US company Revanzi have created the Beast - that hits 100km in 2.9seconds.
US company Revanzi have created the Beast - that hits 100km in 2.9seconds.
Always wanted an Ariel Atom, but were worried you would look like a prat driving it on the road? Already have an Ariel Atom but starting to wish you had bought a car with body panels?
Fret no more, because US company Revanzi has a solution for all your Ariel worries. It has released more details on its wonderfully named Beast - a small, remarkably aggressive-looking supercar it has been teasing us with pictures of for a while.
Numbers like "703kg" and "373kW" had been circulating around the car that no one seemed to know much about, but were getting excited by anyway.
Well, now it turns out that the Beast is very real and the numbers are true. That is because the Beast is more or less an Ariel Atom with a sexy body strapped on to it.
Like the Atom, the Beast will come in two forms - the 235kW/667kg Beast 300 powered by a 2.0-litre turbo and the 373kW/703kg Beast 500 powered by a 2.4-litre supercharged engine. The Beast 300 will hit 60mph (96km/h) in 2.9 seconds, while the Beast 500 will do it in 2.7 seconds.
Prices are reasonable, considering the performance and looks on offer (providing the build quality is up to it), with the Beast 300 dropping in at US$119,000 ($137,900) and the Beast 500 topping things off at US$139,000 ($161,100). The press release makes much noise about "engineering" and the Beast being "built on the Atom's platform". But let's face it, Revanzi has just slapped a sexy body on one of the most insanely fast and fun cars around, got an Atom specialist (DDM Works of South Carolina) to work up the engines and then given it an awesome name.
But then it goes and gives the game away by mentioning that if you already own an Atom, it can be "converted" into a Beast for US$49,000 ($56,800) for the 300 and US$69,000 ($80,000) for the 500.
A Chinese chicken is either the toughest or luckiest bird alive after a head-on collision between it and a car doing 110km/h. Huang Lingyong was driving in China's Jiangxi province when he saw the bird dart out in front of him. ''I braked because I am an animal lover and didn't want to harm the chicken,'' Huang told a newspaper. ''But it was too late. I heard a sickening thud a ht the chicken had gone to meet his ancestors. I stopped the car, got out and walked around to the front. There was a hole in the bodywork and the chicken was wedged inside. I thought it must be dead but then I heard a cluck-clucking. It was a little shaken up but otherwise okay.
It seemed to me to be a very good advert for the durability of chickens and a very bad one for the quality of the car that I was driving.'' The Japanese manufacturer insisted the bumper was not original, but a Chinese copy ...
BMW's grand future: the solar carport
With its bold step into hybrid-ish electric-y thingies with the i3 and i8, BMW has stepped up its game by designing the ultimate accessory for its i cars - a carport.
BMW i Solar Carport Concept uses carbon fibre and bamboo in its construction and an array of solar panels to charge your i3 or i8.
But this isn't the same as the carport your granny knocked crooked when you were a kid by somehow not seeing it while she was backing towards it at full speed, so for the rest of your childhood it had a slight drunken lean, but now the cat could reach it from the fence.
No, this is a very high-tech carport indeed. Did you expect anything else from BMW? The - wait for it - BMW i Solar Carport Concept uses carbon fibre and bamboo in its construction and an array of solar panels to charge your i3 or i8.
Also included is the BMW i Wallbox Pro (the names just keep getting better and better) which will collect and store the energy from the solar panels and is also hooked up to the power grid. So if there is not enough solar energy to charge the car it will top it up from the grid, or if there is an excess, it can be ''put to domestic use''.
It is just a concept at this stage, making BMW almost certainly the first manufacturer to show off a ''concept carport''. Just as well it is only a concept - if granny hit it the cat would probably get fried.
Some car makers use social media to connect with customers. Some use it to promote the brand and some use it to embarrass themselves. Lexus are using it to save themselves a bit of work.
Image 1 of 4: US company Revanzi have created the Beast - that hits 100km in 2.9seconds.
Supplied
For use in Good Oil, Driven May 17.
Well, not really, it is probably more to do with engaging with fans of the brand or some marketing nonsense like that. They are asking Facebook fans to come up with a name for the new colour they are going to be offering on the bulging, angry-looking RC F.
It is what will no doubt be the RC F's ''hero'' launch colour, and it is very orange. So far the Facebook page has thrown up thoughtful contributions like ''Tatara Blaze'' (a Tatara is a furnace used to produce the iron Samurai swords were made of), obvious suggestions like ''Sunburst'', and brilliant ideas like ''Spiced Vomit'' and ''Blue''.
But they could just go with the colour's original name and call it ''Bruce McLaren Orange'', we guess.
Let Mercedes fly you far above the city jams
Mercedes-Benz Melbourne now has a helicopter pad at its Airport Express dealership so you can avoid traffic and fly straight into the city.
Getting to the airport is always a frustrating experience, no matter where in the world you live (unless you live next to an airport, that is). There is always that lingering worry you have forgotten something (watch, phone, passport, wallet, laptop and a ferret is a list of things The Good Oil has had to either turn back for or leave behind when heading for a flight), or the ever-present threat that traffic will turn feral on your way there, leaving you stuck in a queue, sweating and counting down the minutes ...
That is probably why Mercedes-Benz Melbourne and Air Melbourne have teamed up to provide a good (but not cheap) service - for A$274 ($298) per person, Air Melbourne will pop you in one of its twin-engined Augusta helicopters in the Melbourne CBD, take you on a four-minute flight across the city to the airport (and anyone who has tried to get to the airport from Melbourne's CBD knows that can take anywhere between 40 minutes and an eternity in a car) and drop you at the Mercedes-Benz dealership there, where a chauffeur-driven Merc will convey you to your terminal.
And the best part? You don't even need to own a Mercedes.
Number Crunching
612 KG The kerb weight of an Ariel Atom.
6.86 SECONDS The time it took a 224kW Atom 2 to go from 0 to 161km/h in 2006.
2.2 SECONDS The time Ariel claims an Atom 500 (3.0-litre V8) will do the 0 to 100km/h.
