TOYOTA AYGO GOES CRAZY AT RENAULT HILLCLIMB

Team Castrol Toyota rally driver Leeroy Poulter swopped his four-wheel drive two-litre S2000 Toyota Auris for a 1.8-litre turbo-charged Toyota Aygo Crazy and won his class in the Renault Knysna Hillclimb on the southern Cape coast last weekend.

MILLIONTH MERCEDES-BENZ VITO SOLD

Last Friday, 13 May, saw the one millionth Vito leave the production line at the Vitoria plant. The van in question was a black model with a V6 diesel engine destined for the Dutch market. To commemorate this historic occasion, 40 employees from the three production shops gathered next to plant manager Emilio Titos for a photograph to be taken. They have all played a part, from the very first day of production in September 1995 until now, in making the Vito van the success that it is in more than 80 countries around the globe.       

FERRARI OPENS FIRST INDIA DEALERSHIP

Ferrari has opened its first dealership in India. Official importer Shreyans Group will be welcoming Indian buyers and potential buyers from its New Delhi dealership immediately. India is one of the fastest-growing right-hand-drive markets in the world and becomes the 58^th global market for the Ferrari brand.

RUMOURS OF A JAGUAR 4X4 GROW STRONGER

Strange things are happening in the motor industry. One of them is the rumour from Top Gear that Jaguar Cars, the company owned by India’s Tata Motors, is developing an SUV (sports utility vehicle) to be launched in 2015. These rumours have been doing the rounds for quite sometime but they now appear to be confirmed.

BMW-DESIGNED JET INTERIOR REVEALED

BMW Group DesignworksUSA joins its client, Dassault Aviation, in celebrating the premiere of the new Dassault Falcon 2000S business jet at the 2011 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland.  This new business jet offers category leading payload, range, performance and efficiency, and once its passengers step inside, they will be welcomed by a cabin that is equally extraordinary.  

NAVTEQ CAN TARGET ADVERTISING BASED ON LOCATION

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, today announced it has launched its NAVTEQ LocationPoint ad network in South Africa, where it will be represented by authorized reseller Wand Africa. In parallel with the launch, it also announced results of a trial location-aware mobile ad campaign for popular South African restaurant chain Spur Steak Ranches.

TIMBER! IT'S THE MERCEDES-BENZ U 400 UNIMOG!

With his Mercedes-Benz U 400 Unimog, Jens Seiner is adept at finding clever and simple solutions. The owner of Autotechnik Seiner manages to devise simple solutions to problems for which there is no apparent solution. In order to be able to collect timber efficiently from the forest and deliver it to timber specialists a long way away despite rising diesel prices, Seiner uses a combination of two different methods of transport: His Unimog is fitted with a timber crane superstructure to collect tree trunks from the forest, and then a Unimog truck-trailer unit delivers the goods to the customer.

GODZILLA DEVASTATING AT RENAULT KNYSNA HILLCLIMB

Being held this year for the third time in the scenic surrounds of the dense Knysna forests, the Renault Knysna Hillclimb went bigger than ever before with a host of supporting events drawing the crowds throughout a full week of petrolheaded fun as the Knysna Speed Week. 

RUMOUR: BMW IS CREATING AN X3 M

A strong rumour by the UK’s Car magazine suggests that BMW is developing an X3 M to launch some time in 2013. X3 has never had an M derivative, but since the arrival of X5 M and X6 M it seems anything can now get an M badge. We think an X3 M is long overdue. The car’s chassis begs to be challenged and its dynamics are class-leading.

LAMBORGHINI PLANNING EVERYDAY CAR

Lamborghini is considering going Porsche by stepping outside its core business of producing supercars. According to the company’s CEO Stephan Winkelmann, an everyday model will work just right for his brand. “We are going to have a third model. It has to be an everyday car. We want to have a car which is able to be used on a daily basis,” he told Reuters.

VOLKSWAGEN KILLS EOS, PREPARES FOR GOLF CABRIOLET

Word from a source close to the situation is that Volkswagen South Africa has unofficially killed the Eos coupe cabriolet. Sales of the Eos (pictured, silver), launched in in SA in 2009, have been less than satisfactory. In fact last month VW SA did not even sell one of these desirable drop-tops that start at about R356 000 and tops off at just over R416 000. Interested buyers will just have to wait for the upcoming Golf Cabriolet (pictured, red).

BOLDER 2011 CHEVROLET CAPTIVA LAUNCHED

So I SMSed a friend of mine and told him I was on one of the three longest airport runways in the southern hemisphere. He asked if I was driving a supercar, to which I said “No. A Chevrolet”. Then he thought was pushing a Corvette down the straight at 250km/h. “No. It’s a Captiva.” General Motors South Africa introduced media to the facelift Captiva on a hot Upington Airport runway tarmac. Why? Because they could.

SCHOOL BOYS WALKING 1700KM TO SAVE AFRICAN RHINO

Learners have rallied in support of Rights for Rhino campaigners, Paul Jennings and Sboniso ‘Spoon’ Phakati, whose  education and awareness walk from Musina to Cape Town is now underway. Since embarking on their travels on 09 May 2011, the two have visited four schools – Musina Primary, Soutpansberg Primary, Louis Trichardt Junior School and Ridgeway Independent School - reaching around 2 400 learners.

CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERS RUNDLE AND MOHR RETAIN LEAD

A gutsy performance in Saturday’s Atlas Copco Battlefields 400 in KwaZulu-Natal saw Thomas Rundle and Juan Mohr (Barden Tyre Services Racing Nissan Navara) finish a fighting fifth among the Super Production vehicles and retain their overall lead in the championship after three rounds.
 

LAND ROVER SUPPORTS READING CULTURE

For the past 14 years the Rally to Read programme has been taking literacy to those who need it most, and Land Rover has been a proud supporter since its inception in 1998. Initially implemented as an expedition to deliver stationery and reading matter to 12 rural schools, the organisers could not have foreseen the scale of their future success and the sheer number of learners they would enable. Well over R37 million has been raised and more than 650 schools are now part of the programme.