It’s 35 years since McLaren revolutionised the high-performance motoring world with the first carbon-fibre Formula One car, the MP4. Since then every McLaren car – racing or road – has been based around a carbon chassis. The MP4 debuted in 1981, when every other Formula One team was using aluminium. It won the British GP at Silverstone that year. Nikki Lauda later won two GPs … [Read more...] about How McLaren pioneered the carbon-fibre chassis
Spy videos
Oops! New meaning for US Army command: ‘Hit the dirt!’
Now we know why the US Army is looking at using modified Jeep Wranglers as rapid response vehicles. (Search Jeep, March 14). For starters, the Wranglers are much lighter than the Humvees seen plummeting to the ground in this video. (WARNING: Bad language.) It happened during a training exercise with NATO members at US Army base Hohenfels, in Germany. The three Humvees were … [Read more...] about Oops! New meaning for US Army command: ‘Hit the dirt!’
NZ’s Hartley reprimanded for race crash
New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley has been rapped over the knuckles for crashing his Porsche 919 Hybrid in the first round of the 2016 World Endurance Championship at Britain’s Silverstone circuit. Defending champion Hartley was leading the six-hour race when he ran wide on a corner trying to pass a Porsche 911 driven by Britain’s Mark Wainright. Hartley’s car clipped the 911 and … [Read more...] about NZ’s Hartley reprimanded for race crash
Volvo borrows energy from other cars to charge its own SUV
Volvo used a stretch of highway in California to create a tongue-in-cheek advertisement about pinching energy from other cars on the road to power its SUV, the XC90 T8. The 300kW T8 is a plug-in hybrid that runs a four-cylinder turbocharged engine that gets an extra boost from an electric motor. Volvo set up rubber mats on the road in which tubes contain water. Passing cars run … [Read more...] about Volvo borrows energy from other cars to charge its own SUV
Texan Tony has the fastest Nissan GT-R in the US
Texan Tony Palo’s Nissan GT-R holds multiple records as the quickest Godzilla in the US, including a half-mile of 235.6 mp/h, or 381km/h. This video, from Japan’s Motorhead magzine, begins with Palo putting the GT-R on a dyno, where its go-faster 3.8-litre V6 engine makes an insane 1616kW and 1744Nm of torque. The engine in the new-look GT-R – the one unveiled at the New York … [Read more...] about Texan Tony has the fastest Nissan GT-R in the US