The Good Oil: World's fastest production car on show

The Bugatti is the world's fastest car, at 434 km/h. Photo / Supplied

The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, once housed the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, the world's most expensive car at the time. Now it is showing off the world's fastest car - the 2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition. Bugatti will build 300 Veyron 16.4 supercars. Of those, 46 will be of the Super Sport variant and five the World Record Editions, built to celebrate the car's record-breaking 434km/h run. Shown is the paint scheme of the car that set the record at Volkwagen's Ehra-Lessian high-speed oval.

Evoking the Evoque ... well, sort of

India's Big Daddy Customs has made the Moon Rover, a Tata Safari SUV made to look like a Range Rover Evoque - but only from the front, at a low angle, ideally in low light and assuming you'd never seen a real Evoque. The Safari is about 5cm narrower than the Evoque, but nearly 30cm longer and taller. Still, it's not entirely dreadful. The Evoque's signatures have been reasonably approximated, and the "custom white paint job" is part of the package. Nothing's been changed inside, but the company's Facebook page says : "Apart from glass house area, everything else has been modified in the body shell."

Flying Atom joins race age

The Ariel Atom is about the purest street-legal sports car money can buy. Its radical tube frame, minimalist bodywork and insane power-to-weight ratio make it one of the quickest cars on pavement. So it comes as little surprise to hear of the Atom Cup, a new racing series in Britain next year at circuits such as Brands Hatch and Silverstone. While the Ariel Atom doesn't need much in the go-fast department (the 180kW 2-litreHonda engine remains mostly unchanged), the Cup vehicles will be upgraded with a rollover cage, twin master cylinders, race technology LCD dash display, extra protective bodywork, race-tuned suspension and Yokohama slicks. The Ariel Atom Cup racer weighs just 510kg and gets from 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds.

Iconic Corvette up for auction

The most successful Corvette ever will go up for auction in California next month - and it is expected to fetch more than US$1 million ($1.27 million). The 1968 Chevy L88 won checkered flags at multiple SCCA championships for owners Owens/Corning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Piloted by racers Tony DeLorenzo and Jerry Thompson, the Corvette's 7-litre (427 cubic inch) big block V8 produces 510kW and is mated to a Muncie M-22 "Rockcrusher" transmission. It won the 1969 and 1972 SCCA National "A" Production Championships, 1968 and 1970 SCCA National "A" Production Runner-Up.

Space invaders

The 2013 Ford Escape SUV holds 60,000 ping-pong balls, each with a volume of about 32 millilitres. Why is this important? Ford says the balls are ideal for estimating space in oddly shaped locations such as glove compartments and door pockets. They deliver better accuracy than other techniques. Its engineers have also figured out how to measure the volume of the space between balls.

We are the world

* Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker still owes the US Government a reported US$6 million in back tax and now sells a line of "survival" products to help true believers live through the coming apocalypse. It is unclear whether believers need to "survive," since the popular reading of the apocalypse casts it as a fast track to heaven for the faithful. Research has shown that many of Bakker's items are overpriced by as much as 100 per cent. Bakker also offers the devout a US$100 Silver Solution Total Body Cleanse Kit, which includes enemas.

* A company in Singapore says it has developed an adult nappy made of "Sofshell," a substance that hardens on contact and redistributes weight - so that if seniors fall on their rear ends, the impact will be absorbed with a reduced risk of broken bones. One of the developers demonstrated by dropping a bowling ball on a cellphone protected by the material, and the phone suffered not a scratch.

* Alabama police were called to a home in the town of Decatur after a report of a gunshot. They found a 61-year-old man, who had been drinking beer to ease his toothache, had attempted to eliminate the tooth by shooting his jaw with a .25-calibre pistol. He was taken to hospital.