Scooter driver fakes accident to trap woman

A man has faked injury on a roadside in southern France in an effort to lure and assault an unsuspecting woman. The attack serves as a warning for other vulnerable drivers.

The incident occurred on the night of Friday 16th November. The female victim was driving on a road outside the city of Menton in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south eastern France when she noticed a man lying on the footpath next to his scooter. Assuming he'd been involved in a road accident, the woman says she pulled over to assist the supposed victim, who then proceeded to assault her. The man then fled the scene as another vehicle approached.

The police department of Menton has launched an investigation.

                                               Women drivers beware when driving at night.....

DAVID CAMERON’S FIAT 500L SELLS AT AUCTION

A 1971 FIAT 500L once owned by British Prime Minister David Cameron has fetched more than double its guide price at the recent UK auction at the NEC in Birmingham. The classic FIAT 500L, which was bought by David Cameron in 1998 as a surprise birthday present for his wife, Samantha, sold for £18,480 and had a guide price of just £8,000.

PHILANTHROPIST DONATES BENTLEY

A 1990 Bentley Turbo R has been donated to Historics at Brooklands to fulfil a very special and urgent need. 

The car will be auctioned, with no reserve, to raise much-needed funds to help finance a critical operation urgently required by Steven Brown, a 25 year old from Hayes, Middlesex.

Steven was diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumour in August 2010.

Despite long periods of intensive, high-dose chemotherapy, the tumour has failed to reduce in size and UK neurosurgeons have deemed it inoperable due to its location.

However, extensive research by Steven’s parents has led them to a pioneer in endoscopic brain surgery at a specialist medical institute in Los Angeles, USA.  They are confident that they are able to help Steven, and hence the campaign to raise the significant funds required.

Historics’ Auction Director, Edward Bridger-Stille, commented: “We are immensely grateful to the owner of the Bentley for his enormous generosity in selflessly giving us his car to raise money for Steven.  We will naturally add to the total raised at auction by donating all fees and commissions from the sale.

“We would like to encourage everyone to please spread the word about Steven’s plight, and the auction of the Bentley, in our effort to make the very most we can for Steven from the sale.  As Steven's father said to me, imagine if it were your son...”

The stately Bentley Turbo R is in factory Tudor Red with a contrasting magnolia interior and red piping.  It has a rare factory option of an electric sunroof and leather headlining.  It is in good condition throughout and comes with a MoT test certificate valid until September, 2013.  For more information on the car, see Lot 235 of the Historics catalogue @ www.historics.co.uk

New Chinese car brand due on sale in Europe in 2013

What's the big deal ?

I'll tell you. Ten pints of oil per day for every man, woman and child............


We are using 165,000 barrels of oil each day in Ireland.

That's not going to last forever and that's a promise...

Looking for something you won't see on the road beside you ? How about a Qvale Mangusta

If you are the sort of person who likes being a bit different, without being labelled as so, than you will probably like the Qvale Mangusta.

What is a Qvale Mangusta? Stick with me and I’ll tell you......

The project for this car started out in Italy back in the mid-1990′s by De Tomaso, whose semi-successful Pantera model had been discontinued and its replacement, the Guara had not exactly been a sales success.
What Alejandro de Tomaso wanted was a grand touring sports car with radical styling and a proven drivetrain. De Tomaso, which in those days owned another Italian car company, Maserati, entrusted Giordano Casarini who was their technical director, to come up with a new sports car.
Casarini, who had made several business trips to the U.K. took a liking to the TVR Griffith, and visioned De Tomaso’s next car to be similar to that. Hence, the Mangusta has a multi-position roof, similar to that on the Griffith.
While TVR used modified Rover V8′s at the time, De Tomaso looked at its former engine partner Ford once again for engines. Hence the Mangusta got the 4.6-liter, V8 engine that one would also find in the SVT version of the Mustang.
For its design, De Tomaso hired Marcello Gandini famous for design work on the legendary Lamborghini Miura, Urraco, Jamara, Espada, Countach, Diablo, and the Maserati Shamal – to begin work on this new sports car.
Like the Griffith, the Mangusta was going to be a roadster with a clever roof design, only the mechanism was part power operated on this car.
The world got to see this piece of auto finement at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show, the production car didn’t make its debut until the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 2000.
What was less known at the time was the fact that the project for the Mangusta was mainly funded by Kjell Qvale, who had been the importer for Maserati in North America in the pre-Ferrari owned era.

The business relationship between Mr. Qvale and Mr. de Tomaso was however tarnishing, because both parties had different views on the future of their business. So the two split, and the De Tomaso Mangusta had become the Qvale Mangusta. Apart from the badge, nothing was changed on the car itself. Qvale, having had experience in selling low-volume, niche sports cars started marketing the car for sale mainly in the U.S.A.
The automotive press also got a hold of the car, and while their opinion on its styling was split, they all loved its performance. Having a V8 meant 320-hp which was fed to the back wheels vand was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic taken directly from Ford, as were many other bits inside.
The performance numbers for the manual car were good too 0-100 km/h in just 5.3 seconds, and a top speed of  255 km/h. Enough credentials to put it in performance car territory.
Since Qvale was hardly a household name, the Mangusta did not sell in huge numbers. Still, selling 284-examples of a $70,000 sportscar that not many people knew about is not to be over-looked.

Qvale, who had put up most of the money for the development of the Mangusta was still surely going to lose money on this project. However, a deal with the MG Rover Group lead to them paying $11.2-million to buy the rights and assets to the Mangusta. MG used the Mangusta’s underpinnings when developing their own niche sports car, the MG X-Power SV in the late ninties.
So Qvale recovered its money and had made only one model, and was in the business only between the year 2000 and 2002. All the cars were made in Italy and powered by an American engine. While they are rare, it is not impossible to find a Qvale Mangusta for sale, especially in America. These days, you can pick one up for about $30,000 – which makes it cheaper to buy than a new Ford Mustang GT.
And given the choice, I’d much rather have the eccentric Italian any day.