Marques

MG Motor UK’s family-friendly SUV, the MG GS, has been announced as the company’s fastest-ever selling vehicle. Launched at The London Motor Show in May 2016, the model has already surpassed 500 unit sales in just 176 days. Reaching the milestone faster than any other of the manufacturer’s vehicles, even its stylish supermini, the MG3; success of the MG GS demonstrates market demand for a fun, family-friendly SUV – available at a sensible price.

McLaren Automotive has today celebrated the manufacture of its 10,000th car from the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, England. The 10,000th car, a McLaren 570S finished in Ceramic Grey paintwork from the McLaren Special Operations ‘Defined’ palette, rolled out of the Production Centre just over five years after the first car, a McLaren 12C, was completed.

Phase I of Aston Martin’s new manufacturing facility at St Athan in Wales received the green light when Aston Martin President and CEO Dr Andy Palmer met Welsh First Minister, Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM to finalize the sale of the St Athan site to the British luxury carmaker. In February 2016, Aston Martin announced that it had chosen St Athan from 20 potential global locations as its second manufacturing facility as part of a £200M investment in new products and facilities. A recruitment drive this summer began the search for up to 750 new Aston Martin employees who will work at the new facility, a number of whom have already begun their training, building the new DB11 at its Gaydon Headquarters.

Our Video of the Week this week comes by way of Rolls-Royce. The House of Rolls-Royce premieres the first in a series of fascinating short films today, telling how it became the world’s leading and most respected luxury house. Kate Winslet, the Academy Award winning actress, will give voice to the Spirit of Ecstasy in this first film for the House of Rolls-Royce as she retells luxury’s most fascinating and enduring story. The British actress will recount the story of the muse that guides the world’s most celebrated luxury house.

The Jaguar Classic Challenge returns in 2017 with two brand new events confirmed in the five-race series for pre-1966 Jaguars. A new date for the Jaguar Classic Challenge calendar is the Silverstone Classic on 28-30 July. This special summer weekend will be the third round in the Challenge and is expected to draw a full grid of stunning classic Jaguar racing cars.

One of Aston Martin’s most iconic models – the  DB4 G.T. – is to be celebrated with a special series of 25 track-only continuation cars built to lightweight specification by Aston Martin Works at Newport Pagnell. Launched in 1959, the DB4 G.T. was immediately celebrated as one of the rarest and most revered of all Aston Martins. Evolved from the production DB4 and introduced in the same year Aston Martin scored its historic outright win in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the DB4 G.T. was a true supercar of its day. Shorter, lighter, sleeker and with a more powerful version of the legendary 3.7-litre straight-six engine, not only was the DB4 G.T. Britain’s fastest passenger sports car, it was a born winner, scoring a debut race victory at Silverstone in the hands of Sir Stirling Moss. A total of 75 […]

The Aston Martin Vantage GT8 will make its debut at the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race in February 2017 with R-Motorsport, competing in the invitational class for production cars. Aston Martin works driver, Darren Turner (GB), will lead the charge and will be joined by one of the R-Motorsport team owners, Florian Kamelger (I), and Markus Lungstrass (DE). Held annually at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia, the Bathurst 12 Hour is technically a street circuit that presents a multitude of challenges, not least the tight and narrow section that runs across the top of the mountain. In stature, it is as notorious as the Nürburgring 24 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours.

Factory Driver Alvaro Parente secured P2 on the grid for customer team K-PAX Racing ahead of this weekend’s Motul Sepang 12 Hours, continuing his strong season with the US-based team. After progressing through the qualifying sessions to the Top 15 shootout, the Portuguese driver set a blistering laptime of 2m 02.764s driving its #9 McLaren 650S GT3 – just 0.130s off pole. Parente’s best lap in the session driving the 650S GT3 – which he has claimed six race wins this season, helping secure three 2016 Pirelli World Challenge titles – came following a strong run of form in the three practice sessions ahead of Qualifying at the event. The Portuguese driver was consistently among the fastest on track, ending two of the three free practice sessions at the top of the timesheets. During the final top 15 shootout, he […]

The UK’s leading manufacturer of premium luxury vehicles has announced further global sales growth for November 2016, following a successful month in China and last week’s announcement that its Chinese plant is increasing capacity by over 50%. November % increase(decrease) YOY Jan – November % increase YOY 15/16 Financial Year % increase YOY Jaguar Land Rover 47,588 2 527,937 21 521,571 13 Jaguar 14,613 83 132,381 75 94,449 23 Land Rover 32,975 (14) 395,556 9 427,122 11 Jaguar Land Rover today reported its best ever November retail sales of 47,588 vehicles, up 2% compared to November 2015. The year-on-year growth in retail volumes was driven by strong sales of the new Jaguar XF (with the addition of the long wheel base XFL in China) and F-PACE as well as continuing solid sales of the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range […]

Caterham has unveiled a new nomenclature for its series of domestic motorsport championships, ahead of the 2017 season. The new system was developed to better reflect the road car model range and bring the titles of the six championships more up to date. Further alterations are expected to be made ahead of the 2018 racing season.

Santa’s chilly grotto could be consigned to Christmas past thanks to Land Rover’s engineers. They have created a cosy cabin that can be transported for a much-needed festive getaway – it fits inside a Land Rover Discovery Sport compact SUV. The cleverly designed cabin has space for two adults to sleep snugly in North Pole temperatures as low as -20°C. It folds down to fit in the rear of Land Rover’s top-selling Discovery Sport, so Santa could even fit it on his sleigh this Christmas.

Back in the 1952-1953 period, the importer of MGs for the Midwest who was based in Chicago, Stanley H. Arnolt who ran S H Arnolt Inc, decided that the MGTD which was one of his big sellers  needed a new updated body.  Not seeing such a product likely to come from the Nuffield organization in England, he set about finding a coach building firm to create a new body for the car.   He met with Giovani Bertone in Italy at the Turin auto show  in 1952 and the foundation for a cooperative agreement was made.

Aston Martin’s Innovation Partnership with Red Bull Racing is to be extended to cover the 2017 season following an agreement signed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Aston Martin is also confirming that all 150 road car versions of its groundbreaking AM-RB 001 hypercar have been sold out. Customer deliveries of the AM-RB 001 will commence in early 2019. Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey, Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman and Aston Martin’s Chief Special Operations Officer, David King, created the AM-RB 001 to provide the ultimate blend of cutting edge F1TM technology with Aston Martin’s signature sports car design. Just 175 examples, including 25 track-only specials, will be built, with all 150 road versions now allocated to customers.

Birmingham-based SAIC Motor UK Technical Centre (SMTC UK), the sister company of MG Motor UK, has launched its 2017 internship program, in a search for the engineering talent of tomorrow. Having selected seven aspiring engineering graduates in September 2016 to the year-long internship program, the company is now on the hunt for its class of 2017. Commencing in September next year, the course covers a diverse range of topics including electronic engineering, powertrain, advanced engineering, body structures, vehicle performance, chassis engineering and vehicle styling. Team working is a key part of the program, which kicked off in 2016 with an outward bound event in the first week to help fast track graduates’ relationships with fellow students and learn about successful teams.

MINI USA announced pricing today on its all-new 2017 MINI Countryman, the best equipped MINI ever, with a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $26,100 for the Cooper variant and $28,100 for the Cooper ALL4 variant. The Cooper S variant will start at $29,100 and the Cooper S ALL4 variant at $31,100.  All prices exclude the $850 Destination & Handling fee. Pricing for the first ever MINI plug-in hybrid model, the Cooper S E Countryman ALL4, will be announced in 2017 closer to market launch in the U.S. The all-new MINI Countryman has been completely redesigned and reengineered from the ground up, yet still is instantly identifiable as a MINI. Now incorporating BMW Group engine technology and vehicle architecture, the all-new MINI Countryman offers an all-turbocharged engine lineup with outstanding acceleration and the famous go-kart driving dynamics – especially when experienced with […]

The three millionth Oxford-built MINI is a John Cooper Works Clubman – the first model to combine the latest John Cooper Works performance enhancements and a new ALL4 all-wheel drive system. Plant Oxford has celebrated the three millionth MINI to roll off the assembly line since production began back in 2001. From around 300 cars a day in 2001 to around 1,000 built to order cars today, the 4,500 strong workforce at Oxford produce one new MINI almost every minute. Around 80 per cent of MINIs built here are exported to more than 110 markets across the world.

In an open letter published in the Financial Times on 18 February 2015, Rolls-Royce undertook to regularly inform its stakeholders about the progress of Project Cullinan. Continuing this dialogue, which has seen twice-yearly updates, Rolls-Royce today publishes photographs depicting the latest key milestone in the development programme of this new ‘all-terrain, high-sided vehicle’. This first full development vehicle will begin testing in public from tomorrow. The world’s leading luxury goods brand has regularly informed its patrons about this painstaking development programme. Advocates of the marque have been shown the first engineering mule built for the development of the new all-wheel drive suspension system, as well as those created to test the all-new aluminium architecture that will underpin all Rolls-Royces from 2018 onwards. This latest development vehicle will travel to numerous locations around the world in a challenging testing programme to […]

Aston Martin has appointed Maximilian Szwaj as its new Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. In this executive role, Max will be responsible for Aston Martin’s global engineering operations and will report directly to President and Chief Executive Officer Dr Andy Palmer and be based at the company’s headquarters at Gaydon, Warwickshire. Commenting on the new appointment: Andy Palmer said, “I am delighted to welcome Max to the Aston Martin team. Max has a wealth of experience across Engineering and Product Delivery, his experience, skills and passion will make him a great leader for the Engineering team as we prepare the business for the next generation of Aston Martin products.” On his appointment, Max Szwaj said: “I’m delighted to be joining Aston Martin at what is an exciting time for the brand. “The company is at a significant point in […]