Piece of Cake - 30 March 2021

FOLLOW UP: VW SEEKS DAMAGES FROM FORMER EMPLOYEESFollowing the conclusion of the independent internal investigation into the dieselgate situation, Volkswagen Group has released a statement where they announce they will be seeking damages from former employees, for failing in their ‘duty of care’ for the company. To read more, click the Car Dealer article here. HONDA FINDS BUYER FOR SWINDON PLANTHonda will stop production of the Civic in July, thus ending their time in the UK. Panttoni, a logisitcs and industrial site developer, has confirmed it will be investing heavily in redeveloping the site. They should take ownership from early 2022, after Honda has finished decommissioning equipment. To read more, click the Autocar article here. RIMAC OPENS R&D CENTRE IN UKRimac, has opened a new Research and Development Centre in Warwick Enterprise Park, at the company edges closer to the launch of their new hypercar, the C_Two. To read more, click the Autocar article here. UK AV AND EV ACT PARTIALLY COMES INTO FORCEPart of The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018, comes into force from 21 April 2021. To find out exactly what is covered, click the link here. To run through the full act, click the link here. CAR INDUSTRY UNHAPPY AT GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR EV PUSHThe car industry, at an online event held by SMMT, expressed anger and disappointment at how the Government was helping industry encourage the public to go for electric vehicles, ahead of the 2030 deadline. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. PROPOSALS FOR OVER-70 DRIVERSOver the last decade, the number of deaths attributable to drivers over 70 years old has risen from 96 to 145 a year. This has prompted the DVLA and Driving Mobility to put forward proposals to increase the safety of older drivers, especially as more are living longer. Some of the ideas include forbidding them from driving at night, being limited to 20 or 30 miles from their home address and fitting their cars with black boxes to monitor compliance. But, this could be seen as enabling people with some conditions to ability to still be mobile, but in a restricted manner, whereas now they would just be banned. To read 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: NISSAN AND PORSCHE COMMIT TO GEN3Nissan and Porsche have announced their participation in the Gen3 racing series, which was expected. TO read about Nissan, click The Race link here. To read about Porsche’s decision, click The Race link here. WRC: ACROPOLIS RALLY RETURNS TO CALENDARWRC announced that not only will the Acropolis Rally step into the void that the cancellation of the Chile event has left, but that this is a multi-year contract too. Dust off your Acropolis Rally Bingo Cards and prepare to tick off “rocks”, “big rocks” and “rutts”! To read more, click the WRC article here. LUNCHTIME READ: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE FORD MONDEOFollowing the announcement, that should have surprised no one, that Ford is ending production of the Mondeo, Autocar has compiled a slide-show of some of the key aspects of the long running name. To read through, click the link here. LIST OF THE WEEK: MOTORING EVENTS IN 2021With the easing of restrictions, the warming of air, a more optimistic outlook is beginning to spread across the country. Hagerty has compiled a list of motoring related events taking place in the coming months. To run through and see what is already planned and where, click the link here. AND FINALLY: CAN YOU MAKE A WOODEN ENGINE LIFTSomeone, and looking at what has been created we can only assume it is a man as there are one or two obvious flaws in it, has built a frame that appears to be supporting the engine of an Audi. Due to the rickety looking nature of it, Jalopnik decided to try and work out if it could actually safely do the job it appears to be trying to do. You have to love the nerdy car corner of the internet. To find out if they feel it is possible, click the Jalopnik link here. AND FINALLY FINALLY: NEW VIDEO FROM ALANAlan has filmed and published a video, giving everyone a glimpse inside his garage, a note or two about some of the cars on his drive and an update on one of his cars that doesn’t fit on his drive. Very much worth your time to watch that, so click here for the YouTube link.