Looking for the ultimate Christmas gift for a car enthusiast and Auto Vivendi is selling places in its 200mph Challenge next year. Recipients get to drive a supercar in a high speed sprint for £2,950+VAT. The Lexus RX large luxury SUV has collected another honour, being named the Best Large SUV in The Car Expert Awards 2024. Its success comes hard on the heels of having won the best premium … [Read more...]
Superbears – The Story of Hesketh Racing
Hesketh Racing famously burst on the scene at exactly the right time during the 1970s, just when the average Britain needed an antidote to depressing daily news telling of Industrial unrest, multifarious EEC collaboration, high prices caused by oil-producers restricting supplies and a potential coal miners’ strike, writes Ken Davies. Formula One too was undergoing change with increasing … [Read more...]
Surviving to drive
Netflix compelling and successful series ‘Drive to Survive’ is rightly credited with breathing new life into Formula One by creating a whole new audience, especially in the USA. But the fly-on-the-wall reality series has also discovered cult heroes among previously unknown paddock personalities, particularly in minnow teams and Gunther Steiner, sometimes outspoken principal of the HAAS team, has … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: GWM Funky Cat 1st Edition
The UK’s electric car revolution is becoming a bloody affair. From initially resisting the new technology on cost grounds including writing off established investments in petrol and diesel engine technology and having to develop hybrid or pure electric powertrains, along with making tens of thousands of workers redundant, manufacturers have struggled to convince buyers into showrooms or on-line … [Read more...]
Memory Lanes Rally Tales
The latest volume of Peter Robinson’s Memory Lanes Rally Tales series has just been released and is possibly his best so far! Providing stories about rallying from the 1960s and 1970s, Peter’s latest A4 size high quality hard back provides 425 pages split into 53 fascinating chapters, each telling its own diverse rally tale and making it convenient for readers to dip in and out of the 425-page … [Read more...]
Newslines 7 February: Nissan’s 17K miles pole to pole ev
Set amongst Arctic-like conditions, the Pole-to-Pole expedition team and Nissan unveiled an adventure-ready version of the new Ariya electric SUV, which will undertake a 17,000-mile trip from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole, starting in March. During this epic adventure, the Ariya will need to cope with breath-taking but extreme terrains and environments, including ice fields, deep … [Read more...]
E-scooters should be off Christmas lists
Loss adjuster CMA has seen a steady rise in e-scooter related claims over two years, mostly collisions involving other motorists, but also thefts. The increase is in line with Department for Transport figures showing the number of collisions involving e-scooters rose from 460 in 2020 to 1,352 in 2021. Earlier this month, a boy of 12 was killed in Birmingham, prompting the deputy lord mayor to … [Read more...]
Book review: Chris Coburn and DTV
A comprehensive biography of the irrepressible Chris Coburn has just been published and it's an ideal Christmas gift for motorsport fans. Talented, versatile, and multifaceted – driver, entrepreneur, engineer, and skier – Coburn was a prolific mover and shaker in the world of motorsport during the 1960s/70s. He was instrumental in the formation of the legendary Dealer Team Vauxhall with the … [Read more...]
Welsh author’s F1 classic view
Proving every picture tells a story, Welsh motorsport author Richard Jones has self-published a fascinating book from an idea provided by an evocative painting that captures just a brief snapshot from a hot and sunny May afternoon in the tiny Mediterranean principality of Monaco. In fact, the original Nicholas Watts painting (below) proudly hangs on the author’s study wall in Penarth as both his … [Read more...]
Toyota back holiday adventures for children
Toyota has teamed up with naturalist and adventurer Steve Backshall to provide ideas for adventures in nature to keep kids amused during the summer holidays. Steve, a father of three young children and presenter of Deadly 60 and Expedition with Steve Backshall, is passionate about encouraging children to be free in nature. He and his wife, two-time Olympic champion and triple world champion … [Read more...]