Some Automotive Fun...

If you look down the back of your sofa, maybe you'll find enough change.

Frankly, that's what I'd do to the so-called facelifts, so maybe it's some automotive schadenfreude. Marcello Gandini would be rolling in his grave if he wasn't still alive. Today's Lamborghinis look like origami gone horribly wrong.

The Real Wrecked Lamborghini Countach From Wolf of Wall Street Is For Sale

Carrying its scars from the film's production, this is a real Countach that was bashed up just for The Wolf of Wall Street.
www.thedrive.com
 

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An interesting overview. Paywalled but you can register and get a few free. Otherwise, if you have good reflexes, keep hitting reload and then stop before it finishes. If you're quick or lucky you'll get it.

What to read to understand why the heyday of the automobile is over

Five books explain why it’s a good thing that conventional cars may be leaving the road
www.economist.com

This might be most interesting to those here:

Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car. By Alex Davies. Simon & Schuster; 304 pages; $18 paperback and £25 hardback

This book begins nearly 20 years ago, with the tale of a competition held by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, as America’s armed forces were fighting in the Middle East, the country’s military chiefs became interested in the idea of autonomous vehicles. In 2004 the agency offered a $1m prize for the winner of a race through the western desert from Barstow, California to Primm, Nevada, a distance of 132 miles (212km). The idea, writes Mr Davies, was that if a vehicle “could navigate the Mojave, it could handle Afghanistan and Iraq”. That year not a single vehicle came close to completing the challenge. The next year, however, nearly 200 entered. Five teams finished the race. The winner, “Stanley”, from Stanford University, did so in a little under seven hours. From that began the “race” to design a truly autonomous vehicle. Mr Davies’s book is essential reading to understand why creating a true driverless car—one that can navigate traffic anywhere as easily as humans—is so difficult. It also makes a compelling case that it will happen.
 

Suspected car thief caught in portable toilet after bystanders push it over

Golfers spot suspect being pursued by Wisconsin police hide in portable toilet and push it over to incapacitate him
www.theguardian.com

"The experience was not pleasant for the person inside.

Another golfer, Ilissa Boland, told WBAY.com: “Adam said that once he pushed it over, it was really smelly, and he could hear the sloshing, so I can just imagine the stench.”

Police eventually arrested the man in the portable toilet who climbed out to face officers with drawn guns surrounding him. They also arrested one of the other suspects and their investigation is ongoing."
 
Richard N said:

Suspected car thief caught in portable toilet after bystanders push it over

Golfers spot suspect being pursued by Wisconsin police hide in portable toilet and push it over to incapacitate him
www.theguardian.com

"The experience was not pleasant for the person inside.

Another golfer, Ilissa Boland, told WBAY.com: “Adam said that once he pushed it over, it was really smelly, and he could hear the sloshing, so I can just imagine the stench.”

Police eventually arrested the man in the portable toilet who climbed out to face officers with drawn guns surrounding him. They also arrested one of the other suspects and their investigation is ongoing."
Click to expand...
Back in the good-old-days before indoor plumbing, a common Halloween prank was to topple out-house. Bonus points if the out-house was occupied.
My neighbour tired of this practice, so he dug a new pit and moved his outhouse forward a yard or two on the last afternoon of October. ….
 
A legendary class of fire engine...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsnorOw9aT8


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mexOILNB0RI


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfiH0gfkQe4


Their 'Last Stand' in the UK (Operation Fresco)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOmc6W8Ins4

View: https://youtu.be/A6wk7mYxLNY?si=FXKhYQqFMuIHSrL0


Fun fact, after they finally retired from UK service many of the engines were refurbished and sent to Africa to re-equip fire brigades down there, sadly no one seems to have caught them on film and uploaded it to YouTube
 
Thomas was done playing Mr Nice Guy.
 

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This appeared in the motoring news but looks very relevant to aerospace design.

Mazda-backed AI firm can slash car development time "to months" | Autocar

Latest funding round raises £16 million for Cambridge-based technology firm Secondmind
www.autocar.co.uk

This article is paywalled, but the gist is:

Using machine learning (AI that teaches itself), the tech can both reduce the amount of errors in design and testing ten-fold. This leads to fewer corrections and 40% fewer costly prototypes needing to be produced.

A search for SecondMind and Mazda gives:

Secondmind expands strategic partnership with Mazda to accelerate vehicle design and development through advanced AI -

Mazda joins existing Secondmind investors in new $16 million funding round November 28th, 2023 Secondmind announced today the expansion of its long-standing strategic partnership with Mazda to drive AI-fueled innovations that address the increasing engineering complexity in automotive design and...
www.amadeuscapital.com


Mazda extends strategic partnership with Secondmind to accelerate vehicle design through advanced AI

Boxscore covers world sporting news including FIFA, Association Football, NFL, CFL, NCAA, FIVB, FIBA, World Rugby and more
boxscorenews.com

This does not mean going directly from screen to series production. What makes car prototype testing take about two and a half years on average is the need to take the same design through prolonged testing under both hot and cold seasonal cycles, finding the real world problems, redesigning and then proving once again. Aircraft EMD is even more complex. However, a shortened timescale and reduced costs are not to be sneezed at.

I wonder if this sort of design technology inspired optimistic talk of 'new century series' fighters?
 
The Lamborghini Countach may have appeared in posters on many a teenage boy's bedroom wall, but the Alfa Romeo Carabo concept car, also designed by Marcello Gandini, was less brutal and more graceful.
 

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Rhinocrates said:
When it comes to wedge-shaped (production) vehicles, I'm still a big fan of the Lotus Esprit (Giorgetto Giugiaro) and the Aston Martin Lagonda (series 4 by William Towns below).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjPXpRttH2M&t=1s
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That’s just a Ford LTD after plastic surgery

Hmm.

AI Visualizes Drivers Based on Car Brands, Reveals Stereotypes Pushed by Technology

Do you agree with AI's perception of the average car owner based on brands?
mymodernmet.com
 


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