Wheels News – February 2018

What you need to know in the World of cars this February.

URUS

A super sports car soul and the functionality typical for an SUV. Introducing the Urus, the world’s first Super Sport Utility Vehicle. Produced by Lamborghini, the URUS opens up new possibilities both on and off road!

What?

Powered by both a jet engine and a rocket, which together will produce more than 135,000 horsepower (that’s more than six times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together), the Bloodhound Project’s Bloodhound SSC, is a supersonic car that is designed to go faster than the speed of sound.

Already cracking the 200mph mark in 2017, the Bloodhound Project is progressing towards a faster desert test later this year (500+MPH), as the next step in breaking the World Land Speed Record in 2019 and then pushing on to 1,000mph.

And the winner is…

It would be remiss for us not to mention (to those that don’t know already) that the NZMWG Car of the Year 2017 was none other than the Skoda Kodiaq. This ‘Superb’, multi-award winning, 7 seater SUV’s climb to the top was ‘Rapid’ and is really making quite an impact for Skoda both globally and here in NZ. Keep an eye out for the Karoq, set to land on our shores really soon too.

Someone say septuagenarian?

Land Rover will mark its 70th anniversary with a series of events and celebrations in 2018, beginning with the restoration of the vehicle that started it all – one of the three pre-production Land Rovers shown at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show launch.

For years the whereabouts of this launch Land Rover was a mystery (last on the road in the 1960s), after which it spent 20 years in a Welsh field before being bought as a restoration project; it then lay languishing unfinished in a garden. Surprising enough, its discovery was just a few miles outside of Solihull, UK – where the car was first built! We look forward to seeing what Classic Works can do with it.

The Legend continues…

Following an outstanding event Hampton Downs owner Tony Quinn has confirmed the 4Guys Autobarn Legends of Bathurst will become an annual event to be held in January every year. The festival, celebrating all things Bathurst, had hundreds of fans turning up to meet their heroes and watch some classic cars in action.

John Bowe was one of eight Legends of Bathurst — Jim Richards, Steve Richards, Allan Moffat, John Goss, Fred Gibson, Paul Radisich and Charlie O’Brien were the others — who did signing session for the fans over the weekend and entertained the crowd at last night’s dinner with their memories of Mt Panorama.

“It’s exceeded my expectations and this weekend has given us confidence to go bigger and better next year,” says Quinn.