Category: Vehicles
How to… make it look like someone's already stolen your car stereo
Sounds like a very stupid way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but wait. Wait until you’ve seen the photograph.
The idea behind this superb Instructables piece is to make it look like someone’s ripped out your car stereo – so no one bothers trying to rip out your car stereo. It’s the in-car equivalent of walking around town with torn clothes and blood on your face, so no one bothers mugging you.
It’s one man’s idea. One man’s way to stop the local glue-sniffers from nicking his car stereo every Friday night, by covering up the docking clips and making it look like there’s nothing…
The… brace yourselves… TARDIS wardrobe
The must-have Christmas gift of 2008 for the 3-11-year-old demographic, it is, and we can hardly believe such an amazing item exists, a TARDIS wardrobe! It is such a great idea. One of the world’s best ideas, alongside automatically slicing bread with a machine and trainers with air in the soles for extra bounciness.
Fashioned out of the finest canvas and non-sustainable pine, the TARDIS wardrobe boasts a “single rail” and “zippable doors.” But it’s not about features. It’s about shape and colour, and saying “POLICE BOX” in the correct font.
It is also the ideal Christmas gift for those in the 33-49-year-old sci-fi fan demographic, along with some Babylon 5 slippers…
Toyota Prius goes solar powered – well, the air-con does anyway
Solar powered stuff is genius. It just is. You can’t hate it, even though it’s all a bit rubbish at the moment. Take the solar powered Toyota Prius for example…
Wingless electromagnetic air vehicle (UFO! UFO! UFO!) set to take off this year
Technically, that flying saucer to the left there is known as a wingless electromagnetic air vehicle, or WEAV for short. We’ll just scream “UFO!” and run from it in terror, though, if that’s OK.
It’s powered by “magnetohydrodynamics” – a way of propelling vehicles by ionising air with an electrical current then shooting it out at great speed. The thing also spins, to help keep it stable. It is, basically, your archetypal flying saucer.
The dream-machine of the University of Florida scientist Subrata Roy, WEAV will be undergoing test flights…
Steve Bennett, 43, from Manchester, has made a rocket. It'll be ready in 2013
Three cheers for British entrepreneurs! That man there is Steve Bennett. He’s built a rocket called Nova 2.
Steve’s rocket is a three-seater, one which he hopes is going to make him one of Britain’s first “space tourism” millionaires. He heads up the Space Technology Laboratory (!) of Salford University (!!) and has spent…
The Lite Machines "Voyeur coaxial-rotor VTOL UAV" (US Navy spy-copter)
One of modern life’s great pleasures is cruising YouTube for odd videos of experimental technology. A lunatic on a rocket bike. An inventor with a death-wish positioning his head a few inches from a spinning rotor. A man risking carbon monoxide poisoning and all kinds of exotic death by using jet engines he bought off the Russian eBay in his garage.
And today, this – a twin-propeller, hand-launched spy helicopter drone thing you carry around with you in a tube until it requires deployment in a spying situation. Then you set it free like a dove of peace.
Maker Lite Machines was commissioned to come up with this spying “solution” by the US Navy…
Ozone: hydrogen powered concept car – not in a million years
I don’t know a lot about cars but as sexy as the Ozone hydrogen vehicle is, it’s just not practical, now is it?
It’s basically like sitting on a sofa inside a barrel rolling down the street…
Eight Lane Scalextric M25 Edition, for birthdays, weddings and management training days
Imagine the fun. Imagine the danger. Imagine the horrendous impact it would have on your electricity bill and the environment. Actually, no, don’t imagine the last one. Just imagine fun and excitement.
Because that’s what those male models are experiencing in this fantastic photograph, and it’s all thanks to the Eight Lane Scalextric – a monster, custom-made car-racing set that’s available for hire right now, should you have a room large enough to accommodate its motorway-sized dimensions…
Chrysler plans to make cars into wireless 'hotspots'
Car manufacturer Chrysler is unveiling a new system that will transform its vehicles from mere petrol-guzzling modes of transport into the internet hotspots of the road.
"Michael, turn left in 50 metres" – Knight Rider KITT-themed satnav on the way
GPS company Mio is producing a Knight Rider-themed in-car GPS device that looks – and sounds – like good old KITT. It will be on the Christmas present list of every man over 30 this year.
The pulsing flashing red lights up both sides of the unit are a nice touch, but there’s one extra magical feature inside. Maker Mio is believed to be getting William Daniels – the original voice of KITT – onboard to provide the spoken driving instructions…
