Articles by Staff

The UK automotive sector’s workforce is one of the world’s most productive – but action is needed to address a shortage of skilled engineers and operators, according to new research by the Automotive Council. The report1, which ranks the UK’s strengths and attractiveness for automotive investment against other European and global countries, places the UK’s automotive ‎productivity in top position in Europe. The UK’s strong performance reflects a culture of constant improvement in the industry and a trend towards more efficient processes adopted since the global financial crisis – as well as the shift towards high-value manufacture of premium vehicles. The UK also ranks highly for collaboration between industry and academic bodies – essential in spearheading excellence in research and innovation. Labour flexibility is identified as another area where the UK excels – providing flexibility with working patterns and managing labour demands, vital in […]

Land Rover continues to broaden the appeal of the Discovery with the launch of – the Landmark and the Graphite. New distinctive exterior design features to both enhance the design of the fourth generation Discovery, while unique interior touches to the Landmark bring more luxury and exclusivity. These models give the Discovery even greater on-road presence than ever before. Available to order now, they will be seen on the roads from January 2016 onwards. “The appeal of the Land Rover Discovery has just got even greater. We have launched two new models – the Landmark and Graphite, which offer the customer greater on-road presence and enhanced comfort to complement the Discovery’s existing versatility and capability attributes,” says Finbar McFall, Jaguar Land Rover Product Marketing Director.

1961 Jaguar E-Type chassis 860001, the very first right-hand-drive production Fixed Head Coupé restored by Classic Motor Cars Ltd (CMC), has been driven to 146 mph on a German autobahn by British Hill Climb Champion, David Franklin. David was recreating for Octane magazine’s 150th issue one of the most famous road tests ever undertaken, attempting to match the 150 mph a Jaguar E-Type reached on a Belgian motorway in 1961, and he nearly made it! David said: “I saw 146mph and it was still accelerating when I had to back off because of cars and lorries in the distance. When you’re travelling at that speed you have to err on the side of caution. You’re catching other traffic up quite quickly and you have to remember that there’s no ABS, although the brakes felt strong and progressive.It would comfortably have […]

A new film reveals the first details of forthcoming super-high-performance E10 model from Zenos Cars – billed as “Britain’s best affordable sports cars – combining lightweight performance with track day agility”. A short film released by Zenos Cars has confirmed the name of its forthcoming new E10 model, its fastest, most focused and most thrilling model yet developed. The video, available to view on the Zenos website and the Zenos YouTube channel, also provides viewers with glimpses of the new car’s exterior and details of its super-high-performance brief.

MG’s trendy MG3 has just got even better with the introduction of new technology; designed to give better economy and lower emissions. The MG3 2016 MY (model year), which will be available to buy next week, offers customers better fuel consumption, lower tax and an updated personalisation range; which includes the launch of new combinations and roof colours. The supermini, which now benefits from a more economical 124g/km of CO2 and a stop-start EU6 engine, also comes with a new chrome grille to complement the MG family face.

A Bespoke Rolls-Royce Wraith will be the star of the UK’s largest classic motor show, held this weekend at the NEC, Birmingham. The ultimate ‘future classic’, the spectacular Grand Tourer will take centre stage on the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club (RREC) stand, supported by a team of experts from the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood in West Sussex. The Bespoke Rolls-Royce Wraith, hand-built at the company’s Head Office and Manufacturing Plant – the only place in the world where Rolls-Royces are built – is finished in sparkling two tone Midnight Sapphire and Silver. The interior is in Navy Blue and contrasting Arctic leather and Macassar Ebony veneer. The car features a range of Bespoke items, including a Starlight Headliner and an uplit Spirit of Ecstasy, bathed in light. It is also adorned with a suite of highly-advanced technological features including night-vision, […]

Burlen Ltd has been awarded the status of ‘Credibly Green’ by an Environmental Consultancy going by the same name.  Burlen Ltd is responsible for the manufacture and distribution of all SU and Amal Carburetters Worldwide, under the names of The SU and Amal Carburetter Companies. “We wanted to see if we could make improvements to our ‘Green Credentials’ without sacrificing our business objectives” said Mark Burnett, Burlen’s Managing Director, “In the automotive sector it is very difficult to see how you can achieve this as it is not usually recognised as being a particularly green industry”. Mark continued, “We wanted to find someone to advise us who could take a simple approach to a complex subject without baffling us with science and that is where Credibly Green came in”. Credibly Green offer a tailored Environmental Reporting Service focusing on Energy, […]

Our video this week is oo a much lesser known but highly desirable car, Alvis. In this case, the specific car being test driven by Super Car Classics is a 1961 Alvis TD21 convertible. Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company in Coventry from 1919 to 1967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles. Car manufacturing ended after the company became a subsidiary of Rover in 1965, but armoured vehicle manufacture continued. Alvis became part of British Leyland and then in 1982 was sold to United Scientific Holdings, which renamed itself Alvis plc. The Alvis Three Litre TD21 was made between the end of 1958 and October 1963. It was a revised version of the TC 108G, the body […]

An impressive line-up of current and classic Aston Martins gathered in the Great Court at Blenheim Palace on Sunday 8 November for the premiere of DB10: Built for Bond. The specially commissioned one hour documentary follows the creation of DB10, a model developed specifically for James Bond in Spectre, built in-house by the luxury brand’s design and engineering teams in just six months.

94 amazing classic cars spanning 83 years, as well as a host of automobilia and luxury lifestyle items, will be offered this weekend at Silverstone Auctions’ sale at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show. One of the biggest classic car auctions in the calendar, the two-day sale takes place on the 14th and 15th of November at the NEC, Birmingham. The highlight of the sale has to be a fabulous ‘on the button’ low mileage 1991 Jaguar XJ220, estimated at between £300,000 and £350,000. Chassis no. 220693 was hand built by TWR Jaguar in Oxford in 1991 before being exported to Brunei by special order of the Royal Family. The car remained as part of the world renowned, royal car collection until September 2002 when it returned to the UK.

The McLaren 650S GT3 continued winning ways over the weekend with a lights-to-flag victory for McLaren GT customer team Clearwater Racing at the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series in Sepang. Factory driver Rob Bell, alongside teammates Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa secured pole position and overall victory in the GT3 category to extend the championship lead. Round 2 of the highly competitive Asian Le Mans Series took place in hot conditions at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, with very different conditions to the wet race of round 1 in Fuji, Japan last month.  Despite the change in weather, Clearwater Racing showed the competitive edge once again in a close battle throughout qualifying with factory driver Bell securing pole position for the start of the three hour endurance race.

Advance discounted tickets are now on sale for the 2016 Donington Historic Festival (Saturday April 30th, Sunday May 1st and Monday May 2nd), perfectly timed for those looking to secure the idea Christmas gift for a historic motorsport or motoring fan. Over five very successful years, the Donington Historic Festival has gone from strength to strength, with world-class historic racing for grids from the 1920s to the 1990s supplemented by hugely popular features such as the exhilarating historic rally car and karting demonstrations and special paddock displays and track demos.  For 2016 the race content is building to be the event’s strongest yet, while the track action will also include some very exciting historic F1 car demos – always guaranteed to quicken the heartbeat of motorsport fans!

A rare 1966 Lotus Elan S2 once owned by famous comedian, actor, photographer, singer and all round icon Peter Sellers, will be auctioned at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show on Saturday 14th November by Silverstone Auctions, estimated at between £45,000 and £50,000. The car was delivered to Peter Sellers’ Haymarket home on 22nd June 1966 and driven by him, with wife Britt Ekland in the passenger seat, until 29th February 1969. ‘SAR 57D’ then went through two other owners before being purchased by the current vendor.

McLaren Automotive has started production of its new Sports Series family of luxury high-performance sports cars at the state-of-the-art McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Woking, England. The first car to be launched in the Sports Series family is the 570S Coupé, and this will be followed by the 540C Coupé and another bodystyle in 2016. The first McLaren 570S Coupé to roll off the production line has been delivered to a retailer in the UK and, even before the first customer handover takes place, the global retailer network is holding over 1,000 orders for this superb new addition to the McLaren range. The start of production of the new Sports Series heralds a new chapter in the short history of McLaren Automotive, as well as completing its three tier product strategy of Ultimate Series, Super Series and Sports Series. When […]

The ‘She’s a Beauty’ theme given to this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, held at Birmingham’s NEC from 13-15 November, is set to bring together some thrilling women and their prized classics. The show will team concours classics with motorsport marvels, highlighting the efforts of women across the classic car scene. The Bentley 4.5-litre entered into the Benjafield 24 by the Bentley Belles will take pride of place on the feature display stand, along with Bentley Belle Katarina Kyvalova. The team, which also included Gillian Carr, Georgina Riley and Georgie Brewster, only met for the first time the day before the endurance event, and entered the record books as the only all-female team to campaign a Bentley in a 24hr endurance race, ever. Since then, they have added the same accolade to their list for the Spa Six Hour […]

JD Classics drew huge interest with its wide array of cars at the inaugural Classic & Sports Car – The London Show at Alexandra Palace last weekend. With 12 beautiful models across two stands, JD Classics had the biggest dealer display of the show. This included three Aston Martins including an original factory demonstrator Series 3 DB4, two Jaguars and three Ferraris, including a 250 GT/L Lusso. Also featured were a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster and a 1968 Lamborghini 400 GT. Taking pride of place on the dealer’s display was a very special ex-works Formula One Scarab Transporter, used in the film Le Mans. Commissioned in 1956 and then later used by American team Scarab for the 1960 Formula One Championship, the works transporter was made with a Fiat chassis and designed by coachbuilder Bartoletti. In 1964, it was sold […]

Supercars are not uncommon in Central London but, even by the capital’s lofty standards, last Saturday’s Regent Street Motor Show (Saturday 31 October) was very, very special. The city’s world famous West End shopping street was closed for a very special ‘mile of automotive style’ stretching between Piccadilly and Oxford Circuses as the UK’s largest free-to-view motor show showcased a glittering display of more than 200 cars from past, present and future generations. Savouring the unseasonably warm weather, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts, shoppers, London residents and even rugby followers bound for the World Cup Fanzone in near-by Trafalgar Square all relished a huge variety of eye-catching machinery. This year’s Show embraced everything from motoring’s early pioneers to the latest plug-in hybrids with the futuristic Aston Martin DB10 from the new James Bond film Spectre drawing huge crowds.

The 16MY Bentley Continental GT Speed has been taken to its top speed of 206 mph (331 km/h)* by Australian racing legend, John Bowe, on the derestricted Stuart Highway** deep in the Northern territory. The 635 PS (626 bhp), 820 Nm (607 lb.ft) W12-powered GT Speed Grand Tourer reached Vmax in just 76 seconds, covering a distance of 9.4 kilometres in the process. At top speed, the 6.0-litre twin-turbo Grand Tourer was covering a staggering 92 metres (or one football pitch) per second. John Bowe said: “This isn’t a modified racecar; it’s a luxurious grand touring road car fresh off the production line. It took us a little over a minute to go from a standstill to 206 mph. That’s extraordinary. Even when you break through the 200 mph barrier, the GT Speed just keeps accelerating.” The Stuart Highway covers […]