The good oil: Car park confusion

More than one Takapuna local reckons the car park at the end of The Promenade is a dog's breakfast. Photo / Supplied

More than one Takapuna local reckons the car park at the end of The Promenade is a dog's breakfast, a ramshackle mix of spaces for vehicles with boat trailers and those for cars only. The Good Oil stumbled into a rumble (above) between motorists, a parking warden, and towies the other day. It began when one woman parked in a space reserved for boaties, according to a confusing signpost. It cost her $93 - $40 for the infringement and $53 for a "towage fee", said the Auckland Transport bluey. The towie had only partly hooked up her car. Presumably, then, the $53 goes towards the towies' Christmas fund. The woman drove off. Within minutes, four other drivers parked in the same space. All four argued with the warden, saying the sign was confusing. A local passerby agreed. "I've lived in Takapuna 50 years and the council has never got parking in this place right."

New Ferrari kerbed

One of the first magazines to test-drive the four-door Ferrari FF was Britain's CAR. It's writer Jethro Bovingdon ran into a bit of trouble while trying to talk into a video camera and pilot the Italian supercar at the same time. Shortly after saying that he intended to demonstrate "just how committed to the throttle you can be on a very twisty narrow road that shouldn't suit this car", Bovingdon managed to bounce the FF off a kerb. CAR said damage was limited to both passenger-side wheels. The Herald tests the FF in Italy this month.

Button clips Lowndes, just

Formula One driver Jenson Button has become the first person to run a grand prix car around the Bathurst circuit. Button and V8 Supercar driver Craig Lowndes traded laps in a 2008 McLaren MP4-23 racer on the Mt Panorama road. Button ran five laps of the circuit, clocking a 1:48. Lowndes followed with a best of 1:49.

Under donkey power

A fellow in Shenyang, China, was reportedly so frustrated with his 2010 Range Rover breaking down that he towed it back to the dealer - hitched to a couple of donkeys. He paid $405,000 for it but it broke down six times and eventually needed a new engine. It was when it died a seventh time that he whistled up the donkeys.

We are the world

• Police in Washington figured out how a van had exploded after its three occupants were taken to hospital. There was a problem with the fuel pump, the cops said, and the engine kept stalling. So the three filled a plastic bucket with petrol, jammed it in between the front seats, ran a plastic tube from the bucket to feed the carburettor, fired up the engine and drove off. The van stalled. The driver tried to restart it. Boom!

• Britain's Oxfordshire County Council, which oversees youth swimming classes, has banned goggles from pools in case kids might snap the elastic bands and hurt their eyes. Malvern Primary in Merseyside banned play with regulation soccer balls, saying football must be played with less-dangerous sponge balls.

• Simona Suhoi is a TV star in her native Romania, where she's known as Simona Sensual, partly because of her big boobs, courtesy of implants. The new ones - the implants, not the boobs - were causing her so much pain one night that she jumped in her car and headed to hospital. But the cops picked her up for speeding - and driving while disqualified. Now Suhoi is facing five years in jail and jokes about the dangers of "air bags".