Automotive

Automotive

Ferrari UK Challenge Series

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In a world of multi-billion pound, purpose-built motorsport complexes, bejewelled with high-end boutiques and luxury accommodation; Croft is a decidedly more down-to-earth, quintessentially Yorkshire-type affair. There’s no dedicated in-house driver development facilities or state-of-the-art media suites, but there’s always a cracking cup of tea on-hand, and all the folk are dead nice. Situated near Darlington, Croft is a circuit that’s particularly close to my heart.

Automotive, FILM

Rolls Royce Phantom One of One

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As part of our series of films with Cooke lenses, we asked the ladies and gents in white coats at Rolls-Royce if they could make available a marque that would befit our interest in helping them get ‘The Cooke Look’. What the team suggested wildly exceeded our expectations.

Automotive, Events

CONCOURS OF ELEGANCE

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The Concours of Elegance has announced the first of its features for 2019: a world-first display of one of every Aston Martin Zagato variant ever manufactured. From the 1960 DB4 GT Zagato, right through to the Vanquish Zagato Coupé, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake, guests will be able to browse 16 examples from one of the most famous creative partnerships in automotive history. The Aston Martin Zagato Celebratory Display is being curated by the Aston Martin Owners Club (AMOC), supported by Aston Martin Lagonda and Zagato. The display will include a number of extremely rare, as well as several unique, models, including one of the most famous racing Aston Martins…

Automotive

The sincerest form of flattery

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You see it all the time in the market as people come up with more inventive ways to dance around the word Replica. A word that in my mind has always been treated a little unfairly and masked with such artistic wordplay as evocation, continuation or even tool room copy. I know that they all have subtle nuances which differentiate them but underneath they are all under the umbrella of Replica. Now we all know that every rule needs an exception and I think that that I may have found it. As soon as friends and new acquaintances learn of your passion for classic cars all kinds of tenuous conversation…

Automotive

Ferrari GTC4Lusso T

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The Lusso T’s intoxicating performance, versatility and day-to-day usability are all impressive qualities. However, above all else, it’s the overwhelming sense that you are driving something truly special, the product of a marque that’s spent the past 70 years honing and perfecting a formula; a formula which has produced some of the finest, most desirable motor vehicles ever.

Automotive, Travel

Route One – Shelby Mustang GT350R

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I got out of my chequered yellow cab and pushed my way past the airport bus queue, headed for the hotel’s reception. After three days sampling New York’s finest destinations, I was ready to leave the Big Apple, get behind the wheel and onto the road. The journey had seemed endless out to JFK airport, as I knew waiting for me was a car not officially available in the UK. I had already christened it out of homage to its predecessor, the feature car in the film ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’, Eleanor. Having collected the keys from the front desk, I returned to the parking lot, but was unable to…

Automotive

Mustang

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My last experience of driving the Ford Mustang was on the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to Napa Valley and back. I vividly remember stopping en route at Pismo beach, to dig holes in the sand, rather childishly with the big V8 and its rear tires. I burnt badly in the sun with the roof down, ensuring I wasn’t the only lobster for dinner. And there was a gap between the rear and front windows wide enough to get your hand in to lift the locks. Some prodigious stops at wineries led to my precious cargo of some sixty bottles of wine to be locked in the boot whilst the luggage travelled in plain…

Automotive

Rolls Royce Dawn

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When I called Rolls-Royce to ask if I could borrow a Phantom Drop Head, I was a little despondent when informed, “I’m terribly sorry, sir, but we’re phasing them out”. In the most first-world way possible, I was sad about this. Although that was quickly swept away by the follow up of “…have you tried the Dawn?” Thinking that, as a consolation, they were going to send me to lunch with the lady who cleans the offices, I enquired gingerly as to what he was talking about. Well, it transpires that the Dawn is just over seventeen-foot of wood, leather, aluminium and automotive pornography. Because (in England, at least) we…

Automotive

Volvo XC90

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My first encounter with a Volvo came in the form of a friend’s mother’s 245, sitting outside her modest home like a trusted family friend. The Volvo 200 series ran from 1974 to 1993, selling over 2.8 million units and becoming ubiquitous with British life in the process. It was overtly safety-conscious; the equivalent of fitting your child with lifelong orange armbands. But the idea that a car represents a certain set of society is becoming rarer as the automotive industry rushes to build as many vehicles with international appeal, using as few distinctive parts as possible. Despite being regarded as decidedly Swedish, fast forward to 2017 and we’ve seen…

Automotive

Ford Vignale

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Stuck in the familiar congestion around one of our major-population centres, I’d become a little confused. The vehicle in front was clearly displaying the distinctive blue oval badge of a Ford, but below it, in elongated silver letters, larger than any other model badging, was the word ‘Vignale’. This struck a chord deep in my memory, but nothing I could pull forward instantly. So I phoned a friend. A quick shout to Siri, that great oracle, came up with a lengthy response that I reviewed on my return home. And the light came on when I remembered another manufacturer, previously in the Ford stable, that had used the name. All…

Automotive, Food & Drink, Style, Travel

Passavant & Lee

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Jon Passavant and Benj Lee are hardly strangers to the layer cake of the fashion industry. This duo have fronted campaigns for Dunhill, Armani, Ralph Lauren and Levi’s to name a mere handful. Whilst on set in New York the two models met having spotted each other at the usual castings and calls and after three years of product development launched accessories brand, Passavant & Lee. Some years ago, we remember being huddled in the office around a No 25. Attache. It was arguable one of the most beautiful briefcases we had ever seen. The outer shell is crafted from aircraft grade aluminium and covered in a full-grain Horween leather finish, while…

Automotive

Ferrari 488GTB – Bella Macchina

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Ferrari is probably one of the most recognised brands in the world, let alone the motoring industry. Steeped in so much tradition that even the uninitiated can often name at least one of the models. With this, you can imagine my excitement and also palpable sense of responsibility when the phone rang and the publishing director tells me that I’ll be taking the new 488GTB to France for a week. There are worse jobs, I suppose. Fast-forward three months and there I am, staring the car in the face, about to be handed the keys. The first thing that strikes me is that it’s not finished in the famous Rosso…

Automotive, Cars

Al Fresco Motoring

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The dream of al fresco motoring in an Italian sports car is arguably something that lives deep inside the psyche of every bona fide driver. Picture the scene: you sit bathing in Tuscan sunlight outside a bar on the Piazza Garibaldi. The glowing white marble ostentatiously matches your white chinos, complemented by your Fairfax and Favour suede loafers. Caterina Murino gently brushes your shoulder as she brings you a freshly poured espresso, powerful enough to rouse even the most content debutant. She leans and whispers into your ear, “Andiamo a casa per poche ore e guardiamo il tramonto dalla camera da letto.” You slink over to your Alfa Romeo 4C…

Automotive

Avanti! Avanti!

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Avanti! Avanti! Urges the engine as the exhaust note booms satisfyingly through the tunnels of the La Provençale Autoroute above Monaco. This is odd; as under the soft leather Lord’s Loafer is the accelerator to a strange beast. A marriage of modern requirement mixed with absolute racing pedigree. A three litre V6, diesel engine of 275 bhp, with nothing less than silk upholstery by the italian designer Zegna and bearing the three point trident.

Automotive

Rolls-Royce Phantom

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Be under no illusions: this article will be a competition between myself and our dashing motoring editor, Oliver Smith, as to who can gush the most about Rolls Royce. There is little to be objective about. In 1904, Henry Royce and Charles Rolls engineered a vehicle of such poise and grace that it ran virtually non-stop for 14,371 miles. It was the Silver Ghost, named ‘the best car in the world’ by Autocar in 1907. Pretty conclusive, if you ask me. Of course, we’re talking about a world in which the Wright brothers had only just flown a powered airplane. Little did they know, Rolls Royce would become a brand…

Automotive

Bentley Continental GTC V8S

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Try and recall an occasion where you have had a conversation with a friend and they’ve told you something which you find shocking and almost offensive. You know that it’s been worrying them and you want to be supportive, but sometimes the issue is so severe that there is little that can be done to hide your feelings. Never an easy situation, and one that I found myself in quite recently. Friend: ‘What car are you reviewing at the moment?’ Me: ‘I’m very lucky actually, it’s one of the new Bentley Continentals’ Friend: ‘Really? You don’t seem that excited. Is it terrible?’ Me: ‘God, no! It’s really very good, it’s…

Automotive

AUDI S8+

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I arrived in the Cotswolds late one evening, to collect The Review’s motoring editor, Oliver Smith. I had driven out to catch the sun set across the fields, as I wafted along to the sounds of Romance by John Barry. For a moment, I experienced a sense of stillness behind the wheel of Audi’s 4.0 litre, 597bhp weapon. This was quickly dispelled by the quad exhaust delivering a guttural raw the likes of which can only be conveyed in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. I arrived in good time, of course, able to observe the usual pleasantries of drinking coffee, whilst lapping the stationary vehicle and muttering first impressions to ourselves….

Automotive

JEEP Renegade

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Jeep has showcased its legendary 4×4 driving credentials by becoming the world’s first automotive manufacturer to drive a car up and down an Olympic-standard white water rafting course. Jeep and Red Bull ambassador Aimee Fuller guided the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk on the thrilling challenge at Cardiff’s International White Water Centre. The Renegade and Olympic snowboarder Aimee tackled extreme off-road conditions as they went up and down the 250 metre long course, battling a flow of water that exceeded four tonnes per second and a descent of more than 30 feet from top to bottom. “I’d never done anything like this before so when I arrived and saw the power and…

Automotive

Abarth 595 Turismo

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You’ve got to be a little bit careful with the term ‘hot hatch’. For me it evokes images of mouth-breathing oiks drinking energy drink and doing handbrake turns in supermarket carparks. Luckily (and I never thought I would say this) The Italians are here!!! They have taken the slightly questionable teenage pregnancy image of the hot hatch and given it a makeover. Think Lavazza not Relentless. Lose the tracksuit bottoms and trainers and replace them with some ankle-biting linen chinos with buff loafers and sockless bronzed ankles. Burn the hoodies and sling a cashmere jumper over your shoulders. It’s Ray-Ban time so grow up, walk slower and smoke more. Bella…

Automotive

Defender of the faith

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I didn’t grow up on a farm, I grew up in Wiltshire which is far from agriculturally challenged but I was not raised surrounded by farm machinery and livestock. So why is it that the vehicle I long for is considered by many to be either a weekend warrior for the green-lane masses or an aggro vehicle with obligatory Ifor Williams sheep dog in tow? Well the answer is, it isn’t really. Many a motoring writer will tell you that the Loyal Defender has long been considered as a work horse for the countryside set but over the last  few decades it’s appeal has crossed over into the mainstream. With…