Life begins at 40 for Mitsubishi UK

MITSUBISHI is celebrating 40 years of selling cars in the UK by bringing one of its most extreme offerings to Britain.

The company’s special edition Lancer Evolution X FQ-440 MR might pack both a lengthy name and a hefty £50,000 price tag, but its turbocharged 440bhp and rally-bred four-wheel-drive system make it one of the fastest four-door saloons on the market.

To find out more about the special edition, which is only available in white, visit www.mitsubishi-cars.co.uk

Subaru brings an affordable performance icon back to Britain

A rally-bred favourite from Japan is being brought back to Britain by popular demand, it has been confirmed.

Subaru said that the turbocharged version of its Impreza – now called the WRX STI – will be sold in this country from June, with prices starting at £28,995 for the turbocharged, four-wheel-drive saloon.

While the company has said it will only be sold in limited numbers, the company’s decision to sell it here reflects the dedicated following Subaru’s performance models have previously enjoyed here.

Ever wanted to go rallying in a classic car?

THAT'S what one of the big names of historic motorsport - the Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation, better known to most enthusiasts as HERO - are offering visitors to this weekend's Race Retro.

The event, which takes place at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry, gives petrolheads the chance to get up close to all sorts of mouthwatering motorsport machines but HERO are actually offering you the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a host of rallying star cars from the Sixties - a Mini Cooper S, an Alfa Romeo GTV, a Ford Cortina, a BMW 1602 and a Triumph TR6.

In a statement about the experience, called Arrive & Drive, HERO says on its website: "You can experience the thrill of driving classic rally cars - cars that have done the Scottish Malts, Summer Trial and LE JOG, yourself as you navigate through our specially designed test. This is not an event but a demonstration drive allowing you the opportunity to experience an actual classic car rally test.

"You get two attempts at the test, each attempt in a different car. Every challenger will receive a certificate confirming that they have completed the test."

The event, for which you must bring a valid driving licence plus a copy that HERO can keep for their records, costs £30 to take part in.

If you're already planning to go to Race Retro this weekend, the chance to actually get behind the wheel of a classic rally car has got to have a certain appeal...

Oulton Park Gold Cup 2012

YOU simply can't say no to the sight of a rally-prepared MK2 Escort going sideways.

Yes, I know that the Oulton Park Gold Cup was held last weekend - an eternity ago in news terms. I also know that, despite numerous invitations to go, I couldn't make it because newspapers don't really do Bank Holidays, so while everyone else was getting soaked at a race circuit in Cheshire I was in Southport, typing away at my desk.

Petrolhead and friend of Life On Cars Katie Massam did make it to the event, though, and sent these pictures over for anyone into a Scandinavian flick:

Have you got a story you'd like to share with Life On Cars send an email to david.simister@hotmail.co.uk or simply leave a comment below...

300mph dragster and glamorous rally driver both ready for Ormskirk MotorFest 2012

IMAGINE rocketing from a standstill to 300mph before you can finish reading this sentence.

That's what the top fuel dragster - one of the fastest accelerating vehicles on earth - is capable of, and organisers of next month's Ormskirk MotorFest confirmed this week it will be returning to the town after proving one of the biggest crowd pullers at last year's event.

Councillor Martin Forshaw, West Lancashire Borough Council's portfolio holder for planning and development, said: “The Top Fuel Dragster was incredibly popular with visitors last year and I am really pleased it is coming back for this year’s Ormskirk MotorFest.

"It is one of many fabulous vehicles that will be lined up on our streets on a fabulous day out for all the family. So put the date of 26 August in your diary and come along."

The top fuel dragster, which can reach 100mph in less than a second is one of just hundreds of exotic machines headed for the market town on August 26, with many set to take to the town's one-way system for a series of parades.

Glamorous rally driver Becky Kirwan, the current BRC Challenge Ladies Champion, will also be at the event, to show how young enthusiasts can enter motorsport and succeed.

Mike Ashcroft, Aintree Circuit Club Chairman, said: "The Ormskirk MotorFest entertained a huge crowd of all ages last year and this year it promises to be even bigger and better.

“We have a fantastic line up of two and four-wheeled machinery spanning nearly a century of automotive history from vintage classics to modern supercars and bikes.”

Anyone wishing to enter their classic car or motorcycle has until August 11 to get in touch, while this week it has been announced that any marshals will be entered into a draw with a top prize of £75 for one lucky volunteer.

 

To find out more about the event, to book a trade stand or to volunteer to be a marshal, go to the event's official website at www.ormskirkmotorfest.com

Ormskirk MotorFest 2012 attracts hundreds of entrants

HUNDREDS of classic car and bike owners have entered their machines into this year's Ormskirk MotorFest, the event's organisers have confirmed today.

Aintree Circuit Club said that it had received more than 250 applicants from enthusiasts keen to exhibit their machines at the motorsport-themed event, which takes place in the centre of the West Lancashire market town on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Club spokesperson Mike Ashcroft told Life On Cars: "Once again Ormskirk is looking forward to the MotorFest. Over 250 entries from all classes of competition cars and motorcycles, classic cars and supercars have been received so far.

"Last year's event was a resounding success with spectators enjoying the static displays and exhibitions and the various themed parades around the town centre, and this year there will once again be static displays of vehicles in Ormskirk town centre on Aughton Street and Moor Street, with more in Coronation Park."

Among the entries expected to take part in this year's event are a Metro 6R4 Group B rally cars, MG racing and rally cars, historic F1 cars, and the return of the 1950s bubble cars which proved an unexpected hit with visitors at last year's event.

The club also reiterated that the event, which it is organising in partnership with West Lancashire Borough Council, will remain free of charge for visitors, with both organisations keen to top last year's inaugural event, which saw more than 10,000 people pack into the town centre to see the exhibits and a series of car and bike parades around the town's one way system.

The MotorFest's organisers will also be helping to support several charities on the day - the Ben Gautrey Foundation, who will be leading a motorbike parade in tribute to the Southport superbike racer tragically killed during a race last year, the North West Air Ambulance, one of this year's West Lancashire mayoral charities, and Claire House Childrens Hospice.

This year's Ormskirk MotorFest will take place in Ormskirk town centre on Sunday, August 26. For more information visit the event's website.

The dangerously delightful world of Group B rally cars

IT was an Eighties adventure to rival anything Tom Cruise got cast in. Based on a true story, it was packed with glamourous locations, famous faces, speed, noise and excitement.

In fact, only the unexcitingly anonymous name really needed work. Yet mention Group B to any proper petrolhead and you'll find it's a phrase that gets them strangely excited. Just as I was when I caught a cracking BBC documentary on it the other night.

Group B gave sports fans some of the most nailbiting rallying coverage the world's ever seen and proved to sexists everywhere that women were just as Championship-winningly good at powersliding as men - consider my cap doffed, Michele Mouton - but its real legacy is that we were treated to some of the fastest and most advanced cars ever to scream their way, sideways, through a forest. Not one of which was even remotely similar to any of the others.

Audi arrived with a hugely powerful, shortier, scarier version of Gene Hunt's Quattro, while Austin Rover shoehorned an enormous V6 into the back of a Metro to create the mad 6R4. Lancia couldn't choose between a turbocharger and a supercharger for its insanely fast Delta S4, so it used both, while Peugeot made its 205 GTi into a mid-engined, four-wheel-drive dirt track racer (the 205 T16, pictured). Best of all, Ford got cocky and obviously challenged Bear Grylls to come up his idea of a Le Mans racer. The result was the utterly daft - yet utterly delightful - RS200.

It was all going to end in tears and when it inevitably did in 1986 - three people were killed when an RS200 ploughed into the crowd at a rally in Portugal, while Henri Toivonen lost his life when his Lancia crashed in Corsica - Group B was swiftly banned. The flame that burns half as long, so the saying goes, burns twice as bright.

The End. Or rather, it would have been if plans hadn't been announced this week to bring the old, slightly loopy Group B cars out of retirement to wow visitors to an event in Cheshire over the August Bank Holiday later this year.

They'll be at Oulton Park on August 25 and 26, at an event dubbed the The Michelin Rallye Groupe B. More information will be available online at www.rallyegroupeb.com but for me, there's just one problem that might prevent me from seeing Audi Quattros, Metro 6R4s and Peugeot T16s doing what they were designed to do.

It's the same weekend as the Ormskirk MotorFest...