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New trim, tech and aero could make this the best Quattroporte to date For 2017 the Maserati Quattroporte will get a slew of new technologies, redesigned bumpers and an electrically adjustable Air Shutter placed in the grille. The new shutter, when combined with the redesigned bumpers and undercar aero, reportedly decreases the luxury sedan’s coefficient […]
• A feast of motorsport for cross country racing enthusiasts Anyone harbouring expectations that the route for the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race will differ materially from years gone by is not paying attention.The route for this year’s race from June 24 to 26 is typically Kalahari. That means plenty of […]
When you think about the McLaren Formula 1 team, most gearheads think about three color schemes: white & red (Marlboro years), silver and black (West years) or black & red (2015 to present). However, the first-ever car raced by McLaren in Formula 1 prides itself on an alluring white & green paint combo. The culprit […]
’30 Years M3′ will pay tribute to E30 original BMW has no shortage of anniversaries to celebrate this year. For one, the automaker itself turned 100, an occasion it marked with a very futuristic-looking concept car. The BMW 2002 celebrated the half-century mark with an M2 Hommage that paid tribute to the Neue Klasse classic. […]
Special Speciale gets running gear from 458, styling cues from 488 Ferrari debuted its latest one-off at its Fiorano company track with chief test driver Dario Benuzzi behind the wheel. The 458 MM Speciale will eventually go to what we’re assuming is a very rich and happy British owner.The Speciale is based on the 458 […]
Horacio Pagani builds an experience far greater than the sum of its parts 2,685 pounds. 800 hp (tba). These aren’t figures to be sniffed at. At this upper echelon of the hypercar game, however, we’ve seen so many crazy numbers and figures and heard so many promises — too often, promises made and never truly […]
Aston Martin has unveiled the most extreme version of its Vantage V8 yet, developed out of its successful line of GT racers. The Vantage GT8 is lighter and more powerful than the existing Vantage lineup and incorporates aerodynamics inspired by the GTE and GT3 class racers built by the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing organization. Carbon […]
“Team #24 withdraws from the 2016 South African Rally Championship” Shortly before the start of the 2016 season, reigning national driver’s champion Mark Cronje concluded an arrangement with Volkswagen Motorsport to loan one of its 2015 specification S2000 rally cars. Volkswagen also kindly made an Amarok available to the team, with which to recce […]
South Racing is making the final preparations for the first of two gruelling desert cross-country rallies in the space of four weeks and is counting down to the start of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, round two of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.One of the world’s most difficult automotive off-road challenges takes place across […]
For nearly 60 years, Mini has been the epitome of cheap and cheerful. What’s more, it single-handedly created the two-box, front-wheel drive, transverse engine template that virtually every hatchback, crossover, and city car uses today. When BMW took over and rebooted the brand for 2001, it sought to bring everything that was great about the […]
Watch rally champion Sebastien Ogier navigate his way around a moo-ving obstacle There is a reason Sebastien Ogier is a three-time World Rally Champion. The Frenchman, however, took his first loss of the 2016 season last weekend at the Rally Mexico while Jari-Matti Latvala took the spoils. One thing that could have shaken Ogier up […]
Syker makes me lust for cars in a way I have never lusted for cars.The small Dutch company, known mostly on a mass-market basis for its aborted attempt to buy Saab from General Motors, has never really made more than one model at a time. But Spyker is the hand-pressed extra-virgin olive oil to your Filippo Berio; […]
There’s a new FIA-sanctioned racing series known as the TCR International Series, where the cars competing are all based on affordable compacts. The series was started by organizers of the World Touring Car Championship and prides itself on having a low cost of entry and low running costs, thus making it ideal for small private […]
During the hustle and bustle of last week’s Geneva Motor Show, organizers of the European Car of the Year awards named the latest Opel Astra the winner for 2016. This bodes well for cars in the United States as the underlying platform of the Astra, General Motors Company’s [NYSE:GM] D2XX platform, is found in latest […]
The Lamborghini Centenario, which just debuted at the 2016 Geneva motor show, isn’t just another super-fast wedge-shaped collector’s item (although it is all of those things). It is, as its name suggests, a tribute to company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini; he would have turned 100 this April. It’s an exclusive birthday present, too: Just 20 coupes […]
Before I start to write this preview or rather pre-no-view of the 2016 Goldfields Rally, my only two readers have to understand one thing; I am absolutely in the dark as far as what is going on, on the rally scene. But that I can assure you will make no difference to my writing about […]
Anyone who have really driven a car in anger -I don’t mean the “uncle” or “cousin” who entered three classic runs and though he did rallying – I am talking driving like your life truly did depend on it, while adrenaline cut off all blood supply to your brain. Real honest to goodness – so […]
WHEN YOU HAS IT, YOU HAS IT, they say. I often find it amusing when I listen to some of the “specialists” talk about drivers. Who is best and who will beat anything on wheels. Normally there is a “old” before the name of the world champ to be that never was. Normally these wise […]
Dakar 2106 – prologue After just 11 kms of around 8560km done and dusted, a number of things went right and some went wrong on this year’s Dakar already. About halfway through the very first stage car 300 veered off the road and struck spectators, four of whom were injured. Giniel during pre-rally testing The […]
One question that came up during my long and as so many people who have no idea what it is and was all about, like to say, “controversial motorsport career” a few people asked me if I would not have liked to do the Dakar Rally. Without exception and as the years went by, with […]
It is with deep regret that we have to announce that yet another one of the true men of motorsport, Martin Joubert, a man who played a role with a select group to establish a strong base for especially rallying in South Africa, passed away early on Sunday the 18th October 2015. Martin Joubert was […]
The yet to be officially confirmed announcement by Volkswagen of their “withdrawal from all motorsport” in official capacity in South Africa this week, sent shock waves through the sport and for a moment or three all seemed lost. The question however is, “How bad is bad really” Let us assume that sanity and good marketing […]
It is time for every warm-hearted, blue-blooded, true-till-death-do-us-part rally enthusiast, to put everything you possess up for sale – we are going rallying. No jokes – the time is here – what I warned about a few times over the past three years has come home to hatch. When I recently read a piece written […]
Some of those fortunate or unfortunate enough to have passed the 50 year mark will remember that we have sung about the wonderful country we live in, the one we (albeit an almost whites only thing) were willing to die for. Please note: The last remark was a tongue in the cheek remark – before […]
If you look at the price tag on a new Rolls-Royce, the fact that you could buy a house for as much or less might make it hard to understand who would buy one. Personally, I would argue that you can live in a car, and you can’t drive a house, but oh well. That’s […]
We knew it’d be fast, but this fast? Ladies and gentlemen, slacken your jaws for the newest Bugatti hyper-racer: the Vision Gran Turismo.It’s been designed and engineered by Bugatti, exclusively for Gran Turismo 6 on the PlayStation. Why engineered, you might ask? Because this is no digital flight of fancy, it’s a real, monstrous, actual […]
David Brown is riding shotgun in the plush leather seat of his creation — the David Brown Automotive Speedback GT — articulating his philosophy of luxury as we race up a mountain somewhere on the Monterey Peninsula. I’m sitting to his right in the driver’s seat, gripping a wood-rimmed steering wheel in a richly, yet […]
Well, there you go. We took the step to try and give subscribers even better value, albeit for a little bit of money! Obviously we will be very sorry to lose any of our regular readers but we had no choice but to request a small subscription fee from all. I think those of you […]
ROAD TEST ON A WORTHWHILE VEHICLE. A large number of readers will agree that there is better use for printing ink and paper than filling four and more pages of a newspaper or magazine with the retail prices of every single model car, bakkie, SUV and Super car available in South Africa. Every time I […]
As a few of you will by now have heard, Rallystar will stop its operations at the well-known Rallystar venue end September 2015 due to the fact that we have sold the property. With this news behind the back, I can inform you that we are currently involved in negotiations to relocate to a more […]
We would like to determine how many competitors would participate in this series on their own and also if we manage to add some sponsorship to the deals. Guidelines: We will obviously present various options to sponsors and how much publicity you can give will have an effect. If you are a beginner you will […]
“GOOD MORNING SIR, HOW ARE YOU….” The question “Good morning sir, how are you” is quite common in South Africa and irritates the hell out of me, but after many hours at the psychologist, the local preacher and my barman I am coming to terms with having to give a financial and health report […]