Don't miss tomorrow's Wirral to Llandudno Mini Run

ONE of my favourite motoring events - the Wirral to Llandudno Mini Run - gets underway tomorrow morning (11 January, 2015).

It's not only a great opportunity to blow off the festive cobwebs, but you get to see scores of classic Minis from right across Wales, the north of England and the Midlands being enjoyed in and around the picturesque resort of Llandudno.

The run takes more than 100 Minis from Bromborough on the Wirral to Rhos-on-Sea, the Great Orme and into Llandudno, but the best place to see them is on Llandudno's promenade from 11am. The display is held on the town's seafront until 3pm.

If you've never been, these pictures from the event in previous years will give you an idea what to expect...

 

For more information have a look at the event's website.

It's the beginning of the end of the Land Rover Defender

LAND ROVER has announced a trio of special editions to mark the Defender's final year of production.

The Heritage, Adventure and Autobiography editions, which are all powered by the company's 2.2 litre diesel engine, are available to order now and will be on sale until the end of the model's production in December. The cheapest of the three is the Heritage edition, which costs £27,800.

The off-roader has been in production since 1984, and was given the Defender name a quarter of a century ago. Land Rover is considering keeping the model in limited production outside the European Union, but it will disappear from the showrooms at the end of the year.

However, there is a crumb of good news - work is very much underway on finally creating the trusty Land Rover's replacement.

Nick Roger, the manufacturer's vehicle line director, said: 'Passion and enthusiasm surround everything we do with Defender, and that will never change. With a history stretching back 68 years, this is a Land Rover that has thrived for decades on its unquestionable capability and iconic shape.

'I now have the honour of being one of the many enthusiasts at Land Rover committed to creating a fitting successor to the legendary Defender.'

Land Rover has also marked the Defender's final year by using six classic Land Rovers to create the UK's biggest ever sand artwork. To see the video, have a look at this article I've writen for the Classic Cars For Sale website. 

Lotus and Ariel take their sports cars off road

THE INTERNET is currently bursting at the seams with people wondering whether they’re going to get their hoverboards this year. It’s 2015, which if you grew up in the Eighties or early Nineties only means one thing; finally being able to see how much Back to the Future II jumped from fiction to fact.

It’s odd looking back at the all the things proclaimed as being the future back in 1985, and I don’t just mean the Sinclair C5. Things like four-wheel-steering and talking digital dashboards were about as futuristic as Human League records – but how of many today’s cars actually have them? On the other hand, Eighties luxuries like folding door mirrors and reversing cameras are making it into even the cheapest of today’s cars, and safety essentials ABS and airbags are de rigueur. 

But I’d love to know is what petrolheads will be thinking in another 30 years when they look back at motoring’s latest rethink. This is the year, it’s looking increasingly likely, when the British sports car whipped off its trainers and slapped on some walking boots.

I’m not talking about Jaguar’s four-wheel-drive version of its F-type, but sports cars designed specifically for venturing up forest tracks rather than setting blistering lap times around Oulton Park. We’ve had sporty off-roaders before, of course, but it’s looking increasingly likely 2015 will be the year of the off-roady sports car.

Word on the automotive grapevine is that Lotus is making an off-road version of its Evora, which will keep its rear-wheel-drive but will be jacked up and fitted with knobbly tyres. It might sound preposterous, but given Lotus’ engineering talent I’m really looking forward to seeing if they can pull it off. The existing roadgoing Evora cope that badly when I treated it to a spot of impromptu off-roading for a photoshoot at Southport Beach when I test drove one a few years ago, either!

Luckily, you don’t have to wait until Lotus finishes to see what an off-road sports car looks like. Ariel has managed to cross its already mildly unhinged Atom with something you might find in an Action Man toy set, called it the Nomad, and is about to put it on sale. It hasn’t got four-wheel-drive either, but with the chunky tyres, the minimal weight and the 200bhp the 2.4 litre Honda engine chucks out, it’s unlikely you’d need it on the rough stuff. As unlikely as an off-road Ariel Atom sounds, I think it’s going to be fantastic.

So is the off-road sports car something that’s going to catch on or is it an automotive dead end? Given the appetite for cars that even look a bit off-roaders but aren’t – take a bow, Nissan Qashqai – I’d like to think it’s the former.

I’m more likely to pilot an Ariel off-road than to take up hoverboarding, that’s for sure!

How to save hundreds of pounds on your next Mitsubishi

MITSUBISHI has announced a New Year deals involving savings right across its model range.

The offers include pre-VAT discounts on the L200 pickup truck, Outlander off-roader and ASX hatchback, and a zero per cent hire purchase on the Mirage supermini.

For a full round-up of the current offers, go online to www.mitsubishi.co.uk or pop into your nearest dealer.

Check out these 1980s 4X4 images

A LOT of you enjoyed the 1980s off-roader pictures, which I've been scanning in digitally over the Christmas break.

However it turns out my father had another old photo album with even more archive shots, including these shots from across Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Here are few more gems from more than 30 years ago, including everything from Land Rover Series Is to Mercedes G-Wagens. There's even a Daihatsu F20 getting stuck in - when was the last time you saw one of those?

There's no grey area with these special edition Mazdas

TWO new special editions of the Mazda2 named after their paint colours have just gone on sale across the North West.

The Black Edition and White Edition are both based on the five-door family hatchback but behind their bonnet stripes is a lavish helping of normally optional extras, including heated folding door mirrors and rear privacy glass.

The two special edition cars, which went on sale on New Year’s Day, costs £12,145.

New classic car gatherings planned for the North West

CLASSIC CAR owners from across the North West are being invited to a new series of monthly meets which begin this spring.

The meetings will be held on the Sunday morning of every month between 9am and 11.30am at the Corner House, a pub and restaurant in Wrightington.

The events are being organised by David Morgan, who is also involved in the long-running New Year classic car meet at Briars Hall in nearby Lathom. Clubs and individual classic owners alike are encouraged to bring their cars along to the inaugural event, which takes place on 1 March (EDIT: incorrect date published on event flyer).

For more information email info@cornerhousewrightington.co.uk or call 01257 451400.

 Click on either of the images to enlarge them for more details