ITALIA COMFORT

Check out the latest picture on our blog header – a fantastic interior shot of an Italia convertible, the product of Frank Reisner and his company, Intermeccanica – one of many great photos from our forthcoming book, Intermeccanica - The Story of the Prancing Bull. With a Nardi steering wheel and handcrafted leather seating, the Italia's cockpit rivaled many luxury sports cars in the late-1960s. (Picture courtesy of Dan Eastwood)

Frank Reisner, a Hungarian-born Canadian, turned a youthful passion for cars into one of the world’s most famous small sports car building companies. From modest beginnings in Turin, Intermeccanica designed & produced a dozen different but exciting models that shook the motoring world in the '60s & '70s.

Intermeccanica - The Story of the Prancing Bull is due out this month.

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SLEEPING BEAUTIES COMPETITION

Do you have any photos of old, abandoned cars, motorcycles, trucks, vans or buses? Well, we'd love to see them! Inspired by one of our forthcoming books, The Fate of The Sleeping Beauties by Ard op de Weegh, Kay Hottendorff and Arnoud op de Weegh, we've begun a fun, free-to-enter photo competition to help bring all those undercover beauties out into the light.

Get your entry to us now and we'll display it on our dedicated blog: velocesleepingbeauties.blogspot.com

Please send your entry photos to jk@veloce.co.uk, or by post to:
Sleeping Beauties, Veloce Publishing, Veloce House, Parkway Farm Business Park, Middle Farm Way, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3AR ...

The winning entry will receive a free copy of The Fate of The Sleeping Beauties (worth £30) as soon as it is published in September 2010, and (assuming we get enough interesting and usable images) the best 12 entries will receive free copies of the Veloce Sleeping Beauties 2011 calendar, featuring their own entry as sleeping beauty of the month – and the overall winning entry will also feature on the calendar cover.

Please note, 'sleeping beauties' can take the form of anything automotive; cars, motorcycles, trucks, vans, buses ...

Good luck!

THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE PRODUCTION SPORTS CAR

The Maybach Exelero - At a cool $8,000,000!

100 TIPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR RALLY CAR!

-PRESS RELEASE-

How to Build a Successful Low-Cost Rally Car, a new book by motoring journalist Philip Young aims to provide simple, cost-effective and reliable tips to guarantee reaching the finishing line and more importantly, get results!

This book concentrates on preparing a car for the many forms of road-based rallies, including Historic Rallying, from weekend club events to the Classic Marathon, with useful preparation for long distance events like the Peking to Paris, road-rallies for modern cars, and the “Budget Adventure” events like the Mongol Rally and Plymouth to Dakar.

Published by Veloce at £16.99 containing 150 colour pictures; It concentrates on tips for reliability...items like waterproofing, ensuring the exhaust doesn’t fall off, the radiator doesn’t vibrate lose, engine mountings and the like are regular setbacks on all manner of events and this book gets back to basics, packed with workshop photographs. There is also an event guide, useful contacts, and chapters on personal preparation including staying healthy, coping with borders, and seeking sponsorship.

Philip Young is a former Fleet Street journalist who once helped to run the Daily Mail News Desk...he has written for The Observer, The Times, and The Guardian as well as the Daily Mail, edited two motoring magazines, and twice was awarded the Guild of Motoring Writer’s Motoring Journalist of the Year Award.

Generally credited with having kick-started the historic-rally movement with events like the Pirelli Classic Marathon, Monte Carlo Challenge and Peking to Paris, Philip Young has organised 65 major events and has seen how the same problems crop up time and time again that could have been prevented with some simple modifications in the garage before the start. He co-founded the Historic Rally Car Register in 1982, and more recently started up Endurance Rallying in Britain, events restricted to 1400cc cars with standard engines, such as the Lombard Rally.

Philip Young commented: "Hopefully the book goes some way to debunk the myth that rally preparation is about high cost and high technology - some of the modifications in the book are ordinary household items, from silicone bathroom sealer to wire coat hangers that cost zippo, but transform reliablility."


The 96-page book is available now from bookshops or from www.veloce.co.uk.

If you are driving a road-based rally, this book will help you get a result … don’t even fill in the entry form without it!

PUT THE PEDAL TO THE METAL!

-PRESS RELEASE-

Seven new Motor Racing books from Veloce! Click covers for more information.

Porsche Racing Cars – 1953 to 1975 (ISBN 978-1-904788-44-7)
By Brian Long
Follows Porsche’s year-by-year progress in top flight racing, and looks in detail at the pure competition cars that brought the German marque such immense success and acclaim on the worlds tracks. Begins with the giant-killing 550 Spyders of 1953, then takes the reader, in definitive detail, through all the susbsequent racing models up to 1975.
• Hardback • 25x25cm • £45.00 • 272 pages • c. 600 colour & b&w photos

Porsche Racing Cars – 1976 to 2005 (ISBN 978-1-904788-45-4)
By Brian Long
Follows Porsche’s year-by-year progress in top flight racing, and looks in detail at the pure competition cars that brought the German marque such immense success and worldwide acclaim on the tracks.
Highly illustrated, this is the definitive and entertaining record of Porsches on the world’s racetracks from 1976 onward.
• Hardback • 25x25cm • £45.00 • 272 pages • c. 500 mainly colour photos

La Carrera Panamericana – “The World’s Greatest Road Race!” (ISBN: 978-1-84584-170-6)
By John Tipler
Through photos of the stunning countryside and cities visited en route, action shots and parc fermé, interviews with drivers and key personnel, plus vivid narrative, readers are transported to Mexico for an eye-witness account of the fantastic Carrera Panamericana, “The World’s Greatest Road Race.” Includes a full history from 1950.
• Hardback • 25x20.7cm • £40.00 • 272 pages • 400+ mainly colour photos

Alpine & Renault – The Development of the Revolutionary Turbo F1 Car: 1968 to 1979 (ISBN: 978-1-84584-177-5)
By Roy P. Smith
The inside story of the first turbocharged Grand Prix car from concept to Grand Prix victory. Contains interviews with the men of the time, reports on every race, and over 400 photos and illustrations.
• Hardback • 25x25cm • £45.00 • 240 pages • 400+ colour & b&w pictures

Motor Racing at Oulton Park in the 1970s (ISBN: 978-1-84584-164-5)
By Peter McFadyen
Featuring over 150 colour and black & white photographs, many previously unpublished, the book recalls this period of consolidation at the beautiful Cheshire circuit.
• Paperback • 20.5x19cm • £12.99 • 96 pages • 106 colour & b&w photographs

Hot Rod & Stock Car Racing - in Britain in the 1980s (ISBN: 978-1-84584-167-6)
By Richard John Neil
This book charts the development of short oval motor racing in the UK, using 100 never-before-published photographs. Championship listings complement the evocative text.
• Paperback • 20.5x19cm • £12.99• 96 pages • 103 colour & 6 b&w photographs

Motor Racing at Nassau in the 1950s & 1960s (ISBN: 978-1-84584-198-0)
By Terry O’Neil
From the mid-1950s Nassau hosted a series of events at the end of the American racing season. Seen by many as the ‘Golden Age’ of motor racing, internationally acclaimed drivers mixed with amateur racers who came to enjoy the sun, parties and racing. An evocative, pictorial complement to O’Neil’s previous Veloce book, The Bahamas Speed Weeks.
• Paperback • 20.5x19cm • £12.99 • 96 pages • 164 colour & b&w photographs


All available now! UK & USA

BOOK OF THE MONTH IN AUSTRALIAN CLASSIC CAR

Porsche Racing Cars – 1953 to 1975 by Brian Long is awarded Book of the Month in Australian Classic Car Magazine!

To read the review click the image below to view in hi-res.


Click here for more info about the book. Or click the link below to buy a copy of the book now using credit card or paypal!

ABARTH 500: REBIRTH OF A LEGEND

Following the huge success of Abarth’s re-launch last year, the Fiat Group’s performance division has now created the ultimate sporting expression of the 500.

By thoroughly re-engineering the highly acclaimed and universally popular city car from the ground up, Abarth has produced a machine purpose-built for the modern driving enthusiast. Not only does it look the part, thanks to bodywork that’s longer and lower than a regular 500, it’s also entertaining to own and drive while maintaining class-leading economy, low emissions and low running costs.

Already a winner of BBC Top Gear magazine’s prestigious Hot Hatch of the Year award, the Abarth 500 has been designed as the credible option for drivers seeking to express themselves through their choice of car.

As a faithful modern incarnation of the tuning firm’s ‘small but wicked’ mantra of the 1950s, this latest 500 also follows the traditional Abarth ethos of using racing experience to make rewarding, high performance road cars at an affordable price.
Source:newspress

A great Veloce book for those fans of Fiat!
Great Small Fiats by Phil Ward.
Fiat have built millions of vehicles since 1899 but the company is perhaps best known for its ability to produce small, economical, characterful cars. 'Great Small Fiats' traces this concept from the birth of the 500A 'Topolino' in the 1930s up the current Panda and a hint of the proposed Nuova 500. Each of the selected models are described in detail from their conception through to current ownership in the hands of collectors and enthusiasts. The chapters include practical information on buying and running a small Fiat and restoration advice for the older cars. Also included are Fiats built under licence outside of Italy and the Fiat-derived 'etceterini' coachbuilt and competition cars.

"worth every penny" - Fiat Motor Club

Click here for more info about the book! Or click the link below to it buy now using credit card or paypal!

REVIEW OF ALPINE & RENAULT

New review in Classic & Sports Car magazine of Alpine & Renault – The Development of the Revolutionary Turbo F1 Car: 1968 to 1979 by Roy Smith.


Click here for more info about the book. Or click the link below to it buy now using credit card or paypal!

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CAR OF ALL TIME

Classic & Sports Car magazine have polled a 20-strong panel as the jury to decide the single most beautiful classic car.

And the winner ...
The Citroën DS!

James Elliott, editor of Classic & Sports Car, said: “The Citroën is a benchmark design, but we were still astonished that it came out on top when you look at the sexiness – and values – of some of its rivals. Apart from the Mini, it’s by far the most affordable car to get any nominations at all, which probably means it’s a great investment!

Giorgetto Giugiaro - the man behind the Maserati Bora, VW Golf, Fiat Panda and Lotus Esprit, said: “The only example of a car really conceived ‘outside the box’. It is just impossible to imitate.”
Source:newspress

Check out these fantastic Citroën DS books published by Veloce:

Citroën DS – Design Icon
by Malcolm Bobbitt.


The most radical of Citroën’s idiosyncratic offerings, the DS was sensational when it was introduced in 1955. Twenty years and 1.45 million cars later it was still technically advanced to most other cars. Revolutionary in driving characteristics and comfort, it remains one of the most innovative cars of all time. Click here for more info about the book!





Citroën DS & ID – The Essential Buyer's Guide by Rudy Heilig.

Guides collectors, restorers and enthusiasts through the various production changes and problem areas that occur between the various models, to make sure that the restoration or prospective purchase is correct, original, and legitimate. This book is an essential reference tool that can be used when buying, selling, repairing or restoring the various D-models manufactured between 1966 and 1975. One hundred colour photos, useful appendices and expert advice mean that this book could save you thousands! Click here for more info about the book!



Personal favourite, The Lamborghini Miura also made the top 10 in the poll!
1. Citroën DS
2= Jaguar XK120
2= Ferrari 275GTB
4= Cord 810/812
4= Ferrari 250GT Lusso
4= Ferrari 250GT Short-wheelbase
4= Jaguar E-type
4= Lamborghini Miura
4= Lotus Elan
4= Lotus Elite (1957)

THE SMART WAY FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH

The ASA have ruled in favour of smart, the iconic automotive brand, by supporting the brand’s London to Edinburgh television advertisement.



The ad shows a time-lapse sequence of the two-seater car driving from London to Edinburgh. The voiceover states that, “on one tiny 33 litre tank, a smart car can do 433 miles”.



The ASA has investigated and rejected claims that the ad is misleading.



In their adjudication the ASA stated: “We considered that the VCA* figures in conjunction with Mercedes’ evidence was sufficient to support the claim that a smart car could do 433 miles on one tank of petrol. We concluded that the ad was not misleading.”

Source:newspress



Coming soon! the little book of smart – New Edition! By Paul Jackson.

In the little book of smart, now featuring a brand new extra chapter, author and smart fanatic Paul Jackson guides us through the history of the brand, its highs and lows, its successes and failures, up to the present day, with the very latest fortwo line-up promising major sales worldwide and, of course, helping to pave the way for a future for smart in the USA. It’s a fascinating tale, told succinctly and in an entertaining style, and complemented by full colour photography throughout. 144 pages packed with over 100 colour pictures and entertaining text make this a great little book. Click here for more info about the book.

BOOK OF THE MONTH IN AUSTRALIAN CLASSIC CAR

Ford Escort RS Cosworth & World Rally Car by Graham Robson is awarded Book of the Month in the January edition of Australian Classic Car Magazine!

In his ‘Rally Giants’ series, Graham Robson aims to describe the shift in motor sport from reliability trials to the modern idea of road rallying. Today’s rally vehicles are engineered and driven with a focus on speed and strength first, and reliability second. They are high performance machines - with road-going homologation specials built pretty much as an afterthought to comply with regulations - not existing road cars tuned to stay the distance. Events are composed of a series of shorter intense races on closed road special stages instead of one long distance to endure over public roads.

Robson’s series approaches these changes through the development and competition histories of milestone vehicles, like the Ford Escort RS Cosworth in this book. By the late 1980s, Ford Motorsport (FM) was faced with the erosion of Ford’s competition status since the 1970s, an era dominated by the successes of the Escort Mk1 and 2. The RS200 had been too little, too late to stop the slide against Audi, Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi, Fiat, Peugeot and Lancia. The Sierra had looked promising but was too bulky and heavy to continue as it was.

It was critical that the new Cosworth succeed. Not only had Ford been the only British make consistently at the top level of world motor spot but it had also consistently made its technology and developments available to private buyers. This fact brings Robson to point out why new rally and race cars are important at all. The release of their homologation models affects car buyers’ expectations and thus, other manufacturers. Customers learn quickly what is possible from one year to the next, and expect to be able to buy it.

For example, once 4 wheel drive was accepted in rally cars after the Audi Quattro’s precedent, it was adopted for the Sierra Cosworth and refined in the lighter, nimbler RS to create the rallying breakthrough Ford needed. Car showrooms consequently began to reflect these changes.

Stuart Turner, director of FM at the outset of the project, and his team had all agreed that their next rally car had to be based on an existing mainstream model. “Why don’t we see if we can take the platform and running gear from a Sierra Cosworth 4x4, shorten it, then see if an Escort body will fit on it?” This line of development was more or less followed. The RS was 4½ years in the making, under four different directors, but it was worth it. In 1993, its first year, it won five World Championship rallies.

Readers will gain insight into Ford’s engineering methods and enjoy reading about the Ford Motorsport design team’s dynamics – the members really did work together. As one person’s idea was pursued, problems naturally emerged which other members would solve. Later chapters in the book explain the need to develop a World Rally Car, and the changes required to turn the Cosworth into that car.

Photo buffs will relish the colour images in the ‘Rally Years’ section taken on location across Europe, Africa and Asia - wherever the RS was competing. Personally, I liked reading the collection of biographies of engineers, rally drivers and other influential people in the Cosworth’s development. Among many team drivers taking the RS Cosworth to victory, Carlos Sainz was a standout, driving during 1996, a top year for the RS. An early driver worth getting to know was Francois Delacourt, and dashing, talented Ari Vatanen is regarded as a true enthusiast’s hero.

Click HERE for more info about the book!

FIVE BRAND NEW ESSENTIAL BUYER'S GUIDES!

STOP! Don't buy any of these cars without the help of an Essential Buyer's Guide -

Citroen ID & DS
Fiat 500 & 600
Subura Impreza
Jaguar XJ-S
Jaguar XJ40
All available now (UK & USA)
Each just £9.99 UK / $19.95 USA

Buy the right car at the right price
Full coverage of all models
In-depth analysis of strengths and weaknesses
Includes market and value data
Advice on choosing the right version and condition
How to avoid buying a 'lemon'
Like having an expert at your side
Quick check guide and also a detailed inspection plan
details of desirable upgrades as well as modifications to avoid
Where and how to buy
Details of clubs and support organisations

DESCRIPTION
Having this book in your pocket is just like having a real marque expert by your side. Benefit from the author’s years of ownership experience, learn how to spot a bad car quickly and how to assess a promising one like a true professional. Get the right car at the right price!

Visit www.veloce.co.uk for more info!

NEW PORSCHE 911 GT3

The new Porsche 911 GT3, which will make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show on March 3 2009, is the latest evolution of an iconic sports car. Embodying the essence of more than 23,000 Porsche racing victories, the 911 GT3 is the ultimate integration of driver and car and arrives in the UK this autumn.
In developing the second generation of the Type 997 911 GT3 into the most sporting and dynamic road-going 911 ever with a naturally-aspirated power unit, Porsche has applied a wide range of know-how gained in motor sport. Indeed, this is precisely why the new GT3 is truly impressive not only on the road, but also on the race track.

The 911 GT3 offers an even higher standard above all in two key areas: performance and driving dynamics. The proven six-cylinder naturally aspirated power unit now develops a maximum output of 435 hp (320 kW), up 20 hp over its predecessor. This results first and foremost from an increase in engine capacity by 200 cc to 3.8-litres and from improved cylinder head gas flow: now not only the intake, but for the first time also the exhaust camshafts, are adjusted by VarioCam.
The second emphasis in developing the 911 GT3 to an even higher standard was to further improve the car’s driving dynamics. For the first time, the 911 GT3 comes with a particularly sporting variant of Porsche Stability Management (PSM), offering the facility to deactivate both Stability Control (SC) and Traction Control (TC) in separate steps. And to give the driver unrestricted, individual control over the driving dynamics of his car, these functions are not reactivated automatically even under the most extreme driving conditions, but only at the touch of a button.
Source:newspress

Veloce Special Offer!
THE history of the Porsche 911 - 1963 to 2004 - in five volumes by Brian Long.
First shown as the 901 prototype at the 1963 Frankfurt Show, the 911 quickly built on the Porsche legend established by the 356 models. This and the previously published four volumes looks at the history of the evergreen 911 in definitive detail, covering 40 years of progress from the earliest design studies to the water-cooled cars of today.
Click here for more info about this special offer!

NEW FORD FOCUS RS

In the 40-year story of Ford RS, the marque has been applied sparingly, merited by only the most high-performance Ford machines of the time.

Six years have passed since the last Ford RS – the Mk1 Focus RS – finished its strictly limited production run. Now the famous badge has returned for its league of devoted fans and a new generation of performance car enthusiasts.

This new Focus RS is the product of Ford Team RS, headed by Jost Capito, a committed car enthusiast and racer. Alongside Capito is a small team of dedicated performance car and motorsport engineering specialists, led by Chief Programme Engineer, John Wheeler, whose own expertise stretches over 20 years of Ford performance and motorsport vehicles.

Team RS works hand-in-hand with Ford of Europe experts from across the engineering spectrum to create Ford’s performance road car range. More than 100 engineers have been involved in Focus RS and every one understood the weight of expectation that greets a new Ford RS model.

The 2009 production start for Focus RS has marked the 10th anniversary of Ford Focus and 40 years of Ford RS. More info:www.fordmedia.eu
Source:newspress

Fans of the Ford RS badge and its famous history will find interesting reading in these great books available from Veloce:

Rallye Sport Fords – The inside story by Mike Moreton.
The inside story of how Rallye Sport Fords were created by Ford in the 70s and 80s, enabling works’ and private teams to be fully competitive in national and international rallies and races, to win many championships, and, for RS cars to be bought by over 100,000 enthusiast customers. With over 100 photos and illustrations, many previously unpublished this previously untold story is brought vividly to life. Click here for more info.


Ford Escort RS Cosworth & World Rally Car (Rally Giants Series) by Graham Robson.
The Escort RS Cosworth, which began rallying in 1993, was one of the most ingenious designs of all time, and eventually became Ford's most successful model since the legendary Escorts of the 1970s. The combination of Cosworth power, four-wheel-drive transmission, and an effective aerodynamic package made it a Rally Giant in all conditions, and, until the all-new Focus WRC was launched in 1999, this generation of Escorts was the most effective rally car that Ford had ever produced. Click here for more info.

POCKET ROCKET

The Mitsubishi i MiEV SPORT AIR Concept will be premiered at the forthcoming 2009 Geneva Motor Show in March.

Not a great deal of thought has been given by mainstream manufacturers to the proposition of a proper sports car as an electric vehicle (EV)… until now.


Taking a step beyond being merely ‘green’, this all-electric zero CO2 emission sports concept builds upon the fundamentals of the EV by marrying: the powerful acceleration and high torque inherent to electric motors and the safe driving dynamics that stem from i MiEV’s lithium-ion battery pack located within its long wheelbase and the low centre of gravity.
The i MiEV SPORT ‘AIR’ is a new-age “pocket rocket” and signals the direction in which the Mitsubishi sports EV may take in the future.
Source:newspress

NOW IN STOCK! - VW GOLF GTI - THE ESSENTIAL BUYER'S GUIDE

VW Golf GTI – The Essential Buyer’s Guide reviewed in Retrocars Magazine.



New! VW Golf GTI – The Essential Buyer’s Guide by Richard Copping and Kenneth Cservenka.

Features
• Compiled by acknowledged experts - authors of Veloce publication 'VW - Golf - Five Generations of Fun'
• Built around the collectable first two generations of Golf
• Concentrates on the hot model – the GTI
• Includes the special edition Mk1 Campaign GTI
• Adds the Rallye Golf and GTIG60 to the Mk2 GTI content
• Special section on the hotter versions of the Golf Cabriolet
• Defines original engine specifications, 1600, 1800, 8-valve & 16-valve
• Predicts which later models will become collectable
• Covers customised models, larger engines and lowered suspension
• Targets would-be owners on a budget as well as the wealthier enthusiast market

Description
While old MkI Golfs have by now largely rusted away, the availability of MkII models at giveaway prices is plentiful ... that is until three magic letters – GTI – appear on the car’s front grille and hatch. Find a good example of the MkI with the aid of this guide and you are in clover! The Buyer’s Guide carefully charts all the models that an enthusiast just has to own, from the iconic late model MkI with its pocket rocket 1.8-litre engine and 5-speed box, through to the exclusive, extremely powerful and much sought-after limited edition Rallye Golf.
Click here for more info about the book.

FIAT AND CHRYSLER CREATE ALLIANCE

Italian carmaker Fiat and US giant Chrysler have agreed to create a global strategic alliance.

Under the terms of the deal, Fiat will get a 35% stake in Chrysler. In return, the US firm will get access to Fiat's fuel-efficient vehicle technologies.

This agreement comes on the back of recent troubles carmakers are faced with. Chrysler has received an emergency loan from the US government worth $4bn, while Fiat has said it needed a partner because it was too small to continue on its own.

Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne said the deal represented "a key milestone in the rapidly changing landscape of the automotive sector".
Chrysler chairman Bob Nardelli said that the alliance "creates the potential for a powerful, new global competitor".
Source:news.bbc.co.uk

Coming soon! Dodge Challenger & Plymouth Barracuda – Chrysler’s Potent Pony Cars
By Peter Grist.
The ultimate Chrysler pony car book written in Peter’s now familiar and welcome unpretentious style, that features every series and model of pony car made by the Chrysler Corporation in the 1960s and 70’s including the slippery Barracuda and classic Dodge Challenger along with stars of the big screen and drag strip.

Click here for more info about the book.

Other fantastic Veloce books currently available by Peter Grist!

Click book covers for more info.

DIESEL-POWER!

The Volkswagen team made motorsport history in Argentina on Sunday, claiming the first diesel-powered victory in the history of the world’s toughest motorsport event, the Dakar Rally. Not only that, but the team’s South African driver, Giniel de Villiers, led home a Volkswagen 1-2.
De Villiers, his German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, and their TDI-engined Race Touareg crossed the Buenos Aires finish line – after more than 5000 km of competitive rallying – nearly nine minutes ahead of the sister Volkswagen of USA/South Africa pairing Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford. Third place went to American Hummer pilot Robby Gordon, who was more than 100 minutes adrift.

Volkswagen’s 2009 Dakar Rally achievement is the second time that the manufacturer has claimed a 1-2: in 1980, Swede Freddy Kotulinsky and Frenchman Patrick Zaniroli raced their Iltis machines to the top two overall. The Volkswagen win brings to a close seven years of domination by Mitsubishi.

Source:newspress

NEW SMART MODEL IN 2009

smart widens its appeal going into 2009 by launching a new model which gives customers even more value for money and continuing its drive towards a greener future.

On the back of the recently launched smart mhd (micro hybrid drive), which offers fuel savings of up to 24% in stop-start situations, the eagerly anticipated smart cdi, goes on sale in March 2009. The smart cdi returns a staggering 83.1 miles per gallon on the combined cycle and boasts the lowest CO2 emissions of any current production car at just 88g/km.

The smart brand has also been buoyed by the latest new car registration figures from the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders) which show smart is bucking the trend, despite the current economic doom and gloom. Registrations in 2008, at 7,526, were 43.3% improved on the 2007 figure.

A pioneering market trial of 100 fully electric smart fortwos is also underway in the UK. The smart ed emits no carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, particulate matter or any harmful substance. It has a top speed of 60mph (electronically limited), a range of 70 miles on a single charge, can achieve the equivalent of 300mpg, and is charged by simply plugging it directly into any UK mains 3 pin plug socket.
source:newspress


Coming very soon! the little book of smart – New Edition! by Paul Jackson.
*Brand new chapter brings this book right up-to-date for 2009.

Author and smart fanatic Paul Jackson guides us through the history of the brand, its highs and lows, its successes and failures, up to the present day, with the very latest fortwo line-up promising major sales worldwide and, of course, helping to pave the way for a future for smart in the USA. It’s a fascinating tale, told succinctly and in an entertaining style, and complemented by full colour photography throughout. 144 pages packed with over 100 colour pictures and entertaining text make this a great little book.
Click here for more info about the book.