After ten years under Renault and three years in the UK, the 3,500,000th Dacia has been sold in the UK.

• In just over ten years, Dacia has won over more than 3,500,000 customers in Europe and the Mediterranean basin
• The 3,500,000th Dacia sold was a Sandero Stepway purchased by Jody Panov, a customer of SMC Dacia, Aldershot
• Denis Le Vot, Sales & Marketing Senior Vice President for Europe G9, handed over the car’s keys at the dealership on Friday 6^th November 

Almost three years after its launch in the UK, the 3,500,000^th global Dacia customer was handed the keys to her Sandero Stepway by Denis Le Vot, Groupe Renault’s Sales & Marketing Senior Vice President for Europe G9, at SMC Dacia in Aldershot, Hampshire on Friday.

Jody Panov, a married mother of two, is now the happy owner of a Dacia Sandero Stepway – the first new car she has ever purchased – the 3,500,000^th Dacia sold since the brand’s revival in 2004.

Jody took an interest in the Sandero Stepway after her parents returned from a trip to Turkey. During their trip, Jody’s parents saw many Dacias on the road and suggested that their daughter find out more, because they 'seemed like good cars’. Above all, it was the Dacia supermini’s design that won Jody over when she visited the SMC Dacia dealership to investigate, and, as a result, ordered the Sandero Stepway!

“Today we are handing over the key to the 3.5 millionth Dacia and I am very pleased to be doing so in the UK, where the brand was launched in 2013,” said Le Vot. “In reaching this milestone of 3.5 million customers, Dacia confirms its success thanks to a clear and simple promise that perfectly meets the expectations of customers seeking safe, reliable cars with modern features and services at affordable prices.”

Also in attendance at the handover was Managing Director of Group Renault UK, Ken Ramirez: “Dacia has enjoyed fantastic success in the short period since it launched in the UK and is now the country’s first choice ‘smart buy’ car brand. Dacia is young and fresh, but above all, it offers the consumer ‘shockingly affordable’ value for money with a no-nonsense approach to purchasing a safe and reliable new car. Mrs Panov is now one of 3.5 million customers who agree with the Dacia way of motoring, and I hope she and her family enjoy their brand-new Dacia Sandero Stepway.”

Jody said: “The Sandero Stepway is the ideal family car for us and I love the looks and how it’s got a good level of standard equipment with sat nav and parking sensors. I couldn’t believe how affordable it was and when I was at the dealership to place the order, I kept thinking there must be some hidden cost somewhere! Then finding out that I was the 3.5 millionth person to buy a new Dacia was even more of a surprise.”

SMC Dacia in Aldershot has represented Dacia ever since the brand was launched in the UK, and the family-owned dealer group also operates a further Dacia dealership in Weybridge.

Mike Jeffs, General Manager, SMC Dacia, Aldershot, commented: ‘We’re extremely pleased to present Mrs Panov with the 3.5 millionth Dacia and she joins the ever-increasing amount of customers who we have introduced to the brand, our sales growing year-on-year as more and more drivers recognise the brand’s unrivalled blend of value and quality.”

In the UK, Dacia regularly outperforms much larger and well-established brands in its segment thanks to strong Sandero, Duster and Logan sales, with over 62,000 Dacias sold in the UK since its launch in April 2013. Mrs Panov certainly isn’t alone in her purchase of the Sandero, as the most popular vehicle in the line-up has sold more than 37,000 examples in under three years. October year-to-date, Dacia sales represented 21,804 vehicles, increasing by 5.7 per cent compared to last year.

It’s a similar situation of growth in Europe for Dacia, with sales increasing by 5.5 per cent during the first half of the year to 205,436 units. In France, Dacia steadfastly remains in fifth place on the passenger vehicle market, with 5.3 per cent of market share, and in fourth place overall for retail customer sales.

Bristol Motors informs that the new engine range for its new "Project Pinnacle" will be a BMW Powerplant.

• First new Bristol car in more than a decade to feature BMW powerplant
• High performance powertrain earmarks resumption of the history between Bristol, Frazer-Nash and BMW dating back to 1930s

Iconic British carmaker, Bristol Cars, makes the second in a series of announcements today about its first new car in more than a decade, codenamed Project Pinnacle.

Project Pinnacle, which is set for launch later this year, will be a 70^th anniversary celebration model, referencing Bristol Cars’ rich heritage and executed as a modern take on the best of British craftsmanship, engineered to excite and satisfy as a high performance Bristol car.

Bristol Cars is deeply proud to announce that the machinery underpinning this high performance new vehicle will be a BMW powerplant. The result will be a sublime British sportscar with characteristics cultured uniquely for the first new Bristol since 2004.

Bristol Cars was bought in 2011 and millions of pounds are being invested in the business by the newly-formed Bristol Automotive Group, with new products, strategic partnerships and technologies, a specialist new Parts, Service and Restoration facility in Brentford, West London and an additional showroom on Kensington High Street.

Further details on Project Pinnacle, now confirmed as benefitting from the marriage of a BMW powerplant to the new Bristol car will be the subject of future announcements.

Northern Irishman Kris Meeke wins his first World Championship round

• Northern Irishman Kris Meeke wins his first World Championship round
• First British WRC winner since Colin McRae in 2002
• Welshman Elyfn Evans claims maiden podium finish

Kris Meeke yesterday became the first British driver to win a round of the FIA World Rally Championship for more than a decade. The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland made his big breakthrough in Argentina with an historic victory on round four of this year’s WRC. He is the first British winner since Colin McRae’s final victory back on the 2002 Safari Rally.

The Dungannon man, co-driven by Irishman Paul Nagle, led from virtually the start and after four days of intense and gruelling competition, he finished 18.1 seconds ahead of his Citroën team-mate Mads Østberg.

Adding further to British delight, Elfyn Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt finished third in their M-Sport-run Ford Fiesta RS. It was the promising young Welshman’s first-ever WRC podium and delivered the first double podium for British drivers since New Zealand in 2001.

Victory also means Meeke becomes just the fourth British driver to win a WRC round – he joins rally legends Roger Clark, McRae and Richard Burns in a very elite club. Clark, McRae and Burns also all savoured success in their home event – a feat the Ulsterman now will be aiming to emulate when the WRC comes to these shores for Wales Rally GB (12-15 November). 

“What can I say? It’s been a long road… and the man who did most is not here,” said an emotional Meeke dedicating his landmark success to the late McRae who was the Northern Irishman’s mentor earlier in his career.  

Confidence-boosting performances from both Meeke and Evans is another major boost to the sport in this country and will generate even more interest in the UK’s concluding round of this year’s WRC.

“This is a great day for British rallying and we send our congratulations to both camps,” confirmed Ben Taylor, managing director of Wales Rally GB. "The whole sport has been excited to have two drivers in the WRC again and now to see Kris on the top step and Elfyn alongside him reinforces that UK rallying is moving in the right direction. 

I'm sure they will both have the podium in their sights when the WRC comes to Wales in November which is an incredibly exciting prospect for everyone connected with our event.”

Home fans don't have long to wait for full details of the competitive route for 2015 Wales Rally GB, which will be revealed in the coming weeks, together with news of a revised ticketing policy.

Aston Martin celebrates a decade of racing success.

This year Aston Martin Racing celebrates ten years as Aston Martin’s modern motorsport division and looks proudly back at a decade of success that boasts Le Mans class-wins and victories at the highest level of sportscar racing around the world.

From the Le Mans-class winning DBR9, which was announced in November 2004, through the brand’s successful venture into prototype racing with the DBR1-2, to the current Vantage-based GTs which are contesting this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship and Nürburgring 24 Hours, the team has played an important role in defining the most recent decade in Aston Martin’s illustrious 101-year history.

David Richards, Aston Martin Racing Chairman, said: “Aston Martin Racing was established to reinforce the motorsport DNA of our products by racing production based GT cars at the highest level of the sport and support our customer teams around the world.”

“Many will remember the David Brown era of Aston Martin and that famous win at Le Mans in 1959. Whilst the intervening years have seen a wide variety of Aston Martins taking part in races it was the introduction of the DB9 in 2004 that gave us the opportunity to return to GT racing at a time when the sport was experiencing a major resurgence.”

In 2004, GT racing was on the rise and sports car manufacturers were looking at which of their road cars could succeed on-track. The newly-launched Aston Martin DB9, with its technically advanced, lightweight VH architecture and powerful 6.0-litre V12 engine made it ideally suited to the GT1 regulations of the time.

The DBR9, based on the iconic DB9 sports car, proved to be extremely successful.  After winning the GT1-class in its competitive debut at the 2005 12 Hours of Sebring, it came third in the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans three months later. In its second year at Le Mans it took a step further up the podium and in 2007 and 2008 it took the GT1 class-win.

With GT success to its name, Aston Martin Racing set its sights on repeating its 1959 success and winning Le Mans outright. To do this, it needed to design an LMP1 prototype car.

The result was the DBR1-2 and the team’s move into LMP1 racing exceeded all expectations by finishing an excellent fourth overall in 2009. However, in 2012, the team decided to return to its Aston Martin’s racing heritage and race cars based on its road cars.

“From a marketing point of view, there is a much stronger link between GT racing and our product range,” explains Head of Motorsport at Aston Martin David King. “The Vantage was the obvious choice; it was designed to offer optimum performance, handling and comfort on the road so it was ideal for developing into a GT car.”

On the Vantage chassis Aston Martin Racing developed a highly-successful GT4, a championship-winning GT3 and the FIA World Endurance Championship race-winning GTE.

“The WEC forms the centrepiece of our motorsport campaign,” comments John Gaw, Team Principal at Aston Martin Racing. “The Vantage GTE, our WEC competitor, has been extremely successful. “Of the last twelve WEC six-hour races, a Vantage GTE has been on the podium every time with a class win at six of last year’s seven races.”  

The GT3, launched in 2012, has also played a key role in Aston Martin’s motorsport achievements in recent years. As well as customer successes including winning the British GT Championship, the car has taken the brand’s Nürburgring assault to a higher level.

In 2013, the second year of a five-year plan, Aston Martin Racing’s works Vantage GT3 led the Nürburgring 24 Hours for ten hours before a night of heavy rain halted running and disrupted the race. This year, the team will return with the GT3 to race alongside Aston Martin’s Test Centre cars which will, this year, include a close-to-road-specification Vantage.

“GT racing is very much the future of Aston Martin Racing,” comments Gaw. “We now have our race cars running on every Continent in some of the world’s most competitive sportscar races and championships with some of the top GT drivers behind the wheel.”

Aston Martin Racing will contest the 2014 WEC with four Gulf-liveried Vantage GTEs, plus a six-car entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will also enter its Bilstein-liveried Vantage GT3 into the ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hours.