Month: September 2018

Land Rover North America today revealed the futuristic Range Rover Sport that is featured in the new original drama series “The First,” available for streaming on Hulu beginning Friday, September 14. From “House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon and starring two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn, “The First” is a near-future drama about a crew of astronauts attempting to become the first humans on Mars. The series features a custom-built, futurized Range Rover Sport that will be driven by visionary aerospace magnate Laz Ingram, played by Natascha McElhone.

Aston Martin Works’ new Heritage satellite showroom in the heart of London’s Mayfair is now open for business. Situated with the Aston Martin Brand Experience Centre at No.8 Dover Street, the Works Heritage showroom is a convenient destination for customers interested in acquiring a heritage model or learning about the restoration services available at Aston Martin Works Service in Newport Pagnell. Paul Spires, President of Aston Martin Works, said: The expansion of our Heritage showroom activity into Central London enables us to engage with our customers in the location where they work and live their lifestyle. It also supports the international appeal and invigorated interest in Aston Martin Heritage cars, allowing us to deliver a personal service to customers visiting the UK.

Aston Martin welcomed its biggest ever intake of apprentices and graduates this week, all ready to start work for the world’s fastest-growing auto brand. With 50 apprentices and 26 graduates reporting for duty at Aston Martin’s Global Headquarters at Gaydon in Warwickshire, this investment in the future workforce underlines the manufacturer’s focus on remaining a competitive and agile business for many years to come. Dr. Andy Palmer, Aston Martin President and Chief Executive Officer, who started his own career as an apprentice, was at Gaydon to greet the new starters.

A landmark new history from design journalist Nick Hull, Land Rover Design – 70 years of Success offers a detailed insight to the company’s design story, from the early days of Land Rover in Solihull to the latest generation of the Range Rover Velar in 2018. The Land Rover was born from a desperate need by the Rover Company to develop a stop-gap model to provide cash flow in the post-war years. The original aim of a simple 4×4 agricultural tool soon developed into a multi-purpose vehicle that became the mainstay of the British Army and produced numerous offshoots for the emergency services, police, forestry and aid agencies worldwide.

Midlands classic motoring specialist RBW Classic Electric Cars has joined forces with world leading names to secure the future of classic motoring with the launch of two limited edition electric recreations. RBW is working closely with Zytek Automotive, part of Continental AG, who provides the world championship winning technology applied to Formula E racing cars. The aim is to create a stunning vehicle that has the aesthetic appeal of a classic car but with all the engineering of a modern electric vehicle.

British firm JD Classics, a dealer of classic cars but also an expert restorer and organizer of classic racing events, entered administration last Friday. This is the UK equivalent process to entering bankruptcy protection here in the US. And yes, this is the same JD Classics firm the only just a few months ago hired as its CEO former Lotus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales.

Group Lotus plc is delighted to announce the appointment of Phil Popham as Senior Vice-President – Commercial Operations for Group Lotus and CEO – Lotus Sports Cars, effective from the first of October, 2018. Phil will report to Group Lotus plc CEO, Mr. Feng Qingfeng. Popham joins Lotus from Sunseeker International where he held the role of CEO for four years. Prior to Sunseeker, he was part of the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) executive team for nine years with global responsibility for commercial operations. The arrival of Phil Popham is the latest in a series of high-level appointments at Lotus, from both the global automotive industry and from within Lotus. A new business and operating structure has been put in place and the Lotus business is now set for the next stage of its future growth and global expansion. Mr. […]

For our Video of the Week, let’s take a spin with something a bit on the lighter side. This is perhaps one of the world’s smallest races – in terms of the number of entrants, size of entrants, and the size of the cars. This is the Settrington Cup at Goodwood Revival, and the 2018 edition was held this past Sunday. Held annually at the Goodwood Revival since 2012, the Settrington Cup race is for children ages 6 through 9. Cool, you think … so go grab a pedal car and let your kind hit the track, you think. But no. In addition to the age restriction of the drivers, the only pedal cars allowed are Austin J40 models built by disabled coal miners beginning in 1949 (true story). Here is a quote from an original brochure for the car, which […]

Jaguar Racing has unveiled the full race calendar for the inaugural Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY Championship. Up to twenty identical Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY racecars will line up on the grid on Saturday 15 December in Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, for the first round of the new global electric production car racing series. The Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY race will take place before the main ABB FIA Formula E race on the same city circuits, throughout the 2018-19 season and beyond. The series, a world first, offers teams the chance to showcase driving talent and electric performance in some of the world’s most exciting cities.

A bespoke full-size clay model of the Jaguar I-PACE, created by the brand’s world-renowned designer Ian Callum, is to take center stage at Scotland’s first dedicated design museum. The I-PACE exhibit will be unveiled on 15 September at the grand opening of the new V&A Design Museum in Dundee, which highlights the global achievements of Scottish designers past and present. The clay model shows the painstaking and elaborate design process behind the firm’s first all-electric vehicle as well as the steps followed to create all new Jaguars.

With development of Aston Martin’s first all-electric production car – the Rapide E – progressing apace, the luxury British marque has today confirmed a raft of technical details for the strictly limited 155-unit special edition. Working closely with Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) as its development partner, Aston Martin has utilized the hugely successful leader in Electric Vehicle (EV) technology to kickstart a new era for Aston Martin’s powertrain technology and overcome the technical challenges associated with packaging the battery system and motors within the space available.

Rolls-Royce has announced that Martin Fritsches has been appointed as President, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America from the first of September 2018. Fritsches joined Rolls-Royce earlier this year as Vice President of Sales for the Americas region, responsible for sales planning and operations, including the marque’s 44 dealers in the Americas.

Jaguar Land Rover today reported total worldwide retail sales of 36,629 vehicles in August 2018, down 4.9% year on year. August 2018 Change year-on-year Jan – Aug 2018 Change year-on-year Jaguar – Land Rover 36,629 (4.9)% 390,992 (2.6)% Jaguar 11,802 7.7% 116,849 (1.9)% Land Rover 24,827 (9.9)% 274,143 (2.9)% Retail sales were up in the UK (64.9%), Overseas markets (20.2%) and North America (2.5%), with Europe slightly below last year (3.1%), waiting for last WLTP certifications. The China market remains unsettled following tariff changes and trade tensions (down 38.1%), although the reduction in duty from 25% to 15% is expected to be beneficial over the full year. UK sales were boosted by a catch up in WLTP certification of vehicles with only 2 derivatives remaining to be certified in September.

In the race to produce SUVs, another supercar company is throwing its hat in the ring. With 670 bhp on tap, an estimated 0-60 mph acceleration time of just 3.5 seconds, and a 200 mph top speed, The Lister Motor Company’s new LFP is set to become the fastest SUV in the world, beating the performance of recently-launched SUVs from other well-known prestige car brands, with monster killer performance, faster than most supercars, never mind SUVs. Set for full release in the coming weeks, Lister’s new LFP will follow the overwhelming success of the devilish LFT-666 coupe, launched earlier this year, and already becoming the fastest-selling model in the all-British specialist sports car maker’s 65-years of continuous history, with first customer deliveries due to commence in October.

Led by the release of the new MG3, MG Motor UK continues to go from strength-to-strength in 2018 by once again announcing record new car sales. The August sales results, taken from the latest SMMT market report, show that MG has achieved an impressive 5,685 new car registrations so far in 2018, over 1,000 units more than it achieved in the whole of 2017. This significant increase in new car registrations amounts to an increase of 129% compared with the same period in 2017.

Concours of Elegance and Bridge of Weir Leather Company partnered up once again this year to present a very special ‘British Legends’ feature, celebrating the very best of automotive design to come out of Britain over the last century. Notable friends of the Concours and Bridge of Weir each chose a British car they deemed deserving of the status of British Legend. Visitors to the Concours of Elegance were invited to vote for their favorite of the ‘British Legends’ nominated by stars of the automotive. Taking more votes than any of the other iconic models nominated, the Morgan 4/4 was named the public favorite from the British Legends feature yesterday. The Morgan 4/4, nominated by Morgan designer Jon Wells, took the public vote at the event and was presented as the Bridge of Weir ‘British Legend’ for 2018 in front of Hampton […]

Bentley Motorsport and American partner team K-PAX Racing have secured their first championship win together – the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge GT teams’ title – following a consistently strong season and dominant series finale. In what was Bentley’s first season with K-PAX Racing, the team scored a podium in each of the five sprint events that took place on the USA’s top race tracks. The team – which fielded two full-season entries – racked-up six pole positions, ten podium, and five race wins drivers Alvaro Parente (PT) and Rodrigo Baptista (BR).