Jaguar Land Rover open new engineering test centre in Dubai

Jaguar Land Rover are growing at a tremendous rate, and that means more and more testing of cars to make sure they can cope with the extremes of climate they’re subjected to by owners around the world. So as part of their growing test programme, JLR have extended their testing and engineering facilities in the Al Barsha area of Dubai so they can test durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity as well as test the powertrains, chassis, HVAC and, as this is Dubai and it has plenty of sand, they can also give the Land Rover Terrain Response systems a proper workout. JLR has been hot weather testing in Dubai for more than 12 years – an area where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius – and the new facility replaces a much smaller one in the same area, and joins Jaguar Land Rover’s other test facilities at the Nurburgring, Arjeplog in Sweden and Phoenix and International Falls in the States to ensure all JLR’s new cars get subjected to everything from extreme hot and cold to track work.

1924 Le Mans-winning Bentley to go on show

A 90-YEAR-OLD Le Mans-winning Bentley is to go on display in Paris next week as part of the prestigious Rétromobile exhibition. The car, which won the 1924 Le Mans race with John Duff and Frank Clement behind the wheel, is to be Bentley’s headline act at this year’s show. It was picked as a celebration of the rejuvenation of Bentley’s racing programme, with the Continental GT3 racer this year competing in races at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, Italy’s famous Monza and the cutting edge Paul Ricard circuit in southern France.

Aston Martin ‘Power Beauty Soul’ European Tour

Aston Martin are taking the Vanquish, V12 Zagato and V12 Vantage Roadster on a PR tour of European Aston Martin dealers. For a car company with limited technical resources, one platform and two engines, Aston Martin are making a pretty good fist of launching new models. We’ve recently had the launch of the Aston Martin Vanquish – successor to the DBS – with a harder edge and a bigger price tag, the V12 Vantage Roadster with the glorious V12 where it should be – in the front of an open-topped car for aural joy – and the V12 Zagat0, a limited run collaboration with Zagato at three times the price of the donor car.