KEY POINTS:
Some tasty offerings will be on show at Auckland's Alexandra Park on September 14 at the 10th annual Jaguar car show. The line-up comprises cars built between 1940 and 2008, including replicas of the XK180 and XJ13, and an original example of the XJ220. Therein lies an amusing XJ220 story. A British motoring writer killed the car's turbocharged V6 engine and gearbox at the racetrack launch in 1991 when he shifted from fifth gear to second - at 210km/h.
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Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis has picked up the keys to her hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity. "I really wasn't expecting it to be so luxurious," she said. "I love the interior layout, design and access to controls. It is user-friendly and very modern." Curtis is one of many high-profile Americans who will lease the zero-emissions car from Honda over the next three years. The Clarity is driven by an electric motor that runs on electricity generated by an on-board fuel cell.
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A cop gives a cab driver in South Auckland a ticket for going through an orange light in a 70km/h zone. The cabbie tell us the conversation went like this. Cabbie: "The light only just turned orange. I didn't have time to stop. If I'd tried to stop I would have ended up in the middle of the road. This is ridiculous." Cop: "You are entitled to appeal." Cabbie: "I'm going to. Anyway, you were behind me. The light would have turned red by the time you went through it." Cop: "I'm allowed to go through a red light."
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General Motors has pulled out of its long-time sponsorship of Hollywood's Academy Awards. The move, which comes amid a sharp downturn in automotive advertising on television, will leave Walt Disney's ABC network without one of its biggest spenders on Oscar night. The carmaker paid out $US13.5 million ($19.2 million) for advertising time at this year's awards.
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Pictures of the facelifted Mazda MX-5 are doing the rounds after an employee at the EU agency that registers trademarks let them loose by mistake. The pictures show the soft rounded nose of the current car making way for a more angular grille. The headlights are swept back further up the bonnet, too. The refreshed model is expected to arrive in New Zealand next year, with a full replacement due in 2012.
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A device for parents who need to be reminded that their tiny tots are in the back seat has gone on sale in the US. Provided they're not too busy to set the system up, an alarm alerts preoccupied parents if they leave the car without baby. Said one Texas woman interviewed by NBC News: "As a mum, you can get really distracted."
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Washington DC man Rocky Twyman has been urging Americans to pray to bring down fuel prices. A colleague in St Louis claimed his prayer sessions caused a recent price drop, particularly when he added the verse "We'll have lower gas prices" to the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome.
alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz
