Stegosaurus

In May of last year, I was lucky enough to take delivery of my ‘affordable dream car’. A brand new BMW M140i. Now that just of 1 year has passed, I thought I would take this chance to go over what this car has been like to live with for a year. In that time, I have covered 25,000 miles, completed a couple of laps of The Green Hell, driven to the Lake District, Cheddar Gorge and also been involved in a car crash in it…

New today coming from inside BMW (I know a lad on the inside) states that from Week 27 (July 2018), the M140i and M240i will no longer be available with the 6 speed manual gearbox. This also includes models lower down in the range, apparently the 120i/d up to the M140i will be auto only - no word yet on the 116i/d or 118i/d but it appears for now these can still have a good old fashioned manual.

So, this looks like a new thing I’m going to be trying out. Whenever I get given a rental or courtesey car, I’m going to review it, and try to be as unbiased as possible (I said TRY!). So, here’s what I currently have, a Mercedes-Benz GLC 220d Coupe 4Matic… What a mouthful! Let’s get the pros out of the way first, because there’s only about 3 of them from what I’ve found in my 48 hours of living with this miserable excuse of a ‘£40,000 luxury car’.

So you’ve finally passed your driving test, finally you’ll be able to feel the road beneath you as you adventure to literally anywhere (and find any excuse to do so)… But there’s one small issue; you don’t have a car yet. So you set about looking online at some cars that take your fancy; a new Audi A3 perhaps, a new MX5, a new Fiesta, or maybe even a new Dacia Sandero. Sure, they’re affordable with the finance deals that are available today, even on a fairly low income first job, BUT you should be aiming your sites lower, a lot lower, ‘second-hand-beater’ lower, and here’s why.

Motorsports have come a long way in the last few decades, with improvements not only with the cars, but the tracks, tyres, fuels and the drivers themselves. Cars nowadays are safer, faster, and in nearly every race series in the world; custom built machines that might look similar to the cars you can buy in the showroom, but underneath are totally different.

The world of motorsports has always had a very popular saying - Win on Sunday, sell on Monday - 24 years ago, Volvo really did take that to the extreme.

1. The Rear End Having just watched the latest episode of The Grand Tour, I think we can all agree that the BMW X2 will be a solid contender for the 2018 ‘Hard Ass To Follow’ NIGEL award. I mean look at it! Everything from the rear window down is just a mix match of body panels and bumper lines, not to mention the badges look like stuck on Halfords items.

I’m now (almost) 1000 miles into my M140i ownership… Yes, I’ve done 1000 miles in about a week, no my wallet isn’t entirely pleased… Anyway, here’s 3 things I love, and 3 things I dislike about my M140i.

I was lucky enough to have a few days off work last week due to a rather painful throat infection - so what better way to spend my time than to re-install an old classic game onto my PC. Namely ToCA 2 Touring Cars. But doesit hold the same charms that I remember from years gone by, or were my memories clouded by the layers of nostalgia?

So, I’m sure most of you in this community will know that I recently sold my trusty 118d MSport and swapped it for a slightly more mental M140i. These are basically my quick thoughts after the first 500 miles of ownership, from things like fuel economy, driving pleasure, ‘must have’ options and so on. If you’re thinking of buying an M140i, and you’d have to be a little mad not to with the current deals and discounts out there, then hopefully this will also act like a guide in some respects. Anyway, on with the review.

1986 Aston Martin Lagonda Series 3 Shooting Brake The unique Lagonda Shooting Brake is the work of Switzerland based Aston Martin specialists Roos Engineering. Founded in 1975 by Beat Roos, the company had become Aston Martin agents by 1977, and by 1990 had expanded to take on body restoration and engine rebuilding. Roos is best known for its shooting brake conversions for Aston Martins, having completed three: a V8 Vantage, V600 Vantage, and the Lagonda offered here.

As the title says, a huge thank you is in order for everyone who donated towards the SavePhil campaign. Without you awesome lot, none of this would have been possible and we wouldn’t be able to now donate this fairly hefty amount of money to the Make-A-Wish foundation!

Hello CTzens! As you’re all probably aware, after the #CTMeet2016, poor old Phil is still sitting alone and helpless in Germany. Well, after me and my friend Nico had such an epic time traveling across 4 countries just to meet the CT Lads, Boosted Borris, SeenThroughGlass (Sam), and a whole bunch of awesome CarThrottle users from all across Europe, we have decided to try to help Alex out!