A LAMBORGHINI is wrecked by a mallet-wielding mob - paid to destroy it by the car's disgruntled OWNER. The millionaire entrepreneur was protesting at his local dealer after the £465,000 Gallardo's engine packed up within a month. The garage failed to fix the fault and damaged the bumper and chassis in the process.
After arguing with bosses, the owner paid the men to wreck the car to draw attention to his grievances in Qingdao, China. A Gallardo costs £140,000 in the UK, but the price is higher in China due to import taxes.
Introducing Kestrel, The First Road-Ready Car Built Out Of Hemp
Steven Kotler
17th Feb 2011
popsci.com
Marijuana’s fibrous cousin hemp has a long history with auto makers. in 1941 Henry Ford unveiled a car body made primarily out of organic fibers, hemp included. seventy years later, the world’s first production-ready biocomposite electric car—with hemp as the “bio”—will finally hit the streets. The Kestrel, a three-door hatchback, is made of a “hemp composite as strong as the fiberglass in boats, yet incredibly lightweight,” says Nathan Armstrong, the president of Motive industries, Kestrel’s manufacturer.
Whereas a comparably sized Ford Fusion weighs 3,720 pounds, the Kestrel will be just 2,500 pounds with the battery. this “might be the sweet spot for electric vehicles,” Armstrong says, because the car’s low tonnage means a fuel-efficiency increase of 25 to 30 percent.
To make this resilient, lightweight compound, hemp stalks are combed and rolled into a mat that is infused with a polymer resin. the hemp makes the biocomposite’s flexibility similar to the carbon fiber used in racecars.
Hemp grows fast and it’s cheap, which should keep the Kestrel’s production price around $25,000. A prototype is nearly complete, Armstrong says, and Motive plans to have thousands of its hemp-mobiles on the road by 2012.
Last remaining 'Ghost Car' expected to fetch up to £300,000 at auction America's first transparent car – billed as a vision of the future more than 60 years ago – is expected to fetch up to £300,000 at auction.
The 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six was built using a special type of perspex by General Motors and chemical company Rohm and Haas at a cost of £15,000. Dubbed the ‘Ghost Car’ it has clocked up just 140km (86 miles) in its lifetime and is thought to be a visionary in design principles.
‘This motor still turns heads as much as it ever did,’ said a spokesman for RM Auctions which is selling the vehicle in Michigan on July 30. 'The car is in a remarkable state of preservation. It's a testament to the longevity of Plexiglas in an era when automotive plastics tended to self-destruct within a few years. Although it has acquired a few chips and cracks, it is structurally sound and cosmetically clear, showing off the Ghost Car's innards as it did in 1939. It is not, obviously, suited for touring but as a unique artefact from automotive and cultural history.'
The car made its public debut at the New York World Fair in 1939-40 and is just one of two ever made. The model which comes with a three-speed manual gearbox is thought to be the last of its kind.
Ferrari's F12 Berlinetta Ferrari reveals 211mph, 730bhp F12berlinetta ahead of next week's Geneva motor show.
Chris Knapman
29 Feb 2012
Ferrari has taken the wraps off its "most powerful and high-performance" road car ever ahead of next week's Geneva motor show. The mid-front-engined F12berlinetta is powered by the latest development of Ferrari's naturally aspirated 6,262cc V12 engine, which now develops 730bhp at 8,500rpm and 509lb ft of torque at 6,000rpm (80 per cent of which is said to be available from 2,500rpm). The V12 is mated to Ferrari's F1 dual-clutch paddle-shift gearbox and driven through the rear wheels.
The two-seater can accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.1sec and from 0-124mph in 8.5sec and has lapped Ferrari's Fiorano test track in 1min 23sec - that's faster than any other Ferrari road car. Top speed is quoted as over 211mph. Compared with the 599 which it replaces, the F12berlinetta has a shorter wheelbase, while the engine, seats and dashboard are all mounted lower in the chassis. A new layout of rear suspension and gearbox has also helped to keep the new car compact; at 4,618mm long and 1,942mm wide it is significantly smaller than its rival from Sant'Agata, the Lamborghini Aventador.
Rather than using a carbon-fibre monocoque to keep weight down, as Lamborghini has with the Aventador and McLaren with its MP4-12C, Ferrari has instead worked with Scalietti to design an all-new spaceframe chassis using 12 different kinds of alloy and new assembly and joining techniques. The result, according to the Italian car-maker, is a 20 per cent increase in structural rigidity as well as a 70kg reduction in weight (when the car is specified with "lightweight options") to 1,525kg.
The aggressive styling is the result of a collaboration between the Ferrari Styling Centre and Pininfarina and is said to offer "exceptional" in-car space and comfort, despite the car's compact exterior dimensions. On the outside, two new aerodynamic devices help to boost downforce by 76 per cent compared to the 599, as well as cut drag (Ferrari quotes a Cd figure of 0.299). The first is an "Aero Bridge", which consists of two small bonnet mounted flaps that channel air away from the upper part of the car to its flanks where it helps to decrease drag. The second is "Active Brake Cooling", whereby the brake cooling ducts in the front bumper only open when high operating temperatures are sensed, again reducing drag.
Carbon-ceramic brakes, adaptive damping and Ferrari's now familiar electronic control systems (E-Diff, ESP Premium and F1-Trac) complete the package. Ferrari is yet to announce prices, but expect a figure in the region of £250,000. The first cars are due to arrive with customers at the end of this year or beginning of 2013.
A farmer from Beijing has created a 'wind-powered' vehicle that can reach speeds of 140km/h. The vehicle boasts batteries and electric generators, a fan in the front and two 'solar energy wings' on the back to support electricity generation.
Palestinians design solar car to avoid buying petrol from Israel
rt.com
23 August, 2012
Necessity is the mother of invention, and for Palestinians living on the West Bank trying to break their dependence on Israel for energy has resulted in a new solar powered vehicle. The four-seater is covered in solar panels to convert the suns rays into energy to power a small electric motor which pushes the vehicle along at 20 Kph for about 10 hours. And if the sun doesn’t shine it can be plugged into the wall, and the battery recharged from the mains. It looks a bit like an over-sized golf cart and took the Royal Industrial Trading Company around two months and $5000 to develop.
“This car was the first step, and now we are working on two other cars. If the work is successful, then we will do a lot of cars and sell them”, says Nabel Az-Zagheer, chairman of the Royal Industrial Trading Company. Based in the town of Al-Khalil, the company specialises in sanitation and water supply products, and adapted them to create the new vehicle.
A greater use of solar energy could help the people of the West Bank escape escalating energy prices. Israel has control over the fuel supply to the Palestinian population, and according to the Oslo agreements, the Palestinian Authority is obliged not to sell its gasoline for less than 15 percent of Israel’s market price, reports the The Electronic Intifada. "Such supply monopolies are a form of power. They provide easy ways to exert political pressure on the Palestinian Authority and ordinary Palestinians and to enforce their compliance with Israel’s interests", Charles Shamas, a founder of the Mattin Group, a Ramallah-based research and advocacy organization told the Middle East Media Center.
The Palestinians are also heavily dependent on electric power provided by Israel. A power station in Gaza provides some 40% percent of the Strip’s electricity; the rest has to be purchased from Israel. Some small amounts are also sold by Egypt and Jordan. “We want to lower as much as possible our dependence on Israel, because we won’t be able to reach a reasonable level of national security if Israel can, at any point, disconnect our electricity, and even harm the power plant in Gaza, as it did in 2006 as punishment for the abduction of Gilad Shalit,” Hanna Siniora, chairperson of the Palestinian-American Chamber of Commerce, has told Al-Monitor.com
Constantly rising fuel prices affect the cost of basic foodstuffs such as maize, vegetable oil and bread. Palestinian efforts to reduce its dependency on Israeli energy have met strong opposition from Tel Aviv. In March RT reported on Israel’s plans to bulldoze eight solar panels in the West Bank. They were donated by a number of international charities in 2009, yet have were deemed “illegal” by Israeli authorities due to the lack of an appropriate building permit.
The 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel is not connected to the national energy grid. On the other hand, the Jewish settlements in the area are connected to national energy and water grids, reports the Guardian.
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Toyota FT-Bh concept
