People

As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to community and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Aston Martin have formed a new partnership with local Leamington Spa based charity, Helping Hands. The Charity provides support to vulnerable people in the Warwickshire area, through a number of initiatives including mentoring, support for the homeless and those affected by domestic violence.

A classic 1948 Jaguar sports saloon, first owned by Arthur Whittaker, the Deputy Chairman of Jaguar Cars, has been reunited with his family 67 years after he parted with it. During Historics at Brooklands classic car auction in Surrey on Saturday, 4th March, Whittaker’s four granddaughters – Lucy, Sally, Sarah, and Charlotte – who discovered the car’s impending sale purely by chance a fortnight earlier – fought off rival bidders to make it their own, settling on £70,000 for the jet-black classic.

Jaguar Land Rover and Getty Images have announced a partnership on International Women’s Day to highlight the need for a more realistic visual representation of female engineers. More people than ever are searching images of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers, yet results are often outdated and don’t reflect today’s exciting and varied roles. This partnership aims to change that.

The British Motor Trade Association (BMTA) will be visiting the heart of North American motorsports – Charlotte, NC, March 2-4, 2017. The conference will be hosted by Dick and Beth Lunney of Classic MG Magazine, Lake Speed Jr. of Driven Racing Oil, and many other local shops will be assisting. While some have predicted the demise of the classic British car industry in America, there are clear indicators that the industry is not only doing fine, but has many opportunities to thrive and even expand. The industry has grown from small importers in the post-war period to large distribution networks in the 1960s and 1970s. With the demise of many British brands in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the industry shrank and began a shift from factory-supported parts and repair businesses to independent businesses. This first step in the […]

Aron Taylor-Smith and Dan Lloyd will race for the MG British Touring Car Championship team in 2017. The duo replaces last year’s rookie pairing of race winner Ashley Sutton and Josh Cook with the British manufacturer. Taylor-Smith, who used to race under his unmarried name Smith, will step across from the Team BKR VW CC. His Rockingham win last year was his fourth victory in the category since he joined the category in 2011. It will be the first time that Taylor-Smith, 27, has driven for a factory team. “It’s a real shame in one way to leave BKR who did such an amazing job last year in their first season, but now I am fully focused on the 2017 season and excited to ensure I deliver the results that MG not only deserve but are capable of,” said the […]

Aston Martin Racing is once again ready to take on the world’s premier endurance series, with the team announcing its three-car line-up for the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) today. Fielding two V8 Vantage GTE cars in GTE Pro and one in GTE Am, the team’s entry to the series and this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was confirmed during a web conference held by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest in Le Mans.

Jaguar and the Guild of Motoring Writers have marked 50 years of the Sir William Lyons Award at a celebration dinner in central London. Guests included Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum, Sir William Lyons’s grandson Michael Quinn, Guild Vice President Ray Hutton and former winners of the award – plus the latest winner, Heléna Hicks. Heléna, aged 18 from Colchester, is a keen motorsport fan and aspiring journalism student. Her entry for the 2016 Sir William Lyons Award included an interview with Colombian GP3 driver Tatiana Calderón. She has just begun a placement at Autosport magazine as a junior reporter.

In the annals of motor racing, few machines are as iconic as the Lotus-Climax Type 33, chassis number R11, the car driven by Jim Clark to first place in the 1965 Belgian, British, German and Syracuse Grands Prix and the Lotus in which he won his second World Championship. It is only right that this amazing piece of motorsport history be the centrepiece of the Motor Sport Hall of Fame at Race Retro, the international historic motorsport show, held at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, from 24 – 26 February, where R11 will make its first public appearance in over four decades. 

Footman James research shows there has been a boost in the number of female classic car owners, with female drivers predicted to account for 11% of the market by the end of 2016. Research of over 1025 women and 55000 policies revealed that the driving factor for classic car ownership for 21% of women was nostalgia, followed by 19% who said they were encouraged by friends and family members and 17% who saw it as a good investment.

Les Ratcliffe, Jaguar Land Rover’s Head of Community Relations, has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for outstanding service to the community in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Our video this week is a kind of birthday card love letter from Land Rover. I have to admit that I am a sap for these kinds of videos, and yes, I have been known to cry during Hallmark commercials. Seems this video, though nothing to do with Christmas, is perfect for this holiday week and remembering our families and the good times. The Land Rover Experience centre in Solihull recently welcomed a very special guest. Geoff, a lifelong Land Rover fan, celebrated his 80th birthday with a special surprise organized by Land Rover and his daughter. Getting behind the wheel of our latest vehicles, Geoff got some tips on off-roading from Phil Jones, our Land Rover Experience instructor. The surprises didn’t stop there as Mike Bishop, Product Manager of Land Rover Reborn, brought along a very special vehicle. Watch […]

Rolls-Royce is delighted to announce a series of remarkable collaborations with some of British music’s most revered names that serve to celebrate the marque’s long-standing relationship with the world of Rock & Roll. The first collaborations to be announced in this remarkable series are with The Who’s legendary frontman, Roger Daltrey. In total, nine Wraith ‘Inspired by British Music’ motor cars will be commissioned and crafted with perfectly executed design touches, commissioned by icons of the British music scene – creating the ultimate collectors’ items for the marque’s patrons. Rolls-Royce will donate a proportion of the value of each motor car to charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust.

This just in from TVR Heritage … “Do you own a TVR? Is it a clean and generally unmodified example as the factory would have supplied? If the answer is yes then we would welcome you to make contact as we will be arranging a professional photoshoot to bolster the TVR graphic archives for some exciting future projects and your car could be the star! “Multiple photos will be taken of each vehicle involved, together with the recording of additional details, including possibly some video and this material will form a key part of a future presentation.

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 […]

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.

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.”

Congratulations to Mike Harvey who has been awarded the Pre-War Car Michael Sedgwick Award 2016 for his publication ‘Skinners Union – A History of the skinner family and S.U Company‘. The award, that takes the form of a plaque and £250 given by the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust, hopes to ‘encourage new research into motoring history and to make the finding available to the public’. The winner has to demonstrate excellence in research, presentation, readability and novelty, that will materially further our understanding of the subject. A short list of nominated books were assessed by a panel of judges, who are themselves respected authors and highly knowledgeable enthusiasts. The panel was headed by chairman Guy Loveridge, motoring author and broadcaster and Deputy Chairman of the Guild of Motoring Writers. ‘Skinner’s Union – A history of the Skinner family and the […]