Blog on 2040Parts

Jaguar Land Rover open new engineering test centre in Dubai

Jaguar Land Rover are growing at a tremendous rate, and that means more and more testing of cars to make sure they can cope with the extremes of climate they’re subjected to by owners around the world. So as part of their growing test programme, JLR have extended their testing and engineering facilities in the Al Barsha area of Dubai so they can test durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity as well as test the powertrains, chassis, HVAC and, as this is Dubai and it has plenty of sand, they can also give the Land Rover Terrain Response systems a proper workout. JLR has been hot weather testing in Dubai for more than 12 years – an area where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius – and the new facility replaces a much smaller one in the same area, and joins Jaguar Land Rover’s other test facilities at the Nurburgring, Arjeplog in Sweden and Phoenix and International Falls in the States to ensure all JLR’s new cars get subjected to everything from extreme hot and cold to track work.

Spanish Grand Prix (2013) RESULT

Mercedes did an impressive job in qualifying yesterday for the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, but even Ross Brawn was hesitant to suggest his team could recreate their qualifying form in the race. And they couldn’t – not by a long shot. Alonso made his intentions clear at the start, moving from fifth on the grid to third by passing Raikkonen and Hamilton and headed off after Rosberg and Vettel.

Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak – Sebastian Loeb is impressed (video)

The Pikes Peak hillclimb is an awesome event with more than 150 turns on a course more than 12 miles long running up in to the clouds at the summit of Pikes Peak Mountain. This year Peugeot are back to take on Pikes Peak in a car they like to describe as a Peugeot 208, but apart from the name it has nothing much more than a passing resemblance to Peugeot’s latest hatchback. For a start, it has a 3.2 litre twin-turbo V6 that delivers an incredible 875bhp which is enough to get to 62mph in a neck snapping 1.8 seconds and 150mph in an equally unbelievable 7 seconds.

Rosberg & Hamilton make it a Mercedes front row: Spanish Grand Prix (2013)

Maybe Lewis Hamilton wasn’t as daft as we all thought jumping ship from McLaren and heading off to Mercedes F1. When we all thought the Mercedes F1 team didn’t have a chance of doing anything special in 2013, Hamilton and Rosberg have proved the 2013 car is a strong contender, and in final qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix they’ve locked out the front row. Hamilton’s team mate Rosberg beat him to pole position – his second pole in a row – with Red Bull’s Vettel having to settle for third place alongside Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus.

Jaguar Mille Miglia 2013 – & the F-Type came too (video)

But the original Mille Miglia ended in 1957 after a series of fatal crashes made the event untenable on public roads, but it returned in 1977 as the Mille Miglia Storica, a wonderful race/parade around Italy of classic cars – which must have taken part in the original 1927-1957 race – and now the 2013 Mille Miglia is ready to start on 16th May. Now the Mille Miglia is more a parade than a real race, Jaguar has enlisted some well-known faces to take the wheel of their C-Type and XK120 entries, including David Gandy (the world’s only male supermodel and a man who grew up round the corner from Cars UK Towers), Sir Chris Hoy (the cycling knight), Andy Wallace (Le Mans winner), Jim Gianopulos (boss at 20th century Fox), Hannah Herzsprung (German actress), Salvatore Ferragamo Jr. (heir to a luxury brand fortune), Yasmin Le Bon (the supermodel with a picture in her attic) and Michael Quinn (grandson of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons).

Visionary tech

Ignore the marketers: There's nothing new under the technological sun. Cost and reliability concerns may have hindered the early adoption of these auto-tech breakthroughs, though you'd never know it based on their present-day ubiquity. 1941: Crossovers The combination of a fully enclosed, carlike body and all-wheel-drive underpinnings got its start with the Volkswagen Type 87 Kommandeurwagen.

Autoweek in review: Lambos on parade, record breakers and the Ferrari LaFerrari

The week kicked off with renderings of a Maserati MC12 successor. We also reviewed the 2013 Nissan Nismo Juke and 2013 Cadillac ATS. Tuesday, we bench raced a new crop of supercars, comparing the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Pagani Huayra and Bugatti Veyron Super Sport -- read here to find which one came out on top.

2014 Toyota Corolla order guide leaked

The 2014 Toyota Corolla arrives in dealerships later this year, but some bits of information about the big seller have leaked through a Kansas dealer to Car and Driver. The Corolla will stick with a 1.8-liter, four-cylinder engine, but will add Toyota's Valvematic variable valve timing, which may add a few ponies. A four-speed automatic will be standard on base models, while a six-speed manual will also be offered, replacing the old five-speed .

NHTSA investigates Chevrolet Corvette headlamp failure

Federal U.S. safety officials have launched an investigation into potential headlamp failures on the sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 30 consumer reports that both low beam headlights will shut off while driving at night, without warning.

One Lap of the Web: The Greenwich Concours, racecars for the street and exclusivity at Ferrari

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Over at Motor Authority, they're talking about the Audi W

First Jaguar F-Type customer cars leave Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich

The first proper sports car from Jaguar since the E-Type ended production almost 40 years ago (and it could be argued the later V12 E-Types were more a GT than a proper sports car), the F-Type is a hook to hang Jaguar’s future intent on – and it seems to be making a pretty good fist of it. It may not be cheap (you’ll pay £80k for a V8 F-Type) and it may be heavier than its lightweight aluminium underpinnings promise, but it looks great, goes very well and seems to have proper Jaguar ‘Soul’. A winning combination.

Bentley Continental & Mulsanne Le Mans Limited Edition UPDATED

“There will be 48 of each of the six models (Mulsanne, Continental GT V8 coupe and convertible, Continental GT W12 coupe and convertible and Continental GT Speed coupe) – for a total of 288 in all. Among the 288, the six specification choices are not limited.” Now we know! Bentley has revealed a series of Limited Edition Le Mans cars – either as the Mulsanne Le Mans or Continental Le Mans – to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Le Mans (in which Bentley partook) and the 10th anniversary of Bentley’s victory at Le Mans in 2003. Unfortunately, all the Le Mans Limited Editions are exclusively for North America.

Concept Car of the Week: Hyundai HCD-1 (1992)

After a difficult start to the '80s, Hyundai thought of a new strategy to penetrate the American market and to compete with the industry leaders – Japanese manufacturers such as Toyota being the primary target. It came back in 1990 and set up the Hyundai California Design Center to develop cars just for 'Uncle Sam'. The center began with projects such as the Tiburon coupé and the Santa Fe off-roader, both being named after American cities.

Designer Interviews: Nelly Ben Hayoun, experience designer

This article was first published on WGSN-homebuildlife, the online trend forecasting and product design tool provides analysis, research and global creative intelligence for the fashion and apparel industry. Shortcuts Originally trained in Textile Design at ENSAAMA, Nelly Ben Hayoun graduated with an MA in Design Interactions from the RCA in 2009 She is now a lecturer for Central Saint Martins' Textile Futures MA course, and participates in conferences and events all over the world as well as regularly running workshops Ben Hayoun is currently touring her International Space Orchestra film, which will be presented at Design Indaba and is also on show at Z33's latest exhibition Space Odyssey 2.0 Read WGSN's new experience design report, Dematerialised, for more on where this trend is heading for consumers Nelly Ben Hayoun specializes in designing large-scale and transformative experiences, often with a connection to space science. Her projects to date have included research proposals for future meats, forming an orchestra of scientists and futurists to perform an opera inspired by ground control, inventing a chair that simulates a rocket launch, and creating the experience of being inside a massive sonic boom.

Caterham offers ’40 Years of Caterham’ pack to quickest Seven buyers

Caterham has come up with a novel way to flog its new limited edition accessory pack – the goodies are only being offered to the first 40 customers to buy a brand new Seven, starting from today (10 May 2013). What’s in the 40 Years of Caterham pack? You’ll get a grey-painted chassis and ruby bodywork with bespoke stripes, and unqiue 15in ‘Caterham’-embossed alloy wheels with new wheel centres.

The Best Diesel Car…in the World!

So when Diesel Car Magazine proclaims its winners each year it’s something car buyers are likely to take notice of next time they’re in the market for a new car, so it’s worth having a look at what came out on top. The VW Golf Mk 7 TDI took the gong for the best diesel car of 2013 (as well as best Medium diesel car), snatching the award out of the hands of Land Rover”s Range Rover Evoque, which won in 2012 (and wins best crossover diesel this year). Many of the cars that won an award have been on the list of winners before – like the Jaguar XF which is the best executive diesel for the fifth time and the Land Rover Discovery 4 which makes best diesel 4×4 for the fourth time – but there are new winners too with the Kia Cee’d Sportswagon winning best estate and the Ford B-Max grabbing the gong for best diesel MPV.

VW Beetle GSR: Price from £24,900

The Beetle GSR is a homage to the Yellow-Black Racer Beetle from the 1970s (GSR stands for Gelb Schwarzer Renner – which means Yellow-Black Racer) which featured a similar paint job, boosted power (a whole 49bhp) and was also limited to 3,500 units. But the 2013 version of the Beetle GSR does at least offer much more get up and go than the 1970s GSR managed. That means the GSR comes with VW’s 2.0 litre turbo with 207bhp which is enough to get the yellow Bug to 62mph in 7.3 seconds on its way top 142mph, and is the same power output all Beetles with the 2.0 litre TSI will get from May 1st (up from 197bhp).

One Lap of the Web: Key chains, Jay Leno and the Ford Fiesta

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Speedhunters.com gives us a sneak peek of some photos in its #MaximumAttack book.

Tesla Model S first EV to earn high praise from Consumer Reports

Tesla Motors Inc.'s all-electric Model S sports car received the highest score in Consumer Reports' ratings -- a 99 out of 100 -- along with widespread plaudits from the magazine's automotive testing staff. The magazine said the $89,650 EV it tested "performed better, or just as well overall, as any other vehicle -- of any kind -- ever tested by Consumer Reports." The last vehicle to achieve a score of 99 in the magazine's testing was the Lexus LS 460L, which was tested in 2007. The Model S, which went on sale in 2012, also marks the first time any electric vehicle has earned a score that high, the magazine said Thursday.

Scion announces pricing for 2014 FR-S, tC and iQ

Scion announced pricing Thursday for several 2014 models, including the tC, iQ and a new 10 Series iteration for each Scion model to commemorate the brand's 10-year anniversary. We saw our first glimpse of the 2014 tC, with sharper exterior styling and an upgraded interior, at the 2013 New York auto show. Scion says the tC's updated automatic transmission will shift twice as fast as the outgoing model and includes Dynamic Rev Management technology.

Bentley reveals Le Mans Limited Edition trim for Mulsanne and Continental

Bentley introduced Le Mans Limited Edition trim packages for the Mulsanne and Continental families on Thursday. They will only be available in North America and will celebrate the company's six wins at the 24-hour race. Bentley won the race in its second running (1924), as well as from 1927-1930 and again in 2003 with the Bentley Speed 8.

Caterham Cars offers free 40-year anniversary package

Caterham Cars, the U.K.-based maker of lightweight track-day vehicles, will celebrate 40 years building the legendary Seven with a free option package for the open-wheel roadster. The package is available starting today, but only for the first 40 orders of the Seven or its variants. Rights to the Seven were acquired by Graham Nearn from Lotus legend Colin Chapman in 1973.

Visual arts students vs. in-car technology

The automobile's natural technological evolution has gone from basics like wipers and headlights to high-tech infotainment systems that map your route, locate the nearest Starbucks, report weather and traffic, and stream personal music libraries. Yet many of these systems are difficult and distracting to use. So we wondered: Of the infotainment systems out there, is there even one achieving its connectivity goals better than the rest?

Who's Where: Alfonso Albaisa is Infiniti's new executive design director

Alfonso Albaisa has been appointed executive design director at Infiniti as part of the Infiniti brand's restructuring. Reporting to Shiro Nakamura, he is based at the company's Design Center in Atsugi, Japan. Albaisa joins Nissan's luxury marque after a year as design director for Nissan's Global Passenger Vehicles and Electric Vehicles.

Range Rover Evoque Service Pack: 5 years servicing for £499

But it’s not just that buyers of new cars are keen on the idea of long warranties and fixed (or inclusive) service packs that drive car makers to offer better warranties and Service Pack deals, but that offering them keeps the new car buyer inside the dealer network with all the opportunities that potentially presents for up-selling and new car pitching. So the news that Land Rover has decided to dip its collective foot in the water of fixed cost servicing is no surprise, and the offer’s a fairly decent one – a Service Pack for the Range Rover Evoque costs just £499. For your ‘Monkey’ upfront you get all the regular servicing needs of your new Evoque done and dusted for 5 years (or 50,000 miles on the petrol Evoque and 60,000 miles on the diesel).

Jaguar F-Type Coupe pictures were actually the CX-16

In fact, the photos we published turn out to be images Jaguar submitted to the European Patent office when the CX-16 Concept – the first view we had of the new F-Type – was being readied for its debut in 2011. Oh, well. But despite the images we ran turning out to be a bit of a red herring, there’s no doubt Jaguar will reveal an F-Type Coupe before too long, but not necessarily as soon as the ‘production’ patent images led us to think.

Aston Martin in talks with Mercedes for engine supply

It has seemed for some time that Aston Martin’s wish-list for future engines revolved around Mercedes. They currently use a V12 developed from Ford’s Mondeo V6 and a V8 that’s a development of the 4.2 litre that was in Jaguars (and Range Rovers) until a few years ago, but new engines (and new platforms) are vital if Aston are to remain competitive. Before the recent investment in AML by Investindustrial, there were plans for Aston to use both engines and platforms from Mercedes (the Lagonda SUV was built on the underpinnings of the Mercedes GL) and even the possibility that Aston Martin would design and build the next generation Maybach.

2013 Skoda Superb Facelift: Price from £18,555

When Skoda sent us the first details on the new Superb they did say it would go on sale in June, but that’s now slipped to mid-July, but in advance of that revised date Skoda has now decided how much they want you to cough up for their take on the VW Passat. Starting point for the new Superb is £18,555 for the 1.4-litre TSI 125PS S hatch, with prices rising to the range-topping Laurin & Klement Estate at £32,455, but there’s plenty of engine and trim versions in between to fit your budget. There’s a total of six engine options on offer – 1.4 TSI, 1.8 TSI, 3.6 V6 are the petrols and a choice of 1.6 TDI and 2.0 TDI with 140PS or 170PS for the diesels – with trim choices of S, SE, Elegance and Laurin & Klement with a couple of Eco ‘GreenLine’ models in the mix too.

New car sales in UK still growing – up 14.8% April 2013. Driven by PPI Claims?

It is quite hard to fathom just how UK new car sales (well, registrations) continue to rise inexorably against a backdrop of otherwise stagnant economic activity, but they do. April 2013 has seen a total of 163,357 new car registrations, up a huge 14.8 per cent on April 2012 and the best figure since 2008, and these sales figures are not being driven by fleet buyers but by private motorists – private sector registrations grew by 32.3 per cent in April and are up by 15.2 per cent year to date. Not surprisingly, it’s the Superminis that are performing strongly – although all sectors are showing a rise – and it’s the Ford Fiesta that continues to be the best seller in the UK with sales of over 8,000 in April and over 42,000 so far in 2013, and the rise of superminis has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-engined cars thanks to the wave of small capacity, frugal petrol options.

VW Design Vision GTI gets 500bhp: Worthersee

The Design Vision GTI is built to show what a Golf built for racing would look like – and perhaps point to future evolutions of VW’s most successful car – and is built on the same MQB platform as the regular GTI. It’s a bit shorter (15mm) than a regular Golf, a chunk wider (71mm) and a lot lower (57mm) which conspires to make the Design Vision GTI much more aggressive looking than its mainstream sibling. Power comes from a 3.0 litre V6 with two turbos – good for 500bhp and 413lb/ft of torque – which is driven to all four wheels through a DSG ‘box and can scoot to 62mph in a supercar-like 3.9 seconds on its way to 186mph.