2012 Ormskirk MotorFest set to attract thousands of visitors this weekend

THOUSANDS are expected to attend a full-throttle motorsport spectacular when it returns to Ormskirk town centre this Bank Holiday weekend.

The Ormskirk MotorFest, which is being held for the second time this Sunday (August 26) is expected to attract around 15,000 visitors as hundreds of exotic cars and motorbikes take part in displays and parades to celebrate more than a century of motorsport in the council-backed event.

Councillor Martin Forshaw, the council's portfolio holder for planning and development, said: “The Ormskirk MotorFest is a great day out for car enthusiasts and for the whole family.

"I am really looking forward to it and would encourage everyone to come along and enjoy the event. If you don’t, you will be missing out on a really special day."

A roll call of some of the mouthwatering motorsport machines are set to attend this Sunday's event, including a McLaren MP4-12C supercar, Metro 6R4 Group B rally cars, a Santa Pod top fuel dragster and classic Jaguar C-Type and E-Type sports cars among others. The bubble cars which proved a hit last year (pictured) are also set to wow the crowds once again.

This year's event will also help to support several charities, with a visit from the North West Air Ambulance - one of the mayor's charities this year - on the cards and a poignant parade in tribute to Southport superbike racer Ben Gautrey to help raise awareness of a charity set up in his memory.

Visitors to the show can also help to raise funds for the charities by entering a draw to win a ride round the town centre in one of the exciting cars taking part in the parade, while those volunteering to be safety marshals at the event will be entered into a draw to win £150.

Mike Ashcroft, Aintree Circuit Club Chairman, said: "I would urge everyone to come to the MotorFest and I am pleased we can support these charities.

"The draw we have organised will give an opportunity for visitors to ride in one of these unique machines."

The show starts at 11am, with displays along Moor Street, Aughton Street and in Coronation Park, with parades taking place around the town's one-way system later that afternoon.

A special launch magazine made by Life On Cars is now available to read on the Ormskirk MotorFest website. To find out more click here.

BMW Z4 gets the Zagato treatment

YOU know when you see the evocative slashes of the Zagato badge on a car's flanks that you're in for a bit of a visual treat.

The Italian coachbuilder has in the past treated Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin and Bentley models among others to his distinctive lines and unusual swoops, and now the Milan company's been given a BMW Z4 to play with. The striking sports car you see here, which is going on show at this year's Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, is the result.

Andrea Zagato said: "Our success in finishing the car in such a short space of time shows what is possible when two successful companies pool their resources.

“BMW is a high-achieving carmaker boasting a vast well of knowledge and technical capability in this area. When you combine that with our expertise in the creation of micro-series cars and our streamlined production processes, everything is in place to produce a beautiful model like the BMW Zagato Roadster in double-quick time”.

Among the features you won't find on an ordinary Z4 are the rear lights hidden behind a sheet of smoked black glass, the trademark Zagato 'double bubble' metalwork on the bootlid, new air outlets among the car's flanks, and a - let's say distinctive - brown and creme interior.

Among the cars Zagato has previously got the pens out for are the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, the Alfa Romeo SZ, the Spyker C12 Zagato and the Ferrari 575 GTZ.

2012 Ormskirk MotorFest - Read the official magazine here!

IF YOU'RE looking forward to this year's Ormskirk MotorFest then has Life On Cars got a treat for you!

For the second year running I've been given the green light to team up with Aintree Circuit Club, the event's organisers, and produce the only magazine which has their official backing, and it's packed full of news, features and information all about the motorsport-themed event on August 26.

More than twice as long as previous Life On Cars magazines, it's a delve behind the scenes of the full throttle event taking place in Ormskirk on the Bank Holiday Sunday which I hope you'll enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed creating.

See you there...

Open publication - Free publishing - More automotive

P.S: If you missed the chance to read the official magazine on last year's show you can check it out here.

The all new Range Rover easily beats an express train. If only I could afford one

MY FAVOURITE means of lounging in luxury on the way down to London might be no more, but that's okay because Land Rover's come up with a solution.

I have to admit to feeling a slight tinge of sadness when I read that as of December the express train services along the West Coast Mainline will no longer be run by Virgin, because for the best part of a decade it's been the quickest, comfiest way to get to the capital. The car, as much as I like to sing its praises, simply can't shift you from the north west to central London in a shade over two hours.

That said, the car offers you a privacy even the swishest trains can't and if you're rich enough to regularly travel Virgin First Class then there's a new contender for your considerable amount of cash; the first new Range Rover in 11 years. Pedants, I know, will point out there's been 2005's Sport and last year's Evoque for anybody after a fresher car with those famous capital letters spelt out across the bonnet, but this is the big, proper Range Rover.

The big news for anyone planning on using one to impress their fellow golf club members/tow a horsebox/feature in a hip hop video (delete as appropriate) is that Land Rover have listened to the environmentalists and used a blend of lightweight materials and clever engines to make it less offensive to Greenpeace activists. The old one weighed twice as much as a Ford Mondeo and was so big it could qualify for its own postcode, but the new one manages to shave nearly half a tonne when it sits on the EU's set of scales.

It's also a credit to the designers of the outgoing one that it doesn't look dated and it seems it's business as usual with the new one - maybe it's not quite as bluntly imposing, but it's sleeker and showier, although I'm not entirely sure about the curious slats running down the front doors. A Range Rover is like one of those flats you see Kevin McCloud getting excited about; the elegance is in its simplicity.

There's only one problem. The new Range Rover's going to be more upmarket - or in layman's English, even more expensive - than the old one, so it means that for me at least the comfiest way to get to London is still going to be by train.

First West Coast Ltd, please don't ruin it...

The Mini show at Santa Pod was a drag for all the right reasons

YOU really needed earplugs to watch the jet car. The sound it made as it screamed past was utterly magnificent, but so loud it was actually painful.

Yesterday I thought I'd do something completely different to get my petrolhead kicks, which is why I jumped in the back of a mate's Saab for the long journey down the M1 to Santa Pod in Northamptonshire. The UK's home of drag racing was having one of its ‘Run What Ya Brung' days for Mini owners, called Mini In The Park.

The event does pretty much what it says on the tin - you pay a couple of quid, line your pride and joy up alongside someone else's pride and joy at the start of a quarter mile dragstrip, and see who gets to the other end first.

Even though I wasn't driving it was a joy to watch, particularly because there was definitely an unofficial element of Mini (the cheeky Brit runaround I've owned a couple of) versus MINI (the BMW-engineered city slicker of today). It was genuinely close stuff in some of the races - yes, the modern motor's got more power as standard, but the older cars came with all sorts of weird and wonderful modifications to make them go even faster. When one new MINI made a blistering start, only to make a large bang and deposit several expensive-looking bits of intercooler along the run, I wasn't sure if I was meant to laugh or cry.

A really quick run in a hotted-up Mini was somewhere between 10 and 15 seconds, but to appreciate the difference between really quick and a proper dragster you just had to see the jet car, a machine which manages to bend time because it's so brutally fast. I simply cannot believe it did a quarter of a mile in less than FIVE seconds, but it did, doing 265mph when it crossed the line! To put it into perspective, that's nought to the top speed of a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in a quarter of the length of Lord Street in Southport in less than the time it'll have taken you to read this sentence. Surreal stuff.

Even though I'll make sure I bring some earplugs again next time, drag racing's definitely worth the 350 mile round trip. In car nut terms it was like Christmas had come early, only there was a different sort of Santa involved.

Life On Cars took these pictures of the event:

Fire up the... MINI Cooper S Roadster

DID the Great British Summer end ages ago or is yet to begin? Thanks to heatwaves, floods, droughts, downpours and landslides, I doubt anyone's really sure.

One thing, however, continues unabated during the country' greener months - our unusually optimistic take on it all, probably best expressed automotively through our generations of small and not-at-all-leaky sports cars. It's a mantle MINI's keen to take on with their latest addition to the small car family, a two-seater ragtop roadster aimed at the keen driver.

Posing's a big part of what sporty cars like this are all about and on this front it's usual MINI fare, with a short, stubby stylishness on the outside and lots of chunky rocker switches on the inside. To my mind it looks better than its tintop sister, the MINI Coupe, because it swaps that car's hideous baseball hat roof for neat, electrically-powered soft top that's a doddle to operate.

It's also a doddle to drive and as keen to attack corners as the rest of its MINI sisters, although I can't help feeling that if it's driving fun you're after than the 2.0 litre version of Mazda's MX-5 will offer you more thrills for the same sort of money as the Cooper S version's £19,000 asking price. That said, the rear-wheel-drive roadster can't compete with the MINI on looks or interior ambience.

Ironically, the MINI Roadster's biggest rival in my books comes from within, in the larger and more familiar shape of the MINI Cabriolet. No, the Cabriolet can't offer the same sharpness in the corners but it's still an absolute joy to drive, and it offers space for four and a bit more space for your bags. If I wanted a sports car I'd go for that infernal Mazda, but if I wanted an open-top MINI, hand on heart, I'd go for the Cabriolet.

That said, if your heart's set on enjoying the added aesthetics and agility of the MINI Roadster during what's left of summer, you won't be disappointed.

Woodvale Rally organisers "confident" of return to RAF Woodvale for 2013

PLENTY of you have got in touch about this year's Woodvale Rally, which for the first time in its forty year history wasn't actually held in Woodvale.
Thanks to everyone for your comments about this year's show, which was held this year not at its traditional home of RAF Woodvale, but at the home of the Southport Flower Show, at Victoria Park. From the feedback both on Life On Cars and at The Champion, the Victoria Park event has definitely had a mixed reaction from visitors - some loved it, others, like yourself, didn't find it as impressive as previous years.

The organisers have, however, told me since the event that they are 'confident' this year's Woodvale Rally will return to RAF Woodvale for the 2013 event, although probably the best bet is to check with the official website at www.woodvalerally.com for any official announcements about next year's show. If I hear anything, however, I'll post it on here as soon as I can.

On another note, here's some more pictures from the show, which were taken after I'd cleaned the dust on my camera lens which made the first lot of shots look a bit weird and hazy to the untrained eye: