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2014 Land Rover Defender Challenge announced

By Damion Smy Motor Industry 30 October 2013 12:01 Land Rover has confirmed that it is the official sponsor of the 2014 ‘Defender Challenger by Bowler’, which will see a field of up to 15 tricked-up Defender 90s hit the rough stuff as crews get down and dirty, Dakar style. It’s all about enticing those who are curious about rally raids, such as the legendary Dakar event that’s held early each year. A lack of experience, as well as costs, has made it difficult for novices looking to qualify for the necessary licence, so the Defender Challenge is ideal for rally wannabes looking to dip a toe in the water, so to speak, with no experience required to enter.

Golf Mk 6 bows out with new VW Golf R Cabriolet

Volkswagen is finally delivering the VW Golf R Cabriolet Mk 6, just as the Golf Mk 7 hits the road, but it does without 4WD. But it’s taken until now – 2013 and after the Mk 7 Golf arrived – for VW to fulfil the promise of more powerful open-top motoring in the Golf with the arrival – following a Golf R Cabrio tease video at the end of 2012 – to finally reveal it. Just as you’d expect, the Golf R Cabriolet is mechanically similar to the Golf R in that it gets the same 2.0 litre turbo four cylinder petrol engine that delivers its power through a six-speed dual-clutch auto box.

Tomorrow's world: lightweight carbon composites

Once all the dust settles on The Great Battery Farce (the idea that the world's ills will be taken care of by sticking a battery in everything that moves and charging it up) we may eventually face up to the fact that the best way to move something around more economically, is to move less of it. That means making things lighter, a lot lighter. Car makers are working on it and manufacturers like Audi and Jaguar have already become masters in bringing aluminium to the mass production.