NorthGeek

Real-life, R/C video game. Confused yet?

Ever wonder what it would be like if the damage you caused your vehicle in a racing video game were actually real? Well, wonder no more – thanks to this cool contraption, you can actually damage a real piece of machinery. Granted, it’s just a remote-controlled car, but still. Crash in the game, and cause some real damage. Good luck. Thanks to our buddy Brian at Black Book Design for this tip.

Travel the world with 10,100 horsepower

I’ve been looking at buying a new boat for some time now. My budget is somewhere int eh range of, oh, $300. That’s not $300,000, and definitely not $300,000,000 – I mean $300. One boat I will not be buying, is this one:

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not not buying this boat because it’s the coolest looking THING I’ve ever seen with multiple 52″ LED TV’s inside it, certainly not because it’s powered by two 4610HP engines, and not even because it comes with a pretty cool tender – an 880HP twin turbo V12 handcrafted sports car:

The reason I’m not buying this boat – if you must know – is because when I called the designer, he told me that $300 wouldn’t even be enough to buy the universal remote for the main entertainment system, let alone buy the boat.

This magnificent combo of marine (and land) engineering is a product of Strand Craft. Contact them here.

Cliff Your Ride contest winner VIDEO

AutoTrader.ca’s Cliff Your Ride contest was won by a Montrealer with a 1992 Volvo 240 Wagon. I’m not sure why he says Sherbrooke is 2,000km from Montreal, but hey -- if I’m going to see a car fly off a cliff, then I’ll watch! Enjoy:

“Attention, brave little toaster: Oversteer my bagel! Go!”

Journalistic biases be darned, here’s what happens when a Subaru fanatic-cum-talented auto journalist gets to spend a day in the playground of his dreams. Image courtesy of Jalopnik

Shut up. You had me at “Steaming platter of spaghetti!”

Who says NASCAR fans aren’t into book-learnin’ ?

Deadspin has a hilarious ongoing series where they post excerpts from NASCAR-themed Harlequin romance novels. Yeah, that’s actually a thing. It’s amazing stuff. The comments are pretty good, too.

http://deadspin.com/5492213/tailpipe-she-looked-as-sexy-as-hell

Leave it to the Germans to be logical

Bucking the industry trend of making every new version of a car or SUV heavier than the last, VW’s new SUV has gone on a diet. That alone is not exactly newsworthy, until one realizes how substantial that diet has been. Indeed, it seems “Frau VW” has been hitting both the elliptical trainer and Activia yoghurt like a fiend, and it’s showing.

VW appears to have come to their senses and asked themselves, “If ze customers don’t vant to go off ze road, zen vy do vee keep building our cars like zis?” Then they answered this question by ridding the Touareg, VW’s biggest SUV, of its burly, off-road-specific mechanical bits, decreasing the vehicle’s price and weight in the process.

For the tiny fraction of current Touareg owners who actually venture off-road, VW will still offer the complicated, heavy, off-road gear as an extra-cost option. For the rest of the pavement-bound customers, VW will employ a less heavy-duty AWD system, one that’s more suited to on-road performance than to rock crawling up the side of a mountain. All in, this eschewing of unneeded 4wd mechanical complexity translates to a 450 lb. weight savings. That’s the weight of 3 people, or 2 decent-sized bratwurst platters.

With the lower weight, the Touareg’s already-impressive on-road performance will undoubtedly improve. Factor that in with the typical Volkswagen/Audi 1st class interior and exterior design, and this truck is sure to be a sales success.

So to review, the Touareg will weigh 10% less, will be more fuel efficient, thanks to new Hybrid and diesel options, will drive better, and will be even better looking. This is around the time I realize it’s too good to be true, and my Jewish self reminds me these guys were, in darker times, the industrial apple of Hitler’s eye. Even still, VW builds some nice cars.

Thanks to Autoblog for the photo

My friend, Phil Part II

One of our first posts on NorthGeek.com was a short film starring our good friend, Phil Dubrovsky in an elevator. It was funny stuff. This video is a bit different, as it shows our buddy Phil outside, and it’s a TV commercial, not a short film. It’s a great ad! That’s my unbiased opinion.

Stellar performance, Phil. Enjoy:

Why’d you do it, VW?

The Volkswagen New Beetle, the original retro-revival city car and a smash hit for VW – inspiring the likes of the PT Cruiser, the MINI, and the new Fiat 500 – is getting very, very long in the tooth. Believe it or not, it’s been in production for nearly 12 years – an eternity in the car industry. So how is VW celebrating this car’s success and longevity? By playing “dressup,” of course.

PASS

Yes, VW has decided to dress their New Beetle with Porsche-inspired racing paint. Look, I’m as smitten by the go-fast orange paint on race-ready Porsches as any car guy, but painting a Beetle like a race car – and yeah, I’ll give special dispensation to Herbie The Luv Bug – just does not work. The Germans, once the purveyors of restraint and common sense, have brought tackiness to a new level.

Why’d you do it, VW? Exactly how many hairdressers and sorority girls clamoured for a “racing-inspired” version of their favourite city runabout? Yeah, I thought so.

It’s a little bit like Nike deciding to sponsor golf legend Jack Nicklaus, in the twilight of his career, and then asking him to dress in Tiger Woods’ signature red-&-black golf duds, and finally, insisting that he do his best version of the Tiger Woods Fist Pump after every winning putt. I cringe at the idea. And I hate golf.

FAIL

Open Source Motoring, a.k.a. Sometimes You Can Never Have Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen

I’m reluctant to use the term “open source,” as it may suggest to you, dear Northgeek, that I know the first thing about computers, programming, or any such nerdery (with all due respect to my fellow nerds), because I don’t. I don’t understand Linux, or why it exists.

That having been said, as a hopeless car geek, I can absolutely appreciate the concept behind the Rally Fighter, developed by Local Motors and, more importantly, by you.

Imagine, if you will, a car company that is run like a for-profit, open source co-op: the best solutions for every element of the car’s design and execution win – whether those ideas come from the CEO or from a hobbyist in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Is this the future of automobile manufacturing? The brave new world that says “adios” to Henry Ford’s assembly line? Mmmm, not yet. But the concept is damned cool.

Behold, the Local Motors Rally Fighter, or what apparently happens when a 50’s Corvette mates with a monster truck. Thanks, as always, to Jalopnik for spreading the word.  More info here.

Vladimir likes to shoot stuff and go off-roading, but he also likes to party.

God love the English upper class. They are, by all accounts, the cradle from which WASP refinement and modesty originated. By their playbook , if you are blessed with the genes that afford you the birthright of land ownership, a title, an uber-hyphenated name, etc., etc., then you act accordingly: you drive a rickety old Land Rover, you wear tweed, and you generally keep a low profile as you go about your patrician daily activities of gardening, hunting, drinking, inbreeding, and otherwise maintaining your estate. Much beyond those activities, whether you run an organic farm, a dog-fighting ring, or collect Crimean war-era artifacts on the side is entirely up to you, old sport.

But that was then, this is now. In this age of Cool Britannia, tastes have changed. Footballers, musicians , and Russian mobsters have replaced the moneyed old world elite in England as the aspirational conspicuous consumers of the day. In other words, Nouveau Riche is in, and stodgy old Land Rover has hopped on the bandwagon and embraced their inner baller. The result is this, the Overfinch Range Rover by Holland & Holland. The car’s off-road prowess remains, but is now clearly matched by the strength of its pimp-hand. This beast mixes the old guard hobbies of shooting birds, drinking whiskey, and driving off-road on your estate with the new world hobbies of shooting people, drinking Crystal, and driving off pavement to park next to the velvet rope of your club. Progress indeed.

[Image courtesy of Jalopnik]