Life On Cars: The Champion motoring roadtest directory

THOSE of you who have been following Life On Cars for the past few years will probably have worked out it's about motoring by now.

Driving cars - and more importantly, writing about them - is what this blog's always been about, and it's always heartening to see from the number of hits that people do read it and enjoy it. Which is why, in a tradition started way back in 2010, I've always liked to give something back by creating special, online-only magazines packed with features, reviews and test drives.

This isn't one of them.

There will be no tenth issue of the imaginatively-titled Life On Cars magazine but what I've got instead is something I use to show the car makers, the PR people and the SMMT that all my test drives do actually make it into print - what I call the Champion motoring roadtest directory.

Readers familiar with the motoring pages of The Champion will be familiar with its pages but for those of you who don't live in Sefton and West Lancashire - which I know is a lot of you - it's possibly the first time you'll get to see a range of test drives and Life On Cars pieces as they've appeared in print. Covering everything from the Alfa Giulietta to the Volkswagen Polo GTI, it's an exhaustive look at almost all the cars I've driven over the past year.

Of course, Life On Cars is about more than just test drives and there's all sorts of stories and reviews on the way, including I hope, for the first time ever, coverage of the simply colossal Cholmondeley Pageant of Power later this month. If it's got horsepower and at least three wheels involved, it ticks all the right boxes in my book!

Until then however, feel free to see how a whole raft of cars fared when they got The Champion roadtest treatment...

Open publication - Free publishing - More cars

F1 2011 STARTED WITH NO NEW TEAM

Looks like there won’t be a 13th team on next year’s F1 grid after all. This is after the sport’s governing body announced that none of the parties bidding for the slot vacated by USF1 have met its requirements.

“Following the press release of 19 March 2010 calling for expressions of interest to participate in the 2011 and 2012 seasons of the FIA Formula One World Championship, a number of interested parties expressed their interest. It was considered that none of the candidates met the requirements to be granted an entry into the championship. Consequently, the allocation of the 13th team will not be granted,” the FIA World Motor Sport Council statement read.

Since March, there were a number of interested parties. Some withdrew halfway (GP2 regulars ART and US based Cypher Group) to leave Epsilon Euskadi and Villeneuve Racing in the chase. The former was rejected a year ago while the latter is a partnership between 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Italian ex-GP2 team Durango.

They haven’t fully given up though; Villeneuve is reported to be considering purchasing an existing team. “Of course it’s disappointing, but we just shift the focus now and turn our attention to alternatives,” he said.