Snow

18:45 August 3, 2009 PDT

From street car to mean marine ... this concept car's tires are extremely adaptable

Despite the fact that very few make it off the drawing board to prototype stage, ‘go anywhere’ concept cars are an ever popular subject for budding auto designers and car lovers alike. And why not - they allow us to forget about the pesky practicalities of design and tiresome economics and imagine what could be. The latest to cross our desk - the Amphibious Hybrid concept vehicle - is a case of Bond meets the Transformers with its automatically adjusting tire design that morphs to ensure maximum grip on any given terrain including ice and water, where it becomes a kind of three wheel paddle boat. Read More

SPORTS

Loopy design or best board ever?

By Jeff Salton

22:22 July 27, 2009 PDT

The Loop-In concept board could be radical news for surfers, skaters and snowboarders who ...

The Loop-In concept board could be an extreme skater’s dream, an answer for out-of-season snowboarders, or perhaps surfers who find themselves a long way from the ocean and want to keep up their skills. The Loop-In’s huge wheels can rotate over almost any surface while the board will rotate 360° within its interior independently. Read More

SPORTS

Scarpar's 60kmh all-terrain twin-tracked Powerboard

By Loz Blain

17:02 April 26, 2009 PDT

It's rare that you see a whole new segment open up in personal mobility - and this one looks like an absolute cracker. The Scarpar Powerboard is an off-road powered skateboard capable of taking on pretty much any terrain other than water. An electric or 4-stroke petrol engine powers two articulated tank-style tracks up to a terrifying 60kmh, using a hand control for acceleration and braking. Mud, grass, sand, snow - the Scarpar is capable of driving over just about anything, including rock piles and even fallen logs. Calling venture capitalists - get this thing to market! Read More

OUTDOORS

Ortovox Grizzly multifunctional avalanche shovel

By Anne Hanrahan

00:17 April 1, 2009 PDT

A shovel for snow that shovels snow. Nothing too out of the ordinary there, but look a little closer and the cleverness of this multifunctional design becomes apparent. Designed for both avalanche rescue and more mundane tasks on the mountain like digging out beleaguered motorists, the ORTOVOX Grizzly sports a large, sharp aluminum blade designed to shift compact snow quickly, but the clever bit is the folding mechanism that transforms the shovel into a pick when fixed at a right angle, or collapses fully for convenient transportation. Read More

AUTOMOTIVE

TH!NK FROST: AWD, all-wheel-steer electric sports car concept

By Paul Evans

18:54 March 11, 2009 PDT

While World Rally Championship cars travel at incredible speed on ice covered roads using studded tires, something with a little more surface area is needed for an Arctic Off-Road vehicle. Taking cues off four track snowmobiles Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie designed the FROST as a concept proposal for TH!NK, an electric car company based in Norway. The layout of the FROST is a 2-seat sports car platform based on a tubular space frame chassis with double wishbone suspension front and rear teamed with push-rod actuated in-board coil over shock and spring units. The suspension features hydraulic wheel extenders to increase the track when required and the proposed electric drivetrain features All Wheel Drive (AWD), all-wheel-steering and radical tracks instead of conventional wheels that should offer superior traction when driving on snow, ice and slush. Read More

AUTOMOTIVE

Monster truck turns snowmobile

By Mike Hanlon

15:21 February 8, 2009 PST

With arctic conditions bringing the entire United Kingdom to a halt, the staff at Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire decided to employ Podzilla, the racetrack's 1200 bhp Monster Truck, to travel the otherwise inaccessible 180 acre grounds. With a fuel consumption of 15 gallons per mile (that's not a misprint), Podzilla isn't exactly practical winter transport, but it is a lot of fun in the snow and the six foot tall tires get traction everywhere. Read More

MOTORCYCLES

Winter wheelies: bolt-on kit turns your dirtbike into a powder-carving snowbike

By Loz Blain

01:04 February 5, 2009 PST

This looks like serious winter fun. What if you could ride your high-performance, lightweight dirtbike in the snow? Imagine throwing huge snowy rooster tails, wheelieing across snow-covered fields, carving corners through the powder and cranking your bike down to elbow-dragging lean angles - all the while knowing that if you overcook it, you'll fall into a nice soft pile of the white fluffy stuff. The US$4250 2moto snowbike kit is a bolt-on mod that takes about 2 hours to fit to a range of common dirtbikes. In place of the front wheel, you get a tough, flexible ski on the end of your forks. At the rear end, you swap your swingarm, wheel and suspension out for a thin paddle track drive unit - and voila! You've got half a snowmobile, except it leans over in the turns and looks like a helluva lot more fun. Read More