Abarth Visits The Dark Side

Anyone remember those old Ka posters where they tried to make it look evil? Only it came off looking as genuinely evil as next door’s neutered moggy… Thing is, little cars like the Ka or the 500 have a pretty tough time looking… well, tough.

Well, Romeo Ferraris have managed to pull it off. They’ve taken what has to be one of the cutest cars around – the Fiat 500 – and merged it with Darth Vader’s helmet and a rocket. The result is something pretty terrifying.

What’s In A Name? A New Car That’s What

So it’s increasingly common – especially those dubious people called celebs – to name your child after where it was born or conceived. I’ve often wondered aloud if that means there should be more children called Transit but now that’s been born out. In a literal sense.

A baby girl is now the proud owner of the name Kia Richardson after being born in a Kia Carens on the way to hospital. Born two weeks early and weighing in at 6lb 70z, Kia had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck as the car, and her namesake, pulled up outside the hospital.

So… how did Kia react to the news? Well, parents Tony Richardson and Samantha Smyth now have a new car courtesy of Kia Motors.

The Hurricane Casualty… Painful

So last week the East Coast of America got pounded by a real monster of a storm – I’m told it was called “Nor’ Ida” which baffles me in itself. One of the worst storms to hit Virginia and the Carolinas, some of the damage was painful for car lovers.

Especially the guy who found his, presumably, beloved Porsche 911 a little.. sandier than he remembered it:

Perhaps the worst part is whether or not the insurance covers it. Do storms count as “acts of God” ?

Did Ads Like This Really Exist

You know, I’ll never cease to be amazed by what was once used to sell cars. This, though, seems like something that would appear on Tarrant On TV, though I’m still waiting for a punchline so I guess this was, in fact, a serious advert at one point:

That’s An Original Idea Jay… Or Is It?

It’s often bizarre what your google reader will throw at you for news. Today, for example I was sent the news “Drew Barrymore Drives Jay Leno’s Focus”. Now, even here in the UK we know Leno has a fair old stash of cars. Though the Ford Focus was pretty much the last thing I expected him to have sat in his garage / hanger / museum.

Well, the twist is that it’s an electric Ford Focus. A car that – having been unveiled in prototype form in Frankfurt – is used in his Green Car Challenge; a feature of his show where celebrities drive it around a track and compete for the fastest lap time.

Yep, It’s A Renault

It’s a strangely amazing looking concept car with a suitable strange name: The Ondelios.

How can you tell it’s a Renault? Well, as per – they got pretty much every detail nailed except for the grille:

Moving With Your House…

So I moved house recently, and while there’s many things to get bothered and flustered about, surely the two main stressors when it comes to moving house are a) finding a new house and b) packing all your belongings up.

What if you didn’t have to do either of those things? Say you really like your house itself and just wanna move to a new neighbourhood? Not really likely to work over here with all the brick buildings and more confined spaces but over in the States – and New Zealand judging by the number of clips – this idea of moving your whole house thing is a genuine alternative:

So, Been Boating For Long?

Sometimes you see something that just seems so wrong it makes your headache looking at it.  For me it’s something like this:

The Best Exam Answers Yet?

Some people might look at the state of politics and be concerned for the future. I got emailed this today, which I think causes even more worry for future with the intelligence levels of tomorrow’s leaders…

The following questions were set in last year’s GCSE examination in Swindon, Wiltshire ( U.K. )

These are genuine answers (from 16 year olds)

Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar

Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large  pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists

Q. How is dew formed
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire

Q. What causes the tides in the oceans
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight

Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed

Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election

Q. What are steroids
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs

Q. What happens to your body as you age
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental

Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery         

Q Name a major disease associated with cigarettes
A. Premature death

Q. What is artificial insemination
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow

Q. How can you delay milk turning sour
A. Keep it in the cow                                    (Simple, but brilliant)

Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.G. The abdomen)
A. The body is consisted into 3 parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I, O and U                        

Q.. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie

Q. What does ‘varicose’ mean?
A. Nearby

Q. What is the most common form of birth control
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium  

Q. Give the meaning of the term ‘Caesarean section’
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome

Q. What is a seizure?
A. A Roman Emperor.        (Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit)

Q. What is a terminal illness
A. When you are sick at the airport.     

Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like umbrellas

Q. Use the word ‘judicious’ in a sentence to show you understand its meaning
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.                

Q. What does the word ‘benign’ mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight

Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head

The Honda Gopher Concept?

The thing with concept cars is that they don’t always look quite like a car. Does anyone else thing that Hondas CR-Z concept car looks the spitting image of a Gopher?! Not sure what their design stimulant was in the beginning (big nose – slitty eyes) but it’s quite the puzzler.