Highlights

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is delighted to confirm the Zagame Automotive Group as its newly appointed dealer for Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia. “I am very pleased to welcome Zagame Automotive as our authorised partner,” said Asia Pacific Regional Director, Paul Harris. “Bobby Zagame has established a luxury automotive company with an excellent track record and is highly regarded in Melbourne’s business community through the Group’s hospitality, property and investment portfolio. His passion for the automotive business and service philosophy is truly in alignment with the standards expected by Rolls-Royce customers.”

Jaguar Land Rover today announced that it is to double the size of its Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) as part of a £450m expansion programme. This latest news from the UK’s leading manufacturing investor is a clear signal of the company’s long-term commitment to Britain. Total investment in the site, which opened a year ago, now stands at £1bn making it the most significant new automotive manufacturing facility to be built in the UK in the last decade. The EMC is home to the high technology, low emission Ingenium engine – Jaguar Land Rover’s first venture into in-house engine manufacturing in a generation. In just twelve months, the Midland based facility has moved from prototype production to full-scale manufacture with more than 50,000 engines coming off the production line.

Our Video of the Week (VotW) this time around is a brand new marketing video from Lotus for the Evora 400. As they say, “The most powerful production Lotus ever – the new Lotus Evora 400 is a superior machine to the previous model in every aspect.” Over two thirds of the Lotus Evora 400 is new, including its supercharged and charge-cooled mid-mounted 3.5-litre V6 engine. Power has been increased from 345 hp (350 PS; 257.3 kW) to 400 hp (406 PS; 298.3 kW) at 7,000rpm. Torque has also been increased to 302 lbs ft (410 Nm) achieved between 3,500 to 6,500 rpm. 42 kg lighter than the previous model, with a completely new aluminium chassis and significantly revised lightweight composite body front and rear. The new Evora 400 is also ergonomically more refined, with easier cabin exit and entry, […]

Bentley Motorsport has announced that Team Parker Racing will run two Bentley Continental GT3s in the British GT Championship and Blancpain Endurance Series in 2016. Well known for its championship-winning successes across Europe’s top racing series, Team Parker Racing has selected the Continental GT3 after witnessing its Blancpain Sprint Series and GT Asia Championship wins, and second place finish in Blancpain Endurance Series in 2015. “We’re extremely excited to have Team Parker Racing in the Bentley Motorsport fold,” commented Bentley’s Director of Motorsport Brian Gush. “It’s important that we partner up with teams that have proven they have what it takes to run race- and championship-winning cars and we are confident that, together, we can have success.

Jaguar Land Rover North America announced that both brands have been honored as ‘2015 Most Popular’ on Edmunds.com. The Jaguar F-TYPE has been named a 2015 Most Popular Premium Sports Car and the 2015 Range Rover a 2015 Most Popular Premium Luxury SUV. “The well-established Jaguar and Land Rover brands have a lot of appeal to those shopping in the premium luxury segments on our site,” said Edmunds.com CEO Avi Steinlauf. “These awards reflect significant interest in some very compelling new vehicles.”

The Defender Challenge 2015 reached its climax at The Scottish Hill Rallies Club’s ‘Borders’ rally at Forrest Estate, Castle Douglas, Scotland this weekend. 11 teams lined up on Saturday morning anxiously awaiting the start of the final fixture of the 2015 season. The Borders rally is reputed as the toughest round of the challenge due to the mix of extreme conditions and the skill and determination required to conquer it. Combining the speed of stage rallies, roughness of hill rallies, extreme conditions of a Scottish winter and set over two days, the challenge is one of endurance as much as skill, and to top it off, one of the most gruelling of the 13 stages is set at night. It is a mammoth battle of man against nature and the weapon of choice, the humble Land Rover Defender.

Nick Chester looks ahead to Abu Dhabi, the last race of the season and reviews the team’s performance in Interlagos. What are the challenges of Abu Dhabi? The first sector is generally medium speed with a couple of high speed corners and not too technically challenging; a reasonable level of downforce works fine here. The second sector is more power hungry with two good straights and two low speed corners – a low speed hairpin and a low speed chicane so it’s important to manage these well. The final sector is quite technical with a number of low and medium speed corners where the car needs to be well balanced and work well to achieve a good lap time. Putting all that together is key – you need a car that works well in low speed corners and be good […]

Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s leading manufacturer of premium luxury vehicles today reported best ever October retail sales of 41,553 vehicles, up 24% on October 2014. The company sold 390,965 vehicles in the first ten months of 2015, 2% up on the same period in the prior year. Retail sales for the month of October were 40% up year-on-year in the UK, 74% up in North America, 24% up in Europe and 9% up in China.  Other overseas markets were down 5% for the month, reflecting the challenging macro-economic environment in countries such as Russia and Brazil.

Established in 1999, the Lotus Driving Academy offers a comprehensive range of driver training and experience packages for customers to get a taste of the benchmark handling and pure driving experience of Lotus sports cars. Now available for the first time, prospective customers, Lotus fans and track driving enthusiasts alike can experience what a day with theLotus Driving Academy might feel like in full 360 degree immersion using the latest video technology. At the home of Lotus Cars in Hethel, Norfolk lies a 2.2 mile test track that has been the site for test and development of all Lotus Cars since 1966. Viewers now have the opportunity to experience this world famous circuit at full race-pace in virtual reality – through their computer, tablet or mobile device – and get a taste of what’s on offer before experiencing it for […]

The Royal Automobile Club has won the 2015 Rally of the Year at the International Historic Motoring Awards for the second consecutive year for the 1000 Mile Trial. The awards ceremony, which took place on 19th November at London’s St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, resembled a ‘Who’s Who’ of historic motoring as famous names from the world of motoring, motor sport and industry gathered together for the events’ fifth annual awards. The Club’s Motoring Committee Chairman, Peter Read, who collected the award, said ‘The 1000 Mile Trial has received many accolades since its relaunch in 2014 we are delighted to have won Rally of the Year 2015 for the second consecutive year, especially against such a high calibre of contenders’.

Aston Martin will start the Six Hours of Bahrain from pole in the GTE Am class, while also enjoying a return to competitive form in the GTE Pro category. Despite the distraction of a restarted qualifying session due to technical difficulties at the circuit, the #98 GTE Am pairing of Paul Dalla Lana (CA) and Pedro Lamy (PT) were capable of pulling together two strong lap times, clinching pole position for tomorrow’s race with an average of 1m58.659.

In honor of its 45th anniversary, Land Rover has driven its flagship Range Rover luxury SUV across a bridge made of paper. The freestanding structure in Suzhou, China, spanned five metres without glue or bolts to hold it in place. Land Rover commissioned the unique bridge to mark the 45th anniversary of its Range Rover family and to highlight 45 years of Range Rover innovation ahead of the Guangzhou Motor Show in China. The hand-built paper bridge took three days to construct in the ancient water city of Suzhou, which is famous for its bridges and nicknamed ‘Venice of the East’. The unique crossing was made of high-quality paper supplied by specialist British manufacturer James Cropper PLC.

Leading classic car restorers Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth (CMC) have restored a 1936 Squire, one of only seven built, which has now been shortlisted for Restoration of the Year at the prestigious International Historic Motoring Awards 2015. This charismatic, costly and extremely rare British sports car was displayed at the 2011 Retromobile event in Paris in a very sorry state, its upholstery had been providing home to a family of rodents and it had been completely stripped of paint. Peter Neumark, chairman of Classic Motor Cars (CMC), saw its potential and a deal was made for the Squire to undergo a complete rejuvenation at the company’s workshops in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, in the UK.

The all-original and complete set of body panels for the Series 1 Jaguar E-type and selected parts of Series 2 and 3, are now available to order from Jaguar Heritage Parts. In order to provide world-class quality for E-type customers, Jaguar’s skilled technicians and engineers employed state-of-the-art scanning technology to digitally map every inch of an E-type in 3D. Once scanned, the highly detailed scans are transferred to CAD images to create a complete and virtual model of the car to ensure perfect panel alignment. The exact dimensions and shapes of the inner and outer surfaces and recorded to within a fraction of a millimetre. Once the entire car is digitally mapped, Jaguar Heritage is then able to test the quality and accuracy of each panel plus the original tooling used to make it.  Each part is meticulously measured on […]

A very special Range Rover Sport first owned by David Beckham will be offered by Classic Car Auctions (CCA) in its sale on 5th December at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre. The 2007 car was exclusively designed and upgraded for the ex-England football captain by Kahn Conversions at a cost of £100,000. It’s now offered for sale at auction, estimated at between £23,000 and £25,000.

Land Rover has unveiled its first luxury compact convertible SUV along the iconic coastline of Los Angeles in Santa Monica, CA. SPECTRE actress Naomie Harris was one of the first to view the newest member of the Range Rover family, as it was revealed for the first time ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show. Following the recent global release of SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond adventure, which features vehicles produced by the Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division, Harris joined the brand to receive an exclusive first look at the new Range Rover Evoque Convertible as it debuted in the US.

Jaguar North America has announced it will expand the price range of the F-TYPE lineup in the U.S. for the 2017 model year to include new entry-level coupe and convertible models which lower the introductory price of the F-TYPE Coupe & Convertible to $61,400 and $65,400 respectively. The 2017 line-up of Jaguar sports cars will continue to consist of the F-TYPE, F-TYPE S and the range topping F-TYPE R. The addition of a new entry price level for 2017 Jaguar F-TYPE builds upon the pricing realignment strategy announced as part of The Next Generation of Jaguar for the 2016 model year in which an improved competitive value position was brought to market through a combination of new entry priced models, increased standard equipment and lower MSRPs that all help the brand target the heart of the luxury market.

OK, I will admit it, I love Minis. I love old ones and new ones and large ones and small ones and … well, you get the picture. Something about the A-series engine, the transverse drivetrain, and the squat looks just appeal to me. Yes I drive a Vanden Plas Princess 1100, but in truth, all forms of the ADO16 are just large Minis. Yes, I said it. And I mean it. Anyway, our video this week is titled “Owning A Classic Mini”. Just below the clip you will see the information about the young man who made the video and why. I think it is a wonderful effort and just goes to show the kind of devotion these cars inspire.   Here is a short look into what it’s like to own a Classic Mini. Before I brought the […]