I'm Liam Bird, a freelance Motoring Writer based in the South Shropshire Marches. I currently write car reviews and road tests for a number of regional lifestyle magazines and newspapers which are distributed throughout Cheshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, most of Wales and beyond.
As a member of the Welsh Group of Motoring Writers I'm as happy behind the wheel of a super-mini as I am in the latest super-car. I have press accreditation with most of the major motor manufacturers, meaning that as well as always being on the look out for further commissions, I always have a number of cars arriving each month ready to review.
Bang! There’s one. Bang! Sorry, there’s another. Oof! That was close. Look out for the next one…
I’m para-phrasing, but that’s pretty close to how a recent conversation played-out whilst driving the new Ford Focus ST. Pot holes are not its friend. And sadly, the B-roads that criss-cross the Shropshire/Welsh border, the very roads upon which a fast Ford should shine, are littered...
This was going to be the place where I told you all about my drive to this year’s Goodwood Member’s Meeting.
The 78MM - to give it its shorter title – was, as has often been the case of late - to be 2020’s motorsport season opener (well for the UK at least, the F1 jet-set always start early), and as usual it was to offer a host of automotive delights.
The main...
With schools closed for the foreseeable future, Wales Rally GB is launching an innovative competition to entertain, incite and, potentially, reward pre-University students currently learning from home.
In partnership with Toyota GB, the UK’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship has introduced a special ‘Design a Rally Car Livery’ initiative open to all those enrolled at UK schools...
According to my notes, it’s approximately five years since I splashed around Land Rover’s Experience centre at the Heritage Motor Centre in what was then their all-new Discovery Sport.
Well, I say all new. The Discovery Sport may well have been a new model – and one that boasted 5+2 seating too – but the truth of the matter was, like it’s smaller Evoque sibling too, it owed more...
If ever there was a name to evoke images of neat little British post-war sports-cars, then surely it would be MG. Their famous octagonal badge has graced the radiators of some of the most instantly recognisable roadsters ever built; perfect Sunday morning soft-tops such the T-type, the Midget, the MGA, probably most famously the MGB and MGBGT, the rarer MGC, and the relatively more...
Due to the unfolding COVID-19 situation, cars and vans and motorcycles due their MOT from 30 March 2020 will have their MOT extended by 6 months.
This will continue until confirmed otherwise.
This will allow vehicle owners to continue to be able to get to work where this absolutely cannot be done from home or do essential shopping.
Vehicles must be kept in a roadworthy...
No car manufacturer these days is without a selection of SUVs in its line-up, and everyone from Aston Martin to Volvo are getting in in the act. But then who can blame them? So called Sports Utility Vehicles are definitely, currently, where the money is. So surely, the bigger the choice you offer, the bigger your potential profit.
Think about, luxury brands aside, most...
Rarely does the booking of a press car correspond with the week’s weather. Such is my luck – or the apparent lack of it, I’ve driven Morgan’s through thunderstorms, handed back a Mercedes Benz G-Wagen just hours before flash flooding (Its 700mm wading depth would’ve proved very handy) and spent many an hour driving a non-air-conditoned budget-buy in the heat of summer. Just for once,...
I knew it! I said they would… Apparently, European SUV sales of are beginning to drop. It’s as a result of environmental concerns. Owners of SUVs aren’t replacing them like-for-like because of their fuel consumption, and their – the owners that is – carbon footprint. Or so I’ve heard…
But the source of said rumours is a good one: Peugeot’s CEO, Jean-Philippe Imperato. And let’s face...
“Given the chance I’d have happily driven it the 400 or miles back to my place”.
That’s what I wrote, on the train home, after having sampled Volvo’s new S60 during its launch earlier this year in Glencoe, Scotland. I returned mightily impressed, but I’ll admit, it’s all too easy to be seduced by something when the weather, the scenery, the company, and the food (Oh, the food…...
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