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An entry list of 27 cars has been revealed for the 2008 Avon Tyres British GT Championship featuring 19 cars in GT3 and eight in the new GT4 class.

Defending champions RPM will run two cars in the GT3 class and also expand into GT4 with a further three cars. Former BTCC race-winner Paul O’Neill will partner Steve Clark in the #1 entry while Nick Foster will be partnered by experienced youngster Oliver Bryant in the sister car.

In GT4, the team will run three Ginetta G50s for the pairings of Steve Tandy/Phil Bailey, Joe Osbourne/Michael Broadhurst and Chris Cooke/James Harrison.

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Vauxhall is overhauling the design of its famous Griffin badge and will give the new logo a much bigger presence on the face of all its new models, starting with this summer’s redesigned Insignia, the Vectra replacement.

The Griffin badge currently shares space on the nose of Vauxhall’s models with a chrome V-shaped finisher, which will remain a feature on the nose of models.

But the redesigned Griffin will be the dominant identity on the nose of the Insignia, with other models getting the new badge as they are facelifted or replaced.

“Time has come for the Griffin badge to get an update, just as our new model range needs,” says a Vauxhall source.

The move will bring Vauxhall more in line with German sister-company Opel, whose circular badge crossed with a zig-zag dominates the front of its versions of Vauxhall’s cars and gives the models a clearer, simpler identity.

The new design has been shown to dealers and received a strong thumbs-up.

At the Geneva motor show, GM Europe design director Mark Adams acknowledged that Vauxhall’s face was in line for an update.

“You are going to see the face of Vauxhall change and the new Insignia will bring with it a bold new face for Vauxhall,” he said.

The long-shelved Jaguar F-Type sports car, which debuted at the 2000 North American International Auto Show, appears to have secured the backing of Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, whose company is expected to take ownership of Jaguar and Land Rover within the next two weeks.

Speaking to journalists at the Geneva motor show on Tuesday, Tata said of the two-seater, “I’d be delighted if we have one in the range.” Smiling to journalists as he was questioned about the car, Tata said, “I do have a strong view about it,” leaving listeners without doubt that he has interest in getting the F-Type into production.
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Bentley is pinning its green future on more efficient gasoline engines powered by biofuel combined with lighter-weight body construction, rather than a radical switch to diesel or hybrid powertrains.

“We don’t think our customers, particularly in North America and Europe, are ready for a diesel Bentley, said Uli Eichhorn, Bentley chief engineer, on Tuesday at the Geneva motor show.

Although Bentley Chairman Franz-Josef Paefgen refuses to rule out a diesel powertrain, Eichhorn said: “Not ruling it out does not mean it is our top priority.”

Hybrid powertrains don’t fit the typical usage cycle of a Bentley, according to Eichhorn. “(Hybrids) are very good in cities and stop-start driving, but that’s not where out cars are used.”
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Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom Coupe brought in conquest customers ahead of its launch at the Geneva motor show on Tuesday.

“Two-thirds [of the names] in our early order bank are from non Rolls-Royce owners,” said CEO Ian Robertson as he unveiled the new model. “It means we’re beginning to appeal to a broader audience. “We’ve already sold a clear 200 or more,” Robertson said.

The Phantom Coupe was previewed by the 101EX concept car, which was shown at Geneva two years ago. The production model retains the look and many of the features of the 101EX, including the much-admired starlight headliner and the option of polished metal hood and windsheld frame.

The Phantom Coupe is a sportier Rolls-Royce, said Robertson. “But it is still very clearly not a sports car.”

The 200-plus orders for the Phantom Coupe mean that planned production for this year is completely sold out. The Drophead, which Roberton said had sold “far in excess of our original estimates,” is sold out until summer 2009. In 2007 it sold 250 units, helping Rolls-Royce to a 25 percent global sales increase to a record 1,010 cars.

It looks like a regular Opel (Saturn) Astra, but the car that’s pictured is completely different. This vehicle is Lotus Engineering’s first attempt at creating a hybrid vehicle, and represents the launch of a branch of the British firm dedicated to engineering and developing hybrid and electric vehicles.

Underneath its hood, Lotus Engineering has fitted a small 1.5-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine featuring a turbocharger that’s mated to a mild hybrid drivetrain system. The 12 kW electric motor adds power, but not at the cost of fuel economy, and because it isn’t a full hybrid system that allows the car to run on pure electrical power, it poses a price advantage.

Lotus has also taken a load off of the main engine by switching over the water pump and the fuel pump to items that are purely electrical, a change that benefits the car with 2-percent improved fuel economy.

As importantly, the new power plant puts out greater performance than most entry-level gasoline engines on the market today, at 158 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque. This also betters the performance offered by the 1.8-liter inline-four sold in the North American Astra. At the same time, the engine cuts back on fuel economy and emissions by a significant amount.

By swapping out the four cylinder for a three cylinder, Lotus has made the engine smaller, some 35-percent less complicated, but more importantly about 20-percent lighter.

Lotus Engineering proves a point that many automakers have shown in concepts; that downsizing for fuel economy can be done with giant gains in fuel economy and equally large reductions in emissions. We might see Lotus-derived powertrains soon too, as they’ve officially partnered up with US-based ZAP electric cars.

Source: Automobile.com