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Martin Scorcese to make Rolls-Royce movie

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:22:00 +0000

Filed under: Latest News Martin Scorcese, the celebrated director behind such classic films as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, has announced he is to produce a movie about Rolls-Royce. He will produce ‘Silver Ghost’, working alongside Lord Richard Attenborough and Anthony Haas . According to Top Gear, the movie will follow the lives of Lord John Douglas-Scott Montague, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. It will not be a niche bio-pic aimed squarely at classic car buffs and played only alongside French films at indie cinemas. Nope, apparently Christian Bale, aka Batman, will play Lord Montague, and the screenplay has been written by Sharman Macdonald, aka Kiera Knightley’s mam. Silver Ghost will chronicle (and no doubt embellish) the beginnings of the Rolls-Royce Motor Company, via a story arc involving affairs, doughnuts with King Edward VII and…the introduction of number plates. Oh yes. The movie is due in 2013, according to its IMDB listing . This movie will be much better, however.

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Martin Scorcese to make Rolls-Royce movie

Martin Scorcese to make Rolls-Royce movie

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:22:00 +0000

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Martin Scorcese to make Rolls-Royce movie

Road Safety award for speed camera MP

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:19:00 +0000

Filed under: Latest News Road safety charity Brake has given Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay an award for his campaign to reactivate a speed camera and have signs installed, aimed at reducing casualties on a stretch of the A47. Nine crashes in three years and five deaths in six years prompted Mr Barclay to start a campaign in April 2011, calling for a defunct speed camera to be reactivated, and signs placed up to warn drivers on the dangerous stretch. He succeeded in having the Highways Agency agree the signs should be placed and the camera reactivated, though it insisted it would not do the work unless the local parish council stump up the £30,000 cost – because the road didn’t meet a specific casualty level. But after pleading with Road Safety minister Mike Penning, the Highways Agency reneged at the behest of the Government. Mr Barclay said: “I am honoured to receive the recognition from Brake. There is often a sense within rural communities that their voice is not heard and the initial response from the Highways Agency struck me as dismissive. “It cannot be right that two simple road signs would cost £30k or that a speed camera already in place could not be switched on in response to local concerns. It is pleasing to see the community work together to have a minister listen and act on their concerns. I hope this stretch of road will be a little safer as a result.”

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Road Safety award for speed camera MP

Polo WRC Street concept debuts at Worthersee

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:08:00 +0000

Filed under: Latest News Volkswagen’s annual enthusiast festival, the GTI Meeting at Worthersee, has seen the debut of the beefed up Polo WRC Street. The car sports a wide body kit, over-sized wheels and, most importantly, a 217bhp 2.0-litre turbo engine. As the name alludes, the Polo WRC has links to the World Rally Championship, with the car made to mark Volkswagen’s entry into the competition in 2013. And while the Street will not go into production as you see it here, the car does preview the forthcoming Polo R – set to become the quickest Polo ever produced. Combine this car with the recently unveiled Polo R line, and you have the full-blown R; the engine has more poke than the Golf GTI’s. Also on display at Worthersee are two versions of the Golf GTI: the Black Dynamic edition has a 2.0-litre turbo engine tuned to 334bhp and an 1,800-watt stereo, and the White Concept has matte white paint. In other news, here’s a story about a man wearing white shorts.

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Polo WRC Street concept debuts at Worthersee

Tips from the experts: using digital displays safely

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:51:00 +0000

Filed under: Comment The latest IAM Drive & Survive series tells motorists how to survive while driving and using one of them fancy pants digital dashboard displays. Here goes then… Avoid the temptation to use any features that require input from the driver on the move. Set your sat nav before you go, and prepare a music playlist for your journey to avoid fiddling with the system while driving. Find somewhere safe to pull over if you need to set up a destination on your sat nav, or look for a local amenity. Familiarise yourself with how your interactive technology works. Make sure you know your route – don’t just rely on your sat nav. “These high tech dashboards will help make driving safer to some extent, with hands-free phone calls and a direct alert to call emergency services in the event of an accident. But with many of the features of smartphones they pose another in-car distraction,” says an IAM press release. Here’s a story about boobies, FYI.

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Tips from the experts: using digital displays safely

Superchips boosts Ford’s turbo petrol engine

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:42:00 +0000

Filed under: Tuning Superchips, the car tuning company that shares its name with Gateshead’s finest kebab house, has worked its magic on the Ford 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, unleashing lots more power with little effort. Little effort on the part of the buyer, that is, because getting the power is a simple DIY job. The buyer simply plugs the chip into the car’s diagnostic port and follows some on-screen instructions. In an instant, up to 34bhp more is liberated from the engine. The chip is compatible with all versions of the 1.6-litre Ecoboost unit. The 148bhp version in the Focus, C-Max and Grand C-Max gains 30bhp and 38lb ft; the 158bhp version in the Galaxy, S-Max and Mondeo gets 34bhp and 44lb ft; and the 180bhp version in the Focus gets 20bhp and 32lb ft. The chip costs £445, is available now, and comes with a 12-month/30,000-mile supplementary warranty. Visit Superchips for more details.

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Superchips boosts Ford’s turbo petrol engine

Apple Patents a Remote Control, Apparently for Cars

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:14:46 +0000

An iCar? Not yet. But a steering-wheel-mounted remote control was among the 21 patents granted to Apple this week. We don’t typically track patent applications and grants for the Cupertino-based tech company—it holds or has filed for thousands of them—and came to this one through PatentlyApple.com . The device, as Apple describes it in its paperwork, is pretty simple: A disc with traditional iPod controls can be clamped to the steering wheel rim. It could then, we take it, remotely operate an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. Read full story »

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Apple Patents a Remote Control, Apparently for Cars

2012 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Long-Term Test: Halfway Through the 40,000-Mile Gauntlet

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:10:26 +0000

For most of its history, the Volkswagen Jetta was the three-box version of the two-box Golf hatchback , which also meant that the performance-oriented Jetta GLI was simply the sedan version of the coveted 10Best-winning GTI. The Jetta’s sixth-generation makeover , however, included plopping the four-door onto new underpinnings. The idea was to give it a bigger back seat, a larger trunk, and reduced complexity to better compete with the likes of the Honda Civic, the Ford Focus, and the Toyota Corolla. (The Golf will move to VW’s new MQB architecture .) (more…)

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2012 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Long-Term Test: Halfway Through the 40,000-Mile Gauntlet

2013 Mazda CX-5 Sport Manual: Fun, not Fast

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:00:01 +0000

Perhaps you’ve seen the TV ad showing a CX-5 zoom-zooming across a dry lake and then whistling past an array of scientific apparatus, staffed by a bevy of guys in lab coats who seem to be deliriously happy with what they’re witnessing. The spot suggests a dynamic trait—speed—that isn’t readily apparent in the CX-5’s real-world persona. Or, more accurately, acceleration, since speed can be summoned. Eventually. (more…)

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2013 Mazda CX-5 Sport Manual: Fun, not Fast

Gazoo makes the Toyota GT 86 actually fast. About time

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:28:00 +0000

Filed under: Latest News It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a GT 86 featuring an appropriate amount of power. Here’s the first (we think), from the Toyota tuning buffs at Gazoo Racing. The company, whose actual name is GRMN, an egotistical acronym for ‘Gazoo Racing Masters of the Nurburgring’ has supercharged a car that’s gained lots of plaudits for its handling, but often with the caveat that it’s slightly underpowered. Called the Sport FR Concept, it charges the GT’s 197bhp 2.0-litre engine with both a super- and turbocharger, taking power up to 320bhp. The company has changed the suspension, brakes, exhaust and alloy wheels, added a body kit, swapped out the seats and welded in a roll cage. The result is rather awesome, as you can see. No word on pricing or production yet.

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Gazoo makes the Toyota GT 86 actually fast. About time