Hein Gericke Leather Jacket on 2040-parts.com

Chris Evans CarFest: It’s all coming together

Chris Evans’ CarFest South & CarFest North are on track to deliver great weekends of petrolhead delight at Laverstoke Park Farm & Cholmondeley Castle. Listeners to Chris Evans’ Radio 2 Breakfast Show discovered Chris’s plans for his very own car festival – to benefit the BBC Children in Need Charity – when Chris was looking for a way to take his mind off bread for Lent, and CarFest was born. The CarFest plan was nothing more than a brief outline for a great weekend – super cars, great food and terrific music – but soon gained a life of its own as word spread of Chris’s plans.

Volkswagen puts a price on the VW Polo BlueGT

The Volkswagen Polo Blue GT – a warmed over Polo – will cost from £17,400 for the 1.4-litre 138bhp 6 spd manual. The Polo Blue GT gets the 1.4 TFSI engine with 138bhp so the little Polo can row along well enough, but it also get cylinder deactivation for when you’re not blatting from traffic light to traffic light to endow the Blue GT with official average economy of 60.1mpg (or 62.7mpg if you opt for the DSG ‘box). When you’re not worried about being parsimonious with your fuel the Polo GT skips along to 62mph in 7.9 seconds and handles well enough thanks to the Polo’s already decent setup and a 15mm lower suspension.

Jaguar’s XE Launch Exceeds All Expectations

AT a glittering launch event in London Jaguar treated the assembled media to a succession of theatrical and musical acts ahead of the main event – the long-awaited unveiling of its new XE compact executive saloon. The new car is a big deal for Jaguar, as it allows the Brit car maker to go head-to-head with the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes in the fiercely competitive compact executive market. Jaguar’s XE is tasked with showcasing a range of new technology that’s expected to be rolled out to other models in the coming years.