Steve Davies

This evening, January 18th, Cadillac Racing is holding a live web chat with its 2011 driver pairing from 8:00 - 8:30 pm Eastern Time (01:00 - 01:30 am GMT). It's a great opportunity to get under the skin of a new race programme and rekindle your motorsport vibe as the 2011 season begins to kick-off.

We couldn't help smiling at the by-now obligatory picture of the current/past F1 star next to a Lotus Evora - it has become a rite of passage for famous motor racing visitors to Lotus' Hethel headquarters, although we can't help wondering why one of the New Era models wasn't used instead (at least for the photo call).

It's been a great week for automotive videos as we settle in to the pace of 2011. Ideally we'd limit this to a Top 10 listing, but there are just too many interesting spots to choose from, so forgive this rather lengthy initial post.

Lotus Motorsport have announced that French F1 driver Jean Alesi has become an ambassador for the Type 125 and Exos race programmes.

Officers from the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) unveiled ajam-jar liveried Lotus Evora today at the ‘Autosport International Show’ at Birmingham’s NEC after which the car will be used on the Midlands’ busy motorway network for a two week period. The CPMG have taken loan of the Lotus Evora to support their campaign to raise awareness and promote road safety.

This morning at the Autosport International Show Caterham revealed their first all-new model in over 20 years - the SP/300.R is a joint project between Caterham and Lola Cars that they describe as "..the perfect alchemy of British engineering superiority and rich motorsport heritage".

I received a heads-up early last week when Steve Hindle, ex-Motorsport Manager for Westfield Sportscars, contacted me and mentioned Lola and Caterham were definitely getting together soon to produce something along the lines of Westfield's XTR.

You may remember the headlines when a video of the new Mercedes SLK leaked onto the internet last month, well now we have the official unveiling of Mercedes' 3rd generation SLK which will be launched in the UK in June, 2011.

The sense we gain from Mercedes' press brief is that they've tried to secure the class-lead in every aspect of this compact roadster segment, now that BMW's Z4 has emulated the SLK's folding-hardtop format the Stuttgart car maker is intent on establishing some clear advantages which will differentiate the SLK in the eyes of the customer.

As the current iteration of Land Rover's venerable Defender reaches its twilight years, the Gaydon manufacturer launches the X-Tech Edition to show that there's still plenty of life left in the old stager. The Defender X-Tech offers raw and edgy style, with the class-leading all-terrain capability you would expect of this motoring icon.