WOW! Yes, if it’s wow you want, here’s the car, says Tom Scanlan Of course, there are loads of cars that can wow us, but this one also offers so much more, especially, in the Touring version tested, practicality for the family driver. The car weighs well over two tons (even with BMW’s ‘lightweight’ engineering) and has 313 hp at 4,400 rpm. This is an impressive, but not huge, figure. But the … [Read more...]
Contributors
New Ford Focus (December 2014)
Tom Scanlan drives the new Ford Focus... Ford’s new Focus includes the new Ford family front-end look and a re-designed interior. New engines, including 1.5-litre diesel and 1.5 petrol are expected to deliver fuel efficiency improvements of up to fifteen per cent, along with lower emissions. Ford says that the already excellent driving dynamics have been further improved with a stiffer … [Read more...]
Audi A3 Sportback e-tron
Tom Scanlan tries Audi's latest fascinating A3... The car has a combination of a re-worked 1.4 TFSI petrol engine producing 150PS and a 70 kWh electric motor. Total maximum output is 204PS. As a 'come and buy me' incentive, Audi has endowed the e-tron with some upgraded equipment over the non-hybrid equivalent Sportback. However, the whole package costs well over £5000 more, even taking into … [Read more...]
Tesla Model S
Tesla? What’s that? Well, petrol-heads would know, even if there’s no petrol anywhere near it... by Tom Scanlan The designers of these American 100% electric cars have achieved a lot. The cars themselves are the ultimate expression so far of what can be achieved using just electricity. Their performance is in the supercar range and they are extraordinarily impressive to drive. Until very … [Read more...]
Brakedown…
It never ceases to amaze me that some people drive their car until either it comes to a complete halt, or the vehicle makes so much noise that the driver must be aware that something serious is wrong. Usually this sort of noise occurs just before the car comes to an involuntary standstill, but in the case of a car recently brought to me for attention, it might not have been able to stop at … [Read more...]
Freeze a jolly good fellow… A true winter’s tale
Grumpy, me? Well for once, today I almost smiled, and others who happened to be in my workshop at the time were seen to be concealing grins (at the very least). Please agree that you won’t smile, nor laugh, nor titter, when you read this – and I promise that this story is true. Recently a new customer had brought his car to me for a pre-MoT check and service, which I duly started to carry out. … [Read more...]
MG Electric Vehicle Concept car – on the road
An electrically powered MG? Certainly! Kim Henson reports. During a recent, fascinating tour of MG’s assembly plant and Technical Centre at Longbridge, Birmingham (to read about this, please click HERE), I was given the chance to test-drive a prototype of MG’s ‘EV (Electric Vehicle) Concept’ car. This is a small, electrically-powered, front wheel drive four seater, built on a … [Read more...]
Wheels-Alive visits MG at Longbridge, Birmingham
Some 90 years after Cecil Kimber created the first MGs, Kim Henson makes a pilgrimage to the Birmingham factory where today’s cars bearing the MG name are assembled… Before we start, I have to confess to rather more than just a slight personal interest in the factory where the current range of MGs is assembled, and in the adjacent Technical Centre where the cars were designed and developed … [Read more...]
Porsche 928
Author: Brian Long Published by: Veloce Publishing [veloce.co.uk] 204 pages UK rrp: £50 ISBN: 978-1-903706-30-5 The Porsche 928 is one of the puzzles of the first century of the automotive industry: How did a company steeped in the Germano-Czech tradition of race-bred rear engined air-cooled cars come, almost out of the blue, to build a front engined, water cooled GT which never had the … [Read more...]
Jaguar lightweight E-type: the autobiography of 4WPD
Author: Philip Porter Published by: Porter Press Ltd [www.porterpress.com] 320 pages Price £40.00 ISBN: 978-1-907085-17-8 Philip Porter is a well known Jaguar enthusiast and historian. He owns amongst others HP 9600, the original E-type fixed head prototype and as well as founding the Jaguar XK and E-type clubs, he has written extensively about the marque. His latest book, the Autobiography … [Read more...]
New Audi TT
Audi's third generation coupe is completely new in every department says Tom Scanlan A casual glance might not register this: the difference between this car and the outgoing model is certainly not as marked as was the difference between the first and second generation cars. The most obvious visual cue is the much-revised front end, with the Audi rings now removed from within the grille up onto … [Read more...]
New Vauxhall Corsa
Review by Tom Scanlan Vauxhall’s latest generation of its popular Corsa is now on the road. How new is it? Although all the dimensions are no different, all of the car’s body panels are new, and provide greater definition between the ‘sporty’ look of the three-door and the ‘premium’ five-door models. Almost every element of the Corsa’s cabin is completely new, including a completely … [Read more...]
Audi A3 Cabriolet
Following its launch earlier this year, we have now had the chance for a full road test of the Audi A3 Cabriolet. Tom Scanlan reports... The fabric hood opens or closes in eighteen seconds and can be deployed at speeds up to 31 mph. On a 70 mph dual carriageway, the £230 optional wind deflector kept buffeting up front to a minimum and the noise levels, even at the national maximum speed, were … [Read more...]
BMW’s Latest Models (October 2014)
Tom Scanlan experiences six cars from BMW and MINI in one day... 2-, 3-, 4-series and i-series BMWs plus all-new MINIS have all arrived in a rush over the past months. Wheels-Alive went into the Cotswolds to sample them. Newest ideas are the 2-series Active Tourer and 5-door MINI Hatch, along with electric power for the i3 and remarkable i8. The M4 cars now have a metal roof convertible … [Read more...]
Multi-model Driving Impressions – SMMT Test Day South 2014
BRIEF IMPRESSIONS: A VARIETY OF CARS DRIVEN BY 'WHEELS-ALIVE' AT THE SOCIETY OF MOTOR MANUFACTURERS AND TRADERS’ 2014 TEST DAY SOUTH Kim Henson reports… Every year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) hosts a driving day specifically for motoring writers from the south of the U.K, and I always find this a very useful occasion for driving a number of cars from different makers, … [Read more...]
Paul Frère
Serge Dubois / Editions Sergio Leone Price: €49 256 pages Distributed by: la Fondation Roi Baudoin, 21 rue Brederode, Brussels 1000 Paul Frère died in 2008 aged 91 and this is the first posthumous work on one of the world’s foremost autojournalists to appear. Still professionally active until his last months, the Belgian was a top flight racing driver in the 1950s and after winning Le Mans … [Read more...]
The VW Golf Story
Russell Hayes Price: £40 288 pages Behemoth Publishing, www.behemothpublishing.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-9928769-0-6 Russell Hayes’s encyclopedic yet extraordinarily entertaining History of the Cortina appeared in 2012 on the 50th anniversary of Ford’s famous saloon. Now Hayes has done it again, this time with the VW Golf, arguably a much more significant car. He shows how the Golf grew out of … [Read more...]
Ferrari 250 GTO Workshop Manual
Glen Smale, Haynes, July 2014 ISBN: 978 0 85733 384 1 MRP: £25 156 pages Some years ago Haynes reinvented its famous workshop manual series as feature books on notable aeroplanes, boats, submarines and…..motor cars. The latest issue on the last-mentioned covers perhaps the most famous Ferrari of all time, the 250 GTO. Last of the dual purpose road and racing Ferraris, a mere 36 were built … [Read more...]
Please release me
The other day, the lad who works for me was looking puzzled (actually that happens quite often, but I digress). On enquiry, he explained that he had been looking in vain for the bonnet release catch/handle, on a modern Peugeot… He was surprised to find that this release catch/handle was in fact located on the left hand front door pillar, so is only accessible when the door is open. Now what … [Read more...]
Skoda Yeti
Skoda's new Yeti is assessed by Tom Scanlan... Skoda is on a bit of a roll at the moment, with buoyant sales figures. The Yeti can take some of the credit. The new version is available as either a 4-w-d car or, as in the test model, a front wheel drive version. This car is equipped with the least powerful of the 2-litre diesel engines, with 110 PS (140 PS and 170 PS outputs are also available) … [Read more...]
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