Round two of our SMMT 2015 mega-test continues, with a further batch of four cars. By mid-morning had we picked any more winners from the 170 on offer? Part one can be found here, if you need to read that first. As a way to build up an appetite for lunch, two performance Renaults and…
SMMT Test Day 2015 – One day, Twelve cars [Part 1/3]
The annual SMMT Test Day is often described as being like Christmas for motoring writers, with a huge range of cars available to drive on the demanding Millbrook test track. So, is it really the automotive journalism nirvana it’s meant to be? You bet. With this being our first time at the SMMT Test Day, ESM didn’t…
Friday Photo – Retro Livery for Nissan GT-R LM P1 NISMO
Ask any bearded hipster and they’ll happily tell you that retro is obviously cool. This fact is seemingly not lost on motorsport teams, with Nissan choosing to clad one of the Le Mans GT-R racers in a colour scheme from 25 years ago. Anyone who has played Gran Turismo series will recognise the blue, red and white colours as…
Villa d’Este 2015 – BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage
The annual Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is an event gathering some of the finest and most beautiful cars ever made. Last year the BMW Group gave us the MINI Superleggera at the Italian show – this year the BMW brand itself was star of the show. But is this ‘Hommage’ creation truly elegant? Alongside cars including a…
New Audi R8 LMS wins 2015 Nürburgring 24 Hours
With all the road car testing that goes on there, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the Nürburgring is still a real – and dangerous – race track. The Nürburgring 24 Hours remains one of the biggest challenges in motorsport, but Audi took victory last weekend. To say the new Audi R8 LMS was box-fresh at its Nürburgring debut was perhaps…
Audi TT clubsport turbo concept – News and photos
Another Wörthersee show car, but this time with crazy turbocharging and orange detailing? Consider our interest piqued! We’ve already mentioned Skoda’s concept efforts in advance of the annual Wörthersee festival which kicks off today, but Audi has gone decidedly all out with this mental TT clubsport turbo concept. However, there’s more than just mental bodywork – much of…
BTCC 2015 – Thruxton | Reviewed and Rated
EngageSportMode’s BTCC Correspondent returns with his take on all the action, or lack of, from Thruxton. A year ago, ESM visited Thruxton for not a particularly enjoyable experience and although ESM weren’t there in person this year, the action hardly set many viewing pulses racing. That’s not to say the racing was bad, it just…
Friday Photo – Skoda’s 2015 Wörthersee Concepts
The annual GTI Meeting at Wörthersee is something the Volkswagen Group takes very seriously, using it to show off some of the wildest creations from the VAG empire. This year, Skoda has not one, but two, special concept vehicles on show. There seems to be something of a trend with pickups as Wörthersee show creations. Two years ago Volkswagen had…
Lessons in conservatism – New BMW 3 Series and New SEAT Ibiza
Today’s title may be a pun on yesterday’s general election, but we don’t want to labour the point too much. Sorry. Yesterday also saw the unveiling of two ‘new’ cars, although you’d be hard pressed to realise it. Being a car-designer must be a fairly easy job these days, especially when it comes to mid-lifecycle ‘refresh’ time…
Friday Video – Audi RS 3 ‘Birth’
Audi has a habit of producing some rather decent adverts. There was the epic sounding R8 V10 plus one from a couple of years ago, and further back there’s the Audi 100 quattro driving up a ski jump. However, this latest one is rather bold, even by Ingolstadt’s usual standards. Take a look for yourself –…
Editorial – Is a Lotus SUV the worst thing in the world?
Possibly the biggest bit of news in the automotive media this week, is the story that Lotus plans to build an SUV model. In China. Some enthusiasts are up in arms about it, but does it really matter? There seems to be two distinctive camps in the Lotus SUV debate. On one hand are the die-hard purists,…
Friday Photo – Senna’s Toleman-Hart TG184-2 for sale
If you’ve got £1million spare, you could be the owner of this rather special piece of Ayrton Senna history. But is there more than meets the eye with this car? Currently on sale with specialist luxury car dealer Prindiville in London, this Toleman-Hart TG184-2 was driven by Senna during his rookie F1 year in 1984….
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