Duck valve

This is what happens if you glue a duck-quacker to your dump valve...

Flying brick

Ever thought you'd see a nineties Volvo estate that could outpace a Yamaha R1?
Watch this, rub your eyes a bit, watch it again.



'Closed road'... with traffic coming the other way? Yeah, right.
You can read more about Volvette (and her colossal V8) here.

Aston Martin Cygnet

Implausible as it sounds, Aston Martin have worked up a prototype for an ultra-economical city car. Based on the dinky Toyota IQ, they've basically plushed up the interior and grafted on a more upmarket nose. Peculiar. But don't worry too much about brand dilution - the Cygnet will only be available to existing DBS, DB9 and Vantage owners; the cachet of ownership will remain intact as passers-by will know you've got a proper Aston tucked away in the garage. Or so the theory goes.






CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez says:
"Now is the right time for Aston Martin to take this first bold step to embark on this special project - made possible with the support of an organisation of Toyota's stature and capability and the intelligent design and perfect city car package of the iQ.
Much work is still required, but I am confident that this project could become reality in the not too distant future. This concept - akin to an exclusive tender to a luxury yacht - will allow us to apply Aston Martin design language, craftsmanship and brand values to a completely new segment of the market."

A cynic might postulate that such a maneouvre would give AM all kinds of help in reducing their average CO2 emissions in line with new EU and US regulations... but Dr. Bez promises that this wasn't the primary motive behind the Cygnet. Hmm.

Russ Swift - mkVI Golf GTI

The inimitable Mr Swift gets his hands on the new mkVI Golf GTI at Millbrook and, of course, makes the bugger dance. Superb.

Vinyl-wrapped wheels

There's loads of potential for colourful self-expression with this idea - as long as you're not a careless parallel parker, obviously. Imagine how confused people would be if you had 'wooden' wheels...

Detroit muscle wars

We have, it seems, returned to the glory days of the Detroit muscle wars, each manufacturer reacting to the release of the last's latest V8 monster. The question of 2009 is simply 'Challenger, Mustang or Camaro?'. It's a close call, but for me it has to be the Challenger. Although the Camaro is beautiful. And the Mustang is brutal... sod it, can I have all three?
http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/challenger/
http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/
http://www.chevrolet.com/camaro/

Rolls Royce Drophead drifting

Given that the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe costs the thick end of £300k-odd, I'm guessing this one doesn't belong to the guy behind the wheel...

F1 in tilt-shift

Tilt-shift photography is brilliant for making cars, buildings, people, boats etc look like toys. Turns out it works really well with Formula One...
Click for more

Holiday traffic - 1970s

If I had my way, all congestion would be this pretty.

Veyron 001

Completist supercar collector? Pots of cash to spare? Your fantasy garage needs this - the first ever production Veyron, no. 001.
On sale via O'Gara Coach of Beverley Hills, it's a little bit more than the usual £925k list price. Well... a lot more. It's £1,460,000. But there's only 400 miles on the clock - it's like buying a brand new one, except it's the first one... your fellow plutocrats will be so jealous.

The sleepiest sleeper of all

It may look like some knackered and unloved old farm truck, but the registration number gives it all away. This rusty ol' Chevy C10 pickup houses a 502ci big block with a fistful of nitrous, urging it down the quarter-mile in 12.3 seconds.
Via Jalopnik

Top Gear - extreme Fiesta test

To celebrate the fact that Top Gear's coming back for a new season this Sunday, let's take a look at Clarkson's epic Fiesta road test from the last series. Who says they don't offer practical consumer advice...?

D1GP crashes

Drifting, essentially, is about unbalancing the car and then holding it there. It takes a lot of skill to do it well... and, inevitably, people crash. Like this...

Retro Audis

A couple of lovely pics pilfered from Retro Cars, for no other reason than that I've recently got a bit of a thing for old Audis. Paint, rims, drop, roll. Beautiful.

Gold-plated M5

There are so many questions that this car provokes... and they all begin with 'why?'. It's a BMW M5. It's been gold-plated at a cost of around £100k. It has a platinum stripe. Um... why?

Forza Motorsport 3 trailer

I'm really more of a Gran Turismo fan, but Forza 3 does look incredible.

Patrick Snijers - 'Forceful driving'

Some classic footage of Patrick Snijers - the way he makes that E30 M3 dance is truly breathtaking.

Artz sleepers

Artz are an outfit with a history of building unusual sleepers. Check out this unusual mk1 Golf - it's basically a Porsche 928 chassis and running gear with a Golf body stretched around it. You can see in the comparison shot how much wider it is than the standard Golf. More info here.







Artz Golf I V8 - Click here for another funny movie.

And how about this Cordette? What you see here is an Opel Kadett body over a Chevrolet Corvette base. Now that would surprise some people at the lights... More here.

Gran Turismo 5 - official trailer

The GT franchise just gets more and more exciting.

RIP GM - Cars & Coffee Camaro

Spotted at the latest Cars & Coffee event - a sadly apt registration number.
Via cncpics.com

Rally driver nearly impaled

Genuine 'crikey' moment at 1m11s.

Scion's 'fwing'

A peculiar idea, but it seems to work. Bolting a wing to the front of this Scion enabled it to nail the lap record at Willow Springs. But he does look like a tit driving it.
Via Speedhunters.

New Megane - retro ads

I love this new work for the Renault Megane - partly because it's a good idea, but mostly for the gratuitous retro content.
(Click images to enlarge.)

Hoy and Rouse take each other out

It's one of the most infamous and talked-about crashes in BTCC history - Will Hoy and Andy Rouse, both driving Toyota Carinas, spectacularly destroying each other at Brands Hatch in '92. Oops.

Movie car dork convention

Just a lovely photo. Not sure about the Ghostbusters Subaru though...

Via Jalopnik

Homemade car: fail

It's fairly safe to assume that cobbling together a load of random car bits isn't going to make anything too astonishing. You've got to admire this guy's skill and tenacity, but... well, it looks awful and it's made of expanding foam.

Chopped Capri

You may have seen this Capri 2.8i in Classic Ford magazine recently.

Here's a fascinating slideshow of how it was built. The level of painstaking work and expertise is really impressive.



There are some more pics here too, while here's a thread straight from the horse's mouth showing the Capri in an earlier guise and it's evolution to the show-stopper it is today. Quite simply, awesome - in the truest sense of the word.

Hayabusa Golf

A mkI Golf with a turbo'd Hayabusa engine - how much fun does that look?!

Enormous Scalextric

Scalextric works in the rain, whouldathunkit...