Alexander Boucke   The waiting is over – my blue Maxi is now officially classed as an historic vehicle!   When the special registration for historic vehicles was introduced here in Germany in 1997, it still seemed a very long way to go for my Maxi to be able to apply for this – the car needs [...]

Automotive News Europe/Bloomberg, 29th June, 2010 MUMBAI (Bloomberg) — Tata Motors Limited, the Indian owner of Jaguar and Land Rover, plans to raise as much as 47 billion rupees ($1 billion) to expand operations and pare debt accumulated for the purchase of the luxury brands. “The timing and structure of the issues will be decided [...]

John McIlroy, News Editor, Autocar, 27th June, 2010 MINIs will sneak beneath 100g/km of CO2 emissions when the facelifted MY11 range gets BMW’s own 1.6-litre diesel engine this autumn. Designed to bolster BMW’s baby in the face of increasing competition from the Audi A1, Fiat 500 and Alfa MiTo, the revised MINI focuses on improving [...]

Richard Bremner, Senior Contributing Editor, Autocar, 27th June, 2010 MG’s Chinese owners are determined to make it a great brand again – Richard Bremner visited SAIC’s new plant in Shanghai to find out about its plans. MG and Roewe’s two year old Lingang Factory is an impressive sight. Said to be the most modern in [...]

It’s been a long battle with the Rover but the war is now won.  Mike Humble  Just moments before I sat down to write my final ramble on the progress of the SD1 belonging to Keith Adams, I learned of the sad death of Spen King, the ex-Director of British Leyland’s Engineering Division and creator [...]

Spen King (Charles Spencer King), creator of some of the UK’s most influential post-war cars, has died aged 85, following complications sustained from an injury he received when riding his bicycle. He had been riding to the shops as he was unable to drive following an operation to repair a detached retina – his death [...]

Mike Gets To Grips With Some Truly Shocking Electrics…  I’ll never forget watching the film The Omen for the first time - I don’t know which was scarier, little Damien or the Nanny character played by the brilliant Billie Whitelaw. One thing I can confirm to be scarier than either has been some of the wiring [...]

Graeme Brown, Birmingham Post, 24th June, 2010 Creditors of failed Birmingham van-maker LDV will share a maximum of just £600,000 in compensation payouts – from a total debt mountain of £75 million. Hundreds of dealers, trade suppliers and other firms owed sums of up to six figures by the Birmingham van manufacturer have been told [...]

Keith Adams Sorry, I’ve been quiet of late, but a trip to New Zealand last week pretty much knocked me out of circulation for ten days or so. I have to say that the place is absolutely brilliant – although, following the extensive research I’ve done on the place, I always knew it was going [...]

 Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post, 23rd June, 2010 Jaguar Land Rover is facing a ballot for industrial action – as Coventry workers press for a move to Castle Bromwich despite the closure threat to the Birmingham factory. Worried JLR workers at Coventry have balloted for a vote for action after unanimously rejecting a transfer to new [...]

Nikhil Gulati, Dow Jones Newswires, 23rd June, 2010 Tata Motors Limited said Wednesday its Board will meet June 28 to consider options for raising long-term funds, which analysts expect will likely help reduce the company’s debt and provide capital for its expansion plans. In its statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the automaker didn’t elaborate [...]

Automotive News Europe/Reuters, 23rd June, 2010 SAIC Motor, China’s biggest automaker, may raise nearly 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) in its planned share placement to help shore up its passenger car business, a major Chinese financial newspaper said. SAIC Motor, the maker of MG and Roewe sedans, has invested more than 4 billion yuan in [...]

Parts specialist XPart has obtained statistics from the DVLA which show that over 1m MG Rover cars are still alive and well on the UK’s roads. The figures produced by the DVLA show that the vehicle parc for MG Rovers produced post-2000 has only declined marginally in the past 12 months. The MG parc (ZT, [...]

More motoring capers with Mike and the Rover…  Well, the weather here in West Sussex has been glorious, perfect for smoking around in a V8 hatchback catching admiring glances and receiving brilliant comments from other people. Thanks to a leaking radiator (pending), the cooling system is having to work hard for a living and, as [...]

Words: Clive Goldthorp Photographs: Peter Young Advantage West Midlands’ Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Richard Hutchins, cut the ribbon at the official opening of the new MG Design Centre at MG Birmingham last Tuesday morning and, in so doing, publically drew a firm line under the Longbridge plant’s troubled past. The official opening was, in [...]

The MG Car Club will be staging the largest ever MG event to celebrate the historic organisation’s 80th birthday over the weekend of the 16/17th October, 2010. The whole event will start in New Zealand early in the morning and travel westwards around the globe, passing through Kimber House, Abingdon in the middle of the [...]

Spencer Payne’s not so shaggy dog story.   My old Ford Mondeo was getting a bit rough and ready round the gills so I needed a tidy runabout for my two pedigree Staffordshire Terriers – I didn’t relish the thought of them tearing apart or slobbering all over the half leather half tweed interior of my company Jaguar X-TYPE. The services of [...]

Mike Humble cracks on with the Rover’s ever growing list of jobs Don’t you just love these warm, light evenings? While others nearby are busy poisoning themselves with half-cooked sausages on the barbecue, other people are having much more fun, namely me, spending my spare time after work rootling under the bonnet of Keith Adams’ [...]

An example of one of Britain’s best-loved sportscars, the MGB tourer, has claimed supercar status after being sold at auction for £141,922. The 1964 model is one of  387,000 MGB tourers produced in the 18 years from 1962, its sale price a staggering 167 times greater than its cost at the time of manufacture* and [...]

Mike Humble gives Rover a new home… As Keith Adams packs his toothbrush for his epic journey to New Zealand, his pet Rover is now safely in its temporary new kennel in leafy West Sussex. The drive to Horsham was a fun one. You can imagine the joy and laughter I had switching on the [...]