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Vauxhall Corsa SRi

By Tim Pollard Motor Shows 08 June 2007 08:40 Vauxhall Corsa SRi: the lowdown Can't afford the VXR, but want something to spice up your Corsa? Vauxhall, or rather sister company Opel, unwrapped a new junior hot hatch at this week's Barcelona Motor Show. The new SRi model has many of the VXR's styling cues, but with a more wallet-friendly, lower-powered turbo engine.

Porsche acquires Nardo Test Track as its new playground

Porsche Nardo Test Track (map from Google Earth) The enormous Nardo Test Track near Lecce, Italy, has been acquired by Porsche as a new testing ground. Top Gear viewers will probably remember the opening episode if the last series of Top Gear (series 18) with the Lamborghini, McLaren and Noble in Italy or, more specifically, in the Lecce region of Italy which nestles in the warmth of Italy’s heel. The Lecce region also houses the Nardo Test Track which is where the boys took their supercars to hammer round the slightly bumpy outer oval seeking top speed.

Studio Focus: SAIC European Design Centre

SAIC European Design Centre Brands MG and Roewe Established 2010 (in current guise) Location Longbridge, UK Staff 35 Studio leader Martin Uhlarik SAIC's presence in Europe is limited at best through its MG brand, but if its sales are almost exclusively concentrated in its home Chinese market currently, MG's design roots are firmly planted in its spiritual British soil. All current Morris Garages cars – the MG6, 3 and 5 (in chronological order) as well as the CS concept shown at the Shanghai motor show in April – are products of SAIC's European Design Centre in Longbridge, near Birmingham in the English midlands, albeit finalized in Shanghai. The studio was opened in 2010 after a £5million investment in SAIC's UK Technical Centre but such are the ambitions of the company that it has already received a further £1.5million investment to almost double its size.