New Vivaro van secures 1,200 UK jobs

MOTOR giant Vauxhall has launched a new van, securing 1,200 jobs over the next decade, with the prospect of more workers being recruited. The Vivaro will be built at the firm's plant in Luton, which is the UK's only factory making vans, in a £185 million investment. Up to 70,000 vans will be built a year, with around half being exported.

Lotus Esprit James Bond car up for auction

The Lotus Esprit Submarine (pictured) from the James Bond 007 film is up for auction James Bond and cars go together like bacon and eggs and, with the exception of the 007 Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit ‘Submarine’ car from the Spy Who Loved Me is probably the most iconic Bond car to have hit the big screen. Piloted in the film by Roger Moore – with Mrs Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, at his side – the underwater version of the Esprit, one of six used in the film, was affectionately know to the crew as ‘Wet Nellie’ and actually piloted for the underwater scenes by former SEAL Don Griffin, who worked as a test pilot for the creators of the Esprit Submarine - Perry Oceanographic. After filming ended it was sent of to a storage unit in Long Island, ten years rent was paid upfront but, when the 10 year rent period ended, no one stepped forward to claim the contents at they were sold off for a song to a local couple.

BMW M8 would have had McLaren F1 V12

BMW M8 - complete with the V12 that ended up in the McLaren F1 The BMW 8-Series sat at the top of the BMW range throughout the 1990s, a two door BMW Coupe with a V8 or V12 engine. But despite sitting as the halo model in the BMW range it never spawned the ultimate version – the BMW M8. Except it did.