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I am the Head of Creative Media and a writer for Inside Lane. Currently on a gap year and focusing on working with the rest of the Inside Lane team to provide all the latest and most up to date news and reviews on the cars you love.
Jaguar have revealed their 21st century rendition of the famous D-Type race car with a modified version of the stunning F-Type which is going under the pseudonym of ‘Project 7′ named such because of the 7 wins Jaguar have got from Le Mans. This beast is a one-off and has been made solely to wow the sun soaked Goodwood crowd.
New side skirts, a superlight carbon fibre splitter at the front and rear diffuser have all been stuck on to it as well as a permanent spoiler and a slimmed down windscreen. The Project 7 is a single seater where the driver sits half a centimeter lower than in the normal F-Type. Underneath this extensively designed exterior is the same 5.0-litre supercharged V8 you would find under the ordinary supercharged F-Type but the boffins at Jaguar have found an extra 54bhp raising the total power 545bhp. It’ll get to 62mph in just a graze over 4 seconds and it’ll stop going at 186mph. Unfortunately not even the wealthiest of the wealthiest will be able to walk out of the dealership with one of these so we’ll just have to sit back and admire for now.
In 2009 those crazy Germans unveiled to us the exciting looking 5 Series Gran Turismo and while most saw it as a strong move in to the GT market combining the grunt of an SUV with the comfort of the more traditional comfort focused grand tourer, others saw it as a bit of a wart on the BMW line-up. Now the 5 series is not alone and the Gran Turismo badge and treatment has been given to the 3 series and has had the mouths of car fanatics around the world drooling for months.
So with this in mind it would only make sense that the 1 series gets the same treatment and will add to the upcoming onslaught of front wheel drive BMWs which will undoubtedly be giving those FWD fanatics in camp Audi and Volkswagen a bit of a headache. Along with the release of the 1 series GT comes the Active Tourer Outdoor Concept which BMW hopes will be “combining sporting aesthetics and style with compact dimensions and functionality”.
The Concept Active Tourer Outdoor will be a hybrid which takes a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and glues on a “high performance” electric motor. The total power output is 188bhp, and BMW claims a top speed of 125mph while 0-62mph can be hit in just shy of 8 seconds.
It isn’t all about speed though, and an aptly named “ECO PRO” will cut the energy used by the air-conditioning and other battery draining features while the driver will be given driving tips to improve efficiency. The Proactive Driving Assistant will give the driver the most economic route by working alongside the satellite navigation to look for roads with the least traffic.
Although this is still in concept stage we will be seeing the long awaited 1 series GT hitting showrooms hopefully in 2015 in long wheelbase and normal wheelbase forms, so for now we’re just going to have to fidget impatiently until it finally arrives.
If you’re in the market for a tasteful, good looking SUV then the forecourt is your oyster. In fact, the only thing on 4 wheels in which you are even more spoilt for choice is the new breed of compact SUV which has surfaced and become king of the road for the last few years.
No matter how deep your pockets are, there is a compact SUV for you. Looking for something on the cheap? Look to the Far East for the likes of the Nissan Juke, Kia Sportage or Mazda CX-5. Few more pennies in your pocket? Well where do you begin? BMW X3, Audi Q3, Volvo XC-60, Volkswagen Tiguan or perhaps a Range Rover Evoque. Clearly what this world does not need is another compact SUV to make that decision even harder.
So with that Porsche have announced that following from the sublime Cayenne, they’re going to throw their lederhosen into the ring with the release of the Porsche Macan. This long awaited lump of German steel is set to be Porsche’s best seller with sales estimates of 55,000 to 75,000 being suggested.
The range topping twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine will kick out just shy of 400bhp, which sounds like a bit of a threat to those in BMW’s M-Sport skunkworks. Other than that there will feature several four-cylinder engines, including 2.0-litre turbocharged petrols and diesels, which would make the Macan the first Porsche with less than 6-cylinders since the 968.
Prices are expected to start at £36,000 for the basic V6 models and with it’s (although somewhat disguised) striking good looks and tasteful ride height and size there’s no surprise that this is expected to be a top seller. We can expect more information and images over the next 12 months before its release next year. But for now I can imagine there are some worried looks going around the offices of the Macan’s competition.
