Heard the one about the 350mph JCB? Now that’s what we call an earth mover.
And unless you’ve been asleep for the past week, you’ll have seen that the JCB Dieselmax streamliner made a new Diesel Land Speed Record this week at Bonneville Salt Flats in the US, with Andy Green at the wheel.
If the sight of the lean, mean, yellow Dieselmax tearing across the salt were not enough to grab plenty of attention, JCB boss Sir Anthony Bamford created even more of a stir when he let slip that he would be interested in acquiring Jaguar "if the price was right".
But while a Jaguar with a shovel on the front would be useful for getting around jammed city streets, we suspect the future is more likely to lie with cars like the Lotus Exige 265E, which runs on lean, clean bio-ethanol and still hits 60mph in 3.9sec. Sadly the Lotus is no more than a one-off concept for the moment.
The new VW Iroc, which was unveiled on Thursday and will be shown at the Paris motor show next month, is also a concept, but only just. Our sources say that it’s 95 per cent the new Scirocco that goes on sale in 2008, a year after the Tiguan 4x4, which we caught hot-weather testing.
Our spy photographers also caught a glimpse of the Scirocco’s souped-up stablemate – the Audi TT S. With a 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged engine, we’re hoping for at least some of the flavour of the original Audi Quattro. Even more exciting, and much more expensive, is the new Porsche 911 GT2, which we also caught testing, this time at the Nurburgring.
We can’t promise you any record-breakers next week, but we will be bringing you stories from behind the wheel of the new A3 TDi 170 and Jaguar XKR, plus all the latest news as it happens. Have a great Bank Holiday, and if you’re going away, don’t criticise the driver.
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