Alex Unleashed on Cars

Vauxhall isn't really up to much these days. The last time Vauxhall did something exciting was probably the 2010 Astra. But 20 or so years ago, Vauxhall was cooking with gas. We had the VX220, Zafira mk2, Astra mk5, Signum, Insignia and the whole VXR range of cars that had a whiff of in your face attitude that could give even the Vectra a dose of excitement. But, i'm not here talk about them, as today's spotlight is the Monaro. The Monaro started as a Holden over in Australia since GM owned both Holden/HSV and Vauxhall/Opel at the time, the Monaro was later sold as the Pontiac GTO in the States. The Monaro is essentially a coupe version of the HSV GTS-R, which was briefly sold here until 2002, that car had effectively been a cut price BMW M5 with racing pedigree as a competitor in the V8 Supercars series, HSV had also sold the bigger Grange saloon which could be seen as a V8 Vauxhall Omega. The Monaro also serves as the basis for the HSV Maloo as well. Under the bonnet of t...

  Recently, V10 powered cars have been having a renaissance of sorts, since both the Audi R8 V10 and Lamborghini Huracan went out of production, there are no V10 engined cars on sale, the Dodge Viper went years ago, BMW, Audi and VW's V10 saloons left at the turn of the 2010s, the now revered Lexus LF-A was only a limited run supercar and the V10 NSX and GR-1 concepts by Honda and Ford never came to be. Everywhere you go in the motoring world, people are getting nostalgic and yearning for a V10 engine, they talk gaily about V10s in F1 and the various cars powered by the unique engine type, that only really gained traction as an engine type in the 2000s. But one car that stands arguably at the pinnacle of this is the Porsche Carrera GT, Porsche's 3rd flagship hypercar after the 959 and 911 GT1.  The Carrera GT may have spawned in the hypercar wave of the early 2000s that also gave us the SLR, Enzo, Murcielago, Ford GT etc, but it's origins oddly originate in early 90s Formul...

Very few people get to drive supercars, even fewer get to own them. Yet, I've just driven three of them. It's all part of Silverstone's Supercar Experience. Three cars, three laps each with a talented instructor by your side. Once the briefings are over your down into the pits, and needless to say my Jordan 7up shirt attracted plenty of compliments from the instructors. Toru Nakano was my instructor, a veteran of lower Formula and sportscar racing. The three supercars in question are the 2019 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, 2016 Ferrari 488 GTB and the 2018 McLaren 620R.  The McLaren was first. so me and Toru head out for a sighting lap round Silverstone's International Circuit since the other half is being used for a karting race. He takes it fairly sedately showing corner entry and braking points. So, lap over, we swap seats, climb over the big sills and sink into the bucket seats, it's time to experience 612 BHP in a car weighing around 1300 KG. To put this into context...

Renault has always been the wild one of the 3 big French car companies. Whilst Citroen was always pushing the technological boundaries and Peugeot building exciting cars, Renault was doing everything, it had an F1 team, built safe cars, fun cars, practical cars, cheap cars and even strange cars. Renault has done it all. Year Founded: 1899 Founder: Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault Important People: Louis Renault- One of the 3 founders of Renault, it was under his watch that Renault contributed to the war effort in World War 1 with it's tanks, though he later ended up dying under suspicious circumstances following cooperation with Nazi Germany. Georges Besse- He joined Renault in 1985, planning to turn the company around, though his plans to layoff 21,000 staff and invest in AMC over in the States did not go down well, whilst he did turn Renault and AMC around he ultimately ended up gunned down. Fernando Alonso- Upon Renault's return to F1 in 2002, having taken over the Be...

When a car is regarded as one of the all time greats, it can be tough to make a replacement that matches it, some get it right like the Fiat 500, BMW Mini and others struggle like the Ferrari 360. But what about the Jaguar XJ-S? A successor to the E-Type would be a hard act to follow, and for years, the XJ-S was seen as dropping the ball, but has time been kind to or not? The main criticism aimed at the XJ-S was it's styling. the XJ-S was first thought of as a mid-engined rival to match Ferrari and Maserati, but early on in development, Jaguar went back to a front-engined design, contrary to popular belief, the 'flying buttresses' behind the driver were designed for aerodynamics not for the engine layout. In fact, AutoCar once snook a look at an early prototype and said 'it was so ugly it would never make into production'. The engine was the same 5.3 litre V12 used in the E-Type and XJ12. Even with an automatic gearbox, the XJ-S could top 150 MPH and hit 60 in less ...

Motor racing has given us a variety of fantastic looking race cars over the years, from the days of Silver Arrows and Monte Carlo Minis through JPS Lotus', Skylines and Gulf McLarens to now. Some cars are beautiful simply because that's the way they look, other cars are beautiful through the pursuit of speed that won races and championships and some are just weird and quirky. This isn't a definitive list of the top 20 best ever, merely a selection of my favourites. Audi 90 IMSA GTO Hard to believe that this was an Audi 90 saloon, but that's IMSA for you. The 90 GTO has several nice design touches like the huge side exhaust, the solid alloy wheels, rear wing and it's livery full of slashes of black, grey and red. It's livery was so iconic Audi recreated it for the RS6 GT. All in all a menacing yet handsome fire spitting race car. Cadillac V-Series.R  Cadillac's endurance racer is iconic not only for it's ferocious 5.5 litre V8 but also it's stunning n...