Saturday, February 4, 2012

Aston Martin’s Most Affordable

Posted by carnellm On February - 13 - 2008 1 COMMENT

It’s been twenty years since Aston Martin, deeply in debt and little more than an automotive anachronism, was swallowed up by Ford empire. Say what you will about Ford’s other British luxury marques, the past two decades have been good ones for Aston.

When Ford acquired the brand, in 1987, Aston sales plunged to as little as 42 cars a year and at one point, keeping the assembly line rolling depended on the sale of a single car to a wealthy — and quite drunk — British aristocrat. These days, Aston’s aspirations are positively mass-market, with an array of new products promising to push volume up near 10,000 cars a year, and the company well in the black for the first time in its 93-year history.

That’ll be good news for the new owners, David Richards, CEO of racing’s Prodrive and Chairman of Aston Martin Racing, and two Kuwaiti banks. They’re investing $925 million to take control of the company, though Ford will maintain ties to its former subsidiary by holding onto a 15-percent, non-controlling stake.

Aston Martin Vantage

To understand Aston’s transformation, we caught a flight over to Provence, the painfully pretty French countryside where the British marque provided us an opportunity to test drive the all-new V8 Vantage Roadster.

The Vantage coupe made its appearance barely 18 months ago and served as the primary catalyst for the brand’s revival. Like Bentley’s Continental GT, the Vantage provided a new and more affordable entry point for Aston aspirants, roughly doubling sales in the process. The new roadster is likely to conjure up similar magic, based on several days of driving through the narrow, winding lines of the French countryside.

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Bertone’s Future to be Decided Soon

Posted by carnellm On February - 12 - 2008 ADD COMMENTS

Not strictly British car content, but of interest to most British car enthusiasts. Autoweek is reporting that three special commissioners appointed Monday by a Turin, Italy, bankruptcy court have 30 days to evaluate if struggling Italian contract manufacturer Carrozzeria Bertone will have a future.

Bertone stopped volume production in December 2005 and since then has been desperately looking for new work.

In the past two months, two attempts to sell Carrozzeria Bertone failed, pushing the Turin bankruptcy court to appoint the special commissioners.

The three commissioners are:

– Antonio Bene, an engineer and former head of manufacturing at Fiat Auto.

– Stefano Ambrosini, a law professor at the University of Turin, a bankruptcy expert.

– Vincenzo Nicastro, a lawyer from Milan and a financial contracts expert.

After the three commissioners complete their findings for Carrozzeria Bertone in mid-March, the bankruptcy court will have two options:

1. Approve the commissioners’ proposal and let them run Carrozzeria Bertone for one year.

2. Decide that there is no possibility to save the company and put it in liquidation.

If a restructuring plan is approved, the commissioners could apply for the resumption of a state-funded layoff program, which ended at the end of 2007. The program temporarily paid the salaries of the Bertone workers.

Since January, all Carrozzeria Bertone workers are being paid by the company.

New LBCar Newsletter

Posted by carnellm On February - 12 - 2008 ADD COMMENTS

Just wanted to alert everyone that the new newsletter from The Little British Car Company is out.

Items featured in the most current, February 10, 2008, issue are:

LBCarCo Chatter – Mardi Gras…First Event of the Year in Boca Raton
Last Week – Why Buy Your Parts Anywhere Else Drawing – All Web Orders Qualify – Last Week
SPRING TUNE UP – Work Lights for your Garage and a Portable unit for your LBC
SPRING TUNE UP – Need a Lead Substitute? Working on your Brakes? Use only the Best Fluids from LBCarCo
SPRING TUNE UP – This is Style – MG and Triumph Bonnet Liner/Insulator
SPRING TUNE UP – Dress up your MINI Cooper and Cooper S
SPRING TUNE UP – HOT Coil! New Pertronix 60,000 Volt Coil – Great for the Racer
SPRING TUNE UP – Halogen Bulbs – LBCarCo is your Exclusive Source! Driving Season is Here..Be Safe!
Traditional English Style Picnic Basket Blowout! Only $50 – Great Deal!
LBCarCo Gallery of Stars – Is Your LBC a Star, Upload it Here!
LBCarCo Loyalty Program
Event Listing
LBCarCo Tech Tips – Each Week a New Reader Submitted Tech Tip!
Read All About It – Subscribe Today at LBCarCo Savings to the British Marque Newspaper
LBCarCo and Guy’s Garage Team up in the Detroit Metro Area
Your Comments – What you are saying

You can check it out here.

MG TF

Test the New Lola MG EX265

Posted by carnellm On February - 9 - 2008 ADD COMMENTS

RML AD Group’s new MG Lola EX265 completed a faultless first shakedown test at the Silverstone circuit yesterday, Friday 8th February. The morning run left Brazilian driver Thomas Erdos thrilled by the responsiveness of the new XP-21 engine, and looking forward to the prospects of defending the LMP2 title in this season’s Le Mans Series.

Thomas Erdos and co-driver Mike Newton took the series title last year with RML’s MG Lola EX264, having won the LMP2 class in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2005 and 2006. Since then the EX264, itself a derivative of the EX257 that wowed the crowds at Le Mans as an MG works entry in 2001, has undergone significant further development. Arising from fresh links with Shanghai Automotive, MG’s new owners in China, the car has been re-homologated as the MG EX265. Most significant amongst those enhancements has been the production, in association with AER, of the two-litre turbocharged XP-21 engine.

Lola MG EX265
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Jaguar Looking At New E-Type

Posted by carnellm On February - 8 - 2008 1 COMMENT

Jaguar may resurrect its legendary E-Type sports car.

The British motoring icon is tipped to revive the true two-seater sports car to take on the Italian and German sports cars.

The most loved of the Jag family was built in the Swinging England period of 1961 to 1974.

With its performance, handling and modern looks it was a huge sales success and is still a highly sought collector’s car. Even Enzo Ferrari said it was the most beautiful car ever made.

Jaguar Looking At New E-Type
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Autoweek Reviews the Lotus Exige

Posted by carnellm On February - 7 - 2008 1 COMMENT

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.

Lotus Exige

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 of them share the same bonded, extruded-aluminum chassis, that wonder of lightness that weighs only 150 pounds. All have variations of the 1.8-liter Toyota four with six-speed manual. And all will make you seek out and attack twisting roads for as long as your kidneys and vertebrae can stand it.

We spent a day on the west loop of Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, far more interesting than the constant radii of Spring Mountain’s east half, and found it perfectly matched to a flock of Loti.

First around the loop was the Exige S 240. This new model has 20 more hp than the Exige S–which has been out for a year–thanks to recalibrated engine management, high-flow injectors and a roof scoop that gets more air to the intercooler. The clutch also was upgraded to handle the increase.

Brakes are now 308 millimeters in front with four-piston calipers and 282 in the rear with two pistons and upgraded pads and hydraulic lines.

Right off the line, you appreciate the car’s new launch control, a unique program that lets you predetermine redline and wheelspin. Simply adjust the knob on the steering column, floor the throttle, and dump the clutch. Repeat as necessary. Results for 0 to 60 mph should be in the four-second range.

Once launched, you can select the amount of rear-wheel slip you want out on the track by setting the traction control for anywhere from 0 to 10 percent slip.

“It is not stability control,” emphasized engineer Nick Adams.

For only $1,650 more, you should get the track package, which adds adjustable ride height, front roll bar and Bilstein dampers. Our first laps were with the Bilsteins set on the default setting of 3, but after a little plowing around, we went out in an Exige with 8 front and 7 rear, the numbers Adams set for this track, and felt much more capable going through all the wacky radius turns. The 8/7 setup made the car stick much better over bumps and stabilized it in transitions between turns. On the 3/3 setting, it was easier to make it understeer and oversteer all over the place. Isn’t it cool, we thought, that here is a car so finely balanced that you can feel these differences?

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