The job of a lifetime is waiting for you at Rolls-Royce. The automaker has just announced that its apprenticeship program is now accepting new candidates.

Open to people aged 16 to 24, the apprenticeships last for up to four years at Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood plant in England. These lucky apprentices will get the chance to work with skilled craftspeople in leather, wood, paint, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, assembly and finesse roles.

The program, which has been running since 2006, has already employed 30 people after the completion of the apprenticeship. In 2011, Rolls-Royce added a business component to the program, so who knows what other fields will open up (up next: social media?).

“We are delighted to announce that Rolls-Royce is seeking candidates for its Apprenticeship Programme. This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the development and training of young people at the very highest levels of UK manufacturing,” said Andrew Ball, Corporate Communications Manager, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

If you’re interested in applying to the program, you can submit you application online at www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/careers.

In case you weren’t impressed with the Mayfair or Goodwood model, MINI will be releasing another special edition known as the Highgate later this year. The vehicle will follow along the lines of the recently released MINI Hampton.

The Highgate model will feature an Ice Chocolate Metallic color, half way between Hot Chocolate and Astro Black, and the interior will be coated in Chocolate colored leather with contrasting white stitching. The Highgate model will likely come with a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine from the 2011 MINI Cooper S producing 181-hp. MINI will release the Highgate later this year as a 2012 model. Look for a likely debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

[Source: Motoring File]

Ever driven on two wheels? Nissan, apparently having just watched that one scene from Diamonds Are Forever, is planning to set some goofy records at the hallowed grounds of Goodwood—including driving up the entire course while balanced on two wheels.

Hey, if you can’t beat them, distract them. Nissan plans to drive a Juke up the 1.16-mile hill balanced entirely on one side, presumably to practice escaping from Wint and Kidd, as well as an attempt to drive the Nissan Leaf up the hill—in reverse.

On paper, this sounds even slower than the Leaf already is. But the Leaf’s electric motor is capable of going just as fast backwards as it is the regular way: all the way up to 90mph. On production models reverse speed is restricted for rather obvious reasons, but on this attempt Nissan is pulling out all the stops.

Both vehicles will be driven by professional stunt driver Terry Grant, though not at the same time. The festivities begin July 1st to the 3rd at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed in Britain, where Nissan will prove that just because you’re not the fastest doesn’t mean you can’t be the most flamboyant. Hey, isn’t that how drifting got started?

Toyota will be bringing an interesting blend of past, present and future cars to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Climbing up the famous hill this year featuring Toyota’s moniker includes their GT One sports car, Dynojet Racing’s Avensis, a rare MR2-based Group S rally car, the famous “King of Africa” Celica Twin Cam TA64, WRC Corolla and this year’s Dakar Rally class-winning Land Cruiser. In the factory cars department, Toyota will be showing off its Yaris Hybrid concept, Auris Hybrid and Prius Plug-in Hybrid.

The Toyota GT One sports car is the same car seen at the 1999 Le Mans and will be reunited with its driver from that race, Thierry Boutsen. The Belgian F1 grand prix winner will be back behind the wheel of the GT One as it climbs up the hill. The Dynojet Racing Avensis is one of Toyota’s current racers in the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. It will be driven by Frank Wrathall.

A rare sighting will include a MR2-based Group S rally car, which was once codenamed 222D. This rally car was a prototype car made in the 1980s that never saw competition due to championship regulations being changed. Only two of these are left and one of them will be campaigned up the hill!

Lastly, Toyota will have a strong World Rally Championship presence with their King of Africa Celica Twin Cam TA64, and the WRC Corolla that claimed 25 podiums between 1997-1999. The Land Cruiser from this year’s Dakar Rally (that claimed the win in its class) will also be present.

GALLERY: Toyota’s 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed Cars

[Source: Toyota UK Blog]

Pricing has finally been announced for the MINI Cooper receiving goods from Rolls-Royce’s factory in Goodwood and it’s probably shocking to many, even those that expected an utmost premium for the Rolls-Royce goods. So let’s just get that out of the way with the base-model Mini Cooper Goodwood coming in at an astonishing $68,000. We’re going to safely assume that the $68,000 won’t convert over to America’s market, but even at close to $50,000, that’s a crazy price to pay for a Cooper.

Those in Europe that are really interested and have no problems paying the price tag will get a ton of Rolls-Royce specific details on their MINI Cooper with Inspired by Goodwood emblems to prove you paid the price. The standard paint color is Rolls-Royce’s own Diamond Black metallic while MINI’s Reef Blue metallic is available as an option.

Interior upgrades include Rolls-like woven headliner, Cornsilk-hued leather with stitched black-leather contrast. The entire doors and center console are covered with luxurious leather while the speedometer and tachometer faces have been swapped with Rolls-Royce font.

It’s questionable if the price tag is worth it; but for those that certainly love Rolls-Royce’s luxurious amenities and prefer to drive a more discrete MINI Cooper, well, here’s your compromise.

GALLERY: MINI Cooper Goodwood

[Source: Autoblog]

MINI‘s new limited edition Rolls-Royce-inspired Goodwood model, introduced at the Shanghai Auto Show, will inspire a line of luxury models in the future according to a new report. Similar to how the John Cooper Works name has become synonymous with added performance for MINIs, the Goodwood name will be tied to future luxury models. Likely to all be limited edition cars, the Goodwood MINIs will feature high-grade interior trims and paint, often built to customer specifications. And like the Goodwood car are likely to come with a hefty price tag (the Goodwood model is rumored to cost around $50,000).

Build with input and expertise from Rolls-Royce the Goodwood car uses high-grade black leather on the instrument panel and a Cornsilk hid  on the dashboard, seats, headliner, and door panels. In addition, the dash features a Walnut Burr wood previously only used in Rolls-Royce models. Even the smallest details are carefully crafted with new black dials for the instruments that feature numbers in the same typceface as their Rolls-Royce counterparts, while piano black is used for other instrument surrounds. Outside the car gets painted in a special Rolls-Royce shade ‘Diamond Black’ with 17-inch wheels. Also of note is the lack of a hood scoop, despite this being a 181-hp turbocharged Cooper S model, to give a sleeker appearance to the car’s shape.

GALLERY: MINI Goodwood

[Source: AutoCar]

Mini has released a few details on a new concept they have dubbed “Goodwood,” after the spiritual home of Rolls-Royce, the auto festival at the Goodwood Estate, and to British luxury in general.

The Goodwood concept will be the 21st-century version of the Radford Mini, a luxury, bespoke version aimed at the wealthier ends of the Chinese and Middle Eastern markets. With the Goodwood, Mini aims to pay tribute to legendary Rolls-Royce and Bentley coachbuilder Mulliner Park Ward and an era of handbuilt luxury, no matter how small the car.

Of course, it’s slightly easier to do so when both Rolls and Mini are owned by the same company (BMW). Look forward to this mini baller at Shanghai next month.

[Source: Autoblog]

We’re sure that many of you lust after the new Porsche 911 GT2 RS, but chances are unless you’ve placed your order already, you’ll never get behind the wheel of one.

At the very least, Porsche has made a video that gives you a thorough walk-around of their new sports car, dubbed the fastest street legal Porsche of all time, with Andreas Preuninger, Manager of High Performance Vehicles for Porsche, explaining all the important details.

When all the technical details are hashed out, Preuninger takes the GT2 RS up the hill at Goodwood for some rear-engined, flat-six goodness.

[Source: GT Spirit]

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Porsche is requesting that Nissan remove billboards in the United Kingdom featuring an unauthorized usage of Porsche’s famous crest emblem. While Porsche is within its legal rights to crack down on Nissan for an unauthorized use of a Porsche trademark, Nissan has been mounting a series of guerrilla marketing campaigns designed to poke fun at German brands such as Audi, BMW and Porsche.

While Nissan’s billboards display slogans with puns like “The Winner Hans Down”, problems arose when Nissan displayed vehicles with the Porsche crest (and other emblems) next to a simulated “kill count”, similar to a WWII fighter plane, showing how many “kills” the Nissan vehicles have recorded on the Nurburgring.

Porsche was understandably mad, and challenged Nissan on the legality of their campaign. “The problem arose with them using our Porsche crests,” said Andrea Baker, head of public relations at Porsche. “They are our property and we do not give permission to any company to use our crests without our permission. This applies to any company.”

[Source: The Guardian]

Picnicking has never been so elegant, now that Rolls-Royce has added a picnic set to its Phantom model.

Finished in polished aluminum, veneer and leather, this four-person picnic set is just one of the many new additions created by the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in-house Bespoke design and engineering team. About 100 chic and unique bespoke features have been added to the Phantom, but the picnic set certainly has to be the epitome of fine outdoor dining.

“Bespoke is the jewel in our crown, the perfect complement to our luxury product line-up,” explained Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO. “Customers expect a Rolls-Royce Phantom to be tailored to their individual desires and our team of talented designers and craftspeople are more than happy to deliver.”

Bespoke can include anything from personalized tread plates, contrast stitching and seat piping to an individual’s tastes and desires in the form of personalised veneers and unique exterior paints. It also includes items like luggage and glassware. All of the Rolls-Royce’s bespoke items are designed in-house at Goodwood.

The Bespoke picnic set will be on display at the Salon Privé at the Hurlingham Club in London from July 21 to July 23. It was first debuted at the Villa d’Este in Italy back in April.

[Source: Worldcarfans]

For those of us who couldn’t attend the Goodwood Festival Of Speed, don’t fret, because we’ve managed to compile all of the best videos into one handy post. All of them feature some kind of pricey sports car running up the hill at Lord March’s Estate. Sit back, turn up your speakers, and enjoy. There’s a surprise at the very end as well.

Hit the jump to view the videos

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“It’s been a while since I’ve used ‘Toyota” and ‘awesome’ in the same sentence,” said one AutoGuide staffer, “but these pictures are really cool.”

Toyota played a large roll in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, displaying some cool race and road cars,  and the company was wise enough to take a whole bunch of pictures and throw them on a Flickr account for everyone to enjoy. Aside from the aforementioned rally cars, there’s also a hotted-up Toyota iQ, the FT-86 concept car, a Hilux pickup truck and an ice racing car based on the European-market Auris – bet you’ve never seen one of those before.

Check out all the pics from Toyota’s Goodwood display at Toyota UK’s Flickr page by clicking here. Or see a few of our personal faves after the jump: