Racing fans, rejoice! The eternal theatre of Formula One returns to our screens this weekend after a three-week hiatus, and with it will no doubt come the continual debate over whether it’s still any good or not. It’s an argument that’ll run and run, but no matter which side of the fence you fall on, we’re sure you can find time to enjoy our little catch-up of the week’s events on PH – whether it’s before, after, or indeed instead of the Grand Prix!
The Union Flag has flown high above our little site this week, with a host of British legends old and new making the news pages. First and foremost, a technical briefing from McLaren
on the P1
told us plenty more about the new car than we’d known beforehand. Also news to us was Jaguar’s plan for its
GT badge
, set to become a bit of a rival to Merc’s Black Series skunkworks. Further down the British sports car price spectrum, Caterham announced a completely
free upgrade package
to celebrate its 40th anniversary, which can be no bad thing, and we brought you the latest update on our fleet
Lotus Elise
– might it soon be joining the
MG RV8 GT
we spotted this week in the classifieds? The latter car certainly epitomised the idea of a Marmite motor, but it’s a heart of stone that’d fail to love the sight of an
Aston Martin Vantage GTE
at full pelt – our POTW subject this week. Even Shed got in on the act with a potentially whiffy, but still lovable
Rover 3500 Vanden Plas
, while plenty of examples of Matt Purdon's cracking
Capri 3.0 S
were built at Dagenham (though we have to admit, we don't know whether his was one of them). It wasn’t just British cars that featured, though – we also heard that Scottish racing legend
Jim Clark
will be honoured with a tribute at this year’s Goodwood Revival.
Dan nipped over to Maranello this week – as you do – and when he wasn’t sitting on a bus trundling from pillar to post he brought news of Ferrari’s
newly-expanded Museo
future strategy
, which sparked plenty of debate. He also discussed the
love-hate feeling
many have for the prancing horse. And in other Ferrari-related news, there’s a
competition
which could see your livery gracing a race-going 458 Italia. Which, let’s face it, would be pretty damn cool.
Hot hatches are on a roll at the moment and every week brings a glut of news stories about them. This week’s, mind, have been rather extreme – the
Peugeot 208 T16
certainly bears a passing resemblance to a hot hatch, for example, but it’s stretching the term to its limit. Slightly less barmy – but not much – were the
VW Golf Design Vision GTI
SEAT Leon Cup Racer
Worthersee
this week. But what if you want something you can actually drive on the road? Well, not to worry – we’ve brought you our latest review of the
Vauxhall Astra VXR
, and gone and had a bit of tyre-testing fun in our
Renault Megane 265 Cup
. Plus there's been a spot of old-school hot hatchery too in the form of a
Citroen BX 16V
We’ve had a fair few track- and stage-related stories on PH this week, not least some updates from the best of the weekend’s motorsport, including the
WEC at Spa
WRC in Argentina
. That wasn’t all, though, as news came to us of
Rod Millen’s Pikes Peak challenger
for 2013 – an electric, Radical-based Toyota. Yup, you read it right. Also out on track this week was Chris Harris, putting
three rather fast coupes
to a head-to-head test on Anglesey, at Bruntingthorpe, and of course out on the road too, all for this week’s video.
- The Lamborghini Aventador drops its top – and we’ve driven it
- A rare Minker takes the stage in Carpool
- Our first review of the new Bentley Flying Spur
- Monkey talks private plates
