Highlights

Our Video of the Week this go round is a fun one.  It comes from the folks at MINI, but focusses more on the love of the classic Mini. Plant Oxford employee Mike Darley’s passion for MINI started as a child. Learn about his Classic Mini restoration project and how working at MINI is a lifestyle.

With the 2017 18-day, 4000-mile ‘Jaguar XK Club Round Britain Coastal Tour, supporting Prostate Cancer UK’ completed, the 100+ classic XKs involved and their crews can now take a rest and reflect on a very successful event. The main aim of this unique event was to raise funds and awareness of this cancer which kills a man in the UK every 45 minutes. The fund-raising target was £50,000 and this has now been exceeded.

Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) is celebrating another hugely impressive performance feat, having dominated its class at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2017 Hillclimb. With Test Driver Oliver Webb at the wheel, BAC’s One-of-a-Kind Mono supercar clocked a sensational 49.54-second lap up the iconic hill to top the Supercars and Race Cars for the Road Shootout leaderboard.

It has been described as ‘the most important Aston Martin ever produced’. And in August this 1956 DBR1 could also become the most expensive British car ever when it goes under the hammer at one of the year’s biggest auctions. It will be sold at RM Sotheby’s flagship Monterey sale taking place on August 18 and 19 during the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance motoring week in the US.

BMW will decide whether to build its new electric Mini car in Britain or elsewhere by the end of September, its board member for sales told Reuters, in a test of the country’s ability to continue to attract investment as it leaves the EU. Mini makes around 70 percent of its approximately 360,000 compact cars at its Oxford plant in southern England but the car industry is concerned about the effect any loss of unfettered access to the EU, its largest export market, could have on plants after Brexit.

At the Geneva Motor Show in March 2016, Rolls-Royce presented a truly transformative moment on the luxury landscape – the introduction of a permanent Bespoke family of motor cars called Black Badge, designed in response to the differing lifestyle requirements of a younger, more dynamic patron of luxury. Since its introduction, Black Badge has done much to attract a new generation of Rolls-Royce customers to the marque. As a result of overwhelmingly positive customer demand for Ghost Black Badge and Wraith Black Badge, the time is now right to add a new chapter to the Black Badge story.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) has revealed the most powerful, agile and extreme performance Jaguar road car ever – the 200mph, 600PS XE SV Project 8 sedan. The second Collector’s Edition by SVO, following the successful F-TYPE Project 7 of 2014, Project 8 is a hand-built four-door sedan with supercar performance – designed to thrill driving enthusiasts, with an extraordinary combination of explosive power, dynamic agility, and all-wheel-drive traction. To ensure exclusivity, no more than 300 examples will be created, each assembled at SVO’s Technical Centre in Coventry.

British sports car and supercar manufacturer, McLaren Automotive, today announces yet another record-breaking year in respect of vehicle sales, profitability, and financial performance. Profit before tax of £9.2M from an annual sales revenue of £649.8M in 2016 gave McLaren Automotive a fourth consecutive year of profitability in only six years, since the start of sales in 2011.  This was an increase in profitability before tax of 70% compared to the £5.4M reported in 2015.

Aston Martin’s wildest-ever car – the track-only Aston Martin Vulcan – has been taken to breathtaking new extremes with a performance upgrade package developed by the luxury marque’s new performance brand, AMR. Making its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro sports extensive aerodynamic enhancements and shortened gearing to produce increased downforce, greater responsiveness and reduced lap times – improvements that underline its status as one of the world’s most extreme and exclusive track cars. Built in a strictly limited run of just 24 cars and delivered to customers throughout 2016, the 820BHP Aston Martin Vulcan was conceived and engineered to deliver the excitement and exceed the performance of Aston Martin’s Le Mans-winning race cars. Over the last two years, Aston Martin Vulcan owners have received step-by-step driver training by Aston Martin’s expert […]

UK automotive magazine Auto Express is the latest publication to recognize the new Land Rover Discovery, awarding it the coveted ‘Car of the Year’ title at its awards ceremony in London last night. Recognized for its unique blend of practicality, versatility, refinement and off-road credentials, this latest accolade celebrates the evolution of the Discovery lineage. Jeremy Hicks, Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover, said: The latest Land Rover Discovery is a real step up in terms of technology, design and capability from its predecessor. It’s the ultimate expression of Land Rover’s blend of ability, luxury and practicality, and we are thrilled that it is getting the recognition it deserves with this ‘Car of the Year’ title.

The Jaguar XE has picked up its 60th major global award, winning the prestigious Auto Express Compact Executive Car of the Year title for the third year running. Before the XE’s arrival, the last time a non-German manufacturer won Auto Express’ Compact Executive title was more than a decade ago. Jaguar’s disruptive all-electric I-PACE, arriving in 2018, also picked up the Design Award, voted for by Auto Express readers.

Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor Corporation will enter the India market with its once British MG brand for which it plans to have its fully-owned car manufacturing plant in the country. The company expects to commence operations in the country by 2019 and is in the process of finalizing its manufacturing facility, SAIC Motor Corporation said in a statement. Besides, the company said, it is firming up product strategy for the market here, details of which will be announced later.

After its successful global introduction in 2016, Aston Martin’s definitive GT – the acclaimed DB11 – is now available with a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine. Perfectly complementing the DB11’s existing 5.2-litre twin turbocharged V12 engine, this new powerplant has provided the opportunity to reveal more of the DB11’s sporting character, while expanding its global appeal with a combination of exceptional performance and improved efficiency. Producing 510PS (503BHP) and 675Nm of torque, the V8 engine’s potency is beyond question, propelling the DB11 from 0-62mph in just 4.0sec and on to a top speed of 187mph. This exceptional performance is matched by impressive efficiency: CO2 emissions of 230g/km and an EU Combined fuel economy figure of 28.5mpg. This new V8 derivative brings further significant benefits in markets where car taxation policy is structured around engine capacity, such as China.

One very special McLaren 720S is set to make an appearance at Goodwood this coming weekend, swapping its usual aluminum and carbon-fibre structure for bright orange LEGO® bricks. Following on from the launch of the 75880 LEGO Speed Champions McLaren 720S miniature set, McLaren’s all-new supercar will be fully realized in LEGO form at the Festival of Speed. But there’s a twist. The 1:1 scale model will arrive at the Goodwood stand incomplete. In order to finish the build, visitors to the McLaren stand will need to place orange McLaren bricks in designated parts of the car, with the 720S reaching completion by the Sunday, July 2nd, at the end of the Festival of Speed.

Before reviewing Robert Morey’s delightful new book, The Philosophy and Psychology of British Car Restoration, allow me a moment of transparency and honesty:  I am a big fan of the Little British Car, henceforth known as LBC.  I’ve owned and lovingly cared for several Triumphs (two and four wheel) an MGB and played caretaker to a range of LBCs including an Austin Healey, TVR and even a V12 Jaguar (four carburetors!!)  So even if the book were the result of a dozen monkeys pounding keyboards for a month, I am likely to be favorably drawn to any book with the words British Car in the title. So with that mea culpa out of the way, Morey’s creation is a positive, cheery and satirically refreshing collection of reflections that perfectly mirror the author’s upbeat personality and automotive experience.  His use of […]

Bentley Motorsport took victory at the Blancpain GT Series Paul Ricard 1,000 km with its #8 Continental GT3 and drivers Andy Soucek (ES), Maxime Soulet (BE) and Vince Abril (MC), as Bentley Team Absolute took a win and second place in the USA. The six-hour Blancpain GT Series race took place from 18:00 until midnight on the world-famous track in the south of France and Bentley Team M-Sport once again ran its pair of Continental GT3s.

Less than two years after being unveiled as a concept, Aston Martin is today confirming that the all-electric RapidE will enter production in 2019. Set for a limited production run of 155 cars, RapidE is Aston Martin’s first all-electric model. As such it spearheads development of the brand’s low- and zero-emission vehicle strategy laid out by Aston Martin’s President and CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, in the company’s Second Century Plan.

Could the UK be losing another icon? With the sale of Proton and its stake in Lotus, could Lotus go the way of MG and transfer production to China? According to Bloomberg, Chinese billionaire Li Shufu said his Zhejiang Geely Holding Group will consider producing Lotus sports cars in China after agreeing to purchase stakes in Malaysian carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd. and its British unit.