FINE SMELLING WHEEL CLEANER? YOU BET

Martin Wheatley’s tiny boutique Squid Ink (isn’t that just the best name!) Detailing brand sure punches above its weight with some outstanding products.

Blue Lagoon wheel cleaner is the most pleasant-smelling wheel cleaner I’ve ever used.

Some of these wheel cleaners smell like a peroxide explosion in a hairdresser’s salon, while others smell like oven cleaners. Worse still are the ones that try and conceal the pong with flowery smells, which normally fail dismally. Lavender-tinged egss? No thanks!

Anyway, Blue Lagoon has a lovely bilberry meets cola cube scent, is safe on sensible wheel finishes and is also PH-neutral.

I used it neat, but More >

HEAVY LIFTING MADE EASY

Machine Mart stocks a range of durable Clarke Trolley Jacks designed to assist you in the garage or workshop when working on a variety of vehicles.

The best-selling Clarke CTJ3000GB Three Tonne Trolley Jack is specifically designed for the professional workspace and offers a lifting capacity of three tonnes. It features a super-strong chassis with heavy-duty wheels and castors, as well as a wide footprint for stable use. The CTJ3000GB also features a long two-piece handle and comes with automatic overload protection. Weight: 28.3kg

Another best-selling product is the Clarke CTJ2250LP 2.25 Tonne Low Profile Trolley Jack with Sockets. The CTJ2250LP features More >

SHIELD FOR YOUR TURBO

Keeping a turbocharger cool is the secret of maximising performance whilst encouraging faster spool-up and minimising turbo lag and one of the best and cost-effective ways of keeping a turbo cool is fitting a turbo heatshield. A turbo heat shield will also reduce engine bay temperatures and protect sensitive components.

DEI now offers a variety of turbo shields in three distinct ranges.

GEN-3 TITANIUM™ Turbo Shields is DEI’s most technologically advanced shield line.

GEN-3 TITANIUM features a silicone-coated TITANIUM LR outer layer, a silica blend insulation layer with a glass-silica-stainless weave inner layer and a protective stainless mesh liner. This is the strongest, More >

PROJECT 25 FOR RADICAL

Reinforcing its position as one of the world leaders in racecar engineering, manufacturing and single-make racing series organisers, UK-based Radical Motorsport has teased images of its new flagship, closed-cockpit track car under the codename of ‘Project 25’, which will enter production in Q4 2023.

‘Project 25’ has been designed to showcase the culmination of knowledge that Radical Motorsport has amassed through producing world-class racing cars from its UK premises for over a quarter of a century, currently present in 21 countries worldwide through its 33-strong dealer network.

With exact specification details limited at the time of writing, Radical has revealed that its More >

NOT THAT SORT OF SHAMPOO!

GTechniq’s products rightly have a great reputation for their quality. In my view, their recent re-branding with cool new labelling has lifted them to another level.

GWash has a pleasant grapefruit smell without being like a bubblegum factory however, the levels of suds were great but crucially didn’t ‘eat’ the water in the bucket, while unlike some rivals the product’s colour remained in the bucket.

The product performed beautifully was easy to use and seemed to rinse very easily, too. Nice smell of berries., I noted. A top-notch car shampoo.

A 500ml bottle costs £12.95 and is available via appointed Gtechniq re-sellers or More >

HP’S SAUCE!

The ECU specialists at HP Tuners would like to suggest that the company’s flagship MPVI3 dongle is the Christmas gift that genuinely covers all bases and will continue to be appreciated, long after the festivities have concluded.

HP Tuners MPVI3 is the fastest and most sophisticated OBD-II interface the company has ever produced. From vehicle diagnostics and data logging to scanning, calibration and more, the latest generation MPVI3 device and its VCM Suite software represent the only tuning solution that enthusiasts and tuning professionals will ever need for their OBD-II equipped vehicle.

Further information and benefits of the HP Tuners MPVI3 interface can More >

WHO TRUMPED?

Looking for the perfect gift for someone who loves cars? Top Trumps has it covered this Christmas!

Top Trumps has been a family favourite card game for over 40 years and has always been well-known for its car titles. Here are some of their latest packs…

007 James Bond Vehicles & Gadgets Top Trumps

Familiarise yourself with thirty vehicles and gadgets that are closely associated with the double-O agent known as James Bond. Pick from iconic weapons and tools like the wrist dart gun, Dentonite explosives and the Parker pen, as well as vehicles like the Q Boat and the Aston Martin Vanquish.

This pack of More >

THE STORY OF THE MAYA GT AND A TRIP TO CAMBER SANDS

George Holmes was a trained agricultural engineer who had been running a grocer’s shop in the Croydon area before moving to Camber Sands, East Sussex. His friend, Derek Bishop, from Greenwich, had previously run Heron Plastics and had been responsible for the Heron Europa and also for producing the bodies for Don Sim’s Diva operation. Meanwhile, down in East Sussex, George had bought a Nissen hut that was being used as a garage with two petrol pumps outside. A desolate location.

Camber GT – those headlights might not have been, ahem, road-legal!

The Camber was underpinned by a square tube steel chassis More >

WESTFIELD RELOCATES TO OXFORDSHIRE – BACK IN PRODUCTION SOON THEY SAY

I received a press release this week from Dr Nigel Trilk of Westfield Chesil, which reads as follows:

“I’m delighted to announce that our new business, Westfield Chesil Limited, having secured the assets and rights to build Westfield cars and Chesil Speedsters, has completed the move from the old Westfield Sportscars site in Kingswinford to our new home in Bicester, Oxfordshire, a town known for its fantastic automotive engineering history and local motorsport and classic car skills base.

“We’ll also benefit from having access to the Bicester Heritage site and excellent transport links for ease of access to the facility.

“We’re locating the More >

EXCITING NEW KIT FROM NORTHERN IRELAND

In the overall scheme of things, despite having a brilliant kitcar enthusiasts club, Northern Ireland hasn’t really had very many kitcar manufacturers. I think we worked it out recently at about eight manufacturers since 1949.

Anyway, the latest is a company called Vale Automotive located near Derry City and run by a nice chap called Shimie.

They are launching a Porsche Boxster (Mk1 986-generation) based body conversion. Although described as an original design there’s plenty of Porsche 911 GT1 in the car’s styling. Shimie tells me that a Mk2 (987-generation)-based version is also being developed.

 

Vale’s kit is a very interesting pastiche of More >

z library