The M25 motorway was closed overnight in Kent following the discovery of two large sinkholes in the central reservation following torrential rain in the south east region.

However, in a surprise good news update for commuters, Highways England reports the motorway has now REOPENED between J4 and J5 in Sevenoaks, ahead of the morning rush hour. 

https://t.co/o5wQiRg68I The #M25 anti-clockwise carriageway is now fully open between #j5 #Sevenoaks and #J4 #Badgers Mount following the sink hole incident overnight.

— Highways England (@HighwaysSEAST) June 11, 2019

• M25 is least-liked motorway in Britain

Highways England said the closure in the Sevenoaks area was due to a serious carriageway defect: Kent Police Roads Policing Unit confirmed it was due to the discovery of two sinkholes following an accident.

M25 Jct 5-4 also closed due to sinkhole DS pic.twitter.com/R5Rhvs4KZy

— Kent Police RPU (@kentpoliceroads) June 10, 2019

Motorists were advised to follow diversions:

• Anti-clockwise: join M26 eastbound – join M20 – exit M20 J4 – circulate roundabout and rejoin M20 westbound – remain on M20 and rejoin M25 J3
• Clockwise: exit M25 J4 – rejoin M25 anti-clockwise – at J3, join M20 eastbound – at J4, rejoin M20 westbound – continue to M26 – rejoin M25 at J5

Highways England contractors worked overnight to fix the sinkholes on the M25 with Kent Police. More information for motorists is being issued on the trafficengland.com website, the @HighwaysSEAST regional twitter feed, or by calling 0300 123 5000.

Further disruption for motorists is expected this week as severe weather continues. Forecasters are predicted 100mm of rain could fall, which could affect both road and rail networks.

Please see the latest link with up to date diversion route details. https://t.co/dWuMux6yDFhttps://t.co/5F8QDNzmHG

— Highways England (@HighwaysSEAST) June 11, 2019

The next generation of ultra-fast electric car charging is coming to Britain’s filling stations with BP Chargemaster revealing the UK’s first 150kW charger network.  

Called the Ultracharge 150, the new unit will go live soon on BP Chargemaster’s Polar public charging network. It was launched to the public at the recent Fully Charged Live show at Silverstone.

Introducing our new 150kW rapid charger, coming to BP forecourts this year! Officially unveiled at #FullyChargedLIVE by @bobbyllew! pic.twitter.com/olh08Afv96

— BP Chargemaster (@BPChargemaster) June 7, 2019

The target is to have 100 units live at 50 BP forecourts by the end of 2019 – with 400 chargers installed by the end of 2021.

Ultracharge units will deliver 100 miles of electric car range in just 10 minutes.

• A beginner’s guide to electric car charge points

Both Polar pay-as-you-go and subscription customers will be able to use the new units, which will be fitted with both CCS (used by the BMW i3, Jaguar I-Pace and Kia e-Niro) and CHAdeMO (favoured by the Nissan Leaf) connectors.

BP Chargemaster chief executive David Martell said the new Ultracharge 150 units will “be available on the Polar network within the coming months.

“We shifted consumer expectations for rapid charging with the introduction of our 50kW Ultracharge unit, and we are confident that the Ultracharge 150 unit will do the same for 150kW ultra-fast charging.”

BP Chargemaster is currently the largest public charging network in the UK. It operates more than 7,000 charging points, including over 400 rapid chargers.

Last month, Ionity opened Britain’s first 350kW-ready charger points in Maidstone, Kent, although no cars currently on sale can use such rapid charging. 

Confused by the different types of slow, fast and rapid electric car chargers? Read Motoring Research’s beginner’s guide to electric car charge points to help clear things up. 

New cameras currently being tested can detect if your car is too noisy – and could lead to fines for law-breakers. 

The Department for Transport is testing the ‘acoustic cameras’ throughout the rest of the year in many locations.

How will the acoustic cameras work?

Cameras you might otherwise associate with speed detection will be rigged up with microphones.

When noise levels get too high, the camera will flash, taking a picture of the offending vehicle.

The move is a response to campaigners who claim that some drivers and motorcyclists make their vehicles louder than is legally allowed – causing disturbances in otherwise peaceful areas.

“Noise pollution makes the lives of people in communities across Britain an absolute misery and has very serious health impacts,” said Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling.

“This is why I am determined to crack down on the nuisance drivers who blight our streets.

“New technology will help us lead the way in making our towns and cities quieter, and I look forward to seeing how these exciting new cameras could work.”

How loud is too loud?

That is currently up for debate. At present, such judgements are largely subjective.

The new technology will need to be set up with a baseline standard that penalises genuine offenders, but does not wrongly impact other motorists.

Compare a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and a Ford Focus and the noise levels will be very different. Nonetheless, the Lamborghini is a car homologated for use on UK roads. That’s to say, the noise it emits has been deemed acceptable.

Could it and other cars like it trigger one of these new cameras? It seems highly likely. We will be watching the results of these trials with interest.

A Shelby Mustang never goes out of fashion when it comes to collector cars, and this 1968 GT350 Fastback example looks set to achieve a high price.

Currently open to bids via online auction website Bring a Trailer, interested parties are already pushing the price higher and higher.

Maybe it is the retro-tastic Lime Gold paintwork, or perhaps it could be the intensive restoration this car has received after almost 50 years in storage, that is generating the bids.

The 1968 model year was a significant one in the Shelby Mustang story. Whilst the cars remained similar to the ones from ‘67, big changes happened in the way there were built.

Ford needed Shelby to produce more cars, meaning final production of Shelby models shifted from Los Angeles to Ionia, Michigan. To some, the standardization took away some of the Shelby experience, but did allow over 4,400 cars to be built.

Ordered from Northwestern Motor Car Co in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this particular Shelby was built in November 1967. According to the seller, the car was placed in storage in 1969, and remained untouched until 2016.

A report from classic Ford specialists Marti Auto Works is provided, and shows that this car was ordered with a four-speed manual transmission, black vinyl front seats and a Speed Deck rear bench.

All 1968 GT350s used the 302-cubic inch V-8 engine, producing 250 horsepower. This was lower than the output from the 289-ci V-8 used in previous years, but still left the GT350 as a potent machine.

The engine in this GT350 was rebuilt during the restoration process, and has also recently gained a new clutch, rebuilt carburetor, and other maintenance parts.

Stripped back to bare metal during the refurbishment, Le Mans stripes and GT350 graphics were also reinstated for the full Shelby look. The distinctive Shelby Cobra hubcaps for the 15-inch wheels are original.

Currently registered in Vancouver, British Columbia, this car has been owned by the current seller since 2018.

Supplied with the car are bundles of service records, detailed photographs of the restoration process being undertaken, and even a scale model of the GT350 itself.

Bidding for this distinctive collectible Shelby ends on Friday June 14th, meaning you have plenty of time to start making room in the garage.

Although given the efforts put into restoring this car, it would be a shame to leave it stationary in a collection.

Instead, we hope the lucky buyer gets out on the road and uses this GT350 like Carroll Shelby would have wanted!

Fully Charged Live is back for another year, with the festival of electric vehicles promising to be bigger, better and more electrifying than before.

At the time of writing, the event was trending on Twitter, so it must be doing something right.

If you’re not familiar with Fully Charged Live, it’s where the UK’s clean tech and renewable energy businesses gather at the home of British motorsport to showcase their latest products and services.

Our man Richard Aucock is at Silverstone and is reporting heavy rain but huge crowds at the opening day, but he says that Saturday is likely to be even busier. Ticket sales are up 60 percent, as the nation wakes up to the potential of green motoring.

The man behind Fully Charged Live is Red Dwarf star turned green advocate Robert Llewellyn, who is joined by motoring’s Jonny Smith, television’s Maddie Moate, radio’s Mark Goodier and physicist Helen Czerski.

Trying hard not to be starstruck, Richard has been wandering around the event, taking photographs and chatting with visitors. He dragged himself away from the Fully Charged merchandise stand (he can’t resist a good baseball cap) to deliver his five highlights of the first morning.

Electric vehicle overload

At Fully Charged Live, you’ll find EVERY electric vehicle available in the UK, with 200 EVs shuttling guests to the Silverstone Wing. Fortunately, Richard is driving to and from the event in a Jaguar I-Pace, so he won’t be feeling guilty on the way home this evening.

Why, hello there, 2019 @WorldCarAwards triple-winner! pic.twitter.com/JGAoAierT8

— Richard Aucock (@richardaucock) June 7, 2019

Aston Martin Rapide E

Fresh from its dynamic debut in Monaco, the Aston Martin Rapide E is here at Fully Charged Live in what is almost an ambassadorial role for electric cars in general. Well, if it’s good enough for Bond, it’s good enough for showgoers at Silverstone.

Although we suspect the majority of the visitors will be more interested in range and charging times, we’re going to focus on the 612hp and 701lb ft of torque available to the 155 lucky owners. Most have been snapped up, but some cars are still available. We wonder if they’ll have gone by the time Fully Charged Live closes its doors on Sunday evening?

A new 150kW rapid charger

You know how some celebrities open village fetes or unveil new cars? Well, Robert Llewellyn was on hand to pull the wraps off BP Chargemaster’s new 150kW rapid charger. Never one to miss a photo opportunity, AA president Edmund King was pictured with an Audi E-tron SUV.

With our friends from ⁦@BPChargemaster⁩ at #FullyChargedLIVE pic.twitter.com/BinKhUNeMS

— Edmund King OBE (@AAPresident) June 7, 2019

The charging points – which look suspiciously like traditional petrol pumps – will be coming to a BP forecourt near you from July. We say ‘near you’, but BP Chargemaster hasn’t confirmed which forecourts will be the first to receive the new ultra-fast chargers.

Electric Ferrari 308

It looks like a standard Ferrari 308, but rather than having a V8 engine, this one is powered by an electric motor from a Tesla. Well, did you expect to find a conventional V8 engine at Fully Charged Live?

It’s the work of Electrifi, a division of Crowley Carbon, a company investing €50 million in a range of high-performance electric cars. The Irish firm will take cars from the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin, then modify them with the latest Tesla batteries and motors.

Tesla Model 3

Thanks to its 329 miles of range, Fully Charged Live is calling the Tesla Model 3 a “game-changing” electric car, but the days of Tesla having things its own ways are long gone. Now, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and the like are lining up to take a large slice of the EV pie.

The most eye-catching thing about the Model 3 is the interior. It’s minimalist to the point of emptiness. Just the things you need and none of the things you don’t, with everything accessible via the giant landscape touchscreen. Still, at least it has a pair of conventional cupholders.

Hot off the press is the news that the Model 3 will receive an over-the-air update this weekend, allowing all-wheel-drive versions to be charged at 200kW. Big news, that.

We’ll provide further updates from Fully Charged Live after Richard has finished stocking up on baseball caps. Rumour has it, he’s also going to interview Robert Llewellyn. Don’t forget to ask for his autograph, Richard.

The new car finance market fell by two percent in value and seven percent in volume in April, according to figures released by the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA).

Meanwhile, the percentage of private new car sales financed by FLA members through the point of sale (POS) was 91 percent in the 12 months to April 2019.

New car registrations fell by 4.1 percent in April due to a plunge in private buyer demand of more than 10 percent.

Fleet car sales were up 2.9 percent, but this wasn’t enough to avoid it being the second-worst April for registrations since 2012. Mike Hawes, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive, said the declining market was “of clear concern”.

But while the new car market continues to struggle, there’s better news for the used car sector, with FLA reporting a four percent increase in value and a one percent rise in volume.

‘Subdued consumer confidence’

Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist at the FLA, said: “Trends in the POS consumer new car finance market continued to reflect private new car sales.

“Subdued consumer confidence has also contributed to a slowdown in the POS consumer used car finance market in recent months.”

“However, new business volumes overall in the first four months of 2019 held steady compared with the same period in 2018.”

Earlier this week, the SMMT revealed figures showing another month of decline, with new car registrations down 4.6 percent in May. Diesel registrations were down for the 26th consecutive month.

Mike Hawes said: “Confusing policy messages and changes to incentives continue to affect consumer and business confidence causing drivers to keep hold of their older, more polluting vehicles for longer.”