Tag: Motors

Sloot Motor: the motorcycle that tuns on swamp gas

Robin

Gijs Schalkx, a Dutch inventor and engineering student, modified his motorcycle to run on methane harvested from roadside bogs and ponds. Rightly named “Sloot Motor”, because sloot means ‘ditch’ in Dutch, ingenious vehicle features a modified Honda GX160 motorcycle engine, with a hole into the airbox, through which it receives the methane. The genial inventor than hooks a balloon filled with methane to the hole, which acts as the fuel tank. Of course the engine starts with gasoline but, once it starts, it uses the methane to keep going. However,…

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Big Wind: the most powerful firetruck ever built

Robin

What to you get if you combine an old Soviet tank with two Soviet jet engines and a lot of water? The Big Wind, a fire truck capable of stopping oil well fires all by itself! It was February 1991, near the end of the Gulf War, when the retreating Iraqi army set over 700 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire, thus creating the desert into an almost apocalyptic landscape. Up to six million barrels of oil burned every day for 30 weeks, sending flames as high as 90 meters into…

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The chinese man who used Lamborghini exhaust to cook world’s most expensive skewered meat

Robin

Recently a young Lamborghini owner in China got his own minute of internet fame by trying to barbecue some skewered pork with the car’s fiery exhaust (and incurring about $80,000 in repair costs). The curious “cooking show” took place when a group was gathered around an orange Lamborghini in an underground garage in Changsha, Hunan Province. Out of nowhere, the sports car owner and his friend decided it would be pretty cool if they could cook their skewered meat using their car’s exhaust, in what many have called the world’s…

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Mao Mao, the feline car model that earns more than most humans

Robin

Mao Mao, a two-year-old British Shorthair from Chongqing, China, works as a professional cat model and earns between 5,000 yuan ($775) and 10,000 yuan (1,550) per appearance. Mao Mao’s rise to fame was somewhat of an accident: her owner, a man surnamed Zheng, works in the automotive industry, and during an auto show he had the brilliant idea of putting his pet cat into one of the cars. That immediately drew a crowd of people who couldn’t wait to take a photo of the cute feline and share it on…

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Maxus V90 Life Home Villa Edition: the van Camper that comes with a second storey and an elevator

Robin

If you’re in the market for the most sumptuous motorhome money can buy, and a luxury truck-shaped camper is not for you, how about a villa on wheels with a second storey and even a built-in elevator? It is the Maxus V90 Life Home Villa Edition, that may look like your everyday modern van camper on the road, but when parked it can transform into a futuristic two-storey villa at the press of a button. That’s right, with a single finger press you can become the envy of your friends…

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Bilkyrkogården Kyrkö Mosse: a peat bog in southern Sweden that provides a cozy and photogenic home for decaying cars.

Robin

Bilkyrkogården Kyrkö Mosse near Ryd in Småland is an unusual but charming attraction. The swampy forest is literally an old car graveyard, filled with the wrecks of historical vehicles which found their last parking space there decades ago. Bilkyrkogården Kyrkö Mosse is the final resting place for an estimated around 150 car wrecks in various stages of disassembly, partially sunk into the swampy forest ground, some covered with moss, others are covered with pine needles or overgrown by shrubs. There are old VW Beetle, Ford Taunus, Opel Kadett, Volvo PV,…

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Did you know that you can buy this electric Mini Pickup Truck for just $5,500?

Robin

If you’re looking for the cheapest electric pickup truck money can buy, you should definitely check out this bargain on Chinese marketplace Alibaba: an all-electric mini pickup truck for just $5,500 (on February 2021). Manufactured in China under the obscure brand “R&Z” this pretty little electric truck sits on 12-inch wheels, has a maximum payload of 500 kilograms and featured a 1.6m long bed. Of course not the most impressive features for a pickup truck, but keep in mind that this costs a fraction of the price of any electric…

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Zipper Fastener Ship: the boat shaped like giant zip that looks like It’s opening the water

Robin

Japanese designer Yasuhiro Suzuki has created a unique boat shaped like a giant zipper puller that looks like it’s opening up the water when sailing. Unveiled as part of the Designart Tokyo 2020 event, the zipper puller boat, officially known as Zipper Fastener Ship, is the brainchild of Japanese designer who claims it was the result of a simple observation. He was looking down from the window of an airplane and saw a ship sailing through Tokyo Bay. The movement of the water as the boat passed created the illusion…

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Pontiac “Ghost Car”: the first transparent car made in America

Danijel90

Visitors to the 1939 New York World’s Fair Highways and Horizons exhibit by General Motors were dazzled by the display of a one-of-a-kind 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six Plexiglas car. This specially fabricated see through vehicle was constructed of acrylic plastic (quite an advancement at the time) which made visible the many parts that created the vehicle. Unveiled in the same year, the “Ghost Car” was the first completely transparent car made in America, and eight decades later, photos of it are still a wonder to see. Designed to showcase everything…

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October 1, 1908: Ford Motor Company unveils the Model T, the “car of the century“

Robin

Hailed as “the car of the century,” the first Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line in Detroit, Michigan, on this day, October 1, 1908. One of the leading executives behind the project, Charles E. Sorensen, was to describe later the eventful day when Henry Ford announced the idea. In his book, “My Forty Years With Ford”, published in 1956, he wrote: “Early one morning in the winter of 1906-07, Henry Ford dropped in at the Piquette Avenue plant to see me. ‘Come with me, Charlie,’ he said, ‘I…

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The world’s cheapest electric car that costs $930 and can be mailed to your door

Danijel90

If you’ve been dreaming of an electric car, but can’t yet afford to buy a Tesla, you can start low. Really low. Changli is the world’s cheapest electric car, it cost $930 ($1,200 with larger batteries), it can be ordered online and delivered to your door. Designed and produced by Chinese manufacturer Changzhou Xili Car Industry, Changli, or “Changli ” is a tiny electric vehicle that has been getting a lot of attention online after being promoted as “the world’s most affordable electric car”. Calling this thing a car is…

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September 27, 1825: the first time in history that a steam locomotive carry passengers on a public railway

Robin

For the first time in history a steam locomotive carried passengers on a public railway on this day, September 27, 1825. The engine was called Locomotion No. 1 and in control was its designer, the engineer George Stephenson. The train belonged to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which operated across the North East of England but, for the first time, apart from 36 wagons filled with sacks of coal and flour, it included a purpose-built passenger coach called, not by chance, The Experiment. Actually, shaking and springless, the carriage resembled…

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The impossible climb: No dirt bike has ever made it atop this notorious hillside

Robin

The Andler Hillclimb is an annual dirt bike competition that has dirt bikers from around Europe try to reach the top of a really treacherous hillside course in Belgium. It’s been held every year for the last two decades, but so far no one has been able to reach the top. The so-called “impossible climb”, starts out as rough gravel and then switches over to a washboard of rough cliff face designed to throw riders off and send them and their bikes tumbling back down to the base of the…

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The miniature Rolls Royce that costs as much as a real car

Danijel90

Probably you can’t afford to shell out $330,000 for a brand new Rolls Royce Cullinan, but you can still get a 1:8 replica complete with the SUV’s iconic accessories and details for “just” $27,000! Car miniatures don’t usually cost as much as an ordinary vehicle, but this isn’t an ordinary miniature: It consists of more than 1,000 individual parts carefully put together by hand by Rolls Royce experts in about 450 hours. And, interestingly, that’s more than half the time it takes the luxury car company to build an actual…

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#June 1, 1935: first test for drivers!

Robin

In 1934 in Britain there were about one and a half million cars on the roads, but despite the relatively low number, more than 7,000 people were killed in road accidents. Something had to be done…and so it was.Parliament decided that anyone driving a car had to prove they could do it safely and the first compulsory driving test was introduced on this day, June 1, 1935. Those who had not passed the test were required to display L (for learner) plates on their vehicle.The test lasted about half an…

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The history of Volkswagen, the “People’s Car”

Anya016

Germany’s Volkswagen is the largest car maker in the world, after Toyota. Its 590,000 employees produce around the world nearly 41,000 vehicles daily. It currently owns 12 subsidiaries including Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Seat and Skoda, luxury brands such as Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche and Ducati, as well as Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and Man. And, above all, it is a long way from its origins as part of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s vision to enable German families to own their first car! In all began on May 28, 1937,…

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#April 20, 1887: in Paris, world’s first motor race!

Robin

Historic records show that on this day, April 29, 1887, Georges Bouton “won the world’s first motor race”. But it was a hollow victory and there was no champagne celebration. The reason? Bouton and his co-driver were the only ones taking part. And, to be exact, it wasn’t even a car, but a steam-powered quadricycle. The curious event was a test organised by the newspaper “Le Velocipede” to see if Bouton’s machine, which had boasted speeds of 60kmph, could make the 29-kilometre distance between Neuilly Bridge in Paris and the…

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Global XRS 7200: the luxury motorhome suitable also for a global apocalypse!

Pavel

If the end of the world is a perfect script for eclectic writers and screenwriters of cinema, there are also those who, in real life, have thought of creating a vehicle that is perfect even if all would become reality and we were finding ourselves as catapulted into a post-apocalyptic film or science fiction. But, seriously. Have you ever had a dream of selling your apartment and travel the world in a motorhome? Of course, It’s one of the most fulfilling things one can do in lifetime. But to live…

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Nikita Golubev, the artist who turns dirty cars into works of Art

Nathan

In his Moscow’s neighborhood, Russian artist Nikita Golubev aka Pro Boy Nick uses dirt found on trucks and vans to draw with his fingers incredible artworks. However, it seems that the owners love them so much that they now refuse to wash their trucks! Art is decidedly unconventional, and many have uploaded photographs of Gobulev’s works on the web. The artist’s “canvases” are cars, trucks or vans, and result is a work that looks like a charcoal drawing, beautiful in its simplicity. ProBoyNick’s Instagram account has become very popular, and…

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The German couple which traveled for 26 years, through 179 countries along 550 thousand miles with a Mercedes G-Class

Pavel

If Gunther Holtorf had a lengthy career with Lufthansa beginning in 1958, in 1989, he left his job to take an on-the-road journey. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the man and his wife Christine left for a 26-year road trip through 179 countries along 550,000 miles (885,139 km). The couple had originally planned to spend only 18 months outside their Germany, to visit the African countryside in his on their Mercedes-Benz 1988 G-Wagen nicknamed “Otto”, but that one-and-a-half year leisure time has at the end turned into a…

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The “Bazooka Vespa”: the scooter that could destroy a tank.

Adam

Its technical name was “Piaggio Vespa 150 TAP”, but it remained known among the experts and military history enthusiasts as “Bazooka Vespa”, for the imposing M20 cannon that crossed it longitudinally in its entirety. It was commissioned by the French Ministry of Defense in the fifties, commissioned by the licensee in Piaggio France (ACMA) requested the development of a vehicle for military use, which was already the concessionaire for the production license of the original Vespa vehicle on French soil. The result was a very special Vespa of which there…

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Carhenge, the American Stonehenge made of vintage cars

Danijel90

Near Alliance, Nebraska, there is an exact copy of Stonehenge, but made entirely from vintage cars. All of us, at least once in a lifetime, came across some images of Stonehenge, the most famous and impressive “Stone Circle” in the United Kingdom located near Amesbury, Wiltshire. A set of megaliths, some of which are topped by horizontal elements, a structure that is believed to be an ancient astronomical observatory, but whose real purpose still remains a mystery. Certainly less common is come across images of Carhenge, located in Nebraska, in…

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Morano sul Po: history of a circuit that didn’t make it.

Anya016

Once upon a time, on the banks of the Po, a few kilometers from Casale Monferrato, there was an autodrome: the Morano sul Po circuit. A simple path, surrounded by a beautiful natural environment, not far from the Monferrato industries and a crossroads between the Turin of Fiat and the Milan publishing industry (here the very popular magazine “Quattroruote” did several test drives). Called “Circuit of Casale Monferrato”, given the greater importance that the historical center covered (and still covers) in the area, the track touches two municipalities, Morano sul…

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Concrete Traffic: an actual 1957 Cadillac De Ville is encased in 15 cubic yards of concrete~

Leo S

Casual observers could be mistake this object, which is in a parking space in the University of Chicago’s Campus North parking structure, for a representational sculpture of a car. In fact, it’s an actual car: a 1957 Cadillac Sedan De Ville encased in 15 cubic yards of concrete. Named “Concrete Traffic,” the unique and unusual piece was created by German artist Wolf Vostel (1932–1998) in January 1970 as an “instant happening” and an “event sculpture” at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Vostel was associated with the international art movement Fluxus,…

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SVL: the Very Fast Soviet jet-propelled Train of 1970

Adam

Before high speed, which today we consider a service almost obvious, railway companies around the world were looking for different tricks to make their convoys fast and able to travel huge distances in a short time. During the 1960’s, Americans, followed by the Soviets, experimented with turbojet trains. The idea was that, like a jet aircraft, the train is propelled by the jet thrust of the engines, rather than by its wheels. From Russia, in 1970, a futuristic project arrived that today appears to be decidedly vintage, a piece of…

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MV Glenachulish: the last manually operated turntable ferry in the world.

Ivan

Most people decide going the Isle of Skye from mainland Scotland drive over the Skye Bridge. But those who decide to reach the Isle of Skye by crossing the Kyle Rhea strait, will an extra special experience: a ride on the world’s last manually operated turntable ferry! The MV Glenachulish is a small but charming vessel: The nearly 50-year-old ferry in the past had made other crossings, but since 1982 has been making the winding route between Glenelg and Kylerhea. About six cars can board onto the ferry, and once the…

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The curious story of Michelin Guide: why a tyres company has been interested in restaurants?

Pavel

Here we are: The Michelin Red Guide is the sacred text of cooking enthusiasts, and the nightmare of many chefs, where the opinions expressed on the guide can determine the fate, positive or negative, of any restaurant…but why a tyres company has the idea to publish a guide to the best restaurants, which over the decades has become the reference point of gastronomic tourism? A brilliant idea and a creative marketing strategy began the publication of the Michelin Guide, created to encourage the use of cars. The French brothers Edouard…

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Driving a motorized muffin is possible….

Ivan

Here we are: Exist parades and events that are an incredible show sight, where giant muffins and cupcakes roll along the streets, drived by drivers whose heads poke out of the tops. This electric, eclectic vehicles have been rolling since 2004 and were built by a loose group of makers under the banner of Acme Muffineering. Motorized muffins and cupcake cars have been popping up at events such as parades and Maker Faires since their debut at Burning Man in 2004. The original “muffineers” are Lisa Pongrace and Greg Solberg…

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ISO Exposition, Photogallery

Pavel

Bresso 12/5/2018’ Iso was an automobile and motorcycle maker, the product of Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A of Italy. The company was predominantly active from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. Iso are known for the iconic Isetta bubble car of the 1950s, and for a number of powerful performance cars in the 1960s and early 1970s. Iso was initially named ‘Isothermos’ and manufactured refrigeration units before the Second World War. The company was founded in Genoa in 1939, but was transferred to Bresso in 1942 by Renzo Rivolta, an engineer…

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