New Honeycomb Tires are Bullet-Proof and More

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet and bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there's no need for hub caps.

Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison's Polymer Engineering Center are creating a "non-pneumatic tire" (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It's basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread.

The military wants an alternative to the current Humvee "run flat" tires, which despite the name, still need a minimal amount of air pressure to roll and can leave troops stranded after being shot or blown out.

This particular geometry also does a great job of reducing noise and heat levels while rolling-two common problems with past models.

Costs per tire are expected to be the same or less than current units. Delivery is anticipated for 2011.

10 Tips to Prevent Car Accidents

The Edmunds editors should know something about safety. Their jobs entail extensive test driving, and they've seen it all—or at least most of it—from closed-course tests to interaction with drivers on the L.A. Freeway. Here is what they recommend:

1. Stay out of the fast lane.
2. Keep your eyes scanning the area ahead.
3. Beware of blind spots.
4. Get 'racecar driver control' of the wheel (...) so that, with your arm outstretched and your back against the seat, your wrist could rest on the top of the wheel.
5. Place your hands at 9 and 3.
6. Judge drivers by their cars. Cars with body damage or dirty windows could be indicative of an inattentive driver.
7. Know thy vehicle.
8. Keep your vehicle in shape.
9. Nighttime may not be the right time.
10. Consider high-performance training.

Read more.

Thanks to T&J

How to Destroy a Porsche 911

Not as easy as it sounds... the damn thing is a tank!
Thanks to Dr. Dan.

Give me Some Curves

Check this out!

Here is something that will make you go out of your way to find curvy roads: the Carver One! You steer it like a car, but when cornering it banks like a motorcycle while you feel like you are flying a jetfighter. The thrill of this tilting capability combined with the handling of a sports car makes for an exhilarating driving experience unlike any other!

Thanks to Alex

Amazing Natural Gas Hydrofoil Amphibian Car

At the push of a button a hydraulic mechanism transforms the sports car into a propeller-powered boat.

The Rinspeed Splash was created by Swiss genius Frank M. Rinderknecht, 48, at his car company Rinspeed.

"It can reach 125mph on the road and accelerates to 60mph in 5.9 seconds." The water performance is impressive too, with the Splash reaching an impressive 45 knots.

"That's fast enough for water skiing or knee boarding,"

Damn! I want one! More.

Traffic jam mystery solved by mathematicians

The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact of unexpected events such as a lorry pulling out of its lane on a dual carriageway. Their model revealed that slowing down below a critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the car behind to slow down further and the next car back to reduce its speed further still.

The result of this is that several miles back, cars would finally grind to a halt, with drivers oblivious to the reason for their delay. The model predicts that this is a very typical scenario on a busy highway (above 15 vehicles per km). The jam moves backwards through the traffic creating a so-called ‘backward travelling wave’, which drivers may encounter many miles upstream, several minutes after it was triggered.

Good Samaritan Helps Avoid Accident

...a driver on the Golden Gate became unconscious and her Jeep Grand Cherokee came to a stop in the second lane from the center divide. John Beatty almost rammed his Ford F-350 into the back of the Jeep, but stopped just in time. The 50-year-old man from Mill Valley, CA then noticed the Jeep began to creep forward and to the left. Realizing it was headed towards the divide and into oncoming traffic, Beatty positioned his truck in front of the SUV so that it would hit him instead of crossing over. He then guided the Jeep across two lanes of road, which had fortunately been cleared of traffic when other drivers began to realize what Beatty was doing. Unfortunately... the unconscious driver of the Jeep eventually died at the hospital. If it hadn't been for Beatty, however, you would've heard about a fatal multi-car accident on the Golden Gate bridge

Quadski - Amphibian ATV

Quadski - These bloopers are hilarious

Color Changing Cars

One of the hardest decisions when picking a new car is choosing the right color but the day when cars will be available in multiple colors could be here sooner than you think. Scientists have developed a new coating called ‘paramagnetic’ paint that has the ability to change colors at the touch of a button. One carmaker looking into the technology is Nissan, which has already developed a self-healing paint.

Before the vehicle is painted, a special polymer containing the special ‘paramagnetic’ iron oxide particles is applied to the car’s body. An applied electric current then adjusts the spacing of small crystals within the iron oxide particles and therefore affects their ability to reflect light and change color.

The process is perfect for metal objects like cars because a continuous small current is needed to maintain the desired color. When the vehicle is switched off, the car returns to a default color of white.

The coating has the ability to reproduce any color visible to the human eye and it takes less than a second to change the entire car. The first commercial applications could be on the market as early as 2010.

More.

Nice Wheels - Bugatti Veyron Pegaso Edition

The man, who happens to actually live in Dubai's Burj Al Arab seven-star hotel, snagged himself a Bugatti Veyron and then decided it was necessary to spend a little bit more money with some pimper... But really, our only question here is -- does the man wipe himself on the toilet with hundred dollar bills, or does he pay someone to do that for him? Oh yeah, and the going price we're assuming is significantly more than the $1.2 million for the standard Veyron.

More.

German Schilderwald (Sign Forest) Distracts Drivers

For nearly a decade, Germany's 15 million-member ADAC automobile association has been curb-crawling the nation's streets with municipal officials in an effort to persuade them to get rid of as much as half the country's estimated 20 million traffic signs. Many Germans believe the country's signage has become so dense that it's a safety hazard. A recent study concluded that the distracting signs keep drivers from watching the road.

Germans have coined a term for the phenomenon -- Schilderwald, or sign forest. But as the van-load of officials touring Troisdorf for surplus signs discovered on a recent morning, parting with them isn't proving easy.

More.

DIY - Remove Car Dents - Easy and Cheap

Not sure if it really works... but probably worth a try?

More, including one other method with dry ice.

Compressed Air Car From India

March 19, 2007 Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable "zero pollution" car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India’s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility. The MiniC.A.T is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fibreglass.

Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph.

Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 1.5 Euros, the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometres.

As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours.

Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000 Km.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

How does it work?

90m3 of compressed air is stored in fibre tanks. The expansion of this air pushes the pistons and creates movement. The atmospheric temperature is used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage. The air conditioning system makes use of the expelled cold air...

More.

GPS Pay-as-you-drive Auto-Insurance

The insurance, which has been sold by Norwich Union since October, uses the Global Positioning System of satellites to keep track of where, when and how far a car has been driven to determine rates each month.

Journey details are collected by a device the size of a compact disk case that is installed under the dashboard of the car. Each night, a mobile phone link automatically transmits an encrypted account of the car's exact movements — road-by-road, mile-by-mile — in order to produce an itemized monthly bill.

"The idea is that people should be charged for the risks that they take while driving, not the risks taken by others," said Kay Martin, who heads the "Pay As You Drive" project at Norwich Union. "We find that knowing the time and location of a driver gives a pretty good indication of their accident risk."

Initial studies by the insurance company, which involved monitoring 5,000 drivers for two years over more than 100 million miles, or 160 million kilometers, turned up a few reliable location- and time-based predictors of accident risk:

Drivers in morning rush hour are 50 percent more likely to have an accident than drivers out on the weekend.

Drivers on low-speed country or urban roads are 10 times more likely to have an accident than drivers on highways.

Serious accidents involving fatalities are far more likely to happen from midnight to five in the morning than at any other time of day.

More.

Chrysler (re)Introduces Swiveling Seats

The fifth generation Chrysler minivans will arrive in Fall 2007, with a new theme of “family rooms on wheels.” There will be five models, three distinct seating and storage systems, and three powertrains, including the first six-speed automatic installed in a minivan.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature is Swivel ’n Go™, which brings to mind RVs and custom vans: the second row seats swivel 180 degrees to face the third row, with a removable table between the two rows, covered storage bins in the floor of the second row, third-row uncovered storage and fold-in-the-floor third-row seating. Swivel ’n Go is available with an optional industry-first integrated child booster seat in the second-row quad chair and an optional minivan-exclusive one-touch power-folding third-row 60/40 bench seat.

More.

Italian Police Lamborghini

Nice!

Hot Turkey Muscle

Hey fellow Floridians... if you like cars and want an excuse to take a quick travel to Daytona, they will have the Turkey Run (why is it called that?) car show with over 5,000 cars in November. Have fun and let me know if you're going...

The Turkey Run is the Southeast’s largest car show with over 5,000 muscle, hot rod and classic cars the fill the infield of the Daytona International Speedway and beyond!.

33rd Turkey Run is held in Daytona Florida
November 22 – 26th
1,000’s of Cars
Car Raffle/ Swap Meet

Plus it’s in sunny Daytona Beach in November.
Bring your family – they can come to the car show or spend the day at the beach!

More.

Click for Area info.

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