Motoring features

My 21-month-old son already has an unhealthy obsession with all things four-wheeled: tractors and cars, lorries and trolleys. You name it, he loves it. Pushing them around the floor. Up table legs.

It’s funny how speed works. In a car designed and engineered for serious pace, anything up to 150mph feels pretty normal. Driving to Waitrose normal. Calm and controlled, as you lap the Millbrook bowl...

One of the daft upshots of our current marketing-fuelled obsession with ‘brands’ is that, to borrow a booze industry phrase, the name on the bottle is now frequently more important than the drink...

At the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, I found myself wondering around the Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ display. More specifically, I was in the James Bond section, gazing at 007’s finest. And there,...

No messing around in the is-it-isn’t-it-a-supercar middle ground for me. When it came to popping my supercar cherry, I went straight for the Ferrari Enzo. You can’t argue with an Enzo. It’s rear-wheel...

Fate has never had a clumsier moment than when it decided that I should be the first journalist in the world to drive the €1m Lamborghini Reventon. At the time it was the only finished example in...

After a Peugeot 107 for his son, Gavin Green is lining up a family car for himself. On the list? Everything from a BMW 5-series to a Citroen C4 Picasso… Car journalist seeks buying advice. Regular...

Ahead of this weekend’s World Touring Car Championship races at Brands Hatch, Honda WTCC driver and two–time BTCC champion James Thompson sat down with CAR Online and talked us through a lap of the...

CAR Online ran a competition to pick a squad of reader reporters to cover the London motor show alongside CAR's professionals – and four readers joined us on press day on Tuesday 22 July 2008. We will...

I was interested to hear last night that British prime minister Gordon Brown will make a surprise appearance today to open the London motor show 2008. It's supposed to be top-secret, but my well...

Great drivers give you options. Michael Schumacher’s four-stop strategy en route to victory at Magny Cours in 2004 was one such example, and Lewis Hamilton’s dominant display at Hockenheim yesterday...

The new Hockenheim is a bit poxy compared to its super-fast predecessor, but you won’t find a better racing circuit anywhere in the world. The long straights and slow corners make overtaking possible,...

A French journalist from Auto Plus magazine has been arrested for possessing photos of the next-generation Renault Scenic. It raises fears for us writers beavering away trying to spill the beans on...

Did you go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2008? Are you wondering how the experience could possibly be improved upon? Here’s my tip: do whatever it takes to score a drive up the hill. If it means...

I have just bought a new car. The priorities were: low insurance category (to enable 18-year-old son to use it), fun to drive, small and easy to park, good fuel consumption (low CO2 band also helps...

‘Okay, light them up!’ Queue to drive up the famous Goodwood hill at the Festival of Speed and, just before the start line, you’ll find yourself in the tyre-warming area. Great if you’re in a...

Oh Boris, you mop-headed moron. Embarrassing deputy-resignation aside, you seemed to be getting it so right; reintroducing the Routemaster bus, reconsidering the western extension to the Congestion...

People thought Lewis Hamilton couldn’t handle pressure. Mistakes in China and Brazil last year cost him the 2007 World Championship and pessimists had begun pointing to this year’s Canadian and French...

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – America's ‘Big Three’ car makers – are in trouble. There are rumours of an imminent declaration of bankruptcy from Chrysler; Ford has been in a pickle for years;...

This weekend sees Lewis Hamilton gear up for his second British Grand Prix. It’sa race he must win, not only to get his championship challenge back on track, but also to regain his confidence and...

Silverstone marks the halfway point of the 2008 season. Ferrari look like they’re going to walk the constructors’ championship, but four drivers – Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis...

News that there will be more recharging points dotted around London in the expectation of a boom in electric cars is, in theory, welcome. For once, a government or council is partly financing our fuel...

The only surprise was the order of the red cars. Until half distance in the race, Kimi Raikkonen had been the quicker Ferrari driver all weekend, but a broken right exhaust left him down on power and...

Magny Cours gets a bad rap. Too much cow dung and not enough nightlife is the most common complaint. In reality, though, the track’s location is no more remote than Silverstone, Hockenheim,...

I’ve never liked the Vauxhall VXR's gear knob. Too short, anatomically plain weird, and finished with hefty stitching so coarse it can scrape your skin off. I’ve just never understood who thought this...

I read Ben Pulman’s recent blog on Porsche’s proposed ‘hatch’. While every manufacturer needs to keep a beady eye on its Corporate Average Fuel Economy figures, I presume Porsche would be tackling...

Just as the Greenham Common women did not get rid of cruise missiles in Britain, so eco agitators have played no significant part in persuading America’s masses to go green. But just as one is now...

The latest rumour to fly round the internet is that Porsche is planning a new hatch for 2012. No, not the hatchback Panamera saloon (we’ll see that a lot sooner) but a mid-sized hatch, based on the...

We mightn’t know what it’s like to race a Formula 1 car at 220mph, but we know about red traffic lights. Red means stop. So when Lewis failed to see the red light at the end of the pitlane on lap 20...

For a baptism of fire, it was biblically wet. I’d been invited to pop my racing cherry in a Jetta TSI at the VW Racing Cup, Rockingham and everything was starting to go horribly wrong. First, the...

The feel-good factor surrounding the Canadian Grand Prix makes people do the oddest things. Jenson Button swam the length of the two-kilometre rowing strip behind the paddock on Wednesday ('the water...

Just as the Greenham Common women did not get rid of cruise missiles in Britain, so eco agitators have played no significant part in persuading America’s masses to go green. But just as one is now...

Day 14 – The finale of our 5000-mile Rolls-Royce adventure: Chile to Argentina. Nothing is ever predictable in South America, especially when you travel by Rolls-Royce Phantom. Just as getting into...

My commute to work is very dull, a steady 30mph for three miles. Not particularly interesting, and not particularly fun. Except that halfway along is an unassuming used-car dealership. Every morning I...

Did you see the live Honda TV ad last night? At 8.10pm on 29 May, Honda streamed a three-minute film of 19 skydivers jumping out of a plane and – with a bout of exceptionally nifty formation flying –...