By Tom Richards
11 August 2008 13:04
Finally Fiat is launching the Panda Cross in the UK. It's essentially a plastic addenda-clad version of the existing Panda 4x4, but the Cross has so far only been available in mainland Europe.
Like the exisiting Panda 4x4 it features a permanent four-wheel drive system and an electronic differential lock, so should you choose to take the fields home, traction won’t be a problem. But the Panda Cross also gets new round front and rear lights, chunky side sills in contrasting colours to the body, new bumpers, 15-inch alloys and a two-tone interior.
The Panda Cross uses Fiat’s frugal 1.3-litre MultiJet turbodiesel engine, producing 70bhp and 107lb ft, but returning 54.3mpg and pumping out just 136g/km of CO2. Fiat is claiming the Panda Cross is the UK’s cheapest diesel 4x4, although its £11,995 price is a huge premium over the petrol-only Panda 4x4, which sells for £9865.

source:www.carmagazine.co.uk

By Tim Pollard

Rolls-Royce is preparing to show its new 'baby' model, codenamed RR4, at the 2009 Geneva motor show. CAR understands the smaller Rolls will be displayed in concept guise, similar to the 100EX and 101EX models that foreshadowed Rolls-Royce's Phantom Drophead and Coupe models. A mathematician might assume, therefore, that the next concept will be badged 102EX, although the company could plump for a new name that reflects the new nature of a smaller Rolls.
Rolls-Royce RR4: the latest scoop photos
Our latest spy photos capture the RR4 out on test on the streets of Munich, where the car is being developed, revealing that there's not in fact much that's baby-like or small about the new, fourth Rolls-Royce model.That imposingly long bonnet, upright stance and sturdy, privacy-protecting C-pillar are clear to see on these latest prototypes. Will the RR4 keep the Phantom's suicide – sorry, 'coach' – doors? It seems likely, judging from one of the test cars pictured here. But there's no telling what BMW's disguise is designed to do; it could be an elaborate decoy...
Why show the new Rolls-Royce RR4 at Geneva?
The company has a long history of showing landmark cars at the Swiss show. The salon has a reputation for being the glitziest and most prestigious of the European shows – and a fitting debut, therefore, for one of the most significant new Rolls-Royces for a generation.BMW's stewardship of Rolls-Royce is going rather well, CAR reckons. The Goodwood factory outside Chichester in southern England hand-crafted 1000 cars in 2007, and the new RR4 is a well judged addition to the three-strong range.The company is currently on a two-week summer recess, and the engineers are continuing to put in the second line required to build RR4. Sources suggest that the eventual target – once the baby Rolls lands in showrooms in 2010 – is to build 2000 cars a year.

source:www.carmagazine.co.uk

By Tom Richards




Jealous that you can’t afford one of the umpteen variations of Porsche’s new 911? Can’t get hold of the sold-out Cayman S Porsche Design Edition 1 and Boxster RS60 Spyder? Never fear, because Porsche has the answer for you, with new special edition Boxster S and Cayman S models.
The new Porsche Boxster S Porsche Design Edition 2 (breathe) and the Cayman S Sport both now develop 303bhp from their 3.4-litre engines – eight horsepower more than in ‘S’ guise. Those power gains come from the same sports exhaust tweaks that made the RS60 Spyder sound spectacular.
Hold on. Tell me about this Porsche Boxster first. Isn’t it a bit 1980s in white?
Carrera White in fact, and the phrase ‘greed is good’ does spring to mind. In true Henry Ford style it’s your one choice of colour, though grey racing stripes down the sides and over the top of the car help set it off.
The red rear lights are lifted from the RS60, while the Edition 2 also gives you white 19-inch alloys, white side air intakes and, you guessed it, a white centre console and white dials. Finally, to make sure everyone knows you’ve got a special edition Boxster the car also comes with men’s Porsche Design Edition 2 Chronograph wristwatch, from their romantically titled Dashboard Collection. Of course, it’s white.
The Boxster S Design Edition 2 won't be coming to the UK though, but European prices start at £51,896. Yes, that's £52k for a Boxster, nearly £12k more than a regular S!
Right, enough of that nonsense. What about this RS-inspired Cayman?
If you own an GT3 RS then you’re probably horrified, but we quite like this Cayman S. It’s definteily a better use of the RS script than on Swedish special-edition VW vans and Transybberian Cayenne rally cars. Plus it's coming to the UK.
For £49,890 (a mere £5640 more than the standard car) you get the aforementioned black graphics and the choice of green, orange, red, yellow or black paint. Silver will cost you more though.
PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) is standard, lowering the car by 10mm, while 5mm wheel spaces give the Sport a wider footprint. Other exterior tweaks include black wing mirrors and 19-inch black wheels. Inside you'll find a GT3-esque wheel and gearstick covered in Alcantara, the Sports Chrono Package and leather-trimmed sports seats.
Just 700 Cayman S Sports and 500 Boxster S Sport Editions 2s will be made. Porsche calls it ‘rounding off the range’, but we can’t help but think that there are some idle thumbs in Stuttgart this summer. And some happy accountants…

source: http://carmagazine.co.uk

By Tom Richards




Toyota has just unveiled the ‘Winglet’, one of its ‘people-assisting Partner Robots’. It isn’t exactly a car per se, but it has wheels, a motor, and it is a valid alternative to walking. It even has its own ‘trim’ levels – ‘S’, ‘M’ and ‘L’ (from left to right in our pictures). These range from ‘practical’ (with the long handle) to ‘hands-free sporty’. To us they’re pretty cool, especially when you consider what Toyota usually turns out.
This isn’t Toyota’s first motorised transport device though is it?
Correct, as the Japanese manufacturer unveiled the i-Real concept at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, which was a three-wheeled seat for one. But while the i-Real uses joysticks to move around, on the Winglet it’s simply a case of shifting your body weight in the direction you wish to travel.
Each Winglet is no bigger than an A3 piece of paper, and all have a heady top speed of nearly 4mph. Not as fast as a car, granted, but pedestrians average 3mph so the Winglet is perfect for the hustle and bustle of the city. And you can travel for up to 10km (depending on the ‘driver’s’ weight) before the Winglet will run out of battery charge. It’s then just a simple case of plugging the Winglet into the mains for one hour, and then you’re ready to go again.
So when can I get a Winglet?
Toyota is going to be trialling the Winglet with the general population at Tokyo airport in the coming months, and is hoping to have its Partner Robots in use by the early 2010s. Although Toyota isn’t able to name a price at this time, the aim is to significantly undercut the Segway Personal Transporter, which starts at around £4400. Okay, so it’s still not as cheap as walking - but what would you rather do?

source: http://carmagazine.co.uk

By Tom Richards


Ferrari likes to win, and so, not content with having to fight McLaren for the Formula 1 championship, it is venturing into the A1GP series. From the start of the 2008/09 season all A1GP cars will be Ferrari powered, thus guaranteeing the Prancing Horse victory.
With a driver, but without fuel, the new A1GP car weighs 695kg, while the 4.5-litre V8 engine kicks out 600bhp and 406lb ft. It tested at Magny-Cours last week, bringing the total mileage of the Powered by Ferrari test car up to 3541 miles.
The car has also spent 300 hours in the wind tunnel, optimising the design for overtaking. ‘The effort of the design team has been to provide a chassis that has a good level of downforce, but without the normal penalties,’ says John Travis, A1GP technical director. ‘We have tried hundreds of different aerodynamic variations to ensure the close, exciting racing the series is famous for not only continues but gets better.’
The A1GP series runs over the winter months, when other race series shut down, and will enter its fourth championship this year. The season starts with the A1GP Mugello on 19 September 2008, and also marks the start of Michelin’s three-year deal of sole tyre supplier.

source: http://carmagazine.co.uk

By Ben Pulman


This is Volkswagen’s new Mk6 Golf, and these first pictures have been leaked onto the internet by a foreign website ahead of the new Golf's official unveiling later this week.
Mechanical details are still scant but it's clear that in the looks department the Scirocco has had a small influence. At best though, the Golf Mk6's design could only be described as evolutionary. Perhaps Porsche ownership is starting to have an effect…
So talk me round the new VW Golf Mk6.
The obvious changes are the new Scirocco-inspired headlamps and, depending on how unkind you're feeling, those Touareg or Seat Altea taillights. Around the glasshouse, Scirocco-esque creases are also visible, while new front and rear bumpers complete the makeover.
Those look like VW Eos wheels to me…
Almost. They certaintly are similar, and inside the Mk6 the Eos has donated its central air vents as part of VW’s strategy to improve the interior quality of the Golf. Other tweaks include a Passat CC steering wheel and VW’s latest-generation touch-screen sat-nav system.
Prices and further details of the Mk6 Golf, including mechanical changes, will be released this Wednesday 6 August, so come back to CAR Online for the full news.

source: http://carmagazine.co.uk

By Ben Pulman

This is the long-awaited new Lotus 2+2, with a 3.5-litre Toyota V6 and four apparently useable seats. It's the first new Lotus for 13 years and a pretty significant launch, due for its show debut at the 2008 London motor show later this month on 22 July 2008. That's when we’ll find out the name of this new Lotus – codenamed Eagle – but in the meantime the company is teasing us with some new details. These include the car’s sub-five second 0-60mph time, its estimated 160mph top speed and the promise of convertible and high-performance versions. Read on for the full first details and analysis of the new Lotus Eagle.
Is it still called the Lotus Eagle?
For now, as that’s the car’s project name – but the production car will bear a regular Lotus 'E' name, predicted to be a short, pithy tag. This is a true Lotus at heart, after all; early prototypes of the Eagle running at the Nurburgring are considerably faster than the Elise, Hethel spokesmen claim, and more stable at speed than the Exige, too.
Of course the Lotus Eagle should be one of the quickest four-seaters around, with an aluminium chassis and a composite roof help to keep weight low in time-honoured Lotus fashion. Add in that 3.5-litre V6 Toyota engine equipped with dual VVT-i (‘intelligent’ variable valve timing) producing 276bhp and we wouldn’t expect anything less from Lotus. The torque figure should be at least 250lb ft, as CAR scooped the lowdown on the Toyota engine a few months ago.
The rest of the Eagle's spec is pretty impressive too, with 350mm four-pot AP racing brakes, Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs.
And the looks? We'll let you judge the design for yourself, suffice to say that this first official photograph had most at CAR recalling the M250 concept shown at the start of the decade; it was designed as a smarter Lotus to slot above the Elise but failed to meet global homologation standards and was subsequently parked. Much of its spirit seems alive and well in the new Eagle.

What about the Lotus Eagle being a 2+2?
In the back of the Eagle, but ahead of the mid-mounted engine, you’ll find two Isofix seats that are designed for children up to nine years old, or for occasional use by adults. Think 911 rear pews. But if you want to be more practical we suggest ticking the box that turns the rear seats into a luggage compartment.
Lotus claims the new Eagle offers ‘real-world usability’, so the cabin is leather-lined and even has a glovebox, storage bins and ‘cup holders’. The steering wheel is flat-bottomed and blue LEDs bathe the cabin in light.
We've seen sneak photos inside the Eagle and it certainly seems more executive than the Europa, the smarter, touring version of the Elise that left us disappointed. While we don't expect the Eagle to be quite knocking on the door of Audi TT or Porsche 911 owners quite yet, the quality has taken a leap forward, vow Lotus types.
Lotus Eagle: the design story
The Eagle has been designed in-house by Lotus Design. Chief stylist Russell Carr said: 'The modern customer demands that the product offers real-world usability as well as exotic imagery. Therefore every element of the car’s exterior and interior has been carefully designed to create a product that offers comfort and convenience as well as traditional performance car attributes.'

What else do I need to know about the new Lotus Eagle?
Inside the Eagle you’ll find a Alpine hi-fi system with Bluetooth and iPod connections. Air-con is standard and you can even option a reversing camera and tyre pressure monitor. Anti-lock brakes, stability control and traction control are all standard.
No more than 2000 Eagles a year will be built at Lotus's HQ in Hethel, Norfolk, and prices are expected to start at £45k when sales start in spring 2009. One of the internal mantras when developing this car was '911 car for Cayman cash', which positions it pretty neatly.
‘Project Eagle is the biggest milestone Lotus has achieved since the Elise was born 13 years ago,’ Lotus CEO Mike Kimberely said. ‘We are currently working at broadening the appeal of the Lotus brand through an aggressive five-year model plan of which this car represents the first exciting step.’
Up next are two new models, due by October 2011. One of those is the new Esprit... Exciting times at Hethel, then.

source:www.carmagazine.co.uk

By Tim Pollard

BMW has just lifted the embargo on photos of the new 3-series, after an American website published photos early. So here they are: a pair of photographs revealing the look of the – very lightly revised – 'new' 3-series. It's a compact exec with a few surprises up its sleeve, including the ability to travel 60 miles on a single gallon of fuel... Thankfully, the facelift has abolished some of the Three saloon's dumpier overtones; there's always been a bit too much Mitsubishi Carisma for our liking in the rear lights, for instance. It looks a lot better now – trust us, we've seen it in the metal. Saloon and estate: both new Threes at onceThat's right, the four-door and Touring come first, but you can expect some of the facelift to spread across to the coupes and convertibles in fullness of time.What's new? Well the headlamps are subtly reprofiled, the bonnet is new and there are numerous detail changes to the styling that add up to a classic Germanic, evolutionary redesign.And inside the facelifted 3-series?Inside, there's new trim but it's hardly that different. The press material talks of 'ergonomically optimised positioning of the window lift operating panel on the driver side', for goodness' sake. Rather more noticeable is the latest iDrive, which has been honed and improved some more – and now includes programmable short-cut keys. There's also the BM joystick gearlever on certain auto models.Look out also for BMW ConnectedDrive; the revised 3-series is the first BMW to get this gadget, which allows unlimited internet use from inside the car. We suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about this particular gadget...New tech then?The 330d gains a new 3.0-litre straight six, mustering 245bhp and Euro 5 compliant know-how. It slots into a five-diesel and five-petrol line-up – and every one now includes Efficient Dynamics.Look out also for the M3's seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox, that's now moved sideways onto the 335i coupe and convertible. It comes complete with paddles for finger-flicking fun as you nudge up and down the gearbox.

The full engine choice is as follows:
335i: 306bhp/295lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl DI twin-turbo, 5.6sec, 155mph, 31.0mpg, 218g/km
330i: 272bhp/236lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl DI, 6.1sec, 155mph, 39.2mpg, 173g/km
325i: 218bhp/199lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl DI, 6.7sec, 155mph, 40.0mpg, 170g/km
320i: 170bhp/155lb ft 2.0-litre four-cyl DI, 8.2sec, 142mph, 46.3mpg, 146g/km
318i: 143bhp/140lb ft 2.0-litre four-cyl DI, 9.1sec, 130mph, 47.9mpg, 142g/km
335d: 286bhp/428lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl TDI twin-turbo, 6.0sec, 155mph, 42.2mpg, 177g/km
330d: 245bhp/384lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl TDI turbo, 6.1sec, 155mph, 49.6mpg, 152g/km
325d: 197bhp/295lb ft 3.0-litre six-cyl TDI turbo, 7.4sec, 146mph, 49.6mpg, 153g/km
320d: 177bhp/258lb ft 2.0-litre four-cyl TDI turbo, 7.9sec, 143mph, 58.9mpg, 128g/km
318d: 143bhp/221lb ft 2.0-litre four-cyl TDI turbo, 9.3sec, 130mph, 60.1mpg, 123g/km

Whatever you think about BMW, you can't deny there are some pretty impressive outputs here. Just think about it: 60mpg and 123g/km in a compact executive? Expect to see plenty more poverty-spec 3-series on the company car choice lists some time soon...

source:www.carmagazine.co.uk

By Ben Pulman

Jaguar will announce its 60th annivesary XK sports car at next week's London motor show. Dubbed the XK60 and based on the naturally aspirated XK coupe and convertible, the new Jag will be available from August 2008.
The XK60 comes with around £5000 of optional extras at no extra cost - and every naturally aspirated XK will come in XK60 spec unless buyers opt out. Sound like a run-out special? Don't forget the facelifted and revised XK is waiting in the wings.
And how much will the Jaguar XK60 cost me then?
Prices for the XK60 stay pegged at £60,995 for the coupe and £66,995 for the convertible.
All XK60s get 20-inch wheels, a new front bumper, rear spoiler and rear valance, new mesh grilles, chrome vents, new tailpipe finishes plus a new gearknob and gear selector surround.What else to look out for on Jaguar's stand at Excel? Alongside the XK60 will be the limited-edition XKR-S, the revised X-type, the XJ and the XF, for which Jaguar already holds 21,000 orders worldwide.

source:www.carmagazine.co.uk