Oxford MINI Plant Celebrates Three Million MINIs

December 3, 2016 Staff 1

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.

Project Cullinan takes next step in Development Programme

Rolls-Royce’s Project Cullinan Update

December 1, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 […]

Maximilian Szwaj - Aston Martin Chief Technical Officer - Banner

Aston Martin Appoints Maximilian Szwaj Chief Technical Officer

December 1, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 […]

Land Rover Discovery Named Best Used SUV

November 29, 2016 Staff Comments Off

The Land Rover Discovery has added yet another accolade to its enviable roll of honor by scooping the inaugural ‘Best Used SUV’ award at the annual Car Dealer Used Car Awards. The award adds to the Discovery’s enviable and diverse roll of honor already topping 85 awards globally including ‘Tow Car of the Decade’ awarded in June of this year by the jurors of the annual Tow Car Awards. Each car is judged on the traditional benchmarks of three-years/30,000 miles and the figures show that the Discovery is the clear winner by retaining the highest percentage of value from new, while also spending less time on the forecourts of retailers and used car specialists. Upon selecting the Discovery, the expert judging panel from Car Dealer Magazine, said: We’ve researched the numbers thoroughly. We’ve obtained data from Auto Trader, CAP HPI […]

McLaren 570S with Track Pack Inspired by Racing

November 29, 2016 Staff Comments Off

McLaren Automotive has announced the first details of its new Track Pack which will be offered as an option exclusively for the multi-award-winning McLaren 570S. The Track Pack, available to order immediately, is designed to deliver enhanced levels of driver engagement for owners who enjoy occasional track day activity without compromising the car’s all-round usability and includes a discretely extended rear wing to generate additional downforce. The Track Pack is inspired by McLaren’s long and illustrious racing history, including recent success in GT3 and GT4 categories. And like the road-going, and sold out, iconic McLaren 675LT, the Track Pack for the McLaren 570S exploits all the benefits of light weight and aerodynamic downforce to deliver the most gifted on-track ability of any member of the Sports Series family.

British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968-1978

November 29, 2016 John F. Quilter Comments Off

For students of the history of Jaguar Cars, a book written by Chris Cowin, first 2012 and republished 2014 may be of interest. The book, British Leyland: Chronicle of a Car Crash 1968-1978 is simply packed with interesting history. This is the comprehensive story of a collection of once great and diverse British industries, primarily automotive, and their slow but relentless move toward destruction with only a few surviving pieces, Jaguar and Land Rover. For Jaguar only followers much of this book may be irrelevant as it deals in great detail about the downward spiral of the largest indigenous British car companies beginning about 1968 but this date is approximate.

McLaren awards its first international internship to Andrew McLaren

McLaren Automotive Awards First International Internship

November 28, 2016 Staff Comments Off

McLaren Automotive has awarded its first international internship to a student from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Following in the footsteps of the McLaren founder, Bruce McLaren, Andrew McLaren (no relation), a third-year student in the Faculty of Engineering studying Mechatronics Engineering, will spend nine weeks at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, working alongside the company’s Research and Development engineers. Nearly 60 years beforehand, the McLaren founder, Bruce McLaren, travelled to England on a similar ‘Driver to Europe’ scholarship to pursue his motorsport aspirations and founded his own racing company in 1963. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Bruce McLaren studied at the Auckland University of Technology and was an accomplished engineer and innovator as well as a successful racing driver.

Jaguar Land Rover Testing New Defender Prototypes

November 27, 2016 Staff 3

Dr. Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover finally has something of substance to say about the long-awaited Defender replacement. “It’s sensational.” The new Defender’s development has so far taken place in almost complete secrecy. There has been so little information coming from Solihull that many wondered if the company had anything substantial in the works. Now, Speth has finally come forward and thrown out a few morsels of information.

Next Generation Lotus Elise to Arrive in 2020

November 26, 2016 Staff Comments Off

The next-generation Lotus Elise will arrive in 2020, Jean-Marc Gales, company CEO, has confirmed. Talking to Autocar, Gales confirmed that Lotus has begun work on its next-generation sports car range. The news comes on the heels of the company’s first profit, which took place in August, and is the first time the company has been in the black since 2000. The new Elise is due on the market in 2020 and will be slightly larger than today’s car. Under the skin, the next-generation Elise will use a new version of the company’s now signature bonded and extruded aluminum chassis. Note: This story originally appeared all or in part on CareAdvice.

High powered, highly evolved, and ferociously fast, the Lotus Exige Sport 380 is the most aggressive iteration yet for the Exige model line up.

Lotus Announces Exige Sport 380 Supercar Killer

November 23, 2016 Staff Comments Off

High powered, highly evolved, and ferociously fast, the Lotus Exige Sport 380 is the most aggressive iteration yet for the Exige model line up. Taking the fight straight to six-figure supercars, this new, top-of-the-range model carries over the lessons learnt in the development of the acclaimed Exige Sport 350, launched last year, but with significant revisions lowering weight, boosting power and enhancing aerodynamics.

VotW – British Cars in America

November 23, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 Congratulates Craig Wilcox’s Track Success

November 22, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 […]

Rolls-Royce chauffeurs prepare for the Elephant Family Animal Ball

Rolls-Royce Chauffeurs Adopt Animal Personae for Charity

November 22, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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.

The new McLaren 570S Design Editions - Rear

McLaren 570S Design Editions Announced

November 22, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 Seals World Championship Titles in Bahrain

November 21, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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.

Lister Costin Continuation Car Announced

November 18, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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 Reveals John Cooper Works Rally

November 17, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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.

1987 Daimler DS420 limo hearse - Diecast

Diecast – Jaguar Daimler Products When You Are Not Doing the Driving

November 17, 2016 John F. Quilter 1

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 […]

Jaguar

New Original Jaguar XKSS Makes Debut at Peterson in LA

November 17, 2016 Staff 2

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.

Vanquish S is Aston Martin’s Ultimate Super GT

November 16, 2016 Staff Comments Off

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.