Showing posts with label Offbeat News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Offbeat News. Show all posts

Bruno Senna Drivers An F1 Car...One Handed!


Race car drivers are a funny bunch. In this video, we see Brazilian Formula 1 driver and the nephew of the late three-time Formula One world champ Ayrton Senna, Bruno Senna, behind the wheel of the new Renault R30 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. “Oh,” you say in your most jaded tone, “How interesting.” Well it is interesting, as Senna is driving this 2,400 cc (146.5 cu in) single-handed while filming the action with a camera phone. Read more »

Some Like it Very Hot: Fiat’s New Campaign for 500 by Gucci


Russian model Natalya Sergeyevna Polevshchikova, more commonly known as Natasha Poly, is the new face (and legs…) of Fiat’s advertising campaign for the limited edition 500 by Gucci. The blonde temptress from the land of hot spies, beautiful ballets and Vodka, is dressed in a one-of-a-kind black leather ensemble and is all over the 500’s ultra compact body [sic...].

The campaign was imagined by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, who was also responsible for the design of the special edition 500. Fiat said the single and double-page advertisements will appear in publications throughout the year.

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Audi Challenges BMW, Mercedes and Lexus with new Ad Campaign


Audi of America has launched a new advertising campaign that will most likely generate a similar response from the competition in the premium segment. Under the tagline “Car Carrier”, the two Audi commercials feature a BMW owner that goes nuts when he sees a truck full of brand new automotive metal from Ingolstadt.

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Beatboxing with the Polo GTI: New TV Spot from Singapore


Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not a huge fan of beatboxing. It’s something me and my friends were big into in junior high, but I’ve since outgrown it. Others have not. In a recent TV spot promoting the latest-generation Volkswagen Polo GTI, the Singapore arm of global marketing agency Tribal DDB brought in local beatboxing talent Dharni Ng to lay down some slick beats.

The result is...interesting, I guess. I’m not really in much of a position to judge beatboxing, so it’s hard to tell if this is good or merely average. You can check out the full ad below and an additional clip of Ng “rehearsing” while being driven about in the Veedub. Oh, and don’t forget to leave a comment in the section below.

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Eurocopter’s C145 Helicopter gets a Mercedes-Flavored Interior


Automakers' design departments have started to explore new areas beyond automobile styling, with the first two examples that come to mind being Porsche and BMW. Following in the footsteps of its local rivals is Daimler and its “Mercedes-Benz Style” venture that has just released its first project after announcing the launch of the division a year ago.

We're talking about the Eurocopter EC145, a business helicopter with an interior crafted by Mercedes-Benz’s newly formed styling division. Designed at the company's studio in Como, Italy, the interior of the EC145 “Mercedes-Benz Style” helicopter is inspired by the Stuttgart-based automaker’s executive saloons.

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Viva Las Vegas: Google Lobbies to Legalize Self-Driving Cars in Nevada


Internet and software bigwig Google has begun lobbying the state of Nevada to legalize driverless cars. The move comes on the heels of some very promising results in California, where Google had mapped out the terrain and sent a couple of its autonomous Toyota Priuses (Prii? Priora?) on an epic jaunt from Mountain View to Santa Monica.

The California-based company is keen to point out the claimed benefits of self-driving cars over their human-driven counterparts including better safety, improved fuel efficient and greater environmental friendliness.

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Carscoop Version 5.0 has Arrived: Tell us What You Think about our Latest Redesign


If you wondering why we have been dragging our feet on the news front these past few weeks, it’s because we were busy with the HTML5’s and CSS’s of our brand new template. True, the feel and the design have remained more or less the same with some subtle changes in the aesthetics and the size of our site, which is slightly more compact, but almost everything underneath is new.

Think of Carscoop Version 5.0 as something like a new Porsche; while the looks remain the same (to the previous Version 4.3), everything else is new or revamped. In our case, this should translate to a better experience on most modern browsers and more importantly, faster speeds regardless the connection.

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Top Gear vs. Electric Cars Part Two: Nissan Leaf Runs of out Electric Juice…


Lately, it seems that pushing an out-of-juice electric car is quickly becoming a trademark of Britain’s popular Top Gear TV series. After the Tesla Motors row, it seems another EV will be featured in the show while being pushed. This time it's the Nissan Leaf, whose batteries ran dry while being driven by Jeremy Clarkson.

Fortunately, one of the many witnesses of the event caught Clarkson and James May trying to find an outlet to plug for the Leaf on camera. The two TV hosts were filming a test drive with the Nissan Leaf and the Peugeot iOn for the next episode of the show. After looking for outlets in the park, the crew eventually plugged the Leaf in at the UK's University of Lincoln.

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Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell’s World Tour Cut Short after Accident in Kazakhstan


On January 30th, 2011, three Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell models set out from Germany to travel around the globe covering 30,000 kilometers (about 18,700 miles) in 125 days to demonstrate the technical maturity and reliability of the world’s first series production fuel cell vehicle.
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Gerhard Plattner Does it again: Drives Skoda Fabia GreenLine 2,006 km / 1,246 Miles on a Single Tank of Fuel


We're not sure if you know this, but there's a world champion in economy driving out there and his name is Gerhard Plattner. He's the kind of guy you'd want as a driver on your gas-guzzling car now that oil prices have hit the roof.

However, the Austrian champ has better things to do, like driving a Skoda Fabia GreenLine from Austria to Denmark and back on a single 45-liter (11.9 gallons US or 9.9 gallons UK) tank of diesel fuel. He covered a distance of 2,006 kilometers in a Skoda Fabia GreenLine without ever having to refuel the eco-friendly diesel car.

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The Great Escape: Motorcyclist Rides Through a Three-Car Accident


It is a known and sad fact that most drivers will experience an accident two at some point in their careers on the road. Fortunately for the motorcyclist seen in this footage from a closed circuit camera in a tunnel, it just wasn’t meant to happen this time. The driver of the motorcycle miraculously passed through a three car accident that seems to have been caused by two cars chasing each other,

We don’t know the wheres and whens of the incident and there’s a good chance that this video may not be new, but the commentator on the background appears to be speaking Portuguese (any help with translation would be appreciated). Watch the clip after the break.

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2012 VW Beetle to Participate in New Car Sharing Scheme in Hanover


To be completely frank, what caught our attention in Volkswagen’s latest press release (and probably yours in this post) on the new pilot car-sharing program called Quicar, wasn’t the news itself but the special livery of the 2012 Beetle shown in the promotional set of photos. Nevertheless, since we already told you the headline here’s the rest of the story on Volkswagen’s new car sharing concept that will take place in the German city of Hanover (or Hannover). Read more »

Good News Everyone! We’re Back after Blogger’s 24-hour Outage


As Professor Farnsworth would say, Good news, everyone! We’re back! For those of you that missed our rants and were wondering what in tarnation happened to us for the past 24 hours, put the blame on Google’s engineers and a supposedly regular maintenance issue that turned into a widespread outage. Here at Carscoop, we’ve “lost” about a day’s worth of posts, but Google’s people have promised to reinstate them soon. If they don’t keep their word for any reason, no worries, we’ll just do it the good ‘ol fashioned way – manually… Read more »

Vladimir Putin’s Lada Stunt Turns into a Joke as Car Fails to Start


“What do you call a Lada that starts the first time? A novelty!” This is only one of numerous joke about Lada’s cars and their reliability but to the misfortune of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the joke turned out to be true during an official presentation of the troubled automaker’s new Granta small sedan.

The 58-year-old prime minister attended the unveiling of Lada’s budget model at the headquarters of its car manufacturer Avtovaz in the Volga River city of Tolyatti. In his usual confident style, Putin approached the car for a first look. The troubles started right from the beginning as one of the men accompanying the prime minister had a hard time opening the vehicle’s boot.

Then, in a marketing fail comparable only to Volvo’s unbelievable crash incident last year, Putin entered the car to take it for a test drive. He tried to start it once. He failed. He tried a second time, nothing. The same thing happened three more times until finally, the Lada came into life. Luckily for us, the entire incident was captured on film. Watch the video right after the jump.

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Lexus LS 600h L Getting Prepped for the Wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco


With monthly average sales of around 2,000 units this year, Lexus’ cars continue to be a scarce commodity on Europe roads and we somehow doubt that being crowned the official vehicle of His Serene Highness [very sic…] Prince Albert II of Monaco will help improve the Japanese automaker’s position in the market. Read more »

VIDEO: New Saab 9-5 Police Interceptor in the Making


When they are not trying to save Saab or put down anyone who dares express a different opinion or even report the news about the Swedish automaker and its people (I’m referring to this article where the author forgot to mention Muller’s quote on the safety of Chinese cars, and which we wrote about here), the guys over Saabsunited get to spend some time at their favorite brand’s Trollhattan factory.

In this video, the Saab-loving crew were given the chance to get a first view of the new 9-5 saloon police interceptor as it was being prepared, and which is said to receive its initial public outing this weekend. Follow the jump to watch the clip.

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Chrysler’s Latest Imported from Detroit Ad Featuring Designer John Varvatos


The next chapter of the Chrysler Group’s much talked about 'Imported from Detroit' campaign brings us yet another native of America’s Motor City who made it big, renowned fashion designer and entrepreneur, John Varvatos. The TV spot is named ‘Attitude’ and centers on the new 2011 Chrysler 300 sedan (notice the new Mopar grille?) playing on Varvatos’ sense of style, and according to the ad, his “Detroit blue-collar attitude” when it comes to work.

The latest commercial in Chrysler's ‘Imported from Detroit’ series follows the ads with rapper Eminem for the 200 sedan and more recently, the Homecoming spot starring Detroit Lions rookie, Ndamukong Suh, again for the 300 sedan. The US automaker also plans to air a commercial featuring artist, producer, label head and entrepreneur, Dr. Dre in the all-new 2012 Chrysler 300S. Watch the spot with John Varvatos in the video after the jump.

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Watch a Lamborghini Aventador Being Assembled Piece by Piece in a Museum!


You may remember the international media launch of the Lamborghini Aventador held last month in Rome. There were so many videos coming from Italy's capital that we didn’t know where to start from. And guess what? It ain’t over yet as we have one more video, one far more interesting. Among the many events related to the Aventador launch there was also a display inside the “Chiostro del Bramante”, a contemporary art museum located in the historical center of Rome.

Entitled “La Forza del Toro” (Italian for “The Force of the Bull”), the exhibition consisted of a Lamborghini Aventador and five V12 engines from different periods of time. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, except the fact that builders of the 16th century building erected it without anticipating that a 2.03-meter wide, 4.78-meter long supercar would one day have to come inside…

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Belmondo’s Chase Scene from Le Professionnel (1981)


Georges Lautner’s 1981 action-thriller Le Professionnel is about a French Secret Service agent betrayed by his employers and left to rot in an African prison camp. After breaking out and returning to his native France, the agent (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) begins plotting his revenge against the people who set him up. In this scene, Belmondo is attempting to outfox the French Secret Service agents following him.

Belmodono’s car is the red Fiat 131 Supermirafiori while his rivals are driving a black Peugeot 504. There are a couple of 180 degree turns, a handful of nice pit manoeuvres and the prerequisite shot of the Eiffel Tower for the non-Gallic viewers. The chase eventually moves to the grounds of the Palais de Chaillot, where we discover just how overused that, “driving a car down some stairs,” thing was before Jason Bourne got around to it.

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Land Rover Ad Suggests you can get Away with Anything Inside an LR4


Land Rover vehicles are known for offering a high level of security to their occupants, but does that apply only to traffic accidents? Well, if we are to believe a new U.S. campaign for the LR4/Discovery SUV, the feeling of safety inspired by a Land Rover vehicle goes well beyond road accidents. Read more »