Latest News
April
We had to check it wasn't April Fool's Day (it wasn't) when JCB announced its intention to for the diesel land speed record in a machine powered by two digger engines. But crazy though the plan was, we loved it.
Another Midlands machine in the works was Noble's new M15. It looked great, sounded fabulous on paper, but disappointingly you still can't buy one. Maybe Noble needs a little help from JCB.
When Audi unveiled the all-new TT, however, it was clear that it wouldn't need any help in shifting them out of the showroom; Ingolstadt hadn't messed with a winning design formula. But we would have to wait to see if it had improved on the first TT's rather dull driving experience.
Even more desirable than the new TT was the forthcoming Aston V8 roadster, which we caught testing. It looked every bit as enticing as its hardtop sibling.
May
May was a month of contrasts. We got behind the wheel of the 1.2-litre VW Fox (a cunning little city car), the Nissan Note (a more imaginative supermini) and the new Peugeot 207 (not the new 205 we'd hoped for).
But we then left all the real-world stuff behind and went supercar crazy. It started on Friday 5 May – a day that we remember well, as it's when we got behind the wheel of both the new Ferrari 599 GTB and the new Porsche 911 Turbo. Andrew Frankel and Chris Harris were the lucky drivers, and they're probably still arguing about which is the better car.
Our hunger for speed still unsatisfied, we pitted the new GT3 against the BMW M6 (the Porsche came out on top), tested the new Merc E63 AMG and were mildly disappointed by the new BMW Z4 M coupe. And then we got the big one – road test editor Adam Towler got behind the wheel of the Bugatti Veyron, and managed 0-100mph in 5.5sec.
June
The big news was that the Lotus Esprit would be back in 2008, powered by a BMW V8 engine. All our sources at Lotus confirmed the story, but sadly we now know that it just isn’t happening – Lotus has taken project Esprit well and truly off the boil.
But there was plenty of other stuff to keep us occupied, from news of the gorgeous Jaguar XKR to pictures of the new Land Rover Freelander and Merc CL. Smart also announced that it was to axe the rather disappointing ForFour.
On the road, we tested the seriously impressive Ford S-Max MPV. We weren't convinced by Ford's claims of a 'sporty' MPV until we drove it. If there's a more fun way of shifting seven people around in a car, we've yet to try it.
We also got to drive the new TT, which blew away the BMW Z4 in our twin test, proving that if it isn't quite as sleek as its predecessor, it's a whole heap better to drive.
Come back tomorrow for part three
Your Say