The number of roadside breath tests is expected to rise in June, as the nation’s police forces begin their annual summer drink-drive crackdown.

Police breathalysed 36,041 drivers in England and Wales in June 2017 – a figure much higher than the monthly average of 23,840 across the rest of the year, excluding the Christmas period.

Indeed, the number of breath tests carried out in June is 50 percent higher than in any other month, apart from December.

An eye-opening 10 percent of motorists (3,275) tested positive in the June 2018 crackdown, with drivers in Merseyside the most likely to be stopped. A total of 3,010 motorists were breathalysed in this region, followed by Hampshire (2,532) and Thames Valley (2,265).

Hunter Abbott, managing director of AlcoSense Laboratories, said: “The police always focus on June as, statistically, it’s a drink-drive hotspot.

“With warmer weather, sporting events and barbeques, June is a month when motorists are more likely to unintentionally drink-drive the morning after socialising, posing a risk to themselves and other road users.”

The drink-drive limit

There are strict alcohol limits for drivers in England and Wales, with tougher limits in place in Scotland.

Drivers are warned that it’s impossible to say exactly how many drinks this equals, as the way alcohol affects you depends on a number of factors, including weight, age, sex, metabolism, stress levels and the type of alcohol consumed.

Anyone found guilty of drink-driving faces a heavy fine, a driving ban and imprisonment.

The actual penalty depends on the magistrates who hear the case and the severity of the offence. In addition to the repercussions mentioned above, drivers found guilty of drink-driving also face higher insurance premiums, difficulties finding a job, and trouble travelling to countries like the USA.

If in doubt, don’t drink. But if you do, get a cab. 

Players of the Gran Turismo Sport PlayStation game can now race on the Goodwood Motor Circuit as part of a new update.

The latest in a series of free bonus content offerings for GT Sport also includes new events for the League competitions, along with extra photography locations.

However, it is likely to be the introduction of the historic Goodwood track which will get fans the most excited.

First opened in 1948, the Motor Circuit forms part of the Goodwood Estate which is best known for hosting the annual Festival of Speed extravaganza.

Encircling the Goodwood Aerodrome, the 2.4-mile circuit delivers high average speeds, and is regarded as being a formidable test of driver and machine.

The Motor Circuit was the scene of the 1962 accident which left Sir Stirling Moss in a month-long coma, and ended his professional racing career.

Goodwood would also claim the life of McLaren founder Bruce McLaren, who was killed during a crash whilst testing. McLaren’s M8D Can-Am racer left the track at speed when bodywork detached from the car, leading to a collision with a marshal post.

Competitive racing at the Goodwood track ceased in 1966, but returned with an emphasis on historic competitions in the late 1990s.

The track now plays host to the three-day Goodwood Revival event each September, along with the annual Goodwood Members’ Meeting.

Whilst Goodwood may now prefer vintage racing, Gran Turismo Sport players will be able to choose whatever car they like to tackle the quick twists and turns of the circuit.

Recent car additions for the game have included the Porsche 962C racer, along with the brand-new Toyota Supra.

Polyphony Digital also notes that handling characteristics of cars in the game have been improved with this latest update, along with changes to how quickly players can shift gears.

Richard Rawlings, star of the Discovery Channel’s Fast N’ Loud show, has many performance and muscle cars in his collection. However, that did not stop him from being upset when one was stolen last year.

The black Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat was taken in September 2018 from the Dallas area, with Rawlings asking social media to help find the car. This particular Hellcat was used by his then wife, and had sentimental items left inside the glovebox when stolen.

Incredibly, despite the 707 horsepower Challenger Hellcat worth a substantial amount in parts alone, the car was found and recovered in one piece.

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Rawlings took to social media again to announce the good news, showing off the fact that the Hellcat was finally back home.

According to the official Gas Monkey Garage website, the car had been spotted by an eagle-eyed member of the public in the Dallas area.

The local man made contact with Rawlings, who was delighted to be able to have the black muscle car safely returned to his possession.

Although the Gas Monkey owner may have upgraded his car collection to include the more powerful Challenger SRT Demon, getting the Hellcat back is still important to him.

FIlming commitments for Fast N’ Loud, now returning for a 15th series, meant Rawlings was unable to spend too long being sentimental. He did promise to “sort this all out with the insurance company” before jetting off for a week long vacation, though

The latest series of the popular TV show is expected to start airing to Discovery Channel viewers next month. Rawlings has already promised that the new episode will be even bigger and more dramatic than before.

Super-bright car headlights may help you see the road, but are they also blinding oncoming drivers?

Light technology has evolved hugely over the past 20 to 30 years, and it’s fair to say the regulations have struggled to keep up.

To find out more, we visited the Lumileds factory in Germany for a crash-course in automotive lighting. It proved to be, ahem, an illuminating experience…

What makes headlights seem too bright?

It’s well established that light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is generally more crisp and intense. The way they switch on is rapid and dramatic, given they don’t use filaments. Likewise, the cut-off is sharp and precise. So why might a regulated and homologated LED, or indeed a xenon light unit, dazzle us on the road? 

Dim and dimmer

Firstly, there’s auto-dimming technology: systems that drop the high-beam headlights when an oncoming car is detected. Our own experience is that many are a bit slow to respond. Likewise, some matrix light systems that split the gaze of the high beam aren’t as accurate as they should be.

Time to get used to it?

In the space of 30 years, we’ve gone from veritable candles in jam jars to virtual daylight. Some of us still make do with older cars with dull lights and, from that perspective, an LED-clad SUV barrelling round a corner can look dazzling. But a day will come when all cars on the road are furnished with this standard of lighting, or equivalent. We are in the middle of a period of acclimatisation.

Vertically challenged

The height of an approaching vehicle will affect how much you are dazzled. Driving a Fiat 500, you might find a new Range Rover shines too bright in your rear-view mirror.

Rules are made to be broken?

While lights conform to present standards, more efficient LED technology may require a regulatory rethink. Given the UN Economic Commission for Europe is looking into how lighting regulations need to change, expect an update soon.

My visit to Germany also revealed that all lights are not born equal. I won’t name names, but some aesthetically pleasing full LED light units performed disappointingly on the rig – beaten by budget halogen bulbs. 

Reasons your lights could be illegal

Any lights can be outside of legal operating parameters if not set up correctly, or if you aren’t using the right bulbs.

Lights are regulated very stringently, with beams only allowed to shine within specific areas in front of the car. This is to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers. It’s also why you need stick-on adjusters for when you drive abroad, given European countries use the other side of the road.

Dodgy aftermarket bulbs

The aftermarket bulb market is rife with poor quality products. The Lumileds lab had an incredible rig filled with car headlights and of the 12 there, three were from the same make and model of car, albeit equipped with different halogen bulbs.

These were Philips upgraded items, OEM fitment bulbs and aftermarket ‘eBay specials’. The Philips bulbs filled the specified area cleanly and crisply, the OEM bulbs worked to the specified limits but were somewhat dimmer, and the aftermarket items were patchy at best. 

Poorly adjusted

A similar issue can be caused if lights aren’t correctly adjusted. Your car will fail an MOT if its xenon lights don’t self-adjust, while halogen lights are only required to have manual adjusters.

Car lighting: a brief history

Halogen bulbs

The halogen bulb has been illuminating the road ahead for the better part of seven decades. Although they’ve gone through several iterations, the same basic formula of a metal filament inside a pressurised glass container remains widely used today.

Xenon bulbs

Xenon lighting is a bit fancier. If you wondered why some more upmarket cars started using deep-blue lights around the mid-1990s, that was when xenon was proliferating. The colour temperature is much higher because of the heat and energy used within the bulb. Xenon lights are much heavier and more expensive, given the need for ballasts and self-levelling. As a result, they’re now going out of fashion.

LEDs

LEDs are the latest car lighting tech. They are much more efficient than halogen or xenon, produce crisper light and can be more precisely controlled with software. LED lighting in cars first appeared in the mid 2000s, when Audi introduced it on the R8 supercar.

Audi pushed the game on again in 2009 with the R8 V10 – the first car with full LED lighting. LEDs can be much brighter, certainly than halogens. Modern ‘matrix’ LED lights can be programmed to dim light where it’s not needed – e.g. to avoid dazzling an oncoming car.

Britain is on the brink of a ‘parking revolution’, as the government announces plans to introduce new technology to car parking.

It could spell the end for the humble car park ticket machine, with motorists using apps to identify and locate vacant parking spaces. And once they’re there, drivers will pay for parking via their smartphone.

It’s all part of new national parking data standards created by the Alliance for Parking Data Standard (APDS) and funded by the Department for Transport (DfT). When in place, the standardised data could transform the way we park as the Oyster card transformed travel in London, the government says.

If the smartphone app can be integrated into the car’s infotainment system – via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, perhaps – motorists could be facing a stress-free parking experience.

The government says it could free up crucial space, ease congested cities and provide a much-needed boost for British high streets.

‘Brink of a revolution’

Michael Ellis, future of mobility minister, said: “We are on the brink of a revolution for the future of transport, with ground-breaking technologies creating huge opportunities for cleaner, cheaper, safer and more reliable journeys.

“We now need to ensure the infrastructure surrounding these technologies is in place and can accommodate these innovations. The new parking data standards will bring government, private organisations and technologies together to ensure a smoother parking experience for drivers.”

Chair of the British Parking Association and APDS, Nigel Williams, added: “The new standards will enable the next generation of apps and connected cars to find a parking space, park and pay – with little or no intervention from the driver.

“The involvement of the British Parking Association in APDS has ensured that the UK is at the forefront of innovation to improve the customer experience of parking.”

The government will fund research and development projects in Manchester, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and across a consortium of South Essex to the tune of £1 million, with seven further projects being commissioned.

With a standardised language, local authorities and private parking companies will find it easier to exchange data, resulting in a better experience for motorists. Add-on services could include the availability of electric car charging points.

However, the RAC’s head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes urged caution. “There is little detail about what data standardisation means in practice. Indeed, to the driver looking for a place to park their vehicle, it might sound rather obscure.

“However, if the end product results in drivers finding a parking spot more easily, then this is a welcome step.

“In the short term, what is important to drivers is the ability to park and pay with ease. Councils and operators should be providing drivers with multiple payment options, including card options, so they don’t have to fumble around for change, or risk overpaying because they don’t have the right money.”

Lyes stresses that while days of the parking ticket machine may be numbered, local councils shouldn’t forget what’s important today as they fixate on the future. 

Google Maps has taken a major step in its quest to catch up with Waze, adding visual speed camera locations to its navigation app.

Also new is a speed limit indicator for the road you are driving. A warning for when you exceed that limit, à la Waze, doesn’t appear to feature, though.

Live accident locations will also be displayed on the app, allowing you to plan changes to your route and also, presumably, automatically updating the one previously suggested. You can also contribute reports of crashes, mobile speed cameras and congestion, as you can with Waze.

The Google Maps app already featured an audio warning for speed cameras, but the visual alerts are new.

Many modern car navigation systems, along with the Waze app, have built-in speed camera recognition, as well as speed limit displays. So Google Maps is playing catch-up to a degree.

Whether its reduced reliance on user-contributed content will work in its favour remains to be seen. Waze scored its own win earlier this year when it gained Apple CarPlay integration, along with Google Maps.

The Google Maps updates have been testing in the United States over the course of this year. The update should go live on UK devices, both iPhone or Android, over the coming days.

The Jeep Gladiator pickup may already be proving hugely popular with off-road fans, but that hasn’t stopped John Hennessey from adding more power.

Seemingly, the regular 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine, with its 285 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque was not enough for the Texan tuning company.

Instead, Hennessey has “turned the power up to 11” in order to create what the company is now calling the “ultimate” version of the Gladiator.

Branded as the Maximus 1000, the versatile 6.2-liter Hellcat Hemi V-8 engine is found lurking beneath the hood of this Jeep.

Whilst the regular Hellcat engine produces 707 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, not even this is sufficient for John Hennessey, who brands himself as “chief horsepower evangelist” for the firm.

The supercharged enginehas been modified, and is claimed to now offer up 1,000 horsepower and 933 pound-feet of torque. This is a substantial gain over the normal Gladiator, and has the potential to make the Maximus all-conquering in the rough.

Who needs a new Ferrari SF90 Stradale, anyway? 

An eight-speed automatic transmission is standard, whilst a stainless steel exhaust and modified ECU are some of the modifications made to boost the power output.

Hennessey has also added bespoke front and rear bumpers, along with a set of special 20-inch wheels wearing off-road rubber.

An upgraded suspension system, giving the Gladiator a six-inch lift is also included, along with the gigantic LED light bar mounted on the roof.

The controversial Texan tuner plans to build just 24 units of the Maximus 1000. Buying one will each cost $200,000, although that does include the price of a regular Gladiator to act as a donor.

Production is slated to begin in July 2019, with Hennessey stating that individual vehicles will take around four months to build.

New research has revealed that 32 percent of UK motorists would opt to flee a parking scrape, rather than own up to damaging another car.

The study of 2,000 drivers by Euro Car Parts also uncovered the five places where drivers are most likely to smash and dash. Norwich comes fifth, scoring equal to the average at 32 percent. Glasgow and Liverpool are on 33 percent, while Oxford and London score 40 and 43 percent respectively. 

As for the gender-split, men were more likely than women to bump and run, with 36 percent saying they would, versus 28 percent of women.

Parking peeves

As for what irritates us most while parking, it comes as no surprise that expensive charges were near the top of the list.

Tight parking bays were an annoyance noted by 50 percent of respondents, while 47 percent said that double parkers and inconsiderate drivers got on their nerves.

“Parking can often be a challenge for motorists, especially in cramped and busy urban environments like large cities,” said Chris Barella of Euro Car Parts.

“But whilst we can’t control how narrow a parking space is or how badly other people park, we can make sure that our own cars are properly equipped to be able to park in inconvenient locations. By fitting cars with parking aids like sensors and reversing cameras, drivers can ensure that they’re fully prepared for the stresses of urban parking.”