Highlights

In an anniversary year, Jean-Marc Gales, CEO, Group Lotus has personally delivered the keys to one of Lotus’ most advanced cars to Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman. The stunning new Evora GT410 Sport in Empire Green will travel the UK and Europe with Clive, Director of Classic Team Lotus. Preserving and promoting the history of the famous motorsport team, Clive and the squad run historic Lotus race cars that appear at international motoring events and meets around the world.

MINI is proud to announce their support non-profit Best Friends in its mission to save animal lives. To date, MINI has loaned four MINIs to help Best Friends transport animals to vet appointments, pick up supplies for the clinics, even drive once homeless pets to their new homes. In 2017, MINI USA donated four fully leased MINI Countryman cars for use in the Best Friends program cities of Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City and Atlanta. Since the day the cars arrived in the respective cities, they’ve been turning heads and safely getting pets from point A to point B. In Atlanta, the MINI might get a dog or cat to a vet appointment one day, and to a television appearance the next. It’s also a quick and efficient ride for staff to run errands or travel to a […]

In the early days of the BBC’s Top Gear show, aired every Thursday evening on BBC 2, presenter Chris Goffey was a very influential voice in UK car culture. And on one such Thursday evening in 1986, he was among the first to drive the recently-launched diesel-powered Range Rover. It did not go well. On film, Goffey made his feelings for the 2.4-litre VM-powered diesel Range Rover quite clear. Range Rover had built its success on the performance and refinement of its 3.5-litre petrol V8, and the less refined diesel engine alternative took some time to catch on – partly down to Top Gear’s unfavorable review. The interesting backstory however, is that the Range Rover delivered to Top Gear never went through a PDI (pre-delivery inspection), let alone a detailed preparation by Land Rover’s famed press garage and vehicle operations team. For […]

For our video of the week this time, we have an MG factory publicity video that comes to us via Pathé.  This film, Sports Car of the Year 1955-56, focuses on the newly introduced MGA. Starting with competition films from Le Mans, the Alpine Rally, and the Mille Miglia. The MGA, as most readers know, replaced the MG TF 1500 and represented a complete styling break from MG’s earlier sports cars – that styling having been developed for racing and records cars. Announced on September 26, 1955, the car was officially launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. A total of 101,081 units were sold through the end of production in July 1962, the vast majority of which were exported. Only 5869 cars were sold on the home market, the lowest percentage of any British car. While now what one would call “impartial”, […]

International auctioneers Coys are back in town with 50 classic and sports cars worth millions going under the hammer at their long-established Spring Classics auction on April 24th at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. The barn find 1963 Bentley Continental Mulliner Park Ward S3 is one of the highlights of the auction and, although it is being offered at no reserve, it could fetch £40,000 on the hammer. Chris Routledge, CEO of Coys, said: Our Spring Classics auction has for decades been a prelude to motoring season which is now very much upon us. This year we have a stunning selection 50 fine historic and classic motor cars looking for a new owner, ranging from three original-bodied pre-war Rolls Royces through to a genuine barn find 1960s Bentley S3 Continental Coupe by Mulliner.

Jaguar Land Rover has a new mission with James Bond – a three-year partnership at the state-of-the-art interactive experience, 007 ELEMENTS in Sölden, Austria. Fittingly Jaguar Land Rover, whose cars have featured in Bond films since 1983, is now an official partner to 007 ELEMENTS located at the top of the 3,050m Gaislachkogl peak.

For the sixth year running, the parent company of MG has launched the SAIC Design Challenge for automotive design students. Following the competition’s success in China, a European based competition has been launched now running for its second year. This year, students are being challenged to develop a flagship electric vehicle for the iconic MG Motor brand that will meet 2025 transport requirements. The technical level of entries that students are required to produce is very demanding, with future automotive designers producing fully-developed concepts. Last year, two European finalists were sent to China to present final designs at SAIC Motor’s global headquarters to the board and international members of the press.

Panasonic Jaguar Racing has unveiled the concept livery for the Jaguar I-TYPE 3, their Gen 2 race car for season five of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. As the British team continues their mission ‘Race to Innovate’, this marks another historic moment in Jaguar Land Rover’s electrification strategy. The Gen 2 race car is a bold, futuristic and dynamic design and a big step forward in speed and performance.  Maximum power increases to 250kW (the equivalent of 335bhp) available during qualifying and 200kW available during the race. An improved battery has allowed teams to move to one race car per driver and drop the mandatory car-swap demonstrating the rapid technological development in battery electric vehicles. The Jaguar I-TYPE 3 will also feature an LED Halo after the FIA implemented new safety regulations earlier this year.

Bentley Motors today announces that construction has started on the UK’s largest ever solar-powered carport at Bentley’s factory headquarters in Crewe, UK. The installation of 10,000 solar panels, which has a capacity of 2.7MW, will take approximately six months to complete. Once completed, the carport – which covers Bentley’s colleague car park – will take Bentley’s energy system to 30,815 solar panels. This includes the 20,815-panel rooftop installation completed in 2013.

After 70 years of all-terrain adventures and global expeditions, Land Rover has once again taken the Defender to new heights for the anniversary. Stretching over 250 meters, the spectacular Defender outline was imprinted on the side of a mountain in the French Alps. The one-off snow art was created to announce World Land Rover Day on 30 April, exactly 70 years since the original Land Rover was first shown to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show. The unique image is a tribute to the moment when the engineering director of Rover, Maurice Wilks, first sketched the shape for the original Land Rover in the sand of Red Wharf Bay and proposed the idea to his brother Spencer, Rover’s managing director. The forward-thinking design was eventually christened the ‘Land Rover’; the outline of which we now recognize as the […]

MG has achieved a record sales month, with March 2018 figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) confirming a 49% increase in registrations compared to the same month last year. MG sold more than 1,100 cars in March, marking it as the brand’s highest monthly performance since its return to the market in 2008. Year-to-date, MG is the fastest-growing car brand in the UK, with sales increasing by 67% versus the same period in 2017. MG is partly attributing this success to its new warranty programme. Since the start of the year, all new MGs are backed by a manufacturer’s warranty of at least five years, led by the all-new MG ZS Compact-SUV, which has a 7-year/80,000 miles warranty. Daniel Gregorious, Head of Sales & Marketing at MG Motor UK, said: Our strong growth figures show that the MG […]

There are many types of books in an MG collection. There are shop manuals, marque histories, racing stories, advertising records, and on and on. There are few however that standout is completely different. MG, Made In Abingdon: Echoes from the Shop Floor by Bob Frampton is one such book. This book is one of the few that while dealing with the MG factory, doesn’t actually have a ton of information about the cars. Instead, it is about the people and is told in their own words. MG, Made In Abingdon will give you a feel for the people and the time and the place made famous by the sacred octagon. In the book, we hear from the true voices behind the cars. We hear stories that range from tea-girls bringing cinnamon buns to the line-workers to fist fights in bars to men […]

Over 80 British Car enthusiasts made their way to Abingdon Spares in Deep River for a tech session with internationally known British Carburetor authority Joe Curto. It was a tight fit but we managed to squeeze everyone in, with only a few standing! We even managed to get a few sports cars out of hibernation and into our parking lot! Joe provided a very interesting, informative and sometimes humorous two and a half hours of discussion on the famous SU carburetor. Joe began by describing the various types of SUs, starting with the H type (T-series) through the HIF (MGB) carbs.

Our video this week features a car you rarely see anymore, especially in the US, the Hillman Imp. The video takes a look at the production of the Hillman Imp at the plant in Linwood, Renfrewshire, Scotland. The program includes interviews with past members of the Linwood workforce. It also examines the wider workforce, trade union, management and government relationships which existed throughout much of UK manufacturing in the 1960’s and 70’s. The Hillman Imp was a small economy car made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. It was made in many different forms and in addition to the Hillman marque was also marketed as both Sunbeam and Singer. Unveiled in 1963 after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine block and cylinder head cast in aluminum.

Without equal and a class apart: the new Lotus Exige Cup 430 Type 25 is a collector’s piece like no other and a fitting tribute to one of the most successful and influential Formula 1 cars of all time. Based on the celebrated Exige Cup 430, unveiled at the end of last year, the two-seat Type 25 is a unique opportunity to relish a universally acclaimed sports car named in partnership with Classic Team Lotus. Referencing the Type 25, the single seat Lotus racing car that dominated the 1963 season, the new car features a raft of exotic and unique features as well as specially commissioned heritage documentation. Powered by Lotus’ formidable 3.5-litre supercharged and charge cooled V6, producing 430 hp and 440 Nm, the Lotus Exige Cup 430 Type 25 is not only the fastest in its class, sprinting […]

Future owners of the still-to-be unveiled McLaren Hyper-GT, codenamed BP23, will this week receive a sculpture of the car’s evocative and luxurious yet sporting interior. The BP23 ‘Speed Form’ also features a hint of the bodywork design that will make the next Ultimate Series McLaren the most aerodynamic car ever from the marque and help it to achieve the highest top speed of any McLaren, at more than 243mph. The BP23 ‘Speed Form’ provides an early hint of the luxury and imagination that extends under the skin of the vehicle to its icon-eclipsing interior, which is arranged in the same three-seat, central driving position layout as the McLaren F1 that inspired it. As befits a gift associated with such a rare car, examples of the BP23 Speed Form – which are individually numbered – will not be available to buy.

At the Geneva Motor Show, Morgan Motor Company revealed its most extreme road-going model to date, the Aero GT – and the first edition has now rolled off the production line, destined for Revolutions Morgan in Scotland. Morgan Motor Company will produce just eight of the special Aero GT variants – all vehicles individually built bespoke to customer specification. The Aero GT represents the end of Aero 8 production, guaranteeing that every Aero 8 owner will be the custodian of a very significant piece of Morgan history.

Auto Class Cars, authorized distributor of MG in Qatar, has announced that the MG RX5 compact SUV will be available in the Qatari market by the end of April. MG Motor’s new ‘Hero SUV’ will be available at the MG showroom on Salwa Road, with prices starting at around QR54,000 (approximately $15K USD). The new MG RX5 will appeal to a range of customers, especially younger buyers looking for value for money in a stylish, technologically-advanced package that allows them to stand out from the crowd, according to a statement.