, press and collectors. With the event now at the internationally renowned World Heritage site of spectacular Blenheim Palace, its central location and easy access via road, rail and air will ensure visitor numbers continue to increase as guests travel to the event not only from throughout the UK but also overseas. With a bold and confident design and manufactured from bespoke carbon fibre composites in the UK, the Bristol BULLET is launched on the anniversary of the founding of Bristol Cars Limited, celebrating 70 years of sophisticated motoring. With […]

Eagle E-type
Jaguar

E-Type Club’s Round Britain Coastal Drive

The E-type Club’s ROUND BRITAIN COASTAL DRIVE, supporting Prostate Cancer UK is really gathering momentum. Over 100 Jaguar E-types have already booked for one or more of the 18 daily stages around the coastal roads of Great Britain. One of those is Formula 1 legend Ross Brawn who masterminded Michael Schumacher’s seven World Championships. Brawn has a fantastic collection of cars, reflecting his time with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar, including a pair of stunning E-types.

Reader Profile - The Burroughs, a Triumph Family - TR6 and Queen Mary
Reader Profile

Reader Profile – The Burroughs, a Triumph Family

We love reading the stories of people and their cars, so we have decided to start running some reader profiles. This is kind of like our sticker gallery but goes a step further to really focus on the people and cars behind the picture. Our first profile comes to us from Bill and Joanne Burroughs of Vista, California. Bill and Joanne have a 1968 TR250 and a 1970 TR6.

1961 Jaguar Mk X owned by Sir William Lyons
Jaguar

William Lyons’ Own Jaguar Up For Auction

An incredibly special 1961 Jaguar Mk X owned by Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar, will be sold at auction later this year at Silverstone Auctions’ Salon Privé Sale, held at Blenheim Palace on 2nd and 3rd September. Manufactured in December 1961 at the Coventry factory, the car was delivered to Sir William in January 1962 and registered to his Wappenbury Hall address in Warwickshire. Not just any ordinary Jaguar, this Mk X was one of the very first “Zenith” cars produced and made specifically for Lyons to use as his daily driver and finished to his very personal and exact specification. Synonymous with his reputation, Lyons clearly demanded only the very best and the top of the range car houses a 3.8 litre, 6-cylinder engine, which could have whisked him along Warwickshire’s roads at speeds of up to 120 […]

VotW - Unipower GT
Highlights

VotW – Unipower GT

Our video this week is of a rarely heard of, and even less seen, Mini-based beast, the Unipower GT. Not a kit, but a true production sports car in the vein of TVR and Marcos. To quote Wikipedia, because I honestly didn’t know much about the cars… The Unipower GT was a British specialist sports car first shown at the January 1966 Racing Car Show, and produced by truck maker Universal Power Drives Ltd in Perivale, Middlesex and later by U.W.F. Automotive in London until production ceased in early 1970, by which time around 71 cars are believed to have been made, including about 15 built by U.W.F. Originally the brainchild of Ernie Unger and Attila sports racing car designer Val Dare Bryan in the early 1960s the design of Unipower GT was actually said to have been penned by […]

Left Beyond the Horizon; or, eight years around the world 1
Land Rover

Left Beyond the Horizon – A Land Rover Odyssey

Charting the amazing story of Christopher Many’s 125,000-mile, eight-and-a-half-year adventure, Left Beyond the Horizon chronicles his inspirational journey around the world in his trusty 1975 Series III Land Rover, Matilda. Between 2002 and 2010, Christopher’s unforgettable exploration off the beaten track took him from the Scottish Highlands, through Scandinavia and the frozen wastelands of Siberia, and then across Asia. That was before traversing the Pacific Ocean to North and South America, then over the Atlantic, allowing him to drive through Africa and back up to Europe – all to find out what makes the Earth ‘tick’. In the year that saw the wheels stop turning on the iconic Land Rover Defender’s production line, the unshakable robustness and durability of Matilda is a fitting tribute to the much-loved British vehicle. No stranger to tough expeditions herself, Matilda started life being thrown […]

Aston Martin Racing tastes victory at FIA WEC 6 Hours of Nürburgring
Racing and Competition

Aston Martin Reach Podium at 6 Hours of Nürburgring

Aston Martin Racing has achieved double podium success at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, taking victory in the GTE Am class and 3rd in GTE Pro. With conditions remaining dry throughout the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the trio of Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) drove a faultless race to bring their V8 Vantage GTE home in 1st.

Morgan UK 1909 Edition EV3
Morgan

Morgan 1909 Edition EV3 to make Salon Privé Debut

Leading British luxury event, Salon Privé, is delighted to announce that the Morgan 1909 Edition EV3 will make its global public debut at the event, which takes place once again at Blenheim Palace from 1st to 3rd September. Launched in conjunction with Selfridges, alongside nine other iconic British brands, just 19 bespoke, handmade Morgan UK 1909 Edition EV3s will be available for sale. The car, which comes with a bespoke driving kit from British design talents such as Alexander McQueen, Dents and Belstaff, is priced at £52,500.

RAC Woodcote Trophy Competitors Celebrate 10th Anniversary
Racing and Competition

RAC Woodcote Trophy 10th Anniversary

A host of competitors past and present, race organisers and sponsors gathered on Wednesday night in the company of Sir Stirling and Lady Moss at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall to celebrate the 10thanniversary of the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy race series. Launched in 2006, the Royal Automobile Club and Motor Racing Legends conceived a race series for genuine, pre-1956 sports-racers, to be called the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy. 10 years on – this highly respected race series is still going strong.

Saving Our Classics
Highlights

Classics in UK Disappearing at Alarming Rate

Recent research by leading UK classic car insurer, ClassicLine has revealed that a number once-popular British classic cars are facing an extinction crisis. The list of top ten most endangered cars in Britain has been published by the insurance specialists as part of its new ‘Save our Classics’ campaign.

McLaren
Highlights

McLaren Celebrates Record Breaking 5th Anniversary

McLaren Automotive, the British manufacturer of luxury handcrafted sports and supercars, has celebrated the fifth anniversary of the first car rolling off the production line with another record-breaking year. Operating profits increased to £23.5M – the company’s third successive year of profitability – from revenues of £450.6M, with revenue projected to increase by 50% over the next two years and double by the end of 2022 – an unprecedented performance in the early years of a car company.  2015 also marked the fifth successive year of increasing global car sales to 1,654 cars, supported by the launch of no less than five new models.

MG Motor’s design team expands
Highlights

MG Motor’s UK Design Team Expands

A growing company with a growing product line-up calls for more designers to play their part in developing new models. MG Motor UK’s design centre, based at Longbridge, Birmingham, has expanded and is continuing to expand its design team who play a key role in the MG models on the road of today and the future. Director of Design, Anthony Williams-Kenny, is now back in the UK after being based in Shanghai for three years. Anthony will be focusing on MG Motor in the UK, as well as on a global level.

MG Metro Turbos Return to Silverstone - Patrick Watts
MG

MG Metro Turbos Return to Silverstone

For the first time in more than 30 years, three giant-killing MG Metro Turbos will take to the track at the Silverstone Classic later this month (29-31 July). Adding to the sense of history, the evocative, three-pronged attack is being masterminded by touring car hero Patrick Watts, who himself will race one of the trio of pocket rockets in the Historic Touring Car Challenge at the Classic on Tin Top Sunday. The ever-effervescent Watts, now 59, has a special relationship with these cars having been an integral part of the ARG (Austin Rover Group) factory team back in the early eighties. Such is his indefatigable passion that he has spent the past few years tracking down and restoring three of the five esteemed racers originally built in period.

VotW - 1977 Triumph 2500S
Video of the Week

VotW – 1977 Triumph 2500S

In their latest video, our friends over at Take to the Road test drive a fine example of one of the last big Triumph saloons, a 1977 Triumph 2500S. This car came up at Classic Central Auctioneers May sale and they had great fun driving it. Watch their film to find out how they got on. Quoting from their article, “The Triumph 2500S was the last in a long line of Triumph and Standard-Triumph big saloon cars. Launched in 1963 at the Earl’s Court Motorshow, the new saloon replaced the ageing Standard Vanguard and arose from Triumph’s failed Zebu project. With fresh investment from new owner Leyland, who rescued Standard-Triumph in 1961, the new saloon promised much for the future of the company. And when it was launched it was well received by the motoring press and the general public. […]

The Enfield 8000 smashes world speed record
Highlights

70s Enfield 8000 Smashes EV Speed Record

A tiny British electric vehicle from the 1970s has become the world’s quickest street legal EV in the hands of motoring journalist and serial car modifier Jonny Smith. The Enfield 8000, a forgotten city car built on the Isle of Wight in the oil crisis era, stormed through the quarter mile sprint at Santa Pod on Saturday in a record-smashing 9.86 seconds at an average 121mph. Originally boasting just 8hp, the car dubbed the Flux Capacitor now packs more than 800bhp, 1,200lbft of torque and quietly rockets to 113mph in six seconds.

TR6 The Complete Story Banner
Articles

Triumph TR6 The Complete Story by David Knowles

Triumph TR6: The Complete Story is the latest work from David Knowles, the internationally recognised authority on the post-war development of the MG and Triumph marques leading up to their eventual merger into what was to become British Leyland. Some will have previously read David’s masterwork TR7 The Untold Story and whilst there is no way a telling of the TR6 story could ever hope to match that of its successor the new book runs it very close. David has traced the car’s roots right back to the TR2 and then brings us up to the TR6 succinctly via the TR3, TR4, TR4a, TR250 and TR5 with other relevant models covered along the way.

International Autojumble 1
Events

50th International Autojumble at Beaulieu

Beaulieu’s most famous event, the International Autojumble, will celebrate its 50th year on September 3rd and 4th with a special display to mark its half century. A 50-page commemorative booklet sharing event-goers’ stories, pictures and memorabilia from five decades of Beaulieu International Autojumbles will be given to this year’s exhibitors and put on sale for visitors. A special exhibition of those memories will also be displayed in the Corporate Marquee at the event along with a special collection of cars, from barn-finds to completed Autojumble projects.

Estate Car Named Desire by Martin Gurdon - Featured
Classic Cars

An Estate Car Named Desire: A Life on the Road by Martin Gurdon

An Estate Car Named Desire: A Life on the Road by Martin Gurdon, is a delightful collection of short memories of various cars and motoring folk. Or at least that is how the publisher describes it. I would say it is an amusing trip in a series of cars all connected by personality. The personality of the owners, the drivers, the passengers, and of course, the cars themselves. The personality of one of those cars was strong enough to be used in a video on “How to Irritate People”. Even as a toddler, Martin Gurdon was obsessed with cars. Before he could read or write he could distinguish a vehicle passing in the street from the purr of its engine. His first car – not strictly legally – was as a fifteen-year-old, parked round the corner from his boarding school, and driven […]

Jaguar Land Rover demonstrates all-terrain autonomous self-driving research
New Cars

Jaguar Land Rover Demonstrate All-Terrain Autonomous Driving

Jaguar Land Rover has demonstrated a range of innovative research technologies that would allow a future autonomous car to drive itself over any surface or terrain. Jaguar Land Rover’s multi-million pound Autonomous all-terrain driving research project aims to make the self-driving car viable in the widest range of real life, on- and off-road driving environments and weather conditions.

Autocar Awards - Philippa Napier & Rachel Neary - Female Engineers at Oxford MINI Plant
Highlights

Two Female MINI Plant Oxford Engineers Gain Recognition

Two female engineers from MINI Plant Oxford have secured national recognition after they landed a top industry award from leading automotive magazine Autocar. Philippa Napier and Rachel Neary have been named in the ‘Rising Stars’ category of the ‘Great British Women in the Car Industry’ initiative, which is run by Autocar in partnership with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The awards identify the top 100 British women working in the automotive sector as part of a push to celebrate the role of women in the industry and to address the challenges they face. The ‘Rising Stars’ category recognises a group of 10 young females who are ‘making their mark on the industry and blazing a trail for more to follow.’