Motoring review: Is the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure the time of your life or as disappointing as a damp hike? September 17, 2018 Motorcycles are amazing. For less than the price of a Ford Fiesta, you can buy a machine that accelerates faster away from the lights than a Ferrari. Or cruises with the roll-along comfort of a Bentley. Or, with the BMW R 1200 GS, has more go-anywhere ability than a Land Rover. Ewan McGregor and Charley [...]
Some like it yacht: The Abarth 695C Rivale is a hot hatch inspired by a luxury boat September 3, 2018 The original Fiat 500 was Italy’s answer to the Mini, Citroen 2CV or Volkswagen Beetle: a ‘people’s car’ that mobilised the masses. In recent times, the practical Panda has answered this need for back-to-basics transport, while the 500, like many of the London streets it inhabits, has become gentrified. Today, it’s more premium than proletarian. [...]
New car hire app Virtuo sidesteps all the usual pains of London car rentals August 30, 2018 By far the least entertaining part of renting a car is having to stand around inside a hermetically sealed fartbox of a portacabin on the edge of some rainy industrial estate, before a 17-year-old in an oversized suit throws you the keys to an old banger that you suspect was built in East Germany. Recently [...]
Rolls-Royce unveils ‘flying taxi’ at Farnborough Airshow July 15, 2018 Rolls-Royce has released plans for a flying taxi that could be taking to the skies in the early 2020s. The British manufacturer will unveil its designs for an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle at the Farnborough Airshow, which will be officially opened by Prime Minister Theresa May tomorrow. The air show is one of [...]
Auction house breaks record with £10m Aston Martin sale July 14, 2018 Auction house Bonhams yesterday broke the record for the most valuable British car sold at a European auction when an Aston Martin was sold for more than £10m. The 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato fetched £10,081,500, which Bonhams said was a record. It sold in the room to a European buyer. The lot was part [...]
Lewis Hamilton interview: How the most decorated British racing driver in history, may be about to swap the track for the runway July 5, 2018 I find Lewis Hamilton quietly thumbing through a sheaf of technical sketches. But he’s not in a pit garage or race car factory perusing the work of aerodynamicists – he’s in Tommy Hilfiger’s Knightsbridge studio, studying pictures of sneakers. Just as he gives his Mercedes crew feedback, demanding different damper settings or more wing, he’s [...]
Ferrari Portofino review: The replacement for the California T is a special and surprisingly easy drive March 26, 2018 Ferrari would never admit its California was a car marketed at women. Back when it was launched in 2008, just four per cent of the Italian manufacturer’s customers were female. With the California, a softer sports car with a folding metal roof and lower price tag, it said it intended to reach an audience it [...]
Mercedes-Benz SL R107: The best classic Merc you can buy February 19, 2018 All cars eventually become classics, but not all classics are created equal. The ‘R107’ Mercedes-Benz SL is a case in point. This luxurious grand tourer – we’ll stop short of calling it a sports car – was a cut above the automotive norm when new, and remains so today. Indeed, it’s one of the best [...]
Following in the tyre tracks of legendary rock stars through Morocco in a Bentley Bentayga November 1, 2017 As I steer off the ferry from Spain and burble through the customs gate, I catch sight of the Grand Mosque’s rectangular minaret that greeted Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg in 1967. I’m in Tangier, exactly 50 years later, on a mission to Marrakech and, like Keith and Anita, my girlfriend and I have arrived [...]
Mercedes GLK 250 review: We travel to Bahrain, the Monaco of the Middle East, to test drive Mercedes’ junior SUV May 3, 2017 It’s appropriate that Bahrain should celebrate high-octane sports; it was here that oil was first discovered in the Gulf, after all. Fireworks explode in a riot of colours overhead as Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari takes the Bahrain Grand Prix’s chequered flag, followed by Lewis Hamilton six seconds later as the sky above the grandstands erupts. The [...]