Team Bloodhound set to break speed records

The next contender for the world’s fastest car is currently being assembled in Bristol. A team of top engineers behind the Bloodhound supersonic car hope to smash through both the sound barrier and the land speed record with their pencil-shaped wheelie beast.

The current land speed record was set way back in 1997 by a British team also led by Richard Noble, who built the Thrust SSC. It reached speeds of over 768mph to become the first car to ever break the sound car and become ‘supersonic’. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines.

But the Bloodhound is set to race past that record with speeds of up to 1,000mph. Noble's team of just 34 people, which is currently working in the former Maritime Heritage Centre on Bristol harbour, will use a jet engine – specifically a prototyope Eurojet EJ200 – to propel the car to 300mph. After that a second engine will pick up the speed, a special hybrid rocket designed by Daniel Jubb, which will blast the Bloodhound up to the 1,000mph barrier.

In total the Bloodhound will have as much power as approximately 180 Formula 1 cars. If the world record attempt goes according to plan, the team will have broken the land speed record by around 33%, which is the highest ever margin. The record attempt is set to take place in 2016, but before that it will be tested on a 12 mile runway in South Africa in 2014.

Hold onto your hats!

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Why the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is the best car in ages

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is a blast from the past, and a rocket into the future at the same time. Here’s why it’s our favourite supercar of the last five years.

Sitting in this tidy Merc is having your wheels firmly rooted in automobile history. It’s like being in Back to the Future, with classic design and features propelled with state-of-the-art technology and whoosh! contours.

It’s a modern-day take on the classic Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing from 1954, which makes it look like something Steve McQueen or Sean Connery would have driven back in the day. It’s not easy to get into, but then, being an action hero isn’t supposed to be easy. When they’re open, they look more like wings. And boy, can she fly…

With 369lb of torque at 2000rpm, this Benz screams through the early gears to leave your skull pressed firmly against the headrest. At full throttle, it does 60mph in 3.7 seconds, and handles like a snifter of vintage brandy after a feast of molecular gastronomy.

At £150,000, the SLS AMG looks like a bargain for a supercar of its quality. It is possibly the tastiest item on the menu, when compared with its rivals, the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Aston Martin Vantage V12. Both the Aston and the Porsche weigh in a little cheaper, but if you’re looking for a car that will stand out, the Mercedes has easily the finest handling and aesthetic prowess.

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New generation Hyundai i10 is a great city car

Hyundai are set to challenge Volkswagen as leaders of the city car market.

For some time now, Volkswagen have had the city car pretty much covered. Not only do they have their own Volkswagen Up, which is hugely popular for people with limited parking space who want something a little more spacious than a roller skate. They also engineer two pretty much identical cars for other brands, the Skoda Citigo and the SEAT Mii.

All three of those cars are very good at what they do, but putting out the same car under three different brands was only ever an illusion of choice. They were pretty much the same thing, engineered by the same people.

But now Hyundai is set to offer a genuine alternative for people looking for a good little runaround car, with its New Generation i10 model. “Prepare to take the city by storm,” says the promo material. And it may just do that, having already been recommended by What Car as the best city car for under £9,000.

Since its inception in 2007, the i10 has become one of Hyundai’s biggest successes in recent years, capped off by the winning New Generation model, which is set to really compete with Volkswagen. People who have had a spin in the i10 tend to agree, saying it’s comfortable, well designed to maximise the space, and drives like a go-kart.

For first time buyers and city slickers alike, it looks like Hyundai have just produced a winner.

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Driverless car technology zooming into the UK

Could the information superhighway soon be moulded to the tarmac highway? It could if Google and other developers of driverless, electric and other ‘smart’ vehicles break through with the technology.

Google’s driverless car is scheduled to hit UK roads as early as next summer for test drives. But in the US, three states have already passed laws to allow cars to be driven automatically, by censors and software, rather than by human hands.

There is almost certainly a future for semi-autonomous – or even autonomous – vehicles in the UK and abroad. Transport minister Patrick McLoughlin is already preparing his department to implement new strategies for UK roads on which automatic cars will feature prominently.

The trials will begin on rural roads, and will be in the presence of a back-up driver in the case of an emergency. Guided by censors, the vehicles are programmed to keep a safe distance from the car in front and to stay in the same lane.

Researchers at Oxford University are currently trialling a RobotCar that communicates with the driver via an iPad. Bill Ford Jr, the head of the Ford motor company, expects driverless vehicles to be commonplace by 2025.

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Drop in petrol prices eye of the storm for motorists

Have you noticed something strange at the petrol station recently? No, not the fact that a lot of them sell beer. If you fill up at a supermarket, you may have seen the price of fuel briefly go down.

It’s obviously not going to last long – it’s the eye of a storm whipping up. But big supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have cut the price of petrol by 2p a litre. It offers motorists a brief reprieve from the grind of constantly rising prices, but for many motorists, capping the cost of unleaded at 130.7p is like slightly easing the grips on a strangulation.

And right on cue, the AA announced this week that the grip is about to tighten again, with more price rises expected. All this for a number of factors, apparently. Low interest rates and a falling pound makes petrol more expensive because it’s bought in US dollars. Wholesale prices rose $50 a tone for the first time since April, a hike that will be passed on to customers for sure.

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Tension cools between fast lane and cycle lane

Consumer Intelligence has released a report that shows how cyclists are grinding motorists' gears. The vast majority of drivers are griped by cyclists who aren’t insured, don’t wear helmets and cycle dangerously, and would like to see new rules introduced to make insurance and helmets compulsory.

A large majority (83%) said they think cyclists should have to pass the equivalent of a driving test before they’re allowed on the roads. A third would also like cyclists to pay ‘road tax’, or vehicle excise duty, which is compulsory for motorists but not for cyclists.

But motorists hankering after a bit of road rage over these findings may be disappointed. Most two-wheelers actually agree that helmets and road safety tests ought to be compulsory, while over a third are happy to buy insurance.

Bicycle campaigners have noted – rather facetiously – that nobody pays ‘road tax’, since it was abolished in 1937. But whatever it’s called, this doesn’t alter the fact that car and van owners pay a tax to use the roads – vehicle exsice duty – which cyclists do not.

So it seems the biggest debate, for once, isn’t over who cut up who at a roundabout, but the semantics relating to a piece of legislation. Maybe relations are cooling between the fast lane and the cycle lane.

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New restrictions for young drivers

It seems the government and the insurance industry have got it in for young drivers.

After a letter was published today in the Daily Telegraph urging tougher rules for young drivers, it looks likely there will be action taken to impose curfews, a zero limit on alcohol and a minimum one-year learning period for all young motorists.

The coalition of police chiefs, insurance companies and road safety campaigners are lobbying the government to fulfill its promises to get tough on road safety, particularly on boy racers and inexperienced young tearaways who cause more carnage behind the wheel than any other demographic.

2,500 people aged 16 to 25 were killed or seriously injured in cars driven by young drivers in the last two years. But it’s unclear how effective – or indeed how fair – it is to penalise all young drivers. If we were talking about female or elderly drivers, it’s unlikely the government or the road safety lobby would feel comfortable in making such arbitrary proposals.

It will be nigh-on impossible to police a night-time curfew, and the zero-tolerance for alcohol could be difficult to avoid miscarriages of justice. Traces of alcohol remain in the blood long after the effects have worn off, and to prevent night-time driving, the over-stretched police force would have to stop and identify people who look young behind the wheel after dark.

The answer may be in longer training periods or more effective practical driving tests. But discrimination on this scale is simply replacing one societal ill with another.

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New car sales rise again

As we previously noted, it’s making more sense to buy a new car. A lot of other people seem to think so too, as the number of new cars rolling off the forecourt increased 11 per cent last month.

May was the fifth consecutive month of growth for the UK car market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, who carried out the survey. Private car sales are back at their pre-recession levels of 2008.

The Ford Fiesta was the most popular new car, its big brother the Ford Focus coming in second, while the Vauxhall Corsa slipped a place to third. Most of the cars in the top ten were hatch-backs or small family cars, which remain popular as the cost of fuel continues to rise and people’s wages in real terms are on the slide.

“While it is clear that buying confidence among UK motorists is very strong, continued economic uncertainty abroad, particularly in the rest of Europe, will mean that manufacturers remain cautious about performance in the second half of 2013,” says SMMT interim chief executive Mike Baunton.

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Buying a new car? Read this first: 3 cars that hold their value

We all know that when you buy a brand new car, the moment you drive it out of the showroom it loses a lot of its value. But with the finance deals many showrooms now offer, it could be more financially viable to purchase a brand new car than a second-hand one.

Many dealerships now offer to contribute to your deposit, or even put down the entire deposit on your behalf. Combine that with benefits such as three years free servicing and road tax for a year, it may well be the best option. But one thing you can’t avoid when buying new is the depreciation rate. This is something that dealerships can’t control.

But, by doing a bit of research, you can find cars which don’t lose as much of their value, making them the best deal. Here are some things to consider:

Fast cars are inevitably expensive, and are notorious for high depreciation levels. However, due to recent popularity levels and consumer trends, some sports cars are now better at holding their value. Take the Porsche 911 GT Coupé, which has a retained value level of 72% after three years.

If you’re after a more practical, family-friendly car, then you should consider the BMW X3 diesel that has a retained value of just over 70% after the first three years.

 
Don’t want a family car but don’t want a crazy sports car either? Then the Audi A1 diesel is a great city car yet still comfortable for longer journeys. This model currently holds a 63.6% retained value after the first three years or 30,000 miles.

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The ugliest cars in the world

They’re the automotive eyesores we love to point and gawp at, but rarely bother to quantify. Thanks to the Daily Telegraph which polled its readers on the matter, we now have an unofficial and highly contestable list of the world’s ugliest cars.

The nation's retired colonels, or whoever reads the Telegraph nowadays, have made some interesting choices. Alongside some real stinkers like the Nissan Cube and Peugeot 1007, they’ve included some merely awkward-looking vehicles such as the Porsche Panamera and even the classic Morris Minor and Jaguar XJ-S. Here's their 'top' 10:

Range Rover Evoque
Ford Ka
Morris Minor
Suzuki X-90
Nissan Cube (pictured)
Porsche Panamera
Austin Allegro
Peugeot 1007
Jaguar XJ-S
Nissan Juke

What do you think?

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