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UPDATED: Aston Martin sold

By Phil McNamara Motor Industry 12 March 2007 09:38 Aston Martin is today under new owners, following the sale of Britain’s premier sports car company to an investment consortium. After 20 years of ownership, Ford divested itself of the brand, its facilities and its products, in a deal valuing Aston at £479m.   The new owner is a consortium led by David Richards, boss of automotive consultancy Prodrive, who helped to unite two private investment companies from Kuwait. Adeem Investment, which already owns the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, has a portfolio worth $1.5 bn.

Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors

The Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive – a driveable research vehicle built by Ford and German specialists Schaeffler – may be a regular supermini in size, but it points towards a potential future EV which is much more compact and very manoeuvrable. Ford has taken a regular Fiesta and dumped its powertrain, replacing it with a battery bank where the engine would be and fitted a pair of in-hub electric motors on the rear wheels. But the plan is to build new cars with the batteries under the floor which frees up the space under the bonnet which can then be all but removed to create a very compact urban car that still has space for four.

Audi RS5 spotted at the Nurburgring

The Audi RS5 caught testing at the Nurburgring this week. The Audi S5 is a cracking looking car. Stylish and understated, it carries a big enough stick to provide oodles of fun for most, but a real barn-stormer of car, with plenty of power would, even in these constrained times, be a winner.