Recently, the gang from TopGear.com set out to create a 30km/L car for under $US7,000. Well, they did it, and while it’s not the prettiest car in the world, it gets the job done.
Sure, you can get a fuel-efficient hybrid car, but it’ll cost tens of thousands of dollars. That’s too much for the Top Gear America crew, who’ve set out to build a 30 km/Litre car for $US7,000.
The creatively name “Television” aggregates web TV sources like CNN, CBS, NBC and BBC, making Bob Schieffer, Brian Williams and the gang from Top Gear just a single tap away.
AU: This is actually available in Australia, and even includes our own local ABC news!
If there’s a more entertaining show about cars in the world than the BBC’s Top Gear, I’ve never seen it. Which is why we’re psyched to see them take on the Tesla Electric Roadster.
newVideoPlayer("/tggtrvsbullet.flv", 475, 266,""); The Top Gear crew is in Japan for this week’s episode and they’ve got another heated race for us: A Nissan GT-R R35, a gadget car by dynamic handling and Playstation inspired dashboard vs. a bullet train, running both from Japan’s northern Hakui-Shi coast to Tokyo. With no surprise ol’ Clarkson is driving the fiery beast while Hammond and May are left travelling Japanese public transportation. I’m not gonna spoil the race for ya though, but Jalopnik has the results for you. [Jalopnik]
I’m on the beach on semi-vacation now, here in the south of Spain, and we have BBC One via satellite. This means one thing on Sunday nights: Top Gear. Chances are that you probably have watched Top Gear clips on YouTube, like the one above, in which Jeremy Clarkson replaces clay pigeons and shotguns with real flying cars, machine guns and, at the end of it, a gas-tank-seeking (no kidding) rocket launcher.
newVideoPlayer("RemoteControlGWiz_gawker.flv", 475, 376);
Oh how I love Top Gear. Why is there no show this good being produced in the States? In today’s example of why this is one of the sweetest shows on TV in any country, we see a race between a souped-up remote-control electric car and a regular old remote-control car. The results are, well, not expected and infinitely entertaining. Keep on keeping on, Top Gear. [Jalopnik]
Top Gear got some time behind the wheel of a BMW 330i that can drive itself. How it works: a human driver takes the car around the track for a spin, while the car records data of event. Then, using military-grade GPS, the car can coordinate its position on the track with the driver data to zoom around at high, pants-crapping speeds. It’s like Knight Rider’s KITT, if David Hasselhoff preferred tweed over leather. [crave via bbg]
newVideoPlayer("topgearprius_gawker.flv", 476, 288);The Prius is widely recognised as a technological marvel, with it’s regenerative braking, its hybrid electric motor setup, and the super-low drag coefficient of 0.26. Which is why it’s sobering to geeks and treehuggers to watch Top Gear describe the Prius as so slow that “A child could run into the street, retrieve his ball, and grow to puberty, before the Prius could hit him.” And at a tested 45mpg, it’s actually less green than a diesel.
It’s easy to say that this is not the market, but ultimately, these are the people who have to be sold before the tech becomes as desirable and mainstream as it is cutting-edge tech. One day, Toyota will bring us the Supra Hybrid, and not one of those numb-feeling sedans with electrics. I just want a diesel electric with gobs of power, 100mpg, and the lines of an Italian. Is that so much to ask? [TopGear]
newVideoPlayer("ice_race_gawker.flv", 475, 376);What happens when you stick an engine in a kayak? You get a really fast kayak, naturally. The dudes on Top Gear raced the jet kayak against a souped-up off-road vehicle in Iceland, on a lake full of giant ice cubes. The result is nothing short of pure, engine-fueled entertainment.
Jet Kayak [via Gadget Lab]
