The Mini is a British icon that has already undergone one renaissance - and now it may be time for a second, as the first all-electric version is made official. The Mini Electric is your cover star this week, and we have all the details.
The British-built EV will arrive early next year with a sub-£25k starting price, with power from a 188bhp electric motor. A smaller battery promises to deliver the kind of handling you’d expect from a Mini, but an estimated range of 120-140 miles may put it at a disadvantage compared to its all-electric rivals.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is essentially the unofficial British Motor Show, with manufacturers from all price brackets using the gathering of car fans to reveal new metal. This year’s event was no different, with Mercedes debuting the hardcore AMG A45 S hyper-hatch, both Audi and Porsche showing off their customer GT3 race cars, and Volkswagen obliterated the hillclimb record set twenty years ago by an F1 car, with Romain Dumas piloting the ID R electric racer to the top of the Sussex estate with astonishing speed. This issue has all the highlights.
We also dish the dirt on the latest round of Land Rover Defender leaks, canvas public opinion on the forthcoming introduction of speed limiters, look at how Vauxhall’s Luton plant has secured its future thanks to the Vivaro van, and imagine what the recently confirmed electric Jaguar XJ will look like.
Join the debate
RCT V
The original svelte and elegant CLS
As usual, this week's edition (dated 04APR2018), is a very good read, and well worth the investment. The road test of the eighth generation of Roll-Royce Phantom - with its "mahogany panelling" - illustrates that moneyed wealth, should NOT be confused with good-taste!
The sales pitch for next week's issue (to be dated 11APR2018), whets our appetite with the Used Buying Guide . . . "Mercedes-Benz CLS. Can't afford the new one? Then read our guide to Merc's original style icon".
The original CLS certainly was a style icon, with all the svelte elegance of a Parisian - or Italian - chic designer item.
That streamlined elegance was lost when the original's "facelift" incorporated the bluff, Teutonic, more upright, corporate Mercedes radiator grill.
The new, current, incarnation of the CLS (page 29, of this week's magazine), shares all the style, delicacy, and substantial "presence" of a rugby prop forward! It is not a case of "Can not AFFORD the new CLS?". More a question of why would anyone wish to purchase such a vulgar and brutish vehicle?
It is (again) a reminder that the ownership of wealth, is NOT the same as the possession of good taste.
RCT(V)
289
@ RCT V
....totally agree!
pioneerseo
Kentucky
pioneerseo
I need to express profound
pioneerseo
I need to express profound
pioneerseo
it's to a mind boggling
pioneerseo
it's to a mind boggling
pioneerseo
I at long last discovered
pioneerseo
I at long last discovered
pioneerseo
Extremely pleasant and
Pages