Jack Martin

MV Agusta has announced a new 148 kw, 1000cc version of its F4 sports bike aimed at homologating a bike with the potential to push Ducati’s 1098S, BMW’s S1000RR and Kawasaki’s ZX10R off the superstock podium. Equipped with a new 13,700 rpm short stroke engine, the original F4 frame updated to enable steering-head angle adjustment via interchangeable inserts and new and better Öhlins suspension units and lightweight wheels, the new MV Agusta F4 RR is more than double the price of any of its aforementioned competitors, so let’s hope we see a few on the racetrack that can validate the EUR 22,900 (US$32,500) price tag.  Read More

Faced with ever-increasing adventure touring competition from KTM, Yamaha, Ducati and Honda, BMW is ramping up new model development at subsidiary Husqvarna with a view to developing more dirt-orientated large capacity off-road and semi-off-road models that will not be in direct competition with its class-leading R1200GS. Several new models will be unveiled at EICMA in November, all based on the Rotax 800cc parallel twin engine used in the BMW F800R. The Rotax engine, for those not familiar with it is a pearler, with throttle response so acutely calibrated that it can be ridden like this, so the newly developed 900cc variant can be expected to be even better.  Read More

French automotive manufacturer Peugeot is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, and has promised quite a few significant announcements before the year is out. Its first electric car, the Peugeot iOn, is a rebadged Mitsubishi iMiEV, but the EX1 concept it showed last year is all its own work and looks to be a rip-snorter of a performance car to boot. Last week, the twin-electric motored 250 kW (340 bhp) EX1 set a new electric record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit of 9:01.338 at an average speed of 138 km/h in adverse conditions whatsmore.  Read More

It’s easy to become blasé in the ubiquitous, 24-7 avalanche of information in which we live our lives – the challenge now is about filtering, organizing and synthesizing information into a useful and relevant form. Think back though to an earlier time when the very first books became available to the public, when the treasure trove of knowledge in our pocket that we take for granted simply did not exist. A book coming up for auction, the Liber Chronicarum (1493), was one of the very first history books available, one of the first printed illustrated books available and its scope is remarkable given it was produced 500 years ago.  Read More

When German performance tuner Novitec decided to squeeze some extra performance from the limited edition Alfa Romeo 8C, it didn't need to look far. The 8c runs the 4.7 liter V8 powertrain of the Maserati GT (both companies are owned by Fiat), so it tapped the technology of its sister company Novitec Tridente, which tunes Maseratis, and came up with a supercharger conversion. In so doing, it created the fastest Alfa in the world.  Read More

The magical story-telling prowess of Ian Fleming certainly seems to translate well into film, as the automotive stars of the film adaptations of two of his novels are both claimed to be the world’s best known cars. The first, the James Bond 1964 Aston Martin DB5 movie car from Goldfinger and Thunderball that sold for GBP2,912,000 (US$4,608,500) last October. The other is GEN 11, the fully functioning star of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now it too – a fully-functioning road car that sadly doesn’t fly – is to go under the auctioneer’s hammer.  Read More

Firing a rifle at a Longbow Apache Attack helicopter in the hope of claiming a US$8 million scalp with a 50 cent bullet might not be a very good idea for too much longer - unless you like keeping company with a Hellfire missile. The U.S. Army’s Longbow Apache Attack helicopters are about to gain a networked Ground Fire Acquisition System (GFAS) which uses infrared cameras to detect muzzle flashes from ground fire, and displays the location and distance of the shooters as an icon on the pilot’s display screen. Not only does this enable the immediate acquisition and prosecution of targets, it also offers the same information to ground forces via the net-centric battlefield information system, giving everyone in the fight vastly improved situational awareness.  Read More

To many people, it seems almost inconceivable that you can sleep through the aural brutality of an alarm clock, yet a small percentage of us can indeed, mask out all but the loudest of sounds without batting an eyelid. For those people, there is now "The Skull", a Sonic Boom alarm clock on steroids that pumps out 113 db of sound, flashes bright red light from its eye sockets, and strobes bright orange from a strip of flashing lights on the front. If that's not enough to rouse you, the skull comes with the company's "Bone Crusher" bed shaker attachment to shake you back into your body.  Read More

According to the latest DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile Phone Shipment and Forecast Report, the mobile phone market reached 1.6 billion units in 2010, and will increase further to 1.8 billion units this year – there are less than seven billion humans on Mother Earth, so that’s more than one new mobile phone for every man, woman and child. The growth is being driven by continuously growing emerging markets and the trend to upgrading to smart phones.  Read More