New Cars

When you were a kid and you got a radio-controlled car, didn’t you imagine how cool it would be to be the size of GI Joe and able to climb inside and drive it? That feeling is what the new crop of Lotus sports cars is like. It’s just as cool as you imagined it would be, and it’s a good way for GI Joe to meet Barbie, too. We recently got to climb inside and drive the new 2008 Lotus Exige S 240 and the fabulous new 2-Eleven track car, which would make GI Joe leave Barbie far behind, pouting and wanting to drive it. It seemed only a few years ago that Lotus was about to drive off the edge of the map in the U.S. market, but the company now offers seven models to American customers. All […]

Almost three quarters of UK consumers would buy British if given a £100,000 budget to spend on a new car, according to new research from online insurance company swiftcover.com. Sweeping aside their German and Italian rivals, British marques emerge as unanimous favorites amongst UK car buyers, with 69 per cent claiming they would opt for a British brand if they had the money to do so. Topping the ‘Dream Car’ list with almost a quarter of the votes is Aston Martin (24%), followed by Range Rover (19%), Bentley (16%) and Rolls Royce (10%). German and Italian luxury marques faired badly by comparison – with just one per cent opting for a Lamborghini, 9 per cent for a Ferrari, 9 per cent for a Porsche and 2 per cent for a Maserati. The top ten swiftcover.com “Dream Cars” for 2008 are: […]

Aston Martin could co-operate with Daimler AG’s Mercedes on ventures ranging from engines to new models, the British luxury carmaker’s majority shareholder, Kuwait’s Investment Dar, said on Tuesday. Adham Charanoglu, business development manager for Investment Dar, which bought Aston Martin from Ford Motor Company last March, said it had held talks with Mercedes and with LVMH’s Louis Vuitton and PPR’s Gucci on branded merchandising. Charanoglu told the Reuters Islamic Finance Summit that plans to overhaul Aston Martin merchandising had yet to be finished but included opening new centers dedicated to the marquee — made famous by James Bond — in the UK, the Gulf and possibly the U.S. Any brand development would need to be at the top end of the luxury market, with opportunities stretching from apparel, owners’ events and track racing to real estate, Charanoglu said, adding Aston […]

From today’s “Financial Times Limited” come another story about the hopeful return of MG to the market. China’s Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) hopes to begin producing the MG TF roadster in Nanjing in May and at its plant in Longbridge, UK, within three months of that date, a senior executive said yesterday. But SAIC admitted the car’s long-awaited relaunch could be delayed again as it grapples with quality issues and rebuilds tooling bought in 2005 from bankrupt MG Rover and shipped to China by Nanjing Automobile (NAC), with which SAIC merged in December. “We want to begin production of cars at Longbridge as soon as possible, but the first priority for us is the quality of the product,” Chen Hong, SAIC’s president, told the Financial Times yesterday. “If we launch the product on the UK market and don’t have sufficient quality […]

Classical Drives has some great news for us super car fans: Proteus is coming to the US. For those of you that don’t know, Proteus is a British car manufacturer that makes exacting replicas of the legendary C and D type Jaguars. These cars are not fiberglass knock-offs, they have all aluminum bodywork that is hand formed much as the originals were. If you have a fetish for the great racers of the ’60s, you have got to check out these beautiful machines. Drool away.

Britain’s Autocar magazine has the first spy shots of the first rolling prototype of the Rolls Royce’s new small car. It has been dubbed the RR4 until they find a suitable name for the new vehicle. Autocar reports that the new model will carry on with the Phantom’s design language, from the thick C-pillar to the suicide rear doors. But the new model is significantly shorter and lower than the Phantom, which will inevitably lead to speculation that it’s based loosely on BMW’s 7-Series sedan. We’re not saying, we’re just saying. Engines are to include the Phantom’s 6.75-liter V-12 and potentially, the 400-hp, 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 found in BMW’s M3. Also surprising is the magazine’s report that a diesel Roller might even be under consideration. Rolls Royce is boosting capacity in Goodwood to build the new car, and prices in […]

The first production Lotus Elise-based, $98,000 battery-electric Tesla Roadsters will be exported to the U.S. from Lotus Engineering in March, now that Tesla Motors has received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Tesla Roadster (“P1”) for sale. Initially at a limited rate pendng the supply of a redesigned single-ratio transmission, series production is scheduled to begin on 17th March. Transmission problems have delayed series production, and early production units will be equipped with an interim transmission that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to 5.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. Tesla Motors engineers have designed a permanent solution for mass production that supports the original specification of 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds. The planned solution is said to offer some very positive benefits. Instead of a complex two-speed transmission design, Tesla will achieve the original […]

To start the review Clarkson says, “Normally I avoid road-testing cars made by small British companies like Ascari because nobody is going to buy one anyway. However, some things are worth a bit of extra effort and the Ascari A10 is one of them. With a tweaked version of BMW’s old M5 engine sitting in the middle of the carbon fibre tub, you have the power of 600 horses in a car that weighs about the same as a sausage dog.” Read the full review here.

The roots shared by the names MINI and John Cooper Works reach back almost 50 years. Now a new chapter of their success story has been opened. Under the roof of MINI the entire product range designed for the driver with a specifically sporting ambition will bear the John Cooper Works label. Consequently, John Cooper Works will in future become an integral part of the MINI brand and represent more than ever before the epitome of ultimate driving fun for all MINI enthusiasts. A visible sign of this repositioning is the newly devised brand logo which will be seen on all future John Cooper Works products. It is the guarantee for exceptional racing know-how, for an avid aspiration to achieve peak efficiency as well as for a deep understanding of the unconventional character and the outstanding quality demands expected of […]

“You are looking at the MC1; a British designed and built supercar that could be on sale by 2011,” says Autocar magazine’s website, referring to a photo of a car which uses a 600bhp, mid-mounted V10 engine. The car has been designed by Motorcity, a German-based design studio owned by British designer David Hilton, which produced cars such as the most recent Ford Mustang and Ford S-Max. It’s claimed that working prototypes of the MCI are already undergoing tests. Motorcity has reportedly teamed up with C2P Automotive, a Milton Keynes-based engineering company, which has agreed to manufacture the car, but Autocar admits that little else is yet known about the MC1.

Rolls-Royces weren’t always the best cars in the world, even when they were assumed to be. Some even challenge the claim to that title of the Edwardian Silver Ghost, the progenitor of the legend. Car magazine shoved the flying lady off her pedestal 40 years ago, when the Silver Shadow was judged inferior to a Mercedes-Benz. By the time BMW established the “new” Rolls-Royce operation in Goodwood, the Rolls-Royce brand had become tarnished. The cars were as finely crafted as ever, but were behind technologically. The Rolls-Royce had become an anachronism.Well, BMW has been restoring the brand’s corporate fortunes. The original (2003) Phantom line of limousines was enriched by longer-wheelbase, armoured and bespoke variations – and now those ships of state are joined by the more playful Phantom Drophead Coupé, the most fun Rolls-Royce since Lady Penelope’s. Rolls-Royce may or […]

British car guide WhatCar? has announced its 2008 car of the year awards. The categories range from supermini to performance, and every class in-between. Throughout the results common themes are apparent. No matter what type of vehicle they are looking for, British consumers are in need of everyday practicality along with fuel economy. Practicality comes in the form of tight packages that do not sacrifice storage space or good handling characteristics. Fuel economy comes in the form of small diesel engines powering almost every vehicle on the list. WhatCar? also seems to have a bit of a bias towards makes with British heritage. It named the Jaguar XF 2.7D V6 Luxury their overall 2008 Car of the Year. The Jag was also the winner of the executive car category. They noted that the car’s classic refined Jaguar design mixed with […]