A driverless John Deere tractor went into destruction derby mode outside a parking lot in Richmond Hill, Ontario.The culprit responsible is still unknown however all the carnage was captured by onlookers who watched helplessly as the tractor ploughed through several parked cars including a Suzuki XS4 and a Toyota Corolla.Not even the building was enough to stop the rampage as the vehicle ripped holes straight into its walls.Eventually the tractor ran into a lamp post which slowed it enough for one individual to jump on board and turn it off.
A homeless Brazilian man set out to build the car he couldn’t afford with nothing more than a hammer, a chisel, junk and spare parts.“Nobody believed, everybody laughed at me,” said Orismar de Souza. “I was very humbled by this, but I won and I built my car alone with my own hands.”After four years of panhandling in the Brazilian city of Sao Jose de Piranha, Souza managed to raise an initial $270 for sheet metal which he painfully cut into shape using a borrowed hammer and chisel. He later scrounged for car parts across the city junkyards and even found a working 125cc motorcycle engine.Souza had no experience working with metal or car mechanics and almost gave up several times when the work became too difficult with no regular food or shelter to sustain him.In the end, Souza was able to replace the motorcycle kickstart system with a makeshift car ignition and even added a gearbox with reverse.The ‘shrimpmobile’ as it is affectionately called, can reach up to 80km/h and has helped Souza find a home and job in the local sugarcane fields.His next goal is to build a garage for his beloved car.
Ford Australia has designed two new Interceptors to celebrate the revival of the new Mad Max film, tentatively called Mad Max 4: Fury Road.It has been more than 30 years since director George Miller first released the original Mad Max movie which starred Mel Gibson and the classic jet black Ford XB coupe-based Interceptor.Ford Australia’s Design Director, Chris Svensson, was thrilled at the opportunity to design a 21st century concept of the Interceptor.“Our entire team was very excited to be involved in this after-hours project and they approached it with a great deal of enthusiasm – even those that were too young to remember the first Mad Max movie,” said Ford Australia’s Design Director Chris Svensson.Led by chief designer passenger cars Asia, Pacific and Africa, Todd Willing, the team created several way-out concepts that pay homage to styling cues from the original XB Coupe Interceptor.What’s your say? Do you like the all-new look of the Interceptor or do you prefer the classic design?
Brazilian scientists may not want your next car to be a lemon just more like a pineapple or a banana. That’s because new research has developed a more effective way to use fibers from these fruits and other plants to create a whole new generation of automotive plastics that are stronger, lighter and more eco-friendly to the environment.These fibers, called nanocellulose, are extracted from fruits like bananas and pineapples and are in actual fact super-strong and almost as stiff as Kevlar. Unlike Kevlar and other traditional plastics, which are made from petroleum or natural gas, nanocellulose fibers are completely renewable.“The properties of these plastics are incredible,” Alcides Leao of Sao Paulo State University in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said in a statement. “They are light, but very strong — 30 percent lighter and three to four times stronger. We believe that a lot of car parts, including dashboards, bumpers, side panels, will be made of nano-sized fruit fibers in the future.”Other direct benefits include fuel economy, as the fruit fiber material would reduce the overall weight of the vehicle. The nanocellulose reinforced plastics have mechanical advantages too such as greater resistance to damage from heat, spilled gasoline, water and oxygen.Cellulose is the main material that makes up the wood in trees and other parts of plants. Its ordinary-size fibers have been used for centuries to make paper, extracted from wood that is ground up and processed.However only recently have scientists discovered that intensive processing of wood releases ultra-small, “nano” cellulose fibers, so tiny that 50,000 could fit inside across the width of a single strand of human hair.Like fibers made from glass, carbon and other materials, nanocellulose fibers can be added to raw material used to make plastics, producing reinforced plastics that are stronger and more durable.“So far, we’re focusing on replacing automotive plastics,” said Leao. “But in the future, we may be able to replace steel and aluminum automotive parts using these plant-based nanocellulose materials.”Automotive manufacturers are already testing nanocellulose-reinforced plastics, Leao predicts they would be in use within two years.
The official number has never been revealed, but a new report suggests the New South Wales Government will soon do away with its margin of error on speeding offences.A new report claims that a leaked cabinet document, obtained this week but dated December 9 last year, points to a decision to put an end to the “internal and undisclosed tolerance” for speeding vehicles.According to the document, the existing margin of error is a 3km/h leeway beyond the alleged speed recorded by fixed and mobile ‘safety’ cameras.The move has been criticised by an unnamed senior Sydney police officer who told Fairfax that the change left motorists vulnerable to fines simply by fitting new tyres, potentially throwing the reading of their speedometer out by a few kilometres per hour.It is unclear when the new rule will come into effect, or if it has been applied already.The changes are tied to the introduction of digital safety cameras in New South Wales early last year, which the NSW RTA claims are capable of providing a more accurate recording.Debate over the margin of error for speeding fines has raged for years, with the 10 percent tolerance allowed by the Australian Design Rules changing in 2006 from a vehicle’s speedometer reading, to the actual vehicle speed.In Victoria, the official tolerance was revealed by the State Government in 2007 to be 2km/h for fixed cameras and 3km/h for mobile speed cameras. A discretionary tolerance can also be applied.What’s your say? Should there be zero tolerance for speeding?
Don’t look for this one in showrooms. With 205kW coursing through its highly tuned and modified naturally-aspirated 2.0 litre Mazda engine, Mazda’s UK arm says this is the most powerful Mazda MX-5 ever built.There might be some aftermarket tuners that would dispute that claim, but partner Jota Sport is standing by the MX-5 GT as not only the most powerful, but also the lightest MX-5 getting around.Developed for competition in the 2011 Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship, the MX-5 GT weighs in at just 850kg – well short of the nearly 1100kg weight of the regular road-going MX-5.Much of that reduced weight is thanks to the race car’s stripped interior, along with a quick acid bath that saw 15kg chemically separated from the car’s shell.“The MX-5 production race car’s modest power output, bullet proof reliability and nimble handling demonstrated last year how the MX-5 can be competitive against some of the purpose-built Lotus, VW and BMW race cars,” Mazda UK’s Graeme Fudge said.Jota says the MX-5 GT is 17 times stronger than the FIA’s requirements, with 400 hours invested in body strengthening and driver safety alone.Through the combination of its light-weight build and the 205kW engine, the MX-5 GT hits 96km/h (60mph) in just 3.0 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 257km/h.The topless but well-caged Mazda also gets track-specific suspension, competition alloy wheels and tyres and a performance brake system.“With a higher power output combined with the durability, reliability and handling attributes that the MX-5 is renowned for; the MX-5 GT race car will be strong contender against the more powerful race cars in its class,” Fudge added.
It’s a partnership most buyers outside of South Korea won’t know about: French carmaker Renault and electronics giant Samsung. Officially a subsidiary of the European brand, the Renault Samsung brand represents the interests of Renault in the Korean market.Despite much of its range coming from the Nissan catalogue (also a Renault partner), the company is in the process of switching to Renault platforms, and the upcoming second-generation SM7 forms part of that evolution.Shown here as a concept illustration, the new Renault Samsung SM7 will arrive next year, replacing the first-generation model which has been on the market since 2004.While the current model is little more than a lightly modified Nissan Maxima (Teana in Japan), Renault Samsung says the 2012 SM7 will be an all-new model built on an extended version of the platform underpinning the Renault Latitude (due in Australia this year).For now, Renault says there are no plans for a wider international debut for the new SM7.However, with the Latitude beginning life in South Korea as the SM5 before making its way to the global market, there is potential for the new SM7 to make the same leap.
Toyota Australia thinks it might be onto a winner with the Prius C city car, revealed in concept form earlier this year ahead of its 2012 production debut.Before it locks the car in for a local launch however, Toyota will show the Prius C at Melbourne’s Australian International Motor Show in July to gauge the compact hybrid’s appeal among Australian buyers.David Buttner, Toyota Australia Senior Executive Director for Sales and Marketing, believes the urban appeal of the Prius C would go a long way towards beating down stigma and increasing the acceptance of hybrid cars.“We are bringing it [the Prius C concept] to the Australian motor show to test its appeal among buyers who we expect will come from a different group to those attracted to the current Prius,” Mr Buttner said today.“They are compact-car buyers, including young singles and couples, who want a mainstream city car that provides outstanding fuel economy while being fun to drive.”Like the nearly identical FT-CH concept before it, the Prius C is around 560mm shorter than the regular Toyota Prius. It maintains nearly all of the larger Prius car’s width however, with only 25mm cut from its sides.While an Australian launch for the stylish and frugal city car may hinge on the response to its tour of Melbourne, the little Prius C is already scheduled for a US market launch in the first half of 2012.What’s your say? Would you buy it?
FORD HAS confirmed that Jacques Villeneuve won’t return to the Gold Coast 600 this year, and it has also given up on its push to have him here full-time.Ford motorsport manager Chris Styring was trying to lure Villeneuve to race at this year’s Bathurst and Phillip Island endurance races, couldn’t raise the money required to meet the 1997 world champion’s demands.Styring wouldn’t give a figure, but AA understands Villeneuve wanted around $300,000 to race at the enduros – an amount Ford couldn’t afford on its own.“He was pretty frustrated and disappointed that we couldn’t make it happen this year,” Styring told AA.“Naturally he’s a top calibre driver and the money wasn’t ridiculous sums but in fairness, someone of that calibre, an ex-world champion and Indy 500 winner, you have to pay accordingly. I’m very disappointed that we can’t have him out here.I think he would have done a great job at Bathurst and Phillip Island. He had every potential to drive full-time in 2012, so it would have been a good opportunity to get him to cut his teeth in those races, but the opportunity just wasn’t there.”Styring requested V8 Supercars’ assistance in fund-raising to afford Villeneuve, but V8 Supercars was reluctant to help.“I’m disappointed that this didn’t come off and V8s are, rightly so, having a strategy where they want to expand the sport.That is of great interest to Ford Motor Company and we’re very much behind it. To have a driver of Villeneuve’s calibre in the series permanently for 2011 or 2012, is a fantastic opportunity and I think that if a little bit more assistance from V8s was forthcoming, this could have been a reality.”
Jenson Button and Craig Lowndes created history yesterday, swapping their Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 and Vodafone Triple 888 V8 Supercars to sample Bathurst’s legendary Mount Panorama circuit.
Button clocked an unofficial best lap of 1:48.3 in his F1 car, before Lowndes shocked the crowd by posting a time only one second slower. Either laptime smashes the previous best lap around the track, a 2:06.8012, which was posted by Lowndes in practice for last year’s Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race.Lowndes headed to Europe in 1997 to chase his own F1 dreams, and was teammate to Juan Pablo Montoya in Formula 3000, but returned to Australia after finding little success.
