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Part of A30 in Devon temporarily closes due to wildfire smoke

Part of A30 in Devon temporarily closes due to wildfire smoke

BBC Newsa day ago
Smoke from a wildfire in a field forced the temporary closure of a main road near Okehampton in Devon.The eastbound carriageway of the A30 was closed between the A382 junction at Whiddon Down to Woodleigh Junction at Cheriton Bishop, traffic website Inrix reported.Authorities reported thick smoke from the blaze was drifting across the road, creating hazardous driving conditions.National Highways said on X both carriageways had since been reopened and thanked drivers for their patience.
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Jimmy Choo boss banned for driving without insurance
Jimmy Choo boss banned for driving without insurance

Times

time31 minutes ago

  • Times

Jimmy Choo boss banned for driving without insurance

The chief executive of the British luxury fashion house Jimmy Choo has been banned from driving after she was caught behind the wheel without insurance. Hannah Colman, who was appointed boss of Jimmy Choo in 2020 and was one of its first employees, had been driving for nearly four months without insurance before she was stopped in her Audi Q7 S Line in Chelsea, London, in November. The fashion chief, 46, who earns £250,000 a year, was stopped with her daughter in the car, which is estimated to cost more than £72,000, and was not allowed to continue her journey home to Clapham until the insurance was renewed. Colman pleaded guilty to driving without insurance at Lavender Hill magistrates' court in Battersea and said she was 'absolutely mortified' when she discovered the error. The court heard that Colman had renewed her insurance policy last July, a month ahead of schedule, but the payment had bounced, and she missed the reminder email in September. 'It was a genuine mistake and one I am really sorry about,' Colman told the court. John Tyler, the chairman of the bench, said he did not accept that Colman did not receive emails warning her to renew the insurance and said almost four months was a long time to have no cover in place. Before a ban was issued, Colman's lawyer asked the court to consider that Colman relied on the car to drive her two children, aged eight and 11, to school. 'I drive every day and I take my two children to school every morning, then I drive to work,' she said. 'I used my car at the weekend for activities with my kids and husband.' Colman had six points on her licence when she was stopped by police, which means she can expect to lose her licence for at least six months. She was also ordered to pay a £660 fine, which has been reduced from the initial £1,000 due to her early guilty plea. The total, including legal fees, was £1,017. • I salute Sarah Jessica Parker for her Sex and the City shoe deal Tyler told the court that a 'small consolation' for Colman was that she would receive a clean licence with no points once she had completed the duration of her ban. Colman's journey to the top of Jimmy Choo started when she began working for the designer's first boutique in Motcomb Street in London in 1996. Choo founded the fashion house with Tamara Mellon, who was also serving as Vogue's accessories editor. At the time, Colman was dating Mellon's younger brother Daniel, which led to her introduction to the company. The fashion brand, which has 234 stores worldwide, cut through the public consciousness when Princess Diana wore a pair of Choo's pale blue slingbacks with a sparkly Catherine Walker dress for a performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall in June 1997. Sandra Choi, the creative director, later admitted: 'It really started everything for us.' Before Colman was appointed as chief executive, she served as the brand's senior vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, then as president for global ecommerce and customer relationship management.

Koenigsegg's Sadair's Spear Sets Production Record at Goodwood
Koenigsegg's Sadair's Spear Sets Production Record at Goodwood

Auto Blog

timean hour ago

  • Auto Blog

Koenigsegg's Sadair's Spear Sets Production Record at Goodwood

By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. For Road-Going Cars, Koenigsegg Reigns Supreme The recently concluded 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed was full of high-profile debuts and rare vehicles on display, but the four-day affair went beyond that. The West Sussex event also hosted the Goodwood Hillclimb – a 1.17-mile stretch of road where the boldest machines went toe-to-toe in timed runs, whether highly modified or completely production-spec. Now that the dust has settled on the 32nd edition of this iconic event, one car stands above all in the production class: the Koenigsegg Sadair's Spear. Making its public debut, this track-focused evolution of the Jesko has set a new production car record in the process. Record Run: 47.14 Seconds of V8 Fury The Sadair's Spear stormed up the hill in 47.14 seconds, smashing the previous production car record held by the Czinger 21C by over 1.6 seconds. At the wheel was Koenigsegg development driver Markus Lundh, who wasted no time from the car's launch last month and unleashed everything the Spear had to give. Powering the blistering hillclimb run was the Sadair's Spear's 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 tuned to produce 1,602 horsepower on E85 fuel, making it the most powerful internal combustion production car Koenigsegg has ever built. Beyond the raw power, the Sadair's Spear comes with a lighter chassis than the Jesko Attack and is dressed up with enhanced aerodynamics and an aggressive active rear wing for added downforce. It also wears a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires for that necessary grip to keep the hypercar planted. From the carbon-fiber sculpting to the stripped-back cockpit, every detail serves performance first. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Not the Fastest Overall, But Fastest Where It Counts Despite its record-setting time, the Sadair's Spear wasn't the outright fastest vehicle of the weekend. That honor goes to the electric Ford SuperTruck, which recorded a staggering 43.23-second hillclimb in the hands of Romain Dumas, making it the fourth-fastest Goodwood run ever. Also ahead on the leaderboard was Subaru's Project Midnight, which crossed the line in 45.46 seconds. However, neither of those was a road-legal production car. In that class, the Sadair's Spear reigned supreme, and by a healthy margin. Its nearest rival, the 'Ring-conquering Mustang GTD, trailed by over four seconds. The Alpine A110 R Ultime followed the pony supercar, trailing by more than a second. About the Author Jacob Oliva View Profile

Citroën ë-C3 review: The cheap electric car we've been waiting for
Citroën ë-C3 review: The cheap electric car we've been waiting for

Telegraph

timean hour ago

  • Telegraph

Citroën ë-C3 review: The cheap electric car we've been waiting for

You have to feel for the Citroën ë-C3. There it was, set to grab a fat slice of the burgeoning market for small electric cars. Then along came the Renault 5 – almost identically priced, technically brilliant, as well as charmingly styled as a perfect retro homage to a car so quintessentially French it was a surprise not to find a boot-mounted onion holder on the options list. Where does that leave the ë-C3? Up a creek without a paddle, you might think. But there is still plenty to love about Citroën's small EV. For one thing, you might prefer the fact it looks forward, rather than back. It's chic and modern, rather than a retro pastiche, which might be more to your liking. For another, it's technically an SUV, its boxier profile making it more practical than the 5. And what with Citroën getting its mojo back recently, the ë-C3 should drive pretty well, too. So is this small, affordable EV worthy of consideration? Pros Comfortable ride Smart interior Low price Cons Not fast Boot could be bigger Shame about the Renault 5 Priced out Until recently, the ë-C3 had price on its side, too. At a shade over £21,000, it represented a saving of almost £2,000 over the entry-level 5. But more recently Citroën raised the price of the entry-level Plus model, narrowing the difference to £900. (The top-spec Max model tested here is a further £1,700.) That may still be enough to sway you, particularly given the ë-C3 will charge faster, zipping from 10 to 80 per cent in only 26 minutes, according to Citroën. However, the EVDatabase website, fast becoming the Bible for EV facts and figures, reckon it will take longer; in fact, at 32 minutes, it matches the 5's time exactly. The ë-C3's 44kWh of usable battery capacity will get it marginally further on a charge at 199 miles (to the 40kWh Renault's 192), but while the Renault has a heat pump as standard the Citroën doesn't. That said, the ë-C3's lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology performs marginally better in colder weather, which may help make up the difference. Either way, you can expect a range of about 150 miles in the real world, with the usual caveats relating to variations in temperature (significantly less range in the coldest weather). There are other rivals to the ë-C3, of course, though the price for entry tends to be higher. From China, GWM's Ora 03 Pure will do 193 miles (officially) and costs a fiver shy of £25,000. The BYD Dolphin is capable of 211 miles, but is just over £26,000. From Europe, the Mini Cooper Electric costs almost £27,000 yet only provides 185 miles of range. The £25,000-odd that Fiat charges for a 500e, meanwhile – which will only do 118 miles on a full charge – sounds by comparison like a rip-off. Almost perfect So the ë-C3 undercuts its supposedly more affordable Chinese competitors yet also looks a bargain next to its trendier rivals. Indeed, Renault 5 apart, the ë-C3 would have the playing field at this price point all to itself – and would look like tremendous value as a result. But there's a difference between 'good value' and 'cheap'. Early signs are promising. Climb aboard – the ë-C3's SUV profile means the seats are slightly higher off the ground than its conventional hatchback rivals', which makes access easier – and you're greeted with an unusual stacked dashboard, which incorporates full-width accent lighting, two enormous shelves and a central tablet-style touchscreen. The driver's main instrumentation takes the form of a simple black-and-white digital binnacle atop the dash that presents all the information you need crisply and clearly. There are physical buttons on the steering wheel and a proper climate control panel with some neat piano key toggles to adjust the temperature, so you don't have to use the touchscreen to do so.

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