The Foreman - BBC Top Gear

Where’s Foreman?

Paul Regan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:27:07 GMT

If you spotted Tuesday’s little tweak to TopGear.com you might be wondering where Foreman and Cupholder have gone. Following our big relaunch back in October last year, we’re planning some further revisions to TopGear.com, based on your feedback and research we’ve carried out into the way people use the site. One of the things we’ve decided to [...]

Vauxhall: is it MG-Rover all over again?

Paul Horrell — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:36:41 GMT

It’s depressing to be reminded all over again today of the sad and shabby history of MG-Rover. Much more sad is that it looks dangerously likely that history might repeat itself with Vauxhall-Opel. BMW unloaded MG-Rover in early 2000. It was looking at bids from venture capital firms including Apax and Alchemy. Both planned a slimming [...]

City car, by Lotus

Matt Master — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:24:43 GMT

Instilling in all of us a momentary sense of panic, Lotus has just revealed its take on the city car. But it is only that. A rough idea, rather than anything they actually plan to do. Cue a collective sigh of relief. Lotus Head of Design Russell Car was asked to improve on the Toyota iQ [...]

BMW CS lives! Kind of…

Paul Horrell — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:25:47 GMT

The lovely BMW CS four-door coupe isn’t dead yet. Or at least, its spirit lives on even though an actual production-car version of the CS concept was canned a few months back. Foreman has been talking to senior BMW 7-Series engineers. They say that, just as all the other BMWs come in more than one bodystyle, [...]

VW tucks into Porsche

Paul Horrell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:08:45 GMT

Porsche is, after a titanic batttle, about to become a member of the VW Group. Last year Porsche tried to take over VW. VW struck back. This has been one of the great soap operas of industrial history. The fight has encompassed money, power, glamour and a rift in one of Planet Automobile’s most high-profile families, the [...]

Red-lining the green Bentley

Paul Horrell — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:06:27 GMT

Just been out for an ‘engineering drive’ in a late prototype of the Bentley Supersports. The one Derek Bell drove at Goodwood. The development chief says it’s a Ferrari 599 rival. Well yes, it was a wet day on difficult Cheshire roads, and I don’t think a 599 would have kept up. The Supersports is due [...]

Mackems lead the electric charge

Paul Horrell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:02:59 GMT

There’s something far more important behind the news that Nissan’s Sunderland plant is to lead the charge (ha ha) in battery manufacturing. In 18 months time, you’ll be able to buy a proper full-sized Nissan hatchback powered entirely by batteries. The car itself will be unveiled in just a couple of weeks. It isn’t just a re-powered version [...]

Mackems lead the electric charge

Paul Horrell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:02:59 GMT

Geordies lead the electric charge

Paul Horrell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:02:59 GMT

There’s something far more important behind the news that Nissan’s Sunderland plant is to lead the charge (ha ha) in battery manufacturing. In 18 months time, you’ll be able to buy a proper full-size Nissan hatchback powered entirely by batteries. The car itself will be unveiled in just a couple of weeks. It isn’t just a re-powered version [...]

Driven: new Merc SLS

Jason Barlow — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:10:24 GMT

Damn that disguise. AMG doesn’t want us to see its new 573bhp supercar in all its glory just yet, so its still wearing spy photographer-foiling black tape and cladding. Long nose, short rump, gullwing doors: the SLS clearly draws on its famous mid-’50s forebear the 300SL for inspiration. But the detail stuff is what’ll really make [...]

AMG Mercedes SLS

Jason Barlow — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:10:24 GMT

Vauxhall’s Astratrix driven

Paul Horrell — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:25:24 GMT

In among all the jiggery-pokery about Vauxhall’s new owners (Russian? Chinese? Italian? Belgian?) the company is still busy churning out new cars. Foreman has driven a prototype of this autumn’s Astra, and it’s a seriously good rival for the Focus or Golf. Compare the design with the Insignia, and you can see the new-Vauxhall tune has [...]

Driven: Porsche Panamera

The Insider — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:46:35 GMT

‘Jay, you look at the dials,’ I said to my passenger, ‘I’ve got other things to concentrate on.’ We were doing about 270km/h and rising fast. ‘OK, 300,’ came the calm reply a few seconds later as the digital speedo rolled over the magic number. That’s 186mph in our money, and I was happy to back [...]

Euro Mugen on its way?

Matt Master — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:31:42 GMT

Not so long ago I blogged about how Honda needed a halo model to re-boot the brand after mothballing Swindon for so many months. It’s reassuring to know that the powers that be in Japan are devotees of Top Gear. Here comes the Mugen-tuned Civic Type R, a lighter, harder track-tuned version of the measly 198bhp [...]

Koenigsaab is born

Paul Horrell — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:08:46 GMT

Until this morning I couldn’t reliably spell Koenigsegg. It was a little company of fewer than 50 employees making fewer than 20 cars a year. Now it has effectively taken over Saab. Accepted wisdom is that to compete long-term, smallish car companies (of which Saab is one) need to be in the hands of bigger car [...]

Vauxhall: culling the weak

Matt Master — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:08:22 GMT

This economic chokehold on the motoring industry is squeezing air out of everyone, but it’s doing us a great service at the same time. It’s culling the weak. Separating the wheat from the chaff. I have enjoyed a Terminator-like emotional response to the recent fortunes of Vauxhall, a brand that has always left me the cadaver [...]

Vauxhall; culling the weak

Matt Master — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:08:22 GMT

Callum on new XJ

Sam Philip — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:22:59 GMT

OK, it’s a bit less adrenaline-filled than that fiery Ken Block video, but here’s Jaguar design guru Ian Callum giving a quick preview of the new XJ, due to arrive in July: Well, we say ‘preview’, but admittedly there’s no more than a cryptic glimpse or two of the XJ itself. The video may be peppered [...]

Vauxhall-Opel gets its new owner

Paul Horrell — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:59:48 GMT

Well, Foreman called it wrong. I thought Fiat would get control of Vauxhall and Opel, but the giant Canadian car-components-maker Magna won. I was looking at it from an automotive point of view, and the result was skewed by politics. Once it was clear Opel-Vauxhall’s American parent GM started sliding towards today’s bankruptcy, GM had to cast [...]

Good odd or bad odd?

Matt Master — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:40:04 GMT

I’ve just returned from having a privileged early poke at BMW’s 5 Series Gran Turismo, a bizarre cross-breed of 5, X5 and 7 Series, with a bit of X6 thrown in for the cod coupe styling. And I can’t work out whether it was over or under whelming. Too much going to take in really, and [...]

LF-A is go for Tokyo

Paul Horrell — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:23:32 GMT

Good grief. The endless wait for the world’s teasingest supercar is finally… nearly… over. The 500bhp Lexus LF-A will arrive at this October’s Tokyo show. That’s almost four years since they showed the concept. The car will be special and rare. It has a 4.9-litre naturally-aspirated V10 making a mighty 500bhp at dizzying rpms. The transmission [...]

Honda: back in the game?

Matt Master — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:31:00 GMT

So Honda is back in business. Or at least the factory line is moving, a bit. Which leads me to thinking about what they’re actually making over there, and whether anyone outside of Swindon really gives a toss. Selling anything is all about momentum. When you’re up you’re up. When you’ve got a good product out [...]

Wiped off the map

Paul Regan — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:16:52 GMT

Here’s an ominous observation we stumbled across on the New York Times website – want to have a stab at what all those map points are for? Number of Hummers for sale across the US? The location of every unused flight ticket to Mexico in the last month? Nope. Each one of those little markers represents a [...]

Vauxhall/Opel/Saab: the die is nearly cast

Paul Horrell — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:09:02 GMT

The band is about to stop in the big game of Manufacturer Musical Chairs, and Fiat – having already snapped up Chrysler – looks set to get its hands on GM Europe too. That’s Vauxhall, Opel and Saab, in other words. Though it’s possible that Saab will be sold off separately, Fiat is keen to acquire [...]

Save Our Scrappers

Jason Barlow — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:53:31 GMT

As the dust settles on Alistair Darling’s scrappage scheme, some realities are beginning to emerge. Firstly, a recent survey by an online car guide suggests that the expected punter stampede hasn’t quite materialised. More worryingly, some car makers are being, how can put I this, a little economical with the truth when it comes to the [...]