Automotive Eurovision - 2 March 2021

FORD BUYS BACK FACTORYIn Merseyside, Ford has bought back the remaining stake in a transmission factory, securing the future of 600 workers. This is a glimpse of good news and look forward to finding out why they have made such a move. To find out more, click the Business Live article here. YARIS IS THE EUROPEAN CAR OF THE YEARWhilst many are only grumbling about Geneva, rather than getting ready to go AND grumbling, the European Car of the Year was announced. The winner is the Toyota Yaris. To find out more about which country voted for which cars, click the Motoring Research article here. There is a fun article running through all the past winners, to see how they fared after being hailed as the best, to read about that click the Autocar article here. E10 PETROL TO BE SOLD FROM SEPTEMBER 2021The Government has announced that E10 petrol will start to be sold throughout the UK from September 2021. This has a higher amount of ethanol in it than existing fuel. The expectation is that around 700K vehicles will be affected by the more aggressive nature of the composition of the fuel, meaning that some parts and components may wear more quickly than previously. To find out more, click the Motoring Research article here. For more detail on what the fuel change means to older cars, you can read the Not2Grand article by clicking here. To find out if any vehicle you own will be impacted, click the direct link to the Gov.UK check site here. VOLVO AND GEELY NO LONGER MERGINGVolvo and Geely announced that they will no longer be merging, as they had intended. However, they will be forging closer ties on technology sharing and the likes. The reason for not merging is not known, nor is it really clear, if this is such a great outcome, why they were intending to in the first place. To read more, click the Autocar article here. Volvo also announced how they are the latest firm to confirm they will be going all electric prior to whichever legislative date has been shouted about last. Added to the news of ditching ICE from 2030, they also stated sales will be online, which may come as a shock to their dealership partners. To read more, click the Autocar article here. ROADS WITH THE HIGHEST SPEEDING RATESFollowing a Freedom of Information request, many police authorities have confirmed the number of offences recorded on roads within their jurisdiction. To see if you live near any particular hot spots, click the Motoring Research article here. BRITISH MOTOR SHOW RETURNS IN 2021A new, dynamic British Motor Show will be held, in August, at the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre, bringing back an event that we haven’t had since 2008. To find out more, click the Motoring Research article here. _____________________________________________If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST——————————————————————————-FORMULA E: DIRIYAH NIGHT RACESOver the weekend the start of the latest Formula E season began. Two night time races, with mixed fortunes for drivers, teams and us spectators. On Friday Mercedes dominated, resulting in Nyck de Vries winning his first race. Saturday was less smooth all round. An early finish to the race, due to a bad accident, meant Sam Bird won in his first weekend for Jaguar. The racing was blighted, though, because of the rocket attacks thwarted near the racetrack. To read more about Race 1, click The Race article here. To read about Race 2, click The Race article here. WRC: HANNU MIKKOLA DIESOver the weekend, the sad news of Hannu Mikkola’s death was announced. The man who won the first four-wheel drive WRC crown, driving the Audi Quattro, which he continued to do so during the crazy Group B era. To watch a lovely tribute, click the DirtFish video link here. To read more about his achievements, click the DirtFish link here. WRC: ARCTIC RALLYTänak completed his first ever start to finish domination of a rally to jump back into the championship fight, after a dreadful first rally. Ogier struggled thanks to warmer temperatures and being first on the road. Overall Hyundai had a better weekend than Toyota, which in turn was more successful than M-Sport. To read about the event click the DirtFish article here. To check out the driver ratings, click the DirtFish article here. To find out What We Have Learned, click the DirtFish article here. LUNCHTIME READ: IT’S TIME FOR SOME HARD TRUTHS ABOUT MOTOR RACING’S INFLUENCE ON ROAD CARSRichard Porter has written an excellent article popping the perception that the pinnacle of motorsport technology makes for gains in road cars. To read more, click the EVO article here. LIST OF THE WEEK: HERE ARE 11 THINGS WE MISS FROM OLD CARS We have another excellent Top Gear List of the Week to point you towards, this time about stuff from old cars that is fondly remembered. We don’t agree with all the choices, but most we do. To find out if you like them all, click the link here. AND FINALLY: WEDGED WONDERSFrom the website Docubyte, we want to share the art project that celebrates Italian concept cars from 1968-79. Click the link here to take in the gorgeous cars and then go explore the rest of the site and artwork. AND FINALLY FINALLY: ZOOM ZOOMERS CALLAlan takes part in a gathering of folks from the motoring world, on a Monday night, run by Damien Cross. If you would like to see the Christmas Special meet up please click the YouTube link here. AND FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY: THE PISTON PODCASTAlan has been busy this week, as he was also on The Piston Podcast, with host Daniel Achterhuis, to discuss Yaris and Pandas, as well as podcasting. To listen in, click the link here.