Vauxhall VRX8 - yellow and horny!

Order your VRX8 Supersaloon now

Thinking of beatling down to the land of OZ to sample GM’s latest fire-breathing V8 monster? No need, as Vauxhall have sailed their yellow submarine across the sea to these hallowed shores. Sporting gills of gargantuan proportions and LED crested slats up front, Vauxhall call the black grille a “Shockwave”. We’re not sure what the rear black paneling below the “Superflow” spoiler is called, surf-wave? Once you’ve wrenched your eyes off the Hot Wheels rims you might want to peek inside for some visual relief.

Step down the conning tower into the sub’s command centre, where there’s plenty of space to have all your friends on board, and it’s all military black and grey with sonar dash display, and hang on – a trio of supplementary analogue instruments – depth gauge, oxygen mix and dive angle no doubt. Better hand you over to Vauxhall’s spec sheet before this submariner’s analogy sinks…Full speed ahead Mr Parker.



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New BMW 1 Series M Coupe

BMW 1 Series Coupe M

Valencia orange M car completes BMW’s über-sports lineup

1 Series: you’ve been tangoed! BMW’s baby coupe storms into the picture ripe and ready to be peeled and juiced. While squeezing a laudable 227 bhp per tonne out of it’s fruity 3.0 litre engine. More tangerine than navel orange, it sits at the bottom of the M range, but has to call itself 1 Series M Coupe to distinguish it from the original M car, the M1. That M1 was a mid-engined supercar, but such is progress, that it is out-performed by this shopping car on steroids. And it’s those steroids that make this car desirable: without the wide arches, extra spoilers and hot engine the 1 Series looks a bit plain Jane.



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Mercedes C220 CDi mid term test

Mercedes C220 C-Class - 4000 miles around UK

YW lives with a C class Merc – is this all the car you ever need?

4000 miles in any car should be enough to get over the initial excitement of its arrival, find little niggles, foibles or failings, even grow to loath the beast. Or conversely, learn to love, find unexpected features, flashes of brilliance. Will impressions change over time? In our case, a month at the wheel of a Mercedes C Class proved to be equally enjoyable throughout.

Mercedes C220 CDi - scampers through arching Devon lanes

Delivered in Sport trim, this CDi version had an appealing stance, shod with wide rubber on AMG 17 inch rims and subtle cosmetic appendages. Mild disappointment followed when learning that our mount was the 220 diesel version. This is not the lowest engine in the pecking order ( there’s a 200 ) but is overshadowed by 250 and 350 versions with commensurate power and performance advantages. Our time with the Merc took us from cloudiest Cornwall, through deepest Devon, sunniest Somerset…I think you get the idea. All the way to naughty Northumberland and a million other places en route.



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YW electric Grand Prix gets underway

Last week we took you to the dog-eat-dog world of radio controlled car racing, with on-board footage and video race report, as organised by The Racing Bug. All fine and fun, but wouldn’t you rather actually be in the car, racing your opponents wheel to wheel for real? Yes, we thought so too, so we took the electric BMW and MINI cars we had on loan out for a thrashing, to see which came out on top. We had to enlist our youngest ever road testers due to the diminutive interiors. So which car was fastest, which one handled better, which one triumphed in the desirability stakes? There was only one way to find out: standby for the first ever YW Electric Grand Prix !



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MINI and BMW electric kids cars - with adult helmet to show scale

Great gift idea: buy the kids their own electric cars

With Christmas knocking on our doors next month we thought it was time to consider what the kiddies out there might want to find around the tree. iPad, no – too young, Playstation – nah, too annoying. Electric car – yeah, just the ticket for a few laps of the tree and drive!

Bring on the nice people at BMW and MINI who lent us some samples to play with. First up is a gorgeous electric MINI Cooper S convertible miniature; yours for a mere 249 Euros from www.mini.com/shop or 129 Euros in pedal car form. This deep metallic blue micro car is aimed at the 3-5 year old in your litter, comes with electric rechargeable pack and not much else. Unfortunately our particular sample got damaged en route, note to Santa: pack your sleigh a bit better pleeeeze. So ignore the crack on the rear left of the car, it certainly didn’t stop us bringing you this extreme car test.



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Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Spyder Performante

Lambo roll out a soft top version of the Gallardo Superleggera and call it the Performante

Here’s Lambo’s latest: the Spyder version of the Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. Rather than call it a Superleggera Spyder though, it’s moniker is Performante. Why is a mystery, it translates as high performance and is feminine, but who are we to quibble over a name when the product is sumptuous? Like the fixed top, its raison d’être is lightness. Lamborghini have shaved 65 kgs off the kerb weight over the cooking roadster by using those superlight Superleggera rims and an abundance of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP). Alcantara seats are lighter than traditional leather so guess what you get? You do however get aircon and ICE (unlike the Porsche Cayman R we just covered). And you can make your car lighter still by deleting the rear carbon wing off the options list; but that would be a shame.

Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Spyder Performante - with and without roof



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