The diesel engines in the Mini are due for an update this September and if you like your hatchbacks to be cheap to run then you’ll appreciate the Mini Cooper D. BMW are ditching the PSA-sourced 1.6-litre diesel and replacing it with one of their own engines. Sourced from the BMW 116D but with a slightly reduced capacity, the new engine gives the Mini One...

If you own a car then you should be used to having the contents of your wallet or purse stolen at every opportunity. Road tax, fuel duty, and insurance costs seem to keep on going up and now there’s another government-led change that’s going to cost you money. It’s no secret that there are plans afoot to switch off the country’s analogue...

Even though I learnt to drive the moment I turned seventeen I’m amazed that this age limit has remained intact. Both statistics and sensationalist headlines suggest that seventeen-year old drivers are far and away the biggest menace facing society, and we all know how keen politicians love to stick the boot into drivers. The knee-jerk reaction is to say we...

In standard form the Abarth 500 dishes out 135bhp from its turbocharged 1.4-litre engine, but with a bit of work from the engineers at G-Tech the little Abarth is now capable of 207bhp. G-Tech are calling this the RS-S, and the complete package includes Garrett loaders, larger fuel injectors, new spark plugs and a modified cat back exhaust system. As well as...

With the all new Mk3 Ford Focus just around the corner speculation has been increasing as to what the performance models of the range will be offering. Various rumours are circulating but there are a couple of possibilities that are starting to sound more credible. The first, and most believable, is that the next Focus ST will use one of Ford’s new...

At some point in their career every racing driver is going to have a big shunt, and for Seat Eurocup driver Francisco Carvalho it was most certainly his turn to have A Big One. Racing last weekend at Brands Hatch in a WTCC support race, Carvalho was pushed onto the grass and slid straight towards the crash barrier. Unfortunately for him, rather than scuff the...

The latest Volkswagen Polo GTI has turned out to be a surprise hit, as its got the character and sparkle that the previous model sorely lacked. As if to make the point that the new Polo can be fun, Volkswagen have released a video of the junior GTI sliding around a snowy landscape. It seems a bit odd seeing all that snow when temperatures outside are nearly...

A friend of mine (we’ll call him Steve) recently had the misfortune of crashing his car into the back of someone at a roundabout. Usually these are fairly minor crashes that result in a couple of scratched bumpers and a bruised ego, but in this case the impact was a bit more severe. Steve has a driving style that involves keeping up momentum by using the...