Latest news with #AudiTT
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
Businessman led family vigilante attack on nephew for 'bringing drugs into home'
A wealthy businessman claimed he led a family vigilante attack on his nephew to stop him taking drugs to his £1.1m Footballers' Wives-style mansion. Andrew Jones, 30, leapt out of his sky blue Jaguar F-Type convertible and grabbed Patrick Ward in a headlock after spotting him walking down the street in Cheshire on March 5. His stepdaughter Isabella Gale, 21, and her boyfriend Jacob Toogood, 21, who had been following in her Audi TT to collect a puppy joined in the assault. Mr Ward later told police he had been attacked after refusing to pay rent for staying at the five-bed Rabbits Nest Cottage which Jones shares with his wife Sonia in Wilmslow. But Jones claimed he had discovered his nephew had been dealing drugs after giving him a job and was trying to stop him going back to the property from the pub. He admitted assault, as did Gale and Toogood, and was fined £961 with £469 in costs. Gale was fined £500 with a £300 costs and Toogood was also fined £500 with £285 in costs. Angela Blackmore, prosecuting, said: 'According to Patrick Ward it all started with paying the rent. 'He said he had paid the last month but did not pay for the following month as he was only staying a couple of days. 'He said he then got a text from Mr Jones's wife saying that if he did not pay he would have to clear out the house. He went to the pub but was told his belongings would be left in a suitcase for him to pick up.' In a statement to police, Mr Ward said: 'I was going back to the house to collect my property when Andy pulled up in his car, Bella and Jacob then pulled up in their car a few seconds later. 'Andy got out first and started to fight with me. He didn't actually punch me but he kept walking at me with a clenched fist as if he was going to punch me. He put me in a headlock and put me on the floor. 'Just as I got to my feet Bella and Jacob came over and they were punching me.' 'I have no clue how many times they hit me. It all happened so quickly.' CCTV played to the court showed Mr Ward walking along the roadside before the blue sports car convertible pulled up. Jones could be seen confronting him before the other two arrived and Gale charged at him, swinging punches. At one point, Toogood could also be seen kicking Mr Ward while he was on the ground. Jones, who was unrepresented, told the court: 'I never intentionally went looking for Patrick. 'It was the case that I let my nephew into my home. I gave him a job. I gave him somewhere to live. He took advantage of that by bringing drugs into my house.' Mr Jones said that he found out his nephew had been drug dealing in Ireland and added: 'He threatened my family and I told him not to come back to the house. 'But when we went out to pick up a dog I could see Patrick walking up the road. 'I was just trying to stop him, not to go to the house. Everybody makes mistakes. I love my nephew and care about him. 'I am really sorry how it ended up. This was not intended at all. 'I got into trouble when I was younger but I ended up with my own business. I have built a good life with my wife, and we have done really well. 'Isabella and Jacob are two young people just starting their life. 'They have never been in trouble before. They are going to work every day. They stay at home. They do not go drinking. They are just good people.' Gale wept as she told the court: 'I am just really sorry. I am so sorry. I have never done anything like this before in my life. I am so sorry to Patrick.' More Trending Toogood said: 'I feel quite bad for what happened. As he said, it is not in my nature or anyone of us to do that. It is a one-off happening. 'I do not want that to ever happen again especially to someone we consider as family. It was just an incident that got out of hand. It should never have happened.' In sentencing, Magistrate Lynn Colter-Howard said: 'We are not going to award compensation. We are not aware of any reports of injuries and there is a concern that it could aggravate the situation.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Train fare dodger tells staff he'll 'get away with it' before definitely not getting away with it MORE: Judge 'leaks woman's photos in Telegram group for sex workers' MORE: Dog walker 'beaten to death by man living off-grid while being hunted by police'
Auto Car
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Carlton, Diablo, Skyline, Elise... these are the ULTIMATE cars from the 1990s!
Open gallery A rose-tinted spectacle: '90s cars had a more individualistic appeal MGF is agile and fun to drive; cute RAV4 sowed the seed for compact SUVs Elise meets Carlton: Hethel's output in the 1990s was nirvana for the enthusiast Raw Diablo SV is quite different from Golf-based TT, but both are very much of their era 'Iconic' is a grossly misused word, but it 's a fitting way of describing the TT's shape Close Everyone loves 1990s cars. Over the past decade their popularity has risen rapidly as the differences between them and contemporary models have become ever more distinct. What's the reason? After all, 1990s cars are now 25 to 35 years out of date. And there isn't the same love out there for the cars of the 1980s or 2000s. It's tempting to blame simple nostalgia: teenage kids of the mid-1990s are approaching 50 today. Back then they desired the cars of their era; today they can do something about it. We believe there's much more to it than that, though. Today, the cars of the 1990s are admired by a far wider cohort of enthusiasts than those teenagers of the time. There's a unique purity and originality baked into the best of them that speaks especially of the 1990s. What was so special about the era? Sociologists say our lives were simpler. The world economy boomed, the internet was in its infancy and there were no smartphones. Computers were boxy beige appliances people used only at work. One pithy 10-word summary of the 1990s speaks of 'better music, better movies, better people, better cars, better economy'. For car companies life was simpler, too. Climate change wasn't yet an issue. Government regulation of car design was a factor, but shapes and structures were limited far less than today. Dieselgate was two decades away. No one saw a need for today's vast investment in electric cars and battery tech, but car companies' economics were already greatly assisted by platform theory: distinct models built off similar underpinnings. Car companies were far more free to concentrate on creating cars people could love – and they did. This realisation, this rising interest in the 1990s, is what encouraged us recently to gather 10 of the best and most disparate 1990s cars we could find at a favourite location in Gloucestershire. The mission was to drive and understand the rationale behind them all over again, to enjoy them and to discover, above all, whether all the love was misplaced. Here's how it went, alphabetically speaking. The Audi TT, launched late in 1998, is one of the most successful 'platform' models yet created. Not many who viewed it as a cheaper Porsche Boxster alternative would have known, without being told, that this individualistic and timeless 2+2 coupé, revealed as a concept in 1995, was really a Volkswagen Golf. When we finally got our hands on a 225bhp 1.8-litre turbo version in December 1998, we were enthusiastic about its strong performance, entertaining handling and terrific cabin. The TT lived a long life: the last of three generations was built in November 2023. But the original TT styling that emanated in VW's California studios makes a particular case for '90s cars. It is by far the most distinctive of the three TTs and destined always to be the collectors' favourite. Matt Prior instantly liked the TT, calling it 'a proper concept car made real'. Illya Verpraet was also surprised. 'It's not a sports car,' he wrote, 'but it's very pleasant and rounded to drive. "The driving position is good, the gearchange is positive, the engine is strong and smooth and there's plenty of usable grip. It's a design icon you can use like a normal car.' Not bad going for a 27-year-old (the car, not Verpraet…). BMW 5 Series BMW's E39 528i is a fine example of the purity of the Munich company's styling, before the complications set in. The meaty straight six engine, the driver-focused driving position and the unmatched clarity of the two dominant instruments say 'ultimate driving machine' as effectively as the words themselves. There's a lowness and a purity of line that speak unmistakably of a time when the revered Wolfgang Reitzle was still running the show and producing a generation of BMWs that is still much admired. This was the pre-Bangle era, when the design chief and management felt compelled to find a new styling direction. Launched in 1995, the E39 looks small today, roughly the size of today's 3 Series, but there's an authority to its shape that still identifies it as the mid-range executive model. 'Even now,' writes James Disdale, 'the 5 Series stands up to the scrutiny of modern eyes, ears and hands. The interior is spacious, the dashboard is an ergonomic masterclass and the driving position is without fault.' Then there's that creamy-smooth 2.8-litre straight six that generates more than enough energy to easily keep pace with today's traffic. It's only the slightly ponderous shift time of the otherwise slick five-speed auto that ages the car. The steering is naturally geared and weighted, the natural rear-drive balance can be exploited at sensible speeds and it's refined enough to shame many moderns. Ford Mondeo By contrast, the Ford Mondeo 1.8 LX mostly set out to impress fleet managers. This was the Blue Oval at the height of its powers, and during a period when two-thirds of Britain's new cars were bought by businesses. But with the help of legendary chief engineer Richard Parry-Jones, Ford had moved on a long way from the crummy Cortina days. When the Mondeo hit the market in 1993 it was praised by Autocar in a mighty 14-page launch test entitled 'Mondeo is king' and which was alleged to have boosted Ford's New York share price. We followed that up a couple of months later by driving a 1.8 LX 12,000 miles around Europe in a week. Verpraet reckons the Mondeo aces Parry-Jones's famous 20-metre test, because the driving position is great and the controls are easy and intuitive – both things you notice before you're out of first gear. 'It can't help feeling old because of the shape, colour, materials, low waistline and vast glass area,' he added, 'but you can row it along in ordinary traffic and feel very satisfied.' Prior is a bit worried for the Mondeo, though. 'It's showing little sign of moving from the old banger phase and into its classic time,' he said. 'I'm not even sure the Sierra, its predecessor,has managed to do that yet.' Lamborghini Diablo SV Hard to find a greater contrast to a Mondeo than a Lamborghini Diablo SV, launched in the mid-1990s as a higher-powered (but ironically slightly cheaper) version of the standard 1990 Diablo, born as the Countach replacement. Yet, like the Mondeo, it typifies the 1990s in several ways: it was completed under Chrysler ownership of the company, which came about at a time when big corporations were becoming interested in bespoke sports car manufacturers (Toyota, then General Motors, at Lotus; Ford at Aston Martin). Its design, originally penned by Marcello Gandini in his sharp-edged style, was 'softened' by Chrysler's people, a move which today indisputably ages the car. The car you see here was our original road test machine, and it definitely speaks of another era. The scissor-opening doors make ingress and egress very hard, the driving position isn't brilliant and reversing the Lambo is a guessing game because rear vision is so poor. Yet when you drive it today there's a magnificent exuberance about the engine's thrust and sound – and the all-mechanical gated gearchange – which takes you right away from the curbs and limitations of today. Once you learn its quirks, the car drives very well. Steering is heavy, but grip is still impressive. And because the weight is lower than many today – at 1570kg – the SV doesn't even feel excessively large or heavy, although it did at the time. Lotus Elise 'Dated' really isn't a description you should apply to the Lotus Elise, a car many agree always looked best in its original form. In fact, it looks modern and well-proportioned enough to be made today. The Elise also embodies some of the most important values of 2025 affordable car design: chassis rigidity, light weight and a corrosion-free bonded structure, in this case made from extruded aluminium. The Elise appeared soon after Lotus's unsuccessful dalliance with a front-wheel-drive Elan, and it took the company right back to the Chapman era of compact, rear-drive simplicity. The Elise was conceived in the early 1990s and launched in 1995, and at the time we reckoned it 'really is the new Seven'. About that we were half right: it was more civilised and somewhat heavier than a Seven, but like the Caterhams it utilised brilliantly components that were common and cheaply available. For yours truly, the original Elise is a reminder of why I've owned two of them – and why I sold them. They were quick for the power, agile and terrific fun to drive, and quite reliable for a marque not known for it. But entry is problematic and the hoods are terrible. Still, once you're installed, they always feel special: they remind you why power steering, for the purest cars, simply isn't needed. If cars such as the original Audi TT and Lotus Elise are lasting icons, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class will always be a curiosity: a novel car whose launch was interrupted by its highly publicised failure of the elk test, an extreme examination in swervability invented by Car of the Year jurors in Scandinavia. Hatched during an era when premium manufacturers were finding new ways to steal sales from mainstreamers like Ford and Renault, the A-Class is shorter than a Ford Fiesta and very boxy. Disdale was pretty enthusiastic about our A140 Elegance. 'Take a spin in the A140 and you'll wonder why it didn't spark a revolution,' he said. 'It sold in decent numbers, but few other manufacturers were willing to follow Mercedes' bold, engineering-led approach. No doubt the A-Class cost a fortune to develop, but the result is a car that packs a remarkable amount of space into a compact footprint, and its clever sandwich-section floor was designed to swallow the engine in a frontal impact. 'There's SUV-like elevation to the driving position that combines brilliantly with excellent visibility, while on the move the A-Class feels far more agile and secure than that infamous elk test would have you believe.' MGF While Lotus was at work on the Elise, Rover Group, which had spent the 1980s using its MG badges to distinguish assorted, not-very-good Rover saloons, decided to use its new K-series engine, plus various Metro suspension parts, in a new mid-engined roadster called the MGF, an answer to the many calls for another two-seater after MGB production ended in 1980. The F hit the market just as BMW acquired Rover, but when BMW departed five years later it became part of a management buyout (by the infamous Phoenix Four) that formed MG Rover. It was a decent little car whose styling was the work of Gerry McGovern, JLR's design chief today, and it sold well for a while even against the Mazda MX-5. But indifferent build quality and corporate uncertainties weighed against it. Still, even today it's a well-founded, practical and good-looking little car, available at bargain prices. Matt Saunders rated the F as 'not quite as entertaining to its core as a Mazda MX-5', but praised it for its responsiveness, agility and pliant, Hydragas ride. 'It's a carefree sports car you wouldn't feel obliged to drive the wheels off and could enjoy at any speed,' he added. Nissan Skyline For a bewildering array of generations, models and specifications, look no further than Nissan's array of Skylines, a breed that began in the 1960s at Prince Motors before that defunct marque was acquired by Nissan. Happily for UK buyers in the 1990s, the key car was the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R, a byword for expensive, high-tech Japanese performance, what with its four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and meaty 276bhp 2.6-litre straight six, fed via two turbochargers. Skylines were rare and very often augmented with wheel and bodywork mods and huge power increases; they were such a means to a performance end that standard cars like the example we have here are now extremely rare. 'Years ago it was impossible to drive a Skyline GT-R without it bearing an enormous weight of cultish hype,' said Saunders. 'Today, though, you can just let this car's driving experience wash over you. Or rather swallow you whole, after you've let the boost build fully. I was surprised how compact, lightweight, tactile and old-school analogue this car felt. Still quick, too, even by modern standards, and it still has that competition-firm body control and natural rear-wheel-drive cornering poise. I loved it.' Toyota RAV4 Given all the 1990s action above, it's probably no surprise that this fruitful era can also claim to have hatched the now universally desired compact SUV – via the launch of the Toyota RAV4. Born as a concept in 1989, it popped up in three-door form in the UK in June 1994 and as a five-door a year later. As many SUV pretenders now do, Toyota drew bits from existing models: a Corolla platform, a Camry engine, Celica GT4 suspension and about the cutest original shape going. Of course, it was wildly successful. Mind you, a glance at our original three-door and the latest like-the-others RAV4 of 2025 suggests – once again – that the 1990s was indeed an era of inventiveness and purity in car creation. Saunders said: 'Full disclosure: if Land Rover's Discovery Mk1 had been available, this Toyota might not have made the cut – but I'm glad it did. I'm convinced there would have been no Freelander, Qashqai, CR-V and the rest without a RAV4 to prove the public appetite for small, cheap, higher-riding cars. "It feels like some better-mannered Series 1 Land Rover on the road: compact, upright and quietly agile, with great visibility, cheery looks and lots of charm.' Big performance, not cuteness, was the major criterion for the remarkable 1990 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, an outcome of General Motors' seven-year control of Lotus between 1986 and 1993. The Hethel company had been successful with the Lotus Cortina and Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, so why not a hot-shoe version of the straight-six-powered Vauxhall Carlton? With chassis mods plus a 377bhp twin-turbo engine, the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton could run a 5.1sec 0-60mph time and reach 176mph – which made it officially the world's fastest four-door. Autocar asked Richard Noble, then the world land speed record holder, to run a top speed, but he couldn't beat the official mark. 'I came of age reading about the Carlton's top speed,' writes Richard Lane. 'Having driven one now, I see there's much more to the experience. There's a sumptuous cockpit with the kind of visibility alien to modern counterparts. And because the ride is pliant, it's a lovely thing just to stroke along 98% of the time. For the other 2% it's a riot. It has a power-to-traction ratio you don't see in modern cars. Torquey six, manual 'box and limited adhesion? It's a super-saloon that can be steered on the throttle anywhere, any time.' Verdict There's no winner here. The whole decade of 1990s car design and engineering is what earns the accolade. This sample of cars launched in the 1990s contains a wonderful array: timeless icons that were better than their replacements (Elise, TT), important trend-setters (RAV4, MGF), volume cars done at a new, higher standard (528i, Mondeo) and performance cars that progressed the genre in new ways (Diablo, Skyline, Carlton). That leaves only the Mercedes A-Class, whose makers never saw fit to take it very far along the bold technical path on which it started out. Which is ironic: if our view of the future tells us anything, it is that small, space-efficient car designs are what the world will surely need. 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Auto Car
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Audi's Bauhaus coupé is a modern masterpiece – but is it really a classic?
So, when you saw the 1995 Audi TT concept coupe for the very first time, did you think 'wow, that's very Bauhaus'? Or did you think several other things like, 'that looks weird, but amazing.' Or, 'I want one'. Or perhaps, 'from the rear, doesn't the shape of its roof look a little bit like a WW2 Nazi soldier's helmet?' a thought you might not utter out loud in these politically correct times, although it was quite hard not to think it. It was even harder to avoid thinking – very much - that we wanted Audi to make this car, inadvertent visual referencing or not. Never mind Bauhaus – 'sitting outside my house' was how many of us wistfully imagined this car back in 1998, when the finished thing arrived. Brave was certainly a word to describe that 1995 Audi TT concept, for there was simply no other car quite like it. Brave turned out to be appropriate to the TT coupe world in another, less desirable way, this characteristic a requirement if you planned on driving TT at speeds of 110mph or more. If a sudden lane change was needed – quite likely on a German autobahn – the TT could turn alarmingly uncertain, the rear-end breakaway intended to make it entertaining on the limit catching out several drivers, a few fatally. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Audi needed three years to convert the frenzied enthusiasm for the concept into the finished article. Impressively, changes between the concept and production model were remarkably few. The most obvious was the addition of a pair of small extra side windows let into the TT's helmet-like roof just aft of the doors, making it easier to see out, obviously, and making the cabin's capping look a little less like an obsolete item of protective military headgear. Buried deep below that striking roofline lay the reason why it was possible for Audi to actually make the TT. That reason was called PQ34, this being the codename for the platform that was the building block of vast numbers of Volkswagen Group vehicles at the turn of the century. This extensive hardware set ran to a lot more than the floorpan and bulkhead that we usually understood a platform to mean, and included suspension systems, powertrains, heating and ventilation systems, seat frames and electrical architecture. VW boss Ferdinand Piech was the main driver behind this huge component sharing strategy, which not only made relatively low volume models viable, but also allowed the cost-savings to be spent on upgrading the quality of vital models like the Volkswagen Golf, the contemporaneous Mk4 rich with soft-feel structures, classy rubberised finishes and – yes! - damped-action grab handles.
Western Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Western Telegraph
Haverfordwest teenager accused of vehicle interference
The 16-year-old – who cannot be identified due to their age – was charged with committing five offences on Tasker Way in Haverfordwest on November 3 last year. The teenager was accused of interfering with an Audi A4, a Seat Leon, an Audi TT, a Vauxhall Astra, and a Mercedes 220 with the intent of either stealing the cars or items from inside them. For the latest crime and court news for west Wales, you can join our Facebook group here. The defendant pleaded guilty to all charges at Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court on May 15. They were fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 in costs.
Press and Journal
21-05-2025
- Press and Journal
Prolific Aberdeen disqualified driver jailed after ignoring ban for eighth time
An Aberdeen man has been jailed after being caught behind the wheel while banned for an eighth time. Robert Razey, 31, was banned from driving for eight years in February last year but has now received an additional four-year disqualification and a jail term for once again flouting the law. Sheriff William Summers told him: 'It seems you are incapable of obeying court orders.' Razey was spotted driving a silver Audi TT on Aberdeen's Auchmill Road by patrolling traffic police. The court heard the officers recognised Razey and pulled him over at around 3.30pm on April 19, after overtaking him and identifying him as the driver of the car. Fiscal depute Stephanie Cardno said the officers also ran a check on the car, which highlighted Razey had no valid insurance or a driving licence. Razey pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and without insurance. His defence agent Neil McRobert said Razey recognised 'the serious place he is in' and asked the court for a non-custodial sentence. Sheriff Summers interjected and asked if he was referring to the seven previous driving bans, Mr McRobert replied: 'Yes.' He went on to explain that Razey, who has worked as a car mechanic, had been asked to look at the car for a friend and was taking it out on a 'test drive' when he was spotted behind the wheel. 'He was trying to identify the problem,' Mr McRobert said, adding: 'For what it's worth. 'He gave that explanation to the police when he was stopped.' Sheriff Summers told Razey, said: 'You have seven previous convictions for driving while disqualified. 'This is the eighth. You also have previous breaches of Community Payback Orders and supervision conditions. 'It seems you are incapable of obeying court orders. It is quite clear, for the charge of driving while disqualified, there is no alternative other than the imposition of a custodial sentence.' Razey was jailed for six months for driving while banned and disqualified from driving for four years and three months. For driving without insurance, Sheriff Summers disqualified Razey, of Donside Place, for 12 months and admonished him. Razey was previous jailed in 2024 after being convicted of dangerous driving on Hogmanay. In 2019, he was placed under a Restriction of Liberty Order after admitting throwing a fistful of metal bolts through the window of a car, hitting another driver. For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
