Automotive

The US$950,000 Hennessey Venom GT produces 1200 horsepower and weighs twelve hundred kilos (2,685 lbs) WET! By comparison, it makes the 267 mph, 1184 bhp Bugatti Veyron GT look overweight. The Veyron GT is 50 percent heavier, tipping the scales at 1,888 kg (4,162 lbs). The 2012 Venom GT will make its first public outing in its homeland later today when it attends the McCall's Motorworks Revival, the traditional first event of the Monterey / Pebble Beach weekend. Read More

The greater share of the value of any significant collector car is in the provenance – who sat in the seat before you, and experienced the same vehicle, can make a massive difference to the price the car commands. What then of a car that was specifically built for, and used, by Pope Paul VI? It went on to become the focal point of countless ticker tape parades for the first astronauts to orbit the moon (Apollo 8's Borman, Lovell and Anders), the first astronauts to set foot on the moon (Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, plus Command Module Pilot Michael Collins) plus Apollo 13's Lovell, Mattingly and Haise and Apollo 15's Scott, Worden and Irwin, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. How much will it go for? Read More

Two new electric smart vehicles will debut in showrooms next year. The third generation smart fortwo electric car will be available within twelve months in more than 30 markets while a smart pedelec power-assist electric bike will also be available in dealerships during 2012. Read More

Chevrolet's lightweight, all-carbon-fiber roofless Miray concept is propelled by two front-mounted 15-kW electric motors for quick acceleration and zero emissions in urban driving. It can switch from the electric motors to the 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbo-charged gas engine mounted behind the cockpit, and it can employ all of the above for maximum sporting performance. Read More

The “Schluckspecht E” electric vehicle built by a team at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenberg, Germany has broken the world record for the longest distance traveled on a single charge. The world record attempt was made at the Bosch test track in Boxberg with the vehicle traveling a total distance of 1631.5 km (1,013.76 miles), breaking the previous record of 1,003 km (623 miles) set by the Japan Electric Vehicle Club last year. Read More

Continental is best known for its tires, but its latest product could help to significantly improve the handling of the family sedan when it is shown for the first time at Frankfurt Motor Show next month. It's a new fixed-type brake caliper for passenger cars, and in comparison to the fist-caliper brakes widely used at present, the new design saves around 1.5 kg per wheel. Read More

The distracted driving epidemic seems to know no bounds. With global road deaths set to exceed 1.5 million human beings in 2011, almost every country in the world continues to accept the mayhem on the roads as the cost of doing business. Distracted driving is the hot topic of the moment with research suggesting 5,800 U.S. traffic deaths last year were tied to motorists who failed to keep their eyes on the road. Another study claims American drivers are distracted between one-quarter and one-half of the time, two-thirds of drivers use a cell phone while driving, one-third used a cell phone routinely and observational studies suggest between 7% and 10% of all drivers are using a cell phone at any given time. If you think that's bad, you should see what happens in Asia. Mike Hanlon spent a few months on the road in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand - his photography of everyday motoring in largely motorcycle-mounted countries will leave you aghast. Read More

There have been a number of contenders for the title of world's coolest police car featured on gizmag over the years, among them a number of Lotus models. This time the British marque is venturing away from home soil and into the heart of sportscar land where it will join the Italian Carabinieri. Read More

It’s important to keep your tires sufficiently inflated, both for the sake of the tires themselves, and in order to maximize the performance and fuel economy of your vehicle. The problem is that for many of us, we only think to check our tire pressure when heading out on a long road trip – if even then. With Goodyear’s Air Maintenance Technology (AMT), however, that shouldn’t matter. The system, which is currently in development, would automatically keep tires topped up to the proper pressure. Read More