Vietnamese traffic lieutenant Nguyen Manh Phan pulled over a bus driver in Hanoi for driving on the wrong side of the road. Instead of cooperating, the driver refused to show his papers and decided instead to flee the scene.
The officer, though, wasn’t keen on seeing driver Phung Hong Phuong get away so easily, so he positioned himself in front of the bus. When the bus began moving, the officer grabbed hold of the windshield wipers and hung on for dear life.
The bus driver did eventually pull over about a kilometer down the road after more officers and civilians pursued, but not before the incident was caught on tape.
Now, having personally visited the country in the last year, believe me when I tell you that traffic laws almost completely go unenforced and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road in Vietnam. In other words, this person must really have been driving dangerously to be singled out. What’s more, he had been released from prison in 2010 for his part in a fatal traffic accident.
The video, along with a news report on the incident, can be seen by .
Vietnamese traffic lieutenant Nguyen Manh Phan pulled over a bus driver in Hanoi for driving on the wrong side of the road. Instead of cooperating, the driver refused to show his papers and decided instead to flee the scene.
The officer, though, wasn’t keen on seeing driver Phung Hong Phuong get away so easily, so he positioned himself in front of the bus. When the bus began moving, the officer grabbed hold of the windshield wipers and hung on for dear life.
The bus driver did eventually pull over about a kilometer down the road after more officers and civilians pursued, but not before the incident was caught on tape.
Now, having personally visited the country in the last year, believe me when I tell you that traffic laws almost completely go unenforced and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road in Vietnam. In other words, this person must really have been driving dangerously to be singled out. What’s more, he had been released from prison in 2010 for his part in a fatal traffic accident.
The video, along with a news report on the incident, can be seen by .
Remember ? Back in the pre-bankruptcy days of late 2008, when the Big Three CEO’s were traveling to Washington to plead their case for funds, Ford’s Alan Mulally, General Motors’ then-CEO Rick Wagoner, and Chrysler’s former chief Bob Nardelli were publicly chastised for flying in corporate jets to the tune of $20,000 per round trip.
Two years earlier, president Mark Fields became a target of outrage when a Detroit-area TV station discovered that to ship Fields between Dearborn and his home in Florida.
Now this: The New York Times is reporting that Ford spent spent $178,571 on personal air travel for Mulally last year. While Ford no longer has a fleet of corporate jets, according to the report, it pays a charter service to transport Mulally and his kin. And that’s not all. Since this benefit is classified as “security measures,” Mulally gets off the hook for paying taxes on it, as he doesn’t have to report the benefit as income, according to the Times. , according to other reports.
While Ford refused comment, the article calls out the company for using this “common corporate tax trick” that it says robs the federal government of tax revenue from CEO’s like Mulally, meaning that taxpayers are essentially subsidizing his perks.
While the report concerns various corporate executives, it singles out Mulally, suggesting that any potential danger to Ford’s CEO has to be less than that posed to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who flies commercial airlines. The Times also says that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs “received no security services from Apple last year before he died.”
Yes, many jokes can be made at the expense of , the UK-based manufacturer of odd-looking vacuums and fans, and its employees. But those hard-working engineers clearly know a thing or two about recombining common parts to find innovative solutions to every day problems.
As hard as they work, they also apparently play hard. Dyson recently held a car challenge for its engineers where the object was to make the fastest car possible using Dyson spare parts and motors from their handheld vacuums. It’s like drag racing for geeks and, true to Dyson form, some of the entrants don’t look like anything resembling a car. to watch Dyson’s engineers cut loose and compete for the quickest times.
You have to love the global auto industry. will be introducing a Chinese-built version of the American , a car that’s based on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, at the on April 23. Dubbed “Viaggio,” production of the new sedan will launch in July, with sales commencing in China by the end of the year.
While Fiat isn’t saying whether the model will be exported from China, the Viaggio will be powered by Fiat’s 1.4-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. Two versions will be available, one making 120 hp and the other 150, with either a five-speed manual or a dual-clutch automatic gearbox. From the teaser images Fiat released, we can see that the car basically looks like a Dart with different front and rear fascias, which give it a somewhat less sporty look. As is Fiat’s way, some tasteful application of chrome makes the Viaggio seem like a more upscale product than the budget-oriented Dodge.
The Italian-American-Chinese mutt will be produced under Fiat’s partnership with Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group. GAC also has joint ventures with , , Isuzu, and (and formerly with Peugeot), giving us cause to wonder whether GAC employs more factory workers or lawyers.
Scroll down to read the full release and be sure to check out our .
Everyone has their ultimate vehicle wish list, and ours is littered with a smattering of models both obscure and asinine. One of the more mainstream sweethearts is the original Lotus Elan. Collin Chapman’s wonderchild remains an impressive performer even today, thanks to its feathery curb weight and the impressive performance on hand. As you may recall, EVO Magazine pitted editorial director Harry Metcalfe’s 1972 Elan Sprint against vehicles like the Toyota MR-2 and back in the early 2000s. Metcalfe still has his tiny yellow convertible and was kind enough to bring a camera along for the roadster’s first run of the spring season.
Weighing in at around 1,500 pounds and packing a surprising 126 horsepower, Metcalfe says the car is still good for sprints to 60 mph in a tick past six seconds. Unburdened by pesky life-saving hardware like crumple zones, steel reinforcements, airbags or any electronic nannies, the plucky little fiberglass creation is also a pretty smart handler even though the model is now officially 50 years old. to check out the video for yourself.
Citroën has finally given the world a closer look at the company’s next DS design study. The French automaker is set to introduce the DS line to China this year, and the Numero 9 design study is set to mark the occasion. Citroën will officially unveil the concept at this month’s Beijing Auto Show, and the manufacturer says the low-slung hatchback’s design hints toward future products, namely a premium c-segment sedan, an SUV (read: crossover) and a larger D-segment four door. All we know is, it looks damn good.
The Numero 9 shooting brake is powered by a plug-inhybrid drivetrain that offers a 31-mile electric range and 295 horsepower. Not too shabby. for an artsy video of the concept as well as the full press release. Of course, you can also sink your teeth into the dizzying slew of photos in the gallery above.
In the automotive realm, there’s nothing quite like the , which, in convertible form, is known as the Grand Sport. With more than a thousand horsepower from its sixteen-cylinder engine and a top speed of well over 200 miles per hour, the Veyron Grand Sport is the fastest and most powerful open-top production road car in the world.
Well… it was the fastest, most powerful open-top production car in the world, until went and created the . This is the topless version of the Veyron that’s been fitted with the 1,200-horsepower engine from the automaker’s Super Sport model. That means it can hit the ludicrous speed of 255 miles per hour – critically beating the regular Veyron by two mph – with nothing over your head but the open sky.
Bugatti has seen fit to honor its Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse with a new video, and we invite you to watch it by . We’ve also embedded three more new videos from Bugatti for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
No matter how hard you try, you can’t out run the Internet. Just ask Bobby Patton. The man thought he could pull a quick one by representing a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle as an incredibly rare, incredibly valuable Z16.
For those of us who aren’t soaked in obscure General Motors model history, Z16 models featured brakes lifted from full-size sedans of the day, a unique rear axle, a stiffer boxed frame borrowed from a convertible and a uniquely trimmed L37 396 V8. Other details like special trim work, badges, VINs and various engine and axle stampings help identify the hopped up Malibu models from their kin.
Patton missed the memo on those details, apparently, opting instead to slap some 396 badges on the fender and call it a day. While that may have been enough to fool a local car show judge, it became an issue when he listed the coupe on an auction site for $100,000. Jeff Helms, the owner of a site dedicated to nothing but Z16 models, quickly pointed out that the Chevelle boasted a fake VIN copied from a photo on his website. Patton then attempted to defend himself, saying he bought the car that way.
Patton closed the auction after four days, but not before the Ohio State Patrol got wind of the suspicious ‘65. Officers contacted the previous owner, who proved the car had been sold with 327 emblems. It didn’t take long for Patton to face charges of Tampering with Records, Possessing Criminal Tools, Telecommunications Fraud and Attempted Simulation. He pleaded guilty to the first charge and received two years of probation. Head over to for the full tale, and remember, the Internet is watching.
No, that is not the world’s most awesome Michigan Wolverines beer pong table. It’s a million-dollar race car that’s powered by the sun, and in the most recent epsiode of Translogic, our sister site visits the University of Michigan Solar Car Team to learn all about it.
The Wolverines have been racing in international solar car competitions since 1989, having built 11 cars in the past 23 years. They’ve won the North American Solar Challenge six times, including the last three in a row, and will be defending their title this July. The team finished third in the last year in Australia, and is currently working on a new car design for the 2013 event.
The car itself, dubbed Quantum, is a poem to minimalism, light weight and efficiency. It can run at over 100 miles per hour, thanks to its ultra-efficient, 12-horsepower, in-hub electric motor and a low curb weight of just 320 pounds.
to watch the full episode and see the U of M team in action.
If you’ve ever tried installing an infant car seat in say, a , you understand that just because a car has LATCH anchors doesn’t mean your car seat is going to fit. Those anchors are supposed to make child restraint installation a breeze, but according to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, many automakers aren’t following the spirit of the law requiring them.
The study looked at the 98 top-selling vehicles from 2010-2011 and found just 21 that met its criteria for having “easy-to-use” LATCH hardware. Making the list were the ; ; , , and ; ; , and ; and ; ; ; ; ; and ; and ; and .
The researchers used a test fixture that adhered to guidelines developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers to develop three criteria for evaluation. The first was having anchors that were easy to see and not buried beneath rear seat cushions. The second was having the LATCH attachment points unobstructed by seatbelts, foam or other parts of the seat. The third was that adults could correctly install the seats using less than 40 pounds of force.
While the study found that the majority of models didn’t nail all three criteria, the list of vehicles that didn’t meet any of them was much shorter: ; ; ; and ; ; and .
to see a video about LATCH and read the full release from IIHS.
It’s no secret that the is an Americanized version of the Opel Insignia, and even uses this fact to try and persuade the public that the car is a European sport sedan rather than just a way to try and make some profit from the black-ink-challenged Opel unit. The Opel Insignia is headed for a mid-cycle facelift very soon, and camoflaged test cars have been snagged by spy photographers.
While the models in the photographs are a European-spec hatchback and a wagon, there’s clearly a new grille in the works, and the headlights and tail lamps will be changed, plus some other minor nips/tucks. The Insignia will debut the changes first, and we’d expect the Regal to pick them up soon after.
On the surface, drag racing seems so simple. Apply right foot liberally, keep the vehicle pointed down track and wait for a quarter mile to pass. Unfortunately, the real world is rarely so black and white. Pesky details like applied horsepower, traction and the fallibility of materials results in all manner of challenges. Just ask the driver of the in the video . Shortly after launch, the high-horsepower machine sheds its left axle. With a massive racing slick under full thrust, the resulting carnage is, well, impressive.
The video is a pleasant rarity in the drag racing universe. Not only are we afforded a look at the ensuing drama from inside the cockpit, but a solid look at just how quickly a situation can turn hairy from outside as well. for yourself.
The doesn’t have the kind of power that results in jaw-dropping dyno numbers, but any naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four cylinder that promises 200 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque needs to be vetted out.
The good people at Edmunds did the vetting, and the hotly anticipated model performed, well, predictably. The FR-S delivered what Edmunds called “the most repeatable runs on the dyno of any car in recent memory,” with peak wheel power measuring 173 horsepower at 7,000 RPM and 143 pound-feet of torque at 2,500 revolutions. Keep in mind that these numbers are at the wheels, not at the crankshaft where factory numbers are recorded.
One interesting stat that showed up on the line graph was a 14-percent drop in torque between 3,200 and 4,500 RPM. This was reportedly done by engineers on purpose to increase driving pleasure lower in the rev range, which sounds like a solid compromise to us. to watch the video, and make sure to turn up your speakers for optimal boxer four enjoyment.
Back in 2010, the small Dutch producer of exotic GTs bought an ailing from and proceeded to focus all its energies on keeping it afloat. And as if to reflect that shift in focus, changed its name to Swedish Automobile NV – or SWAN for short.
Now that Saab has gone bankrupt, however, the Dutch holding company has officially changed its name back to Spyker. Just what that means, however, when the cars are built in the UK by CPP and the sportscar business was sold last year to North Street Capital, remains to be seen.
It may be a bit of stretch to call a McLaren F1 “priceless”, but finding an owner willing to part with his can be a challenge for even the most determined (and cash-rich) collector. But just such an opportunity is coming around the corner at Bonhams’ upcoming auction at the Quail Lodge in August. While every McLaren F1 is a rare bird indeed, this one is even more so.
Even more extreme than the road-going supercar on which it was based, the McLaren F1 GTR emerged as a dominant force in endurance racing in the late 1990s. The F1 GTR proved so successful, in fact, that despite being categorized in the GT classes of production-based racers, it eclipsed the purpose-built prototypes to claim overall victory at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans.
All told, McLaren only built 28 examples of the F1 GTR – of which only ten were the aerodynamically-optimized Longtail versions – and this was the very last of them. Built in 1997, chassis 028R contested the FIA GT Championship at the Nurburgring, the A1-Ring, Donington, Spa, Mugello, Sebring, Laguna Seca and Suzuka.
Decked out in Gulf and Davidoff race livery, it’ll go to the top bidder at The Quail, but we dare not venture a guess as to how much he or she will have to pay for the privilege – but the last time this car went up for sale, the asking price was nearly $4 million. Feel free to read more about the car in the press release .
We don’t envy local law enforcement, especially in a city like Richmond, Virginia. Charged with keeping the public safe from a variety of ill forces, the job is about as thankless as they come. Recently, the RPD has adopted a new initiative in an attempt to curb vehicle break-ins. Officers on the night shift now check vehicles for valuables left in plain sight, and when they find them, the police stop by the vehicle’s owner’s home for a little chat. All of these “wake up calls” are most likely to occur between midnight and 4:00 a.m. in order to teach car owners a lesson about protecting themselves from crime.
While removing or stashing high-dollar electronics before leaving your car parked overnight may seem like simple common sense, critics of the plan suggest that punishing those who refuse or forget to do so with a late-night wake-up call is beyond the scope of law enforcement – particularly as it applies to vehicles parked on private property. Watch the WBBC 12 NBC local news report on the initiative by , then voice your opinion in our poll and in Comments.
There’s nothing at all wrong with spending a large sum of money on a nice garage. After all, you need a good, safe place to keep your two- and four-wheeled belongings, right? And, assuming you’ve got the disposable income and lots of toys, we suppose even a multi-million-dollar garage is within the boundaries of acceptability… even if that’s 25 times the average cost of a new home in America.
and you’ll find a video from HGTV’s program, hosted by Carter Oosterhouse, in which a $6 million garage is featured in all its glory. The first portion of the garage is pretty nice, housing a large collection of (sigh… mostly unridden) motorcycles, but that’s not what makes this garagemahal stand out from the crowd.
That would be the massive hydraulic elevator used to access the garage’s lower portion. We’ll let you all decide whether or not this garage is worth its cost, or whether or not it’s filled with a properly exotic batch of vehicles. All you gotta do is watch the video , then let us know what you think in the Comments.
Many countries have produced supercars with price tags that dip into the six figures, but that rare breed of exotic that fetches upwards of a quarter million is all but completely exclusive to Europe: , and Pagani out of Italy, from France, McLaren and higher-end models of Britain, top-of-the-line offerings from Germany, Koenigsegg of Sweden and so on. That’s what makes the so exceptional. It extends beyond the Acura NSX and the that previously defined the top end of Japanese supercars and joins its European rivals at the very top of the market. But that, we’re reading, is only the beginning.
According to a shadowy anonymous source cornered by AutoGuide, Toyota is already working on a successor to the LFA, and their mole says the car will be even more exotic, more powerful and more expensive. Just what that entails when the LFA is already limited to 500 examples, packs a 552-horsepower 4.8-liter V10 and costs $375,000 has us conjuring up images of an animé take on the . AG suggests the car could nudge the million-dollar mark with production limited to just 100 examples.
Could it be a ? It’s probably too early to tell. In fact, we’re going to go ahead and take this entire rumor with a few shakers-worth of salt and advise you to consider doing the same.
If you were confused when we chose the as the (behind the itself) at the , then maybe you’re not familiar with the Viper’s racing pedigree. Fortunately, the American Le Mans Series has produced this excellent mini documentary that helps explain why the Viper’s return to racing is a very big deal.
While the Viper had been racing in various series both domestic and international before entering the inaugural season of ALMS in 1999, it began a streak in this fledgeling North American motorsport that was, in a word, dominant. During the 1999 season, Team Oreca won six ALMS races in a row in the GTS class with their Viper GTS-R racecar. The only reason the team didn’t sweep the eight-race season is because they missed the first two races. Team Oreca and the original Viper GTS-R came close to sweeping the 2000 season, though, winning eight of ten races, only falling twice to their arch rivals from Corvette Racing. Their winning streak spanned two seasons and 12 consecutive races. They also won their class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Unfortunately, factory support for the program ended in 2001 and the Viper’s dominance quickly evaporated as private teams could not match Team Oreca’s OEM-backed success. Still, under the wing of Team Oreca and backed by Dodge, the Viper GTS-R amassed an impressive record of 16 race wins in 18 starts. And that’s why the car’s return to ALMS’ GT class is a very big deal. Check out the video .
