Month: March 2017

McLaren Automotive has announced full details of the 2017 Pure McLaren program – a series of exclusive events that bring together the most passionate McLaren owners and enthusiasts. The 2017 calendar starts on April 5 at Monza, Italy and promises exhilarating track days at some of the most iconic Grand Prix circuits across the world. For this year, the program of courses has increased with the introduction of several packages focusing on high performance driving with the aim of transforming those interested in entering the world of motorsport into amateur racing drivers. 

Belmont Garage, an MG Motor UK car dealership based in Epsom Downs, has transformed its showroom into an African sunset silhouette, thanks to a little help from children in the local community. More than 70 colorful canvasses, designed by budding ‘Picassos’ from Shawley Primary School, will be displayed at the dealership until the end of April. Organized in partnership with Tattenham Corner Community Events, the initiative aims to bring local businesses and schoolchildren together to celebrate the region’s talent and creativity.

Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) is celebrating a hugely successful inaugural Mono Ice Driving Experience trip, having hit the frozen lakes of Sweden in three of its One-of-a-Kind Mono supercars. A true British success story, BAC has achieved worldwide acclaim and success for the brilliance of its driver-focused Mono and has exported into 30 territories around the globe so far.

Jaguar has unleashed its first electric vehicle – the Jaguar I-PACE – onto the streets for the first time. Driving on the streets of London’s famous Olympic Park, the electric performance SUV concept previews Jaguar’s first electric vehicle, the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed in late 2017 and will be on the road in the second half of 2018. The feedback on the I-PACE Concept has been fantastic. With the I-PACE Concept we’ve torn up the rule book to create a vehicle with supercar inspired aesthetics, sports car performance and SUV space, in one electric package. It has surprised people and the enthusiasm for our first electric vehicle has been beyond all my expectations. Driving the concept on the streets is really important for the design team. It’s very special to put the car outside and in the real-world. […]

As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to community and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Aston Martin have formed a new partnership with local Leamington Spa based charity, Helping Hands. The Charity provides support to vulnerable people in the Warwickshire area, through a number of initiatives including mentoring, support for the homeless and those affected by domestic violence.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, the UK’s largest car manufacturer, today announced it is beginning construction work on a £200 million redevelopment of its design and engineering center at Gaydon in Warwickshire. The expansion represents the first major construction project at one of the company’s non-manufacturing sites in over a decade. The development is intended to become one of the world’s foremost automotive product, engineering, and design sites – fitting for a company with ambitious plans for continued global growth. Chris Elliott, Property Programmes Director for Jaguar Land Rover, said: The new design and engineering center is a testament both to Jaguar Land Rover’s British heritage of innovation and its compelling vision for future vehicle technology. The new space will centralise our design, product engineering, and purchasing functions in an original and modern environment, as well as creating additional capacity for […]

A classic 1948 Jaguar sports saloon, first owned by Arthur Whittaker, the Deputy Chairman of Jaguar Cars, has been reunited with his family 67 years after he parted with it. During Historics at Brooklands classic car auction in Surrey on Saturday, 4th March, Whittaker’s four granddaughters – Lucy, Sally, Sarah, and Charlotte – who discovered the car’s impending sale purely by chance a fortnight earlier – fought off rival bidders to make it their own, settling on £70,000 for the jet-black classic.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, the UK’s largest car manufacturer, has sealed an agreement with EDF Energy to buy all its electricity from renewable sources up to March 2020. Jaguar Land Rover’s electricity supply is backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO), meaning a proportion of EDF Energy’s renewable energy is ring-fenced specifically for the company. The REGO scheme certifies the proportion of supply that comes from renewable generation – 100 per cent in Jaguar Land Rover’s case.

This notice just in from the folks at the upcoming Amelia Island Concours – due to impending bad weather, the concours has been moved from Sunday to Saturday. Even in the best case scenario, the forecast for Sunday’s scheduled Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance includes rain and lots of it. With a 100% chance of heavy precipitation forecast for Sunday and a sunshine-filled Saturday in the mix, Bill Warner and his team have chosen to move Sunday’s award-winning Concours to Saturday. The Concours show will now coincide with Saturday’s Cars & Coffee at the Concours presented by Heacock Classic Insurance. The new schedule is as follows Saturday, March 11, Cars & Coffee at the Concours: 9am until 5pm Saturday, March 11, Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance 9:30am until 5pm Other important changes include moving Saturday’s Legends of the Leaping Cat – Jaguar Racing Driver’s […]

Bentley Motors is sharing its ambition to define the electric luxury segment with the EXP 12 Speed 6e concept at the 2017 Geneva International Motor Show.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars recently announced that a record number of places are available for the company’s 2017 Apprenticeship Programme. Since the program was launched in 2006, numbers have progressively increased, with 2017 offering a record 20 candidates the opportunity to join the team at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex. The Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Apprenticeship Programme provides 16-24-year-olds with the opportunity to learn and develop skills at the Home of the world’s leading luxury manufacturer. The apprenticeships last for up to four years and include college courses that are nationally recognized, alongside on-the-job training at Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars. The program has been designed in conjunction with several local colleges.

The revolutionary hypercar being co-developed by Aston Martin and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, formerly identified by its codename AM-RB 001, has now been officially named the Aston Martin Valkyrie. The name continues a fine tradition of Aston Martin ‘V’ cars. This began back in 1951 with Vantage, which was selected as a name to distinguish high-performance variants of the then current model, the DB2. Boasting 125bhp versus 105bhp for the standard engine, the Vantage represented a significant increase in performance and desirability. The first time the Vantage badge appeared was on the side of the DB5.

Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC is proud to announce the 32 U.S. retailer winners of the 2016/17 Pride of Jaguar and Land Rover Pinnacle Retailer Excellence awards.   The Pride of Jaguar and Land Rover Pinnacle awards are given annually to retailers who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Last year, sixteen retailers were selected from each brand based upon their top performance in core business categories including customer advocacy, sales, and business excellence.

The new McLaren 720S made its global debut at the 87th Geneva International Motor Show, introducing the second-generation of McLaren’s Super Series and simultaneously raising previously accepted limits of performance in the supercar sector. Super Series is the core of the McLaren business and personifies the blend of extreme performance, crafted luxury and unparalleled driver involvement that is the McLaren heartland. This is the first time we have replaced a product family and the new 720S is absolutely true to McLaren’s pioneering spirit in being a revolutionary leap forwards, both for our brand and the supercar segment. — Mike Flewitt, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive

Jaguar Land Rover and Getty Images have announced a partnership on International Women’s Day to highlight the need for a more realistic visual representation of female engineers. More people than ever are searching images of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers, yet results are often outdated and don’t reflect today’s exciting and varied roles. This partnership aims to change that.

Always fun to feature a bit of vintage racing, so our video this week is for the Walter Mitty in all of us and features the recent SVRA Drivers School at Roebling Road near Savannah, Georgia. New to this year’s schedule was an SVRA drivers school. 2017 1ST National Drivers’ School in Savannah & Bob Williams Heritage Cup at Roebling Road Raceway – Bloomingdale, Georgia. The weekend school is designed to provide prospective vintage racers an accelerated, cost-effective path to getting a vintage racing license, whilst coming away from the track ready to go wheel-to-wheel racing. The entire weekend pays homage to “old school” vintage racing and events with throwback races and low-pressure club feel. For those of you who may be interested in vintage racing, and I highly recommend at least getting to a race as a spectator some time, you can find […]

Britain’s car industry may never be able to boost the level of local content to over half in its cars to meet the standards set in some bilateral trade agreements, the chief executive of the country’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover told Reuters. Only around 40 percent of the parts that go into the average British-built car are made domestically and some trade deals require between 50 and 55 percent local content, a factor which could be crucial for post-Brexit trade.

Building in Britain is not essential to BMW’s Mini brand as most customers do not know where the compact cars are built and its new electric model could be made elsewhere, the brand’s boss told Reuters on Tuesday. Peter Schwarzenbauer said the German carmaker would decide by the end of 2017 whether to build the new electric model at an existing site in Britain or the Netherlands, or whether to pick a new location.