Adnan Ebrahim

It’s not an easy time to be a young driver with petrol prices spiralling out of control and young driver car insurance prices being significantly larger than for older and more experienced drivers.

This post has been presented by Nationwide Vehicle Contracts . We all have our own idea of what an ideal car should be like , and that perception could be influenced by the need for comfort, or economy, or reliability, or any one of dozens of factors. But if you were President of the United States, there could be many more aspects to think about.

What do you get if you cross a Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel with a Jaguar XK 5.0 V8 Coupé with a Jaguar 5.0 V8 XKR-S Coupé with an old school supercar in the form of a Jaguar 3.5 V6 XJ220? I'll tell you what. A day full of desires, lusts, wants and in the end unfortunate disappointment upon learning that taking the keys back home for "thorough vehicular examination" wasn't on the day's agenda.

When we interviewed Liam Doran last week at Wembley , all seemed to be on the up-and-up for this future star of Rallycross, mixing it with the likes of Ken Block and Tanner Foust. So when news broke of a crash at the Nurburgring involving Liam and his prized GT-R, we were keen to find out the real story direct from the main man himself, and to see whether his confidence had been affected heading into DS3 testing and the start of the Rallycross season.

Road rage is an overpowering phenomenon – it sneaks up on you quickly and takes over, and it can find its way into the calmest of people. Those who you thought possessed the "Zen Factor". There’s something about bad drivers impairing our journey with their slow driving and mismatching indicators that just makes us see red.

Is the Fiat 500 the Susan Boyle car equivalent? Possibly a little dubious for an opening line question, but allow me to explain this random thought splurge without using the idiom "appearances can be deceptive" (using it once before on Car Throttle is enough for me).

Ken Block, Tanner Foust and Marcus Grönholm . These are just a few of the big names racing on the Rallycross circuit this year, each with their own A-list careers and each with mega-sponsorship deals lining their bank accounts. However a new young gun on the block cometh. His name is Liam Doran and for Rallycross newbies previously unaware of this 25-year-old British lad, now is the time to sit up and take notice.

Yes, you heard that right . Lamborghini have just taken the covers off their special Roadster, based on a sport-bike, dubbed the Aventador J. Where do we start? Well minus the lack of a windscreen, Lamborghini have been kind enough to fit wind deflectors onto the vehicle with the Italian Bulls keen to stress that this will be a road-legal car. A lot has been taken out in keeping with weight-saving such as climate control, radio and air conditioning to name but a few.

Growing up with smart phones in our pockets and tablets on hand , our lives are becoming increasingly digital and tech-heavy. With a "dying" print industry (The Sun on Sunday aside) and growing scores of people hitting up the web for the latest and greatest, you'd think that published books were on their last legs. Heck, even today's toddlers are confuzzled by print .

The Vauxhall Zafira has been present on British roads since 1999 . It has enjoyed a stable rise to prominence and with the latest designs it looks set to become the UK’s favourite small MPV. But why are we interested?

Surprisingly, given the number of their French cars currently on the road , Peugeot sold only 94,989 cars in 2011 in the UK (down 13.1% from 2010). Despite producing a TT-killer in the form of the Peugeot RCZ, the market for compact cars - a speciality for the French lion - is searing hot.

The phrase "growing downwards" if taken out of context is a sure-fire way of raising a few eyebrows. But when Skoda announced the birth of its urban compact Citigo, there were certainly no audible sniggers

Steve Jobs' famous commencement speech to Stanford graduates in 2005 has now become one of the most watched motivational clips on the internet, with its view count climbing particularly sharply after his sudden demise. Cool, calm and collected, Steve explained to the students how certain events in his life were mapped as a series of dots. But it was only when he looked back with the power of hindsight, that he was able to connect these dots and understand how his journey came to be.

Take a bog standard Mitsubishi ASX 4 . Bounce down to Bow Wow Boy down the road who is "mad talented" with some paint and what do you get? That's right, it's the 2012 Mitsubishi ASX Black Special Edition.

50% of deaths on roads in Britain occur on only 10% of the road network , with Scotland having roads with the worst risk. These figures come from a Road Safety Foundation's report, which examined nearly 30,000 British motorways and A-roads. Proceeding Scotland, the next most dangerous roads are found in the form of highways in the north of England.

The Civic series has been a standard part of the Honda production line-up for a number of years now , and has enjoyed a gradual design evolution. This was until the last model in the series which decided to go for a radical external design rethink, but with what aim? To connect with a new, younger generation of car buyers.

The ice that covers the road surfaces of much of Britain during the worst periods of winter can prove deadly, and is a major contributor to the overall number of road traffic accidents that happen every year in this country. In addition to the fact that this ice makes gripping the road surfaces far more difficult than at any other time, there is also the fact that much of the ice which is on the surface of UK roads during winter is black ice - which obviously is far harder to spot on the surface of the road.

2011 was undoubtedly Car Throttle's "Year of the Swede" . Thanks to Volvo UK's generosity and support of CT, we managed to get our hands on nearly every model in their line-up from the S60 to the XC60. We even managed to captain some scallywags across The Solent in a Volvo Racing Yacht; definitely one of my highlights of the year.

Usually when we post a Car Cameo, it tells the story of a large car manufacturer which teams up with a big-name artist to feature a loan vehicle in one of their latest vids. Lamborghini loves to give Gallardos to their favourite rappers, and Mini have recently upped their game with spots in a lot of the latest music videos to hit VEVO.

With the roaring success of the DS3 already under Citroen's belt and an admittedly average post-launch reception of the DS4 last year, the French manufacturer is attempting to get back on track with their third release in the DS range, the new DS5. We attended a launch event at SMMT's HQ in Westminster to find out a little more about the car and how it aims to captivate through design.

I'm a sucker for a good car advert . I giggled at the Volkswagen Jetta Star Wars advert. I cringed at the recently released Honda CR-V advert featuring Matthew Broderick, digging up Ferris Bueller from the grave (no link needed, you've definitely already seen it). But at least the latter was directed by Todd Phillips, known best by his directing of The Hangover.

Kia Motors Manufacturing Slovakia today announced the production of their 1,000,000th car from their factory in Zilina , five years after the first car rolled off their line. The lucky millionth car? A white, diesel-engined cee’d SW. That alone doesn’t really tell the whole story though, so allow me to explain why I think Kia is winning; not just in the UK but overseas too.

Custom, custom, custom . Let me say that again, custom. I'm not just ripping off a catchy EA tagline when I say "It's in the name" because it really is - the smart BRABUS Tailor-Made is tailored to you and it's likely you won't find another one on the road quite like it. So when this fortwo Cabriolet rocked up on my doorstep, I ignored the annoying lack of capitalisation on smart and fortwo and took it for a test drive.

Whilst your humble Car Throttle author is keen to show-off his motoring madness via a late entry into the Mongol Rally this year , chances are it won't have anything on the mighty Dakar.