Ford 100 years

On 17 April 1917, Henry Ford set up his first factory outside America on the marina in Cork. The factory in Cork mainly produced Fordson tractors but also produced the iconic Model T.

Henry’s father William left Ireland during the famine and set up in Michigan. Henry was born in 1863 and set up the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

There has been a collection of anniversary celebrations including a gala event in Cork city hall and a special event to announce a partnership between Ford and University College Cork.

Tesla pickup

Tesla plans to show off an electric pickup truck sometime within the next two years, the company’s CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.

The pickup was teased originally when Musk revealed the second part of his “master plan” for Tesla, which began with selling expensive vehicles like the Roadster and Model S, and eventually will lead to producing a wide range of more affordable vehicles at scale.

The truck was previously described as a “new kind of pickup” by Musk, though he alluded to the concept even prior to that. Tesla’s desire to create a pickup makes sense given the success of the category in the company’s home country. There is no word yet as to whether the pickup will come to these shores.

Volkswagen emissions scandal

Following on from the worldwide scandal, Volkswagen in Ireland says that the rate of cars being brought for the remedial work is starting to increase, with 6,000 cars being brought to dealers to have the work done in March.

This is after a much slower uptake until last month. This month’s figure will be interesting to see if the same sort of volume continues. The total number of motorists affected is believed to be in the region of 110,000, including owners of Seat, Audi and Skoda cars which share the same 1.6 power plant.

UK driving test changes

The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in the UK will introduce new driving test rules from December 2017. Some of the interesting changes are that the use of satellite navigation will both be tested practically and in theory and that the reverse around corner manoeuvre will be removed and replaced with a standard parking test.

They also say that the new test routes will involve using more dangerous stretches of road which were previously not used to avoid possible crashes. These changes in the main make sense and I believe that the test here could also do with some changes to bring it up to date.

Fastest Jeep unveiled in New York

The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk was revealed at the New York motor show last week and the specifications make for impressive if a little over-the-top reading.

It comes with a 6.2-litre supercharged engine producing 707bhp, meaning that 0-100km/h comes up in a staggering 3.5 seconds and it goes on to a mind blowing 180mph. This makes it comfortably the most powerful and fastest SUV in production.

In the brochure, surprisingly there is no mention of fuel economy. It may not be its strong point. There are no plans to bring the Trackhawk to Ireland at the minute but if one does come in I can’t wait to try it on the sheep trailer.