Volvo wants to be a life-saver

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under News

While most of the car makers focus on zero-emissions, Volvo aims for zero-accidents. The way it plans to do this is develop systems that support the driver during difficult circumstances, avoiding or reducing the consequences of road accidents. At the moment, what they’re boasting with is nothing more than you can find on the new Honda Accord, but they have bigger plans which also target the protection of the pedestrians. We’ll just have to wait and see. And no matter how much we resent the idea of the car taking over control, if that means avoiding an accident, I say it’s a good thing.

Button is no quitter

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under News

He may not be all the rage when it comes to F1, but when given the chance to fight those Germans again in The Race of Champions, Jenson Button can only say ‘where do I sign?’ Some nice fellow showed him where to put his name and now he’ll take on Michael Schumacher and his team mate Sebastian Vettel at Wembley. Button is yet the first Brit to have signed up for the event which will take place on the 14th of December. This is gonna be some race…

Were you there?

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Entertainment, News

I’m sticking my neck out here, which I don’t like to do, but this must have been the best race in a long, long time. And not just because Hamilton won…

If your wife gave birth that day and you weren’t there, this short movie from Axis of Oversteer is the closest you can get. Pure brilliance.

The sound of Ferrari

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Entertainment

It’s not just cars you can show off with. You’ll never go wrong with a huge LCD display in your living room or a loud set of speakers. Or, if you’re the more discrete type and you’re not into the whole smash-a-window-bass thing, a very stylish one. Like the one Ferrari and Meridian have just put together. It comes in red, yellow, white, silver and black. I mean Ferrari red, Ferrari yellow, Ferrari silver, Ferrari white and Ferrari black. The sound, on the other hand, is 100% Meridian, and considering we’re not an engine-sound we’re talking about here, that’s a good thing.

You’ve been nasy to the little Clio and now he’s brought his big ugly dad

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under News

Have you ever wished for a larger Clio with 4WD and large tires? No? Well, apparently somebody did because the Renault Koleos has just hit the shelves. It hit a few sledge hammers too, if you ask me, judging by how it looks…

We are running out of colors

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Entertainment

First the Volkswagen Scirocco, now the Ford Focus RS. What’s happening with all the car makers these days? Is this a sbliminal attempt to make us wary of their focus on greenery stuff? I don’t know and I don’t care, I just want cars in other colors than green. Good thing they dropped the ST orange, though.

Lewis wins it where it most matters

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Motorsport

Actually, I guess we’d all rather have him finish last at Silverstone and win the Championship than win here and come second in the end. But maybe he’ll spoil us and win both. Anyway, a really fantastic race that’s been shaddowed only by the stupid comments some stupid people have been making. Nevermind, though, as long as Lewis keeps winning.

The return of the Bangle-butt the First

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under BMW, News

Oooh, it’s the new BMW 7 Series… Should I dare look?

Hmm, well it’s kinda slim and the Bangle-butt is gone. The front, though, is pretty strange when looked at from one side. It’s very steep, so to say. But the bonnet is long and nice and it looks very much like the kind of car you wouldn’t expect a football player to jump out of. It looks more like a car for the manager.

I must say I was more nervous about how this car was going to look than I would be about finding whether my wife’s carrying a boy or a girl. Well, it’s not a boy, it’s not a girl and thank God it’s not a Troll either, like the last model. It’s just a car. Plain, normal and extremely luxurious. Does this mean Bangle is on a vacation?

It’s all about BIMS these days…

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under News

…and Toyota makes no exception. The presence of the Japanese car maker at the British International Motor Show will indeed be a strong one, especially if you take into consideration the Lexus brand as well. You’ll get the chance to lay eyes on the Lexus LF-A, one of the most eagerly anticipated supercars (maybe that’s because there’s been very few of them coming from Japan lately), the new Lexus IS F and an entire plethora of hybrid cars. No surprises here, then.

As far as the mother brand Toyota goes, the BIMS will host the British premiere for the iQ (it may not be as small as a Smart ForTwo, but since when is that a bad thing?) and a compact SUV with a name you could easily mistake for a category: the Urban Cruiser. We’ve already covered the crazy Aygo Crazy and you’d be crazy not to look for it while at the Toyota stand.

And while you wait for the Show to start, feast your eyes a little with these images in anticipation. Yes, I know it’s the prototypes you’ll be looking for, but these are good cars too, you know>

California on the shores of Britain

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Entertainment, News

Hoping that someone might mistake their van for the new Ferrari GT, the guys at Volkswagen have named this campervan “California”. I’m not sure how many of these vehicles you can find in the far-west of the USA, if any, but what I can tell you is that the Sunday Times have chosen the Volkswagen California to be the car that will carry their man around the UK in search of the best beaches and holiday destinations.

This will be a six week summer feature that will start on the 6th of July. It will be based on recommendations from readers, so if you want to get in touch with Chris Haslam, the Sunday Times traveler writer, and send him to some God forsaken swamp just for the laughs of it, you can write to campervanman@sunday-times.co.uk