World’s smallest working model train on video

About a week back, we saw the smallest working model train, and now it is time to see it in all its miniature glory. The video, uploaded by the train’s creator, David Smith shows the miniature train chugging along its path, and also has a few...

About a week back, we saw the smallest working model train, and now it is time to see it in all its miniature glory. The video, uploaded by the train’s creator, David Smith shows the miniature train chugging along its path, and also has a few interesting comparisons to put things into perspective for this 1:35200 scale model.

Video: YouTube

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/world-s-smallest-wo...

Chevy Caprice dresses as Pacman car, doesn’t impress

This Chevrolet Caprice decked up as a Mr. Pacman car sure is a piece of fanboyism, and the work is sort of appreciable, but somehow it isn’t much of an eye catcher. The car has a red-yellow paintjob with Mr. Pacman making a prominent appearance on..

This Chevrolet Caprice decked up as a Mr. Pacman car sure is a piece of fanboyism, and the work is sort of appreciable, but somehow it isn’t much of an eye catcher. The car has a red-yellow paintjob with Mr. Pacman making a prominent appearance on the hood and the sides, and the same theme is carried to the interiors where the seats are decked in the same red-yellow theme with Pacman clearly visible. There’s Pacman even on the rims, wonder dots the car collects.

Via: Flickr/ GadgetHIM

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/chevy-caprice-dress...

Video: Crazy driving in half a car

This is an absolute crazy thing. The video is apparently from Serbia, and that guy is doing absolute insane things in a car with only two wheels, or rather, on a car with just two wheels that is missing most of its body. It looks crazy, and slight...

This is an absolute crazy thing. The video is apparently from Serbia, and that guy is doing absolute insane things in a car with only two wheels, or rather, on a car with just two wheels that is missing most of its body. It looks crazy, and slight bit of funny and cool too, though I have no idea how that “cool” part ever came into being for this half-car driving.

Via: Geekologie

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/video-crazy-driving...

Unmanned chopper is an IED hunter

Drones have been vastly successful in offence, and looks like their chopper cousins are ready to get into the action by sniffing out Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). IEDs have long been a trouble for forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and these...

Drones have been vastly successful in offence, and looks like their chopper cousins are ready to get into the action by sniffing out Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). IEDs have long been a trouble for forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and these unmanned choppers will find these explosives by tracking the electromagnetic emissions that are emitted from the wireless receivers used to trigger IEDs.



The chopper itself isn’t very formidable looking, in fact, it looks a bit cute, prompting or friends at PopSci to name it the Helipanda. The Air Force Research Laboratory however, does not seem very interested in keeping up the “cute” part, they call the new UAV by the name of “Yellow Jacket.”

Via: AviationWeek/ PopSci

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/unmanned-chopper-is...

Plastic engines are real enough to find a place under the hood

For all the lengths automakers go to reduce the weight of a vehicle, one component is often left untouched, the engine. And it looks like they could have massive weight savings by using plastic engines to power cars. Matti Holtzberg, an engineer and..

For all the lengths automakers go to reduce the weight of a vehicle, one component is often left untouched, the engine. And it looks like they could have massive weight savings by using plastic engines to power cars. Matti Holtzberg, an engineer and president of Polimotor Research has been working on plastic engines for nearly three decades now, and the company’s plastic engines do appear to be working well.



Some of his engines have shown very impressive results, and one of the engines, based on the 415 pound, 88hp Ford Pinto actually came out with unbelievable, typo-like result of 300hp output with just 152 pounds of weight. And with results like that, it is surprising that most automakers haven’t shown much of an interest in the engine. Polimotor has recently joined hands with Huntsman Corporation to bring plastic engines to mass production. And if those performance numbers are real, these engines definitely deserve to be mass produced.

Via: NYTimes/ TheKneeslider/ AutoblogGreen

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/plastic-engines-are...

Audi Avatar concept is the superlight supercar for 2032

The HSV Encore concept from designer Edwin Conan was an innovative, futuristic ride dated for the year 2020, and his new Audi Avatar concept is another futuristic supercar, dated for 2032. The futuristic Avatar connects to Audi’s past by getting...

The HSV Encore concept from designer Edwin Conan was an innovative, futuristic ride dated for the year 2020, and his new Audi Avatar concept is another futuristic supercar, dated for 2032. The futuristic Avatar connects to Audi’s past by getting inspiration from the 1937 Auto Union Type C streamliner, and also incorporates the tech and power required for a supercar of the future.



Powered by a long range supercharge-ion battery propelling four in-wheel motors, the three-seat supercar could go from a standing start to 100 kmph in just 2.9 seconds, all the way to a top speed of 360 kmph. The concept’s “ultra light aerodynamic body” gets inspiration from “fabric blown in the wind,” along with the Type C streamliner influence.

Entry and exit to the car carry their touches of future as well, each passenger enters through three glass canopies, where the main canopy moves forward with the dashboard and steering wheel, while the other two move backwards. Side panels on the bodywork also open with canopies, to provide passengers a step, thus making entry and exit easier.

Interiors of the concept are all full of futuristic goodness, and are created as a single continuous sheet extending from the dashboard to the rear, including the floor carpet and seats. A drive by wire system makes the concept customizable, allowing the driver to replace the steering wheel with a joystick, or even a keyboard, living up to the “computer generation’s expectations.”

[Thanks, Edwin]

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Original source : http://www.automotto.org/entry/audi-avatar-concept...

Ford Kuga will be produced in USA

Dollar exchange rate falling under the relation in the European currency and presence of free capacities to the USA force company management Ford to transfer manufacture of cars from Europe to America. According to agency Bloomberg, crossover Ford Kuga becomes the first European model which will move for ocean, – in 2011 this car will start to assemble not in Germany, and in America in the State of Kentucky.

Simultaneously with it in the USA sale Kuga which could be bought till now only in the Old World will begin. Thus about 80 000 assembled in America Kuga will be then delivered to Europe. Certainly, from the point of view of logistics it is not too convenient, however, at the expense of lower cost price of manufacture of cars in the USA, it will be all the same more favourable, than to do cars in the Old World.

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Original source : http://autostream.blogspot.com/2009/11/ford-kuga-w...