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Show Review: Salon Privé 2011

Salon Privé is billed as Britain's most elite car show and, with its lashings of pink champagne, lobster barbecue and attendees who look to have taken a wrong turn from the UK scripted-reality show, Made in Chelsea, it's certainly the glitziest. This year Salon Privé moved from its traditional home of The Hurlingham Club, just a (precious) stone's throw from the real-life set of the aforementioned show, to the grounds of Syon House in outer West London. Home to the Duke of Northumberland, Syon House's Italian Renaissance architecture and lush grounds provide a fitting background for such an event although those familiar with the locales of Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como, the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the heart of Lord March's idyllic West Sussex estate or the dramatic Californian coastline of Pebble Beach may be disappointed.

The BMW M5 is back!

BMW's M division has gone back to the drawing board with the M5, giving the fifth generation of the iconic four-door a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine—the first time Munich's class-defining performance sedan has gone without a naturally aspirated powerplant since its introduction in 1984. Further changes see it adopt a dual-clutch gearbox as part of a complete driveline rethink that resigns the old model's sequential manual transmission to the history books. Revealed here officially for the first time, the new M5 is planned to make its world debut in concept-car guise at the Shanghai motor show later this month.

Fuel protests halt Spanish car production

By Dimitri Pesin Motoring Issues 16 June 2008 10:25 Fuel protests in Europe triggered by the soaring cost of fuel have drastically reduced car production in Spain this month.  Last week's truck blockades and fuel depot pickets in Madrid caused car plants around the country to cut production. Seat, Citroen Peugeot, Ford, Nissan, Renault and Mercedes-Benz all have factories in Spain and most said they were affected.Seat production slashed by 40 percentSeat said its main Martorell plant was operating at 40 percent capacity, with production of the Leon and Altea models severely affected. However, the protests won’t delay sales of the new Ibiza, a spokesman promised, and assembly of cars in the factory is expected to return to normal this week.