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The vehicle plays the music in the new video from OK Go in conjunction with Chevrolet. This took four months of preparation and four days of shooting. From their website:
So let’s not forget the true meaning of Sunday — OK Go in a super-hacked Chevy Sonic, playing 288 guitars, 55 pianos, and 1,157 homemade instruments while Damian acts as a stunt driver. (He took lessons.) It’s truly the little things that are meaningful.
This is the 1957 Aurora. We will never know what the public would have thought about it, as only one prototype was built, and it didn’t work well enough to make it to its own press conference. Now wait, before you argue that the Aurora can’t be the world’s ugliest car, check out the huge collection of ugly cars at Dark Roasted Blend. They are all ugly in their own ways. Link
(Image credit: GATSBY Magazine)
It’s especially good when something like this happens. The scam artists in the BMW backed up and caused the “accident,” but anyone coming in afterward would assume that the front car was rear-ended. Notice the moment when our driver points out that all this is being recorded. -via reddit
Maybe the driver was distracted by reading the sign… If anyone knows where this picture was taken or who the photographer is, please let us know. And drive carefully! Link
The LA Times has a three-part series on used car dealers who make a great profit on old cars sold at high interest rates to people who can’t afford them, but have little choice.
In this little-known but fast-growing corner of the auto market, dealers command premium prices for road-worn vehicles and finance the sales at interest rates that can top 30%.
In a kind of financial alchemy, they have found a way to turn clunkers into cash cows and make money off the least creditworthy customers: the millions of Americans who are stuck in low-paying jobs, saddled with debt and unable to qualify for conventional auto loans.
For most of those people, having a car is the only way to stay employed, and they’ll accept almost any terms to get one.
Buy Here Pay Here lots sold nearly 2.4 million cars nationwide last year, up from 1.3 million a decade ago, according to CNW Marketing Research.
The mechanics of the business are laid out in the first part, and there is a link to today’s followup, with the conclusion to be posted on Thursday. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Lorena Iñiguez Elebee)
Emergency crews responded to a report of a driverless car running amok in Wildwood, New Jersey on Sunday. Wildwood Fire Captain Chris D’Amico eventually stopped the vehicle.
“I’ve never corralled a car before,” D’Amico said.
D’Amico said that he found an opportunity to jump into the passenger-side window while he was standing inside the circle the car was making.
The empty older model Ford Thunderbird took to the road on its own when the driver got out of the car in order to switch seats with his passenger, officials said
The car’s passenger suffered minor injuries when he tried to jump back in the car earlier.
Comments at the story recalled Ford having recalls of vehicles from that era that would slip out of park into reverse gear. Link -via Smart Stop
To inaugurate the new partnership between LEGOland and Ford, engineers built a Ford Explorer out of LEGO bricks for the theme park in Florida. It probably took them a long time to put the 380,000 bricks together, but thanks to time=lapse video, you can watch it in about 90 seconds. -via Buzzfeed
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Although only in a concept stage, the Flake car by designer DaFeng is–for the lack of a better word–cool–or at least it looks really cool! The plan is to cover a vehicle in carbon-fiber pieces with each one connected by carbon nanotubes that will allow the individual scales to adjust the car by creating drag on whatever side the car needs control or to stand up in order to slow it down. See the complete project including a video of the concept car in action at DaFeng’s blog. Be sure and check out the wheels, called “D-Wheels” which operate like tank tracks.
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Yabba dabba do! You can get your very own Fred Flintstone replica automobile for the rock-bottom price of 2,200 Euros. Yes, it’s a automobile, with a motor, so you don’t have to power it with your two feet. It does have rollers instead of wheels, a cloth top, a wooden bench seat, and environmentally-friendly natural air conditioning. It’s not clear whether this vehicle has an odometer, but the Paris owner says it has traveled 80,000 kilometers. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Does this remind you of a certain Imperial Walker from the movie The Empire Strikes Back? In 1962, General Electric conceived the Cybernetic Anthropmorophous Machine (CAM), which became known as the Walking Truck.
The Army liked what GE had been testing and awarded a contract for building the experimental vehicle in 1966, a year after America began sending troops to Vietnam. But the same super-sensitive, hand-and-foot-controlled hydraulics that enabled the CAM to casually push aside a jeep, or gently paw a GE light bulb without breaking it, also made it impractical for prolonged battlefield use. Operators found the constant manipulation of the controls very fatiguing, leading the project to be mothballed.
In additional to the fictional AT-AT, this reminds us of BigDog from Boston Dynamics. See more pictures of the CAM at GE Reports. Link
Tuesday morning, Eric Ford’s girlfriend found that a window had been broken and her multimedia system had been stolen from her vehicle. Several iPods and some money were also taken. Ford then went to his job installing car stereos at Mobile Audio Designs in Lincoln, Nebraska.
From there, the story goes where one might expect it to go.
Anthony Trang, 21, 2912 Beacon Hills Circle, asked Ford to install some cables to a DVD player in his car.
“Yeah, man, just bring the DVD player in here,” Ford said he told him.
Trang did, and there was the Clarion NX501 deck Ford had told police was stolen Tuesday morning.
Ford’s reaction: “You gotta be kidding me.”
Ford called police, who arrested Trang on suspicion of theft. Link
(Image credit: Clarion)
These Dutch automotive engineers chopped up a Volkswagen Golf and it became the Mini-Golf. Then they added roll bars and it became the Rollgolf! See more videos at mastermilo82′s YouTube channel. Link -via Everlasting Blort
Comments Off This snow vehicle is an example of a screw-propelled vehicle.
In the 1920s the Armstead Snow Motor was developed. When this was used to convert a Fordson tractor into a screw-propelled vehicle with a single pair of cylinders, the combination became known as the Fordson Snow Devil. A film was made to show the capabilities of the vehicle as well as a Chevrolet car fitted with an Armstead Snow Motor.[6] The film clearly shows that the vehicle copes well in snow. Steering was effected by having each cylinder receive power from a separate clutch which, depending on the position of the steering gear, engages and disengages; this results in a vehicle that is relatively maneuverable. The promotional film shows the Armstead snow motor hauling 20 tons of logs.
Link -via Everlasting Blort
Terry Hope was presented with a challenge. He was working aboard an 88-foot sailboat and the captain would not let him bring a standard electric scooter on board. The only way he could have one is if it were to fit into a suitcase, and it had to be rechargeable off the grid. So he developed the Hybrid Electric Kinetic Photovoltaic Vehicle you see here! The battery is recharged with both solar and kinetic power -and it folds up. Get the specs at his website. Link -Thanks, Terry!
If you buy me one of these Fiberglass Freaks drivable 1966 Batmobile replicas, I promise to use it for good, not evil! Only 8 cars a year will be manufactured by Mark Racop’s Indiana shop. These accurately detailed replicas come with all the features a crimefighter needs to respond to the bat signal including a Batphone and a working flame thrower out the rear! Get a closer look at these officially licensed Batmobiles and some of the awesome details with lots more pictures at our Spotlight Blog. Link
Update: The very first officially licensed Batmobile is up for sale at eBay now. -Thanks, Mark!
At one time the car bra was a popular automobile accessory. I don’t see so many car owners buying them lately. But in the late 1980s, this cartoon of a matching set of car panties and bra that I drew for Road & Track magazine was topical.
Yet this is not the kind of car drawers I am thinking about today. Rather, I am interested in discussing possibilities for new types of pullout drawers, cabinets, trunks and beds for cars and trucks.
As cars have become an essential component of our 24/7 lifestyles – only in a few places like New York City is it feasible to live without owning or driving a car – it should theoretically be possible to make them more accommodating to our needs, with some of the features we expect in a home or apartment. For instance, our homes have drawers and closets. In the early 1980s I showed what closet cars might look like. Admittedly this was one of my more sexist drawings from a present-day viewpoint; it made more sense 30 years ago than it does now.
Closet Cars would look like roving closets. Clothes could hang nicely, without having to be folded flat on a back seat or hung from a hook, obscuring the driver’s view. The car would provide numerous handy drawers for storing shoes and clothing. Jewelry and valuables would probably be kept at home and not in the top drawer of a Closet Car, however.
A pickup bed can be viewed as just another kind of drawer that can be designed in different configurations. In the Double Bed Pickup Truck, a redesign of the standard pickup truck is imagined. The height of the car seat is raised and the hood is made into an ancillary box that is actually a pullout pickup bed. Access to the engine bay is still possible when the “hood” is pulled forward. Perhaps readers who are car buffs will point out that such a design would disturb a vehicle’s balance, which in modern vehicles would seriously affect the delicate power apportioning of the power brake system, as well as the airbag settings. The truck would ride differently depending on whether yard clippings or sand filled the front bed.
Though this drawing was created in the early 1990s, I believe there now exist systems similar to this that allow for extension of the pickup bed by some means. Recently, several car manufacturers offered four-door passenger vehicles with a short pickup bed in place of a trunk.
I have studied possible ways of adding drawers and cabinets accessible from the exterior of a passenger vehicle. The main flaw in these drawer ideas, as I see it, arises if a drawer becomes jammed or broken. This is a potential design weakness. A drawer that was not properly shut, and that has swung out when the car turned a corner, could be a problem. Minor accidents, which would be dubbed “drawer-bender” accidents, could permanently jam a drawer, blocking access to its contents. It would be a big concern, for example, if a laptop with files needed for a PowerPoint presentation within a half-hour, or a decaying salmon bought fresh at the fish market, were rendered inaccessible. The services of a Body, Fender and Drawer repair shop would be required immediately.
Yet in spite of weaknesses that I have enumerated, I am not yet ready to give up on the idea of car drawers or cabinets. Utility trucks have exterior cabinet doors for tools and supplies, so why couldn’t a family sedan?
Consider the Picnicar, for example. Rooftop solar panels would help power small, insulated coolers and refrigerators accessible from the side of the vehicle. A handheld remote would unlock the cabinet doors. The elegant convenience of the exterior cabinets would be a selling point for this car. Perhaps there would be problems from wine connoisseur-car thieves who might try to pry open the exterior wine cabinets to see if rare wines are hidden inside. There is plenty to think about here!
Visit Steven M. Johnson at his website.
Have you ever wished your car had eyelashes? Now it can! Carlashes attach to your car with tape and won’t damage the paint. It will give your car that totally unnecessary feminine look. Link -via The Daily What
This camper vehicle for one is called the Bufalino. German designer Cornelius Comanns based it on the Piaggio APE 50 three-wheeled light transport vehicle for its size and economy. Part of the bed you see here folds up to make a driver’s seat. See more pictures at DesignBoom. Link -via Unique Daily
This old car was bought sight unseen off Craigslist because it was cheap. I think someone many years ago tried to make this resemble another famous car. What do you think? -via Cynical-C
Where I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles there is a small – admittedly very small – chance I will be shot at while driving or riding in a car on the freeway. For reasons not clear to me, some young men enjoy shooting at other young men. Some even enjoy shooting at strangers. I am getting pretty tired of all the violence in our culture! One of my solutions for the freeway shooters is to give them their own freeway. This would be a toll road where one pays for the privilege of smashing and damaging other cars and even harming the cars’ occupants. It is likely that my fussy rules – “No Smashing or Squirting Above 30 MPH” – would be ignored by drivers who are already prone to breaking rules. The toll booth operator would look for the words “Road Violence Certified” on the driver’s license and require the driver to sign a waiver exempting other drivers from responsibility for property damage to his car, bodily injury or death to his person or passengers. The toll road would be walled off from nearby bedroom communities, though the sound of screeching tires, and violent thudding would be audible from backyards at all hours. Perhaps at times gunfire would be heard. If this sounds like science fiction, I can attest that while I live in a “good” neighborhood of Los Angeles, one that is relatively safe, it adjoins a “bad” neighborhood where the sound of gunshots, especially at night, is not uncommon. 
The existence of this special freeway would of course stimulate a small industry devoted to the design of protective grating, cladding, and roll bars, as well as offensive weapons that would be guaranteed to dent vehicles or ruin paint jobs. 
The least offensive weapon would be the squirt cannon. Some cannons would be oversized versions of a child’s squirt gun, while others would be powerful and might be capable of shooting liquids that peel car paint. 
Perhaps there would be participants – new to Car Wars – who would naively think it fun to bring the entire family along for an afternoon at the Car Wars Toll Road. That would be the last time they brought the wife and kids! Here the car owner is shown filling his squirt cannon for the first time. 
Designing a vehicle that could inflict harm, yet remain relatively unharmed itself would be a challenge. My sketches explore both offensive and defensive modifications. The latter include window bars, cladding, heavy armor and spiky projections from a car’s body. 
A Bonger Car, named for the sound it makes when its “bonger” arm smashes a car’s reinforced metal roof, would dent or smash in the roof of a nearby vehicle, but unless it was protected in some way, it would be easily damaged in a retaliatory attack. The protected Bonger Car may look silly, but it sustains less damage than when unprotected. Exiting the car following an afternoon at the Car Wars may require outside assistance.
Visit Steven M. Johnson at his website.
This car is called the T25. Designed by Formula One engineer Gordon Murray, it weighs only 1,200 pounds and can seat three people (although one or two would be more comfortable). It is expected to get 74 miles to the gallon and cost around $9,000, thanks to the highly-efficient iStream manufacturing technology.
The cars are built using an efficient process that first attaches most of the car’s parts to the chassis, and then adds a pre-painted body as a last step, similar to the way Formula One vehicles are built.
Look at the gallery below, and you’ll see that the car is so tiny that three of them can fit into a single parallel parking space. If all cars were this size, we’d live in a utopian energy-saving world.
The T25 should be available in two years, with an all-electric version, the T27, following later. Link
What’s this for? I don’t know! Ain’t it cool, though? Still, it might be better with some music. -via Gorilla Mask
You knew it was coming sooner or later. The geniuses from Eepybird, who made an art form out of the Mentos/Diet Coke phenomenon, have harnessed their creation to propel a vehicle. Link -via Unique Daily
This guy has a small car, for a good reason. The car is 1.49 meters wide. The garage is 1.55 meters wide. You don’t have to understand Flemish to know what this video is about. Note how he manages to get out of the car! -via Cynical-C
An unnamed 28-year-old man was driving over a bridge in Roseville, California when his phone activated and startled him. He drove his station wagon into Pleasant Grove Creek, where it sank six to eight feet under water.
The Roseville Fire Department said the man used his handgun to shoot out his vehicle window, giving himself an opportunity to escape and swim to safety.
The man flagged down a passing vehicle and was treated for minor injuries by emergency crews.
Remember that tip the next time you drive into a body of water. Link -via Arbroath
Neiman Marcus always has some over-the-top offerings for Christmas -after all, that’s the only reason some folks look at the catalog. This year, how about a cupcake car for only $25,000? Designed by artist Lisa Pongrace, the cupcake runs on electricity and has a top speed of seven miles per hour. Your purchase will be decorated in your favorite flavors. Link -via Buzzfeed
Italian artist Lyle Rowell rides slowly on a 1,900 pound mechanical animal that breathes fire! It walks on two front legs and rolls on two back wheels. He calls it Lrry.
The contraption is the product of four months of Rowell “crawling around in the scrap and dirt” to gather parts that he liked. He took an engine from an old Volkswagen Bug–like Citroën and stuffed it into two chopped-up and welded-together motorcycle frames. Aside from propane for Lrry’s fire breath, Rowell was able to scrounge up nearly every part, all the way down to the linkages and sprockets.
The beast spits fire from the back end, too. Link (with video) -via Metafilter
(image credit: Elle Dunn)
