Exclusive footage includes Rebecca driving her new BMW 6 Series Convertible on track, Tim training hard on the River Thames and David pushing himself through a tough session in one of London’s Royal Parks.

James Cracknell introduces the iMagazine sections.

There’s also an entertaining conversation over lunch between two more seasoned competitors; javelin thrower Steve Backley and rower James Cracknell, who is also the guest editor of this special edition. Other features include profiles of selected BMW London 2012 Performance Team members and the cars they drive, and an overview of how BMW is going to keep London 2012 on the go with a 4000-strong fleet of cars, motorcycles and bicycles for athletes and officials.

I particularly like the way the editorial team managed to fit in the word “Efficient Dynamics” when describing K1 canoe champion, Tim Brabants.

But even if you’re not a big athletics fan, there are lots of reasons to download your copy of iMagazine, no more so than the stunning piece of time-lapse photography of the Olympic Stadium, that plays when the magazine first opens.

The App was designed and created by Engine Partners Andrews Aldridge and Brainstorm films on behalf of BMW UK.

Download yourself a copy by visiting the iTunes Store.

Ginetta, unlike rivals such as Lotus, Ariel or Caterham, have not produced a road car since the 1990′s, hence the importance of two new road based offerings, spurred on by current owner Laurence Tomlinson of LNT Automotive . Indeed, the success of the little G40 R, and its sibling, the G60 911-rival, could make-or-break the West-Yorkshire based sports car manufacturer.

Should it fail, Ginetta may end up next to TVR in the automotive cemetery with ‘Gone but not Forgotten’ written across its headstone. But for now, there’s everything to play for.

Certainly, with Laurence Tomlinson at the helm, they have an asset highly regarded in the industry, and a man who strikes me as a modern day Colin Chapman. With years of racing experience, Le Mans wins and a keen understanding of both business and engineering, Tomlinson and Ginetta have every chance of making it work, even in such a competitive market.

At Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire we drove the ‘baby’ G40 R, which features lightweight engineering, a Mazda sourced engine and gearbox, a front engine rear-wheel drive layout and very little in terms of driver aids. A pretty car, low slung and dainty in its proportions, whilst still looking muscular, this car looks every inch the race car turned road car that it is.

The 2.0-litre Ginetta G40 R at Silverstone circuit.

Interestingly, this is what sets it apart from its rivals, in that the G40 is a race car adapted for the road by putting in a proper manual gearbox (the race car itself uses a sequential ‘box), road biased seats and seat belts, some headlights and a number plate. If you are looking for a racing experience on the road, it’s difficult to think of anything else that blurs the lines more strongly than the G40.

With a 175 bhp 2.0-litre MZR engine propelling a kerb weight of just 795 kg, the performance of the G40 sits somewhere between a Lotus Elise and an Exige, with the 0-60 sprint taking 6 seconds and with a top speed approaching 140 mph. If you are bridging the gap between the Elise and Exige, the numbers make sense and it feels suitably quicker than an Elise S in a straight line.

On the track

Out on track, the car feels lively, and will make you work to get the best out of it. Its unassisted, slightly un-communicative steering at low speeds comes alive and offers useful feedback as you begin to make more flowing progress. Without brake servos, the rock solid brake pedal takes some getting used to, and it can be very easy to lock the rear wheels and end up provoking ‘polite pirouetting’ if you are not used to this kind of race-derived braking. Properly managed however, the brakes offer excellent retardation and resist fade out on the circuit.

The G40 R’s handling balance is good, but the chassis is less forgiving than a Caterham Seven or Lotus Elise in terms of gradual breakaway of grip. Turn-in oversteer can be difficult to correct if you are not quick enough or in tune enough with the G40’s un-assisted steering, however once your brain catches up, you realise truly rapid progress can be made on track, using the excellent grip and precision provided by the combination of its soft-compound road tires and a well balanced chassis.

Should you consider buying one?

With the ex-Farbio based G60 sports car was being rolled away (with a minor electrical malfunction that prevented us from getting behind the wheel), responsibility fell on the G40 R to impress and prove that Ginetta has what it takes to produce as good a road car as it already does with racing cars.

Ginetta G60, the £68,000 911-rival based on the Farbio GTS. Ginetta acquired Farbio in March 2010 with its founder, Chris Marsh, continuing the sportscar’s development under the Ginetta name.

Whilst we feel that improvements could be made to the interior trim quality and some of the exterior paneling, the car we drove was a pre-production model and we’ve been promised these will be sorted before customer deliveries commence.

If that’s the case, then Ginetta have produced a balanced, race-honed road and track car that, although only produced in small numbers, we expect to give established cars from Lotus and Caterham a run for their money. In fact, we’d go so far in saying if you’re looking for a fixed roof sportscar ably suited to the inclement weather here in the UK, then the G40 R has few rivals.

Certainly, the driver appeal is there, and if Ginetta continue to dial in their race derived understanding of dynamics into all future road cars, we expect Ginetta to become a serious contender as a producer of lightweight track cars for the road.

The G40 R will cost just £29,950 when deliveries commence in 2012, which makes it something of a bargain compared to the £68,000 G60 sportscar. The company has set itself the modest target of 100 cars, all of which will be supplied to UK customers.

The headline facts are this – German investors have decided to build an alternative facility to the Nürburgring Nordschliefe, because as demand has increased the existing facilities such as the Nürburgring cannot provide the required track time for automotive engineers, driver training services and manufacturer launch events.

So the grounds of a former British/NATO ammunition depot are the venue of an extraordinary new test and private driving facility with the atmosphere of an automobile country club. The terrain is approximately 84 hectares and is located in the undulating forest landscape in the heart of Germany, 30 kilometres east of Paderborn, near Bad Driburg, in the southern part of the Teutoburger Wald.

Modelled on the likes of the Ascari Resort in Spain, the entire circuit has been designed from scratch by Hermann Tilke, the industry’s most experienced circuit architect. He is best known for renowned F1 circuits such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Malaysia, Istanbul, Shanghai and has now turned his hand to creating a New Nürburgring, “The natural ‘Nordschleife flair’ with high safety standards will continue to enthuse every driver. With various ideal lines, the corners allow for approximately identical lap times, while nature itself dictates the unmistakable signature of the test track.”

Walter Röhrl, the legendary rally driver and Porsche development driver has been involved in the project from its conception, “A dream! Here, we have succeeded in returning to the origins of motoring. At Bilster Berg, the unmistakable lay-out of the track is recognisable right away: harmoniously and dynamically, it offers unique opportunities to the drivers and makes them feel the car again. This circuit can take on major natural tracks like the Nordschleife or Spa-Francorchamps.”

Hans-Jürgen von Glasenapp, former managing director of the Hockenheimring GmbH, contributes his entire experience in running a motoring circuit as the managing director.

“The seclusion, the atmosphere, the track – it will be the German Goodwood! The terrain is unbelievable: we will build a track to FIA standards that will meet all safety requirements, to prevent anything happening during tests, development, driving programmes or incentives.”

Location

Bilster Berg Drive Resort is approximately 200 km from Düsseldorf, 150 km from Hannover and 270 km from Frankfurt. The nearest airport is at Paderborn some 35 km away.

Due to its prior military use, Bilster Berg doesn’t yet have a postal address but it’s nearby to Gräflicher Park Hotel & Spa in Bad Driburg.

Prices and availability

The circuit is on schedule to be open by July 2012 and it’s already getting booked up by car manufacturers, but Bilster Berg is also a resort for enthusiasts so they’re formulating several attractive packages that will differentiate it from the Nürburgring.

The company is currently inviting further investors to join the programme with the minimum sum of 100,000 Euros. One of the benefits being offered to shareholders is use of the facility during exclusive shareholder days with various cars and drivers (friends & family) using the facilities simultaneously. The planned circuit usage fee for shareholders is € 2,500 (incl. VAT) which buys approximately 80 days per year and is likely to be fixed for the first five full years of operation.

Garages can be rented in the resort which will provide for all-year-long storage, whilst maintenance support will also be available on-site by experienced motorsport partners (e.g. Heggemann, Raeder, Sautter), both for modern and historic vehicles.

For the time being, it’s not possible to visit the resort individually (unless you are a shareholder), so if like me you don’t have a spare 100,000 Euros kicking around, you’re most likely to experience the Bilster Berg when attending a manufacturer’s launch or driving event.

Can’t wait..

Track Layout

The first documentary, produced by leading short film label, Future Shorts, will be released in late August, ahead of Rounds 19-21 of the BTCC at Knockhill.

To give you an idea of what to expect, we’ve got hold of a trailer for the series of shorts..

The team is heading to Snetterton this weekend (6/7 August) for Rounds 16-18 of the championship with its driver pairing, Matt Neal and Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden, currently in first and third position in the drivers’ points.

At the halfway point of the year the team are looking to extend their championship lead over the remaining 15 rounds.

Neal explains: “Our Civic is one of the best handling cars on the grid, but you can always keep refining things and that is what we did at the test. We were chipping away at the suspension settings trying to find an extra edge. Although there has been a seven-week break in the championship, our team never stands still in the quest to make the Civic even stronger.”

A rule change from the championship bosses will peg back Neal’s and Shedden’s cars and force them to run with less turbo boost pressure this weekend but Neal says that the homework done by the team should keep the car at the front.

Snetterton – a new track for the BTCC

The Snetterton circuit has been completely remodelled since last season and now features a new three-mile configuration with a demanding infield section. ‘Flash’ Gordon says that the challenge will be ramped up for everyone.

“It is like going to a totally new track,” says Flash. “It has new sections that are twisty, but there are still the long straights and they will play into our hands.”

“My prime target is to cut the gap to Matt at the top of the points standings. The championship has been so tight and competitive this season and we have already seen that it can alter dramatically over the course of any given weekend. If I can leave Snetterton having narrowed the gap to Matt and made Honda one-two in the drivers’ points, then I will be happy.”

The first of the weekend’s three races kicks off at 12.10am on Sunday and the entire day’s action will be shown live on ITV4.

The first news is the introduction of Nissan’s GT-R and 370Z to Silverstone’s line-up of Driving Experiences – joining the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 360 F1 Modena, Lotus Exige, Formula Silverstone Single-Seater and Ford Fiesta ST Group N Rally Car.

The GT-R lives up to all the hype on real roads – it really is a performance benchmark in so many ways, but where you’ll really begin to comprehend the GT-R’s talents is on the track and Silverstone’s wide-open corners are the perfect playground. Silverstone’s new GT-R Thrill Experience gives you 20 minutes in-car briefing on circuit from a fully qualified instructor, 3 laps or equivalent (5.7 miles approx.) in a Nissan GT-R and then a 10 minute debrief, all for £85 per person.

But the real bonus this Christmas period is the festively priced £99 Christmas Super Choice Voucher – reduced from £140 for the holiday season with the icing on the cake being that anyone purchasing a £99 Christmas Super Choice Voucher will also receive a complimentary ticket to a Silverstone event. And there’s a pretty decent range of events to choose from including; Silverstone Supercar featuring the FIA GT1 World Championship, British F3/GT Championships, British Touring Car Championship, British Superbike Championship and Walter Hayes Trophy.

The offer runs until 31 December 2010 with the usual product specific terms and conditions applying. Vouchers cannot be redeemed until 4th January 2011 and are valid until 31st March 2011.

To view the full range of Silverstone Driving Experiences available – visit www.silverstone.co.uk and book online.

To mark the release of EA Games’ highly anticipated Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on November 19th, EA have teamed up with Urban Music Awards winning and MOBO nominated group Roll Deep and Ben Collins (The Driver Previously Known As The Stig) to film a series of teaser videos in the build up to a Hollywood-style cinematic trailer featuring both Roll Deep and Ben Collins which is available now [View on SkiddPlayer].

The latest instalment in the Need for Speed promotional trailers is 'Pagani v Lamborghini: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit' - filmed on the winding mountain roads just outside Venice, the Hollywood style trailer demonstrates the monstrous power of the Pagani Zonda Cinque as it's pursued by a cop liveried Lamborghini Murcielago Interceptor - both of which can be driven in game. The trailer contains a combination of real video intermixed with gameplay. Click to watch in SkiddPlayer

We showed you the preview footage a few weeks ago featuring the first shots of Roll Deep as they don their police uniforms and strike up some friendly banter with Ben Collins.

The preview video offered a glimpse of the main cinematic trailer where the band races a new breed of Lamborghini police car in a high speed hot pursuit to the soundtrack of ‘TEAM’, one of the lead tracks from their new album.

To celebrate the release of this high-octane live action trailer, SkiddMark has teamed up with EA Games to give away 3 copies of the new Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit game, all you’ve got to do is answer the following simple question:

(Note: The competition closes on Friday 3rd December 2010 at 11:59pm GMT and we wish you the very best of luck)

The Competition Question

We will contact the winners within 48 hours of the competition closing, however if you’d like to find out even sooner then follow us on Twitter at (@DriversRepublic.)

[contact-form 7 "NeedForSpeed_HotPursuit"]

A fleet of the sexiest, fastest, hottest cars are headed to the LA launch party which is the last leg of a 7-city roll out for the anticipated ”race of chase” driving game – accompanied by an entourage of Lamborghinis, Audi R8s, Spyker Spyders, Aston Martin DB9s and Mercedes SLSs.

Guests will be able to peep and take pictures with the launch super cars – most of which are featured in the game. Guests will also get to witness the rising star that is hip hop act Chiddy Bang, the MTV ”Buzzworthy” musical headliner.

The party, featuring HD game kiosks and all-night complimentary cocktails, is an invitation-only event but you can win a spot on the guest list by hot-footing over to the event website and registering your details.

Winning guests will be contacted directly by the promoter of the event, KingSize USA.

The game features several of Lamborghini’s finest including a Reventón and a LP560-4 and to mark the occasion Totally Dynamic wrapped three Lamborghinis to replicate their on screen appearance for the launch event at Longcross Test Centre in Surrey.

Speed was the order of the day for the work carried out by Totally Dynamic’s South London centre. Wrapped on the 25th October, the supercars were then used at the launch event on the 27th, unwrapped the same day and returned in mint condition on the 28th.

During the high profile launch event, the Lamborghinis were driven around the track by members of the grime music collective Roll Deep, recent winners at this year’s Urban Music Awards, with Ben Collins, formerly The Stig in Top Gear, on hand to drive a selection of Porsches around the track during the day.

A Demo version of the game is currently available from the EA Games website, for Xbox and PS3 consoles, whilst the full game will be on sale from November 11th simultaneously for all platforms (Xbox, PS3, PC, Wii).

Website: Totally Dynamic and on Twitter at @Totally_Dynamic.

Silverstone’s 24-hour sale began at 12:00 midday on the 11 October and was due to end by 12:00 midday on the 12 October, or when the maximum limit of 500 sales were reached (whichever occured first). The sale proved hugely popular and those 500 bookings went very quickly.

Due to the high demand experienced yesterday, Silverstone doubled the amount of experiences on offer and is still running the half price offer on the Super Choice Voucher and Tour Silverstone experiences until midday today.

The Super Choice Voucher lets the recipient choose between 6 Thrill choices including the Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lotus, Fiesta Rally Car, Formula Silverstone Single-Seater and Lamborghini. The offer price (for the next 30 minutes) is £70 (reduced from £140), so if you’ve missed out on the other packages that were available then there’s still time to take advantage of Silverstone’s Driving Experiences sale.

Just head on over to the Super Choice Voucher booking page before 12pm (GMT) today.

Please read the full terms and conditions on Silverstone’s website when booking.

During the limited 24 hour offer period, this 50% discount will apply exclusively to online bookings made via www.silverstone.co.uk.

For the ultimate road car experience, Silverstone has a variety of supercars to choose from including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Ferrari 360 F1™ Modena, Lotus Exige and the instantly recognisable Lamborghini Gallardo. So if your Christmas wish this year is to experience sections of the world famous Grand Prix Circuit from the driving seat of an iconic sports car, prices will start from just £87.50 with Thrills from £60 each for 24 hours only.

If single-seaters are your thing, then Silverstone’s Single Seater Experience will fit the bill perfectly as it’s the closest many will ever get to driving a real racing car. Providing a super-quick taste of Formula racing, Silverstone’s fully qualified instructors will help you hone your driving skills on-track. However, for off-road fun, you can also chose to tackle Silverstone’s rally handling stage in a works-built Ford Fiesta ST 150.

If you’re feeling generous and would like to treat someone else, Silverstone’s Super Choice Voucher makes an ideal gift and will also be half price in the one day sale, costing £70. Recipients of this voucher will get to choose from one of the many Driving Thrills available including the Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lotus, Fiesta Rally Car, Formula Silverstone Single-Seater and Lamborghini Thrill.

There’s even something for aspiring young drivers – Rookie Drive puts teenagers behind the wheel of a dual control Renault Clio to learn essential driving skills such as clutch control, pulling away and navigating around obstacles. As an ideal gift for young adults, Rookie Drive is part of the Rookie Super Choice Voucher which is on offer at just £25.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to us, so if you’d like to take advantage of these offers, head on over to www.silverstone.co.uk tomorrow at 12pm.

* Offer is only available online and is subject to limited availability. Terms and conditions apply.