JustBritish

Morris Minor enthusiasts from Ireland and the Netherlands joined British motoring fans to celebrate the history of the icon. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the one millionth Morris Minor rolling off the production line.

To celebrate the million mark, 350 bright lilac models were produced and 10 of the special cars took part in Sunday’s rally. Enthusiasts travelled from far and wide to be part of the event, which took the cars from Steeple Aston to Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire.

Oxfordshire was chosen for the event because the car was produced at the Cowley car plant. It was 40 years ago the last Morris Minor was built in this country.

Denis Lynch, 69, owns one of the limited edition Minors and travelled from West Limerick in Ireland to be part of the event. He said, “I am a Minor fanatic – my first car, back in 1962, was a Minor – and we like going to these events. It was a very enjoyable event because everyone was so enthusiastic about the rally and the anniversary. The Minor was one of the first cars people were able to afford back in the late 60s, and it is a British icon.”

Ken Giller, 54, from Wageningen in Holland, also owns a lilac Minor and travelled down in the vehicle on Friday with his son, Onno, 22, to be part of the event.

He said: “I have had this car for 28 years and, to me, it is very special. The Morris Minor is a car that is very, very easy to work on, it is amazingly reliable and it is part of English history.”

Assistant organiser Andrew Dyer, originally from Oxfordshire, said: “The Morris Minor was the first British car that ever sold one million units. At the time, to celebrate Morris made a specially edition of 350 cars, the idea being to send them out to each of the dealers for publicity.

“They are spread all around and today was about getting to see how many of those special edition cars that have survived we could get together. We think there is somewhere around 40 of the 350 that were originally made on the road and we managed to get 10, which is pretty good.”

A new sales centre will open at MG Motor UK’s Birmingham plant, the event will be marked with a Macmillan Coffee Morning and a weekend of celebrations.

The MG Sales Centre will open on 30th September 2011, coinciding with the final stages of ‘The Great British Charity Test Drive’, which has seen fleets of the latest MG cars tour the country to raise cash and support Macmillan cancer Support and Help for Heroes.

The opening of the MG Sales Centre will see one of the biggest Macmillan coffee mornings ever held, with a number of VIPs and the press invited.

MG employees and their families will be taking part in an afternoon of activities such as face painting, children’s entertainment, bouncy castles and a miniature farm will be available for children to pet a number of small animals.

Employees will have the opportunity to try cake baking with the cakes being sold to raise more money for the Macmillan charity.

The weekend will see the new MG Sales Centre open to the public, with opportunities to test drive the new MG6 GT fastback and MG6 Magnette sports saloon.

Clint Cordle, MG Motor UK’s Marketing Manager, said: “We’re planning a fun, family event to mark what is an important development in the new MG story.

“The brand is about fun and this will be a great way to celebrate. But we’re also hoping the celebrations will be well supported so that we can give even more support to Macmillan, which is such a worthy charity.

“We’ve ordered in plenty of coffee in what could be the biggest coffee morning ever held in Birmingham.”

Niche British vehicle manufacturer Caterham Cars has established a new standalone engineering company that plans to produce a range of affordable sports cars.

Caterham Technology and Innovation (CTI) will be responsible for the development of the completely new line of accessible sports cars that will be inspired by the same lightweight and minimalist philosophies that drive the famous Caterham Seven.

CTI will draw on the advanced technologies and materials developed by the group’s Team Lotus Formula One and Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 motorsport operations.

CTI CEO, Mark Edwards, said the new company boasted a world-class team of vehicle engineers committed to building on the Caterham ethos.

“The new shareholders are committed to investing in an exciting range of global products over the next 10 years,” Mr Edwards said.

“Tony Fernandes [the owner of Caterham Cars] has been very clear from the start that Caterham needed a sustainable research and development business model in order to meet the plans the management have for the road car business.”

Among the engineers will be Tony Shute, the man responsible for bringing the Series 1 Lotus Elise to life.

Caterham Cars CEO, Ansar Ali, said creating a new product range with the same reputation and appeal as the Seven was considered the “Holy Grail” for the new business.

“To meet the challenge, we knew we needed to invest in a new operation that would have the scope, experience and vision to deliver.

“I feel very confident that our customers will be very pleased with the products I have challenged CTI to deliver, in addition to supporting the Seven and I look forward to revealing our plans in more detail soon.”

Despite its unprecedented success and staggering popularity the world over, Apple’s iPhone is no longer Britain’s coolest brand, having been knocked off the top spot of the ‘Cool Brands index’ by Aston Martin.

The influential survey is made up of 2,000 consumers and a panel of 35 designers, style magazine editors, and website executives, who have deemed Aston Martin vehicles as Britain’s most desirable product — pushing the iPhone into second place.

The desire to own an Aston Martin vehicle is believed to have been fueled by James Bond, who can be seen driving a whole host of the company’s vehicles in the films. Despite being nearly 100 years old, the car manufacturer still maintains its appeal, according to the survey, while cutting edge technology — such as the iPhone — struggles to keep up.

For the full story, read The Cult of Mac.

This weekend the Saturday night around Silverstone will be filled with the varied engine noises of some 50 cars during the middle portion of the 2011 running of Britain’s most grueling race.

The Britcar 24 Hours is Britain’s only true 24 hour challenge and this year is fittingly run on the Arena circuit, the latest iteration of the home of the British Grand Prix. The challenge of the 3.66 mile circuit is compounded by the endurance test of men and machine and the time of year.

Just like the twice-around-the-clock event at Daytona in January, and very unlike the French midsummer benchmark for 24 Hours as much as half the race is run under the cover of darkness, with little or no artificial light around the track. Thankfully, for anyone who has braved previous editions the vagaries of the British weather appear to have delivered the 2011 race from the rain that blighted the 2010 weekend. Whether the ubiquitous Britcar 24 fog can be avoided remains to be seen.

The field – with over 50 cars expected – is split into four classes, spanning cars from bespoke racing machines to production based Renault Clios and MG ZRs with a range of drivers to match.

Leading the entry list, carrying the no.1 plate is the four man Ferrari crew of MJC Ltd. The team saw off the challenge of JetAlliance Racing in 2010 after a battle that lasted for much of the race. While their Austrian rivals opted out of a return to Silverstone the MJC team of Witt Gamski, Keith Robinson, John Gaw and Phil Dryburgh are reunited with the Ferrari 430 from a year ago.

Gamski and Robinson dominated the Britcar GT season in 2010, winning all but the final race, but have endured a less auspicious 2011. After getting off to a winning start at Silverstone in March, they were narrowly beaten at Rockingham the following month. Their season came to an end at Donington Park in May, when the car spectacularly blew its engine in qualifying forcing an expensive rebuild by Michelotto in Italy. The car will only return to competition on the 24 Hours weekend.

Read the full story at The Checkered Flag.

Official representation of MG cars has already opened in Azerbaijan. Sales manager of MG (Morris Garage) Motors Azerbaijan Ali Ahadov has said that an official representation of MG cars has already opened in Azerbaijan and new models have already been put on sale.

‘As an official representative of MG cars in our country, our key aims is to present MG cars, which is new in our market while it has quite long history in world and European markets, to our customers.

High-quality interior materials, modern design and a number of innovative indicators catch the eye,’ Ahadov added.

The sales manager said these cars are excelled for their comfort.