Highlights

Our Thanksgiving Video of the Week (VotW) comes to us by way of the fine Canadian folks of Men & Motors. Titled “Classic British Cars in America”, this is obviously a subject we can all be thankful for. In this video from just over three years ago,  the M&M folks make their way to English Motors in Macomb, Michigan, which I believe is now closed, to look at some great British cars and talk about the fascination Americans have with them. Adrian Bell is in Detroit, Michigan talking about classic British cars. He meets British car enthusiast Sue Snyder who shows him her 1980 MG MGB which she has owned since it was new, plus Don Ensloe shows Adrian around his car garage which specialises in maintaining and restoring British cars for their American owners.

MINI USA is proud to congratulate amateur racer Craig Wilcox on his recent championship victories in the Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series and the Tire Rack Solo Nationals presented by Garmin VIRB. Wilcox, of Blue Springs, Mo., finished as the Year-End Points Winner in the ProSolo Series and was crowned the National Champion of the Solo Nationals in September at the Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Neb. The long time MINI owner was driving his 2012 MINI Cooper S Hardtop, which doubles as his day-to-day primary vehicle. It was the fifth time Wilcox finished as the Year-End Points Winner in the ProSolo Series and his fourth Solo Series National Championship. Even more remarkable, Wilcox finished with the largest margin of victory ever reported for the SCCA Solo National Championship with a class of 60+ competitors.  Wilcox was clocked at 115.778 seconds in the […]

Tonight, a collection of Rolls-Royce motor cars will join the great and the good in support of the Animal Ball, hosted by the Elephant Family charity.  A troop of ‘White Glove chauffeurs’, a term coined by the marque to describe exemplary performance in the art of chauffeuring, will adopt animal personae as they spirit guests to London’s premier masked Ball. The event will raise valuable funds to help solve human-animal conflict and the issues facing wildlife. The evening is set to be attended by the crème of the London social scene who will be conveyed in a collection of Rolls-Royces. Phantom, Ghost, Wraith and Dawn motor cars which will spirit guests from a series of dinners hosted by London’s luminaries at some of the city’s most exclusive venues.

Five exclusive Design Editions of the multi-award winning McLaren 570S are announced today, taking the popular ‘By McLaren’ personalisation themes a stage further with combinations of color, trim, and finish that are guaranteed to showcase the Sports Series coupe at its stunning best. The Design Editions have been painstakingly created by the people who know McLaren’s array of personalisation options the best – McLaren’s own designers.

Aston Martin Racing drivers Nicki Thiim (DN) and Marco Sørensen (DN) have today been crowned world champions after taking victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s season finale in Bahrain. Heading into the Bahrain race, the pair led the GT Drivers title battle by 12 points, with the team controlling the GTE Pro championship with a 2-point advantage. While a third place finish would provide the necessary points to take the GT Drivers title, the Danes claimed victory in style by taking their second win of the season, securing the GTE Pro championship for Aston Martin Racing in the process.

The last Lister racing car of the 1950s, the Costin holds a very special place in the history of the Cambridge company following on from the famous Knobbly. The latter was a very successful racer but Brian Lister realised that in order to increase performance he had to find a way to improve its aerodynamics. So, for the 1959 racing season, he called on the skills of Frank Costin, brother of Mike Costin of Cosworth fame, an expert aerodynamicist who had designed bodies for Lotus and Vanwall. Costin created an all-new sleek, low-drag aluminum body – and the Lister Costin was born.

MINI announced the start of a new chapter in its long, illustrious motorsport history with the introduction of its latest in a long line of cross-country rally car greats: the MINI John Cooper Works Rally. Now there is a new MINI champion in the making… MINI John Cooper Works Rally: racing ahead into the future The introduction of the all-new MINI John Cooper Works Rally underlines MINI Motorsport’s long-term commitment to its involvement in motorsport especially in the arena of rally-raid and the FIA World Cup, the legendary Dakar Rally and the latest long-distance endurance challenge of the Silk Way Rally.

Jaguar’s companion brand, Daimler, was acquired in June 1960.  At the time Daimler made buses,  military vehicles and a range of cars such as the Daimler Dart roadster also known as the SP250 and a large sedan/limousine known as the Majestic Major.  Daimler was long the vehicle supplier to English royalty and can trace its beginnings to earlier than 1900.  After Jaguar acquired Daimler they began to phase out some models and badge engineer existing Jaguar models as Daimlers.    Cars such as the Mark 2 based Daimler 2.5 liter sedan which used Daimler’s own 2.5 liter hemi V8 in place of the Jaguar XK engines. Later there was a whole range of Daimler badged XJ sedans beginning with the Series 1 and continuing through the Series 3. In  1968 Jaguar introduced the DS420 limousine which was based on many of the mechanical components of […]

The first genuine Jaguar XKSS to be built in almost 60 years was today given its world debut presentation at the Petersen Museum, Los Angeles by Jaguar Classic.  The stunning XKSS, finished in Sherwood Green paint, has been created by the Jaguar Classic engineering team ahead of the production of nine cars for delivery to customers across the globe in 2017. Often referred to as the world’s first supercar, the XKSS was originally made by Jaguar as a road-going conversion of the Le Mans-winning D-type, which was built from 1954-1956.  In 1957, nine cars earmarked for export to North America were lost in a fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in the British Midlands; meaning just 16 examples of XKSS were built.

Aston Martin has turned up the heat on it’s ultimate Super GT to create the new Vanquish S. Sharper styling, greater potency and increased athleticism define this latest evolution of an illustrious model line. One that originated from Aston Martin’s legendary Works in Newport Pagnell and has proudly served as standard bearer for the marque’s sporting and stylistic values since 2001. In this, the second generation Vanquish’s evolution to S specification, careful attention has been paid to the engine, chassis and aerodynamics to create a machine honed to deliver more intense thrills and even more scintillating performance.

Our video of the week this time is a preview of an amazing new DVD set, The Standard Triumph Story, that I was given the honor of reviewing. This is two DVD set with over 230 minutes of footage on the history of Standard Triumph from the early days to the very end. Yup, it’s almost four hours in total so it’s a rather extensive look at one of Britain’s most beloved producers of cars. It is crammed full of great interviews with the men who were responsible for the cars in the factory, on the racetrack, and just about everywhere else in between.

MG Car Club in Abingdon has brought out its very own breakfast blend tea in time for Christmas, sporting an image of the town’s old MG factory where generations of Oxfordshire families once worked.   General manager Adam Sloman said: “We want to offer MG fans something different through our merchandise range and we thought what better than a proper cuppa, blended just up the road from Abingdon. “The tea tastes fantastic. It’s something special and unique, it’s fun and will make a brilliant gift too.”

In front of a crowd of hundreds of classic car fans, international bidders online and on the phones, Silverstone Auctions broke several world records and achieved its best ever result at the event, in its two-day sale at the Classic Motor Show this weekend. Taking place at the NEC in Birmingham, 80 percent of the vehicles on offer were successfully sold, for a total sales value of £5.8million.

The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.  This is a production preview of the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed next year and on the road in 2018. Jaguar’s engineering and design teams have torn up the rule book to create a bespoke electric architecture, matched with dramatic design. The result is a no-compromise smart, five seat sports car and a performance SUV in one.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is delighted to be honoured with the Best British Luxury Craftsmanship award at the 2016 Walpole British Luxury Awards. The award was presented during a glittering ceremony attended by luminaries of the British luxury scene by Rory Reid, BBC Top Gear presenter, at the Dorchester, London.

After handing down a stylised sketch earlier this month, Chinese-owned British brand MG has now released two revealing previews of its upcoming compact SUV, reportedly set to wear the badge ZS. Destined for the Guangzhou motor show on November 18, the new compact offering is being reported overseas as a rival to the Nissan Juke – which, although an aging offering, remains the compact SUV to beat in the European market.

Aston Martin has unveiled the ultimate collectible to set your heart racing, as the iconic wings that have adorned its V8 Vantage GTEs for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) are now available for sale as a limited-edition set. Limited to 250 pieces worldwide, each collection is framed and includes all nine iconic ‘WEC’ wings badges mounted on a clean white mount. To ensure their authenticity, each case is individually numbered.

Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) landed two prestigious awards at the Northern Automotive Alliance (NAA) Awards on 10 November in Manchester, seeing off stiff competition from high-profile companies from the region. BAC won the highly acclaimed International Trade Award as well as the Logistics Excellence Award to once again prove that it’s one of the most exciting and innovative businesses in the UK.