In an effort to persuade the UK Government to move forward with the project as soon as possible, design studio, Pristmanngoode, has unveiled its high speed train concept, the Mercury. The company has previously worked with Chinese rolling stock manufacturer, Sifang, to design high speed trains for China and other parts of the world and now believes that a new high speed train is vital for the future of Britain. Perhaps taking London’s famous buses as an example, the Mercury is a double-decker train that incorporates a flexible, open plan design that Priestmanngoode says allows passengers [...]

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The UK team behind the BLOODHOUND Project announced a number of significant milestones this week on the way to their goal of setting a new world land speed record. The biggest – or at least the longest – was the unveiling of a 1:1 scale replica of the car that the team believes will smash the current land speed record of 763 mph (just under 1,228 km/h) set in 1997. The life size Show Car that was unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) in Hampshire, England, started its life as five meter cubed polystyrene blocks, which were then cut into bucks and molds using three axis [...]

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BMW is evolving the integration of iPod Touch in Bimmer which will be available in 2011. It is also expected that BMW will include iPhone OS applications support to its iDrive which will enhance user experience with other Apple iDevices. Watch out the video to know about BMW’s plan about Apple iDevices support.

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In order to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking (or to make cigarettes look even cooler — we’re not sure which) a group of five students at Xi’an University in China have built an all-electric Bugatti Veyron entirely out of old cigarette boxes. This bad boy is the same size as the world-renowned touring car — a feat which took 10,280 packs of cigarettes and eight months to assemble. While we have no idea what the top speed is, we’re guessing it’s nowhere near that of the original. Check out the video after the break.

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Giving us yet another reason to get behind electric, the Japan Electric Vehicle Club recently exceeded its own Guinness record for longest distance driven without recharging, achieving a staggering 1,003.184 km (or about 623 miles). The club’s Mira EV, a modified Daihatsu Mira, was powered by a Sanyo battery system containing more than 8,320 lithium-ion batteries, the very same kind found in laptop PCs. Running at a speed of about 40 km/h (or about 25 mph), the team employed 17 people taking turns as drivers during the course of their 27.5 hour effort. It took place at a track in [...]

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Those ambitious Turks in Istanbul must be planning to sell a lot of cars. They’re building the gigantic Autopia Europia auto mall, the biggest in the world, giving you a full race track on top to test cars before you drive one home. Under construction now, the five-story, 708,661-square-foot building will have room for 200 car galleries, displaying 2526 different kinds of vehicles. Meanwhile, 24 banks will be standing by to help you pay for that dream machine, and 56 bars, restaurants and cafes await for you to think over your purchase. It’s so big, the illustrations suggest using [...]

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The Mitsubishi Raider, a restyled version of the Dodge Dakota midsize pickup, ended production in 2009. For its final model year, it came only with a V6 engine; Mitsubishi dropped the optional V8 in 2007. The Raider’s sole engine was a Chrysler-designed 3.7-liter V6. Known as EKG, this 12-valve, SOHC engine is part of Chrysler’s PowerTech family. It is essentially a six-cylinder version of the 4.7-liter V8 used in various Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles. Like the V8, it has a cast-iron block, aluminum cylinder heads, a plastic intake manifold, chain-driven overhead camshafts, and [...]

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It was the mid nineties and I wanted something different to drive. Having just sold a fairly well worn but solid 1980 GTV, the one with chrome bumpers, I was still in a fastback coupe phase so the Scirocco was a natural choice at the time. Finding a Scirocco in half decent condition was a difficult job as most had been driven to within an inch of its life. Finally I came across one while buying parts at the trade counter of a VW garage. It was a 1984 Scirocco Storm with electrics and leather, covered in dust and general garage junk, but it looked original. A deal was struck and I took it away [...]

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The Fiat 130 Saloon was first produced in 1969, replacing the the Fiat 2300. The Pininfarina designed coupe would follow in 1971. Four-wheel independent suspension, disc brakes all round and an alternator all sounds fairly standard but it was big news at the time and hailed them as being very technically advanced. I was never really a fan of the saloon it was just another big Fiat, but the coupe was a good looking well engineered car. Although there was no doubt of it being a technical and design success it would never become a sales success. This was mainly because of it’s awful [...]

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Convertibles may look like a sporty car on wheels, but they are also incredibly dangerous. But, what makes convertibles so much more dangerous than other vehicles? For starters, because convertibles usually have a soft top, in the event of a rollover (in which the vehicle lands with the roof of the car on the ground), whoever is inside of the vehicle stands a much greater chance of suffering life-threatening injuries and/or even death. Convertibles have been around for a long time. James Dean was famous for driving convertibles and even died in a sports car when it crashed. Recently, [...]

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