Portent

There’s a sort of car construction limbo dance to see who can build the world’s least tall street legal car. Briton Perry Watkins is now the current holder (it’s an unofficial title but I might be wrong) with an amazingly 19″ tall car – the Flatmobile.

The picture is a grab of a Youtube video, one of many showing Perry driving the car or setting on fire (accidentally) the afterburner that is fitted at the back. It’s modelled and styled on the BatMobile and in a former life was a 1963 Hillman Imp. Adding the afterburner gave an extra 150 lbs of thrust (noisy!) and by Perry’s reckoning, another 50 mph. However with a road clearance of 1″, it does not do speed bumps or dead animals very well.

It’s an amazing piece of kit and the videos show it off very well, including the one where the afterburner caught fire. My guess is a leak- afterburners spray fuel directly into the output stage of a jet turbine, lots of thrust and noise but not good for the fuel consumption!

Link

Popularity: 7% [?]

This site isn’t really meant to be taken too seriously but judging by the editing of the images, a fair bit of work has been put into it. As it says on the tin (phrase from old UK TV advert), it is a look at many cars (past and present) in the UK that are considered ugly.

It’s a bit subjective- I thought there was no mention for example of the boxy Ladas that roamed the streets and roads back in the 80s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, but several people had nominated the Lada Riva so I was wrong. You can submit your comments and suggestions. (here’s one- anyone who uses light text on dark backgrounds should be shot!)

I love the rating system- paper bags! The more the uglier. This of course stems from the old joke about “my girlfriend is a two bagger. She is so ugly that I have to wear a paper bag over my head in case the one over hers breaks”…

Link

Popularity: 9% [?]

Imagine fitting jet turbine engines (small ones) to the likes of pickup trucks or Sinclair C5s. Ideal for racing boy racers off from traffic lights though somehow I cannot see these as being exactly road worthy.

That’s what this website is about- with photos of descriptions. Fancy a turbo jet go-kart? There are also videos of some of the tests. Fascinating stuff!

Link

Popularity: 12% [?]

This runs in a Java applet so you need Java installed. Being a computer programmer with a strong interest in computer science, I've always found simulations interesting.  Things like optimising lifts, checkout queues and road traffic.

This simulation has cars and trucks moving on 6 different tracks with variable simulation speed, traffic flow, on ramp flow speed, percentage of trucks etc. you can see what happens if you set different speed limits when there is a lane closure etc. Interesting stuff and a bit of a toy! 

Link

Popularity: 5% [?]

Some great photos from a bloke who got an insider tour of the Lamborghini factory at Sant’Agata Bolognese, including non public areas where they build the cars as well as the museum.

Of course it takes away some of the iillusion about them but hey they are just cars, albeit rather expensive and fast!

Link

Popularity: 10% [?]

Diesel (or PetroDiesel to distinguish it from BioDiesel) is derived from distilling Petroleum. A gallon of gas (sorry Petrol) has about 15% less energy than a gallon of diesel and in cars the difference can be 40% more mileage for diesel engined vehicles than petrol.

Of course Petrodiesel is a fossil fuel. It takes millions of years to make and how much better would it be to convert to biodiesel which is biodegradable and non-toxic, and refers to alkyl esters made from the transesterification of both vegetable oils and/or animal fats. Diesel engines made before 1992 should generally not use biodiesel as it can perish rubber seals.

If however you are interested in using biodiesel (its cheaper in the UK- 20p tax (less) per litre), then biomotors.co.uk is an interesting site to check out. I always thought you could just put biodiesel straight in but it appears to be a little more complex than that. Read about it on the site.

Link

Popularity: 11% [?]