Super Photo Blog

Cartoon Skeletons

2008-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Pixel House

2008-02-17T04:55:00.000-08:00

Silverfish Aquarium

2008-02-17T04:50:00.000-08:00

Inside a Condom Factory

2008-02-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

Hidden Surfaces

2008-02-17T04:38:00.000-08:00

Giant jellyfish

2008-02-17T04:32:00.000-08:00

Cars on Rails

2008-02-17T04:28:00.000-08:00

A flower in the water

2008-02-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

Egg Shell Art

2008-02-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

The City of Wood

2008-02-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Wall of Bananas

2008-02-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hot air balloon advertising

2008-02-15T11:29:00.000-08:00

Water Cube Building

2008-02-15T11:26:00.000-08:00

Skeleton Motorcycle

2008-02-15T11:23:00.001-08:00

The Bone Chapel

2008-02-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

Ice Car Turned Into Art

2008-02-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Don't Drink and Drive

2008-02-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

Underwater Museum

2008-02-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

More Amazing 3D Wall Paintings

2008-02-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

A true green car

2008-02-15T10:47:00.001-08:00

Crazy Car Decorations

2008-02-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

3D cars by Christophe Desse

2008-02-09T19:08:00.001-08:00

Funny Cars

2008-02-09T18:55:00.001-08:00

Most Expensive Cars In The World: Top 10 List 2007-2008

2008-02-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

World’s Most Expensive Cars

What is the most expensive car in the world? The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe was sold for $8,700,000 in 1987. However, that car and many alike will not be included in this list because it is not available on the market today. It is hard to imagine someone would actually spend 8 million dollars on a car instead of using it for something more productive. However, if you have the money and the opportunity, you will definitely spend a small fraction of it to place a few of these supercars in your garage. Here is the 10 most expensive cars available on the market.

1.Bugatti Veyron $1,192,057. This is by far the most expensive street legal car available on the market today. It is the fastest accelerating car reaching 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. It claims to be the fastest car with a top speed of 253 mph+. However, the title for the fastest car goes to the SSC Ultimate Aero which exceed 253 mph pushing this car to 2nd place for the fastest car.

2.Pagani Zonda C12 F $667,321 Produced by a small independent company in Italy, the Pagani Zonda C12 F is the 8th fastest car in the world. It promises to delivery a top speed of 215 mph+ and it an reach 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.
3.SSC Ultimate Aero $654,400 Don’t let the price tag fool you, the 3rd most expensive car is actually fastest street legal car in the world with a top speed of 257 mph+ and reaching 0-60 in 2.7 seconds. This baby cost nearly half as much as the Bugatti Veyron, yet has enough power to top the most expensive car in a speed race. It is estimated that only 25 of this exact model will ever be produced.
4.LeBlanc Mirabeau $645,084 Doesn’t this look like a race car? Yet, with $645k, you can get this car and legally drive to your local supermarket and buy groceries. It has a top speed of 229 mph+ and although it was intentionally made for racing, it may be bought and show off to your neighbors.
5.Saleen S7 Twin Turbo $555,000 The first true American production certified supercar, this cowboy is rank #4 for the fastest car in the world. It has a top speed of 248 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. If you are a true American patriot, you can be proud to show off this car.
6.Koenigsegg CCX $545,568 Swedish made, the Koenigsegg is fighting hard to become the fastest car in the world. Currently the 3rd fastest car in the world with a top speed of 250 mph+, the car manufacture Koenigsegg is not giving up and will continue to try and produce the fastest car.
7.Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren $457,250 A GT supercar, the SLR McLaren is the fastest automatic transmission car in the world with a top speed of 207 mph+ and reaching 60 mph in 3.8 seconds from stand still point.

8.Porsche Carrera GT $440,000 A supercar with dynamic stability control and a top speed of 209 mph+ and it can reach 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. The Porsche Carrera GT applies the absolute calibers of a true racing car to offer an unprecedented driving feeling on the road.

9.Maybach 62 $385,250 The first 4-doors sedan to make the list, the Maybach 62 includes many luxurious features and it was made for comfort rather than speed.

10.Maybach 57 S $367,000 High-end luxury saloon with sporty handling and top performance technology.

1967 Ford Mustang … One-Half-Trick Pony on eBay

2008-02-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Catching up on the Flat Black Hotness

2008-02-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Monterey Car Week - '07

2008-02-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

An original Punch magazine (U.K.) article dated September 23, 1964

2008-02-04T16:11:00.000-08:00

Unknown origin, vintage UK news story from the mid-1960s

2008-02-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

A New 'Alternative' Vehicle:

2008-02-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

U.K.-based Gibbs Techonlogies introduces a new vehicle to the U.S.

The Aquada from Gibbs Technologies is designed to provide sports car-like performance on land and on sea.

While the technical hurdles in designing a competent amphibious vehicle are formidable, the real challenge for the U.K.-based Gibbs Technologies is defining a market for a car that exceeds 100 mph on land and 30 mph on water.

Secret service agents would seem logical customers, and the not-quite idle rich would love being seen in such a toy in summer, but could the larger group of frustrated commuters and economizing recreationalists take to the machine as entrepreneur Alan Gibbs suggests?

Message Board: Is the Aquada a real breakthrough or just a silly idea? Voice Your Opinion!

Doubtful, as the Gibbs Aquada has been a bust in Europe since its 2003 debut there, but that's likely missing the major impact of Gibbs Technologies marriage of auto, marine and propulsion technologies. With three amphibious vehicles, the car-like Aquada, the military-esque Humdinga and the personal-sized Quadski, Gibbs is poised to build or license their high-speed amphibious technology to whoever can use it.

High-Speed Amphibian Tech
Of course, amphibious cars are nothing new, the best of these being the Amphicar. With its bobbed proportions and telltale propeller, the Amphicar was popular enough in lake regions of the U.S. by the 1960s to be an accepted novelty when spotted on the road. But like all swimming cars, it was dreadfully slow in the water and couldn't deliver more than curio utility as either a boat or a car.

What makes the Gibbs vehicles interesting is their systems approach; Gibbs didn't set out to make a swimming car, but rather integrate land and marine technology to form a unique classification, the amphibian. Gibbs has sunk, so to speak, more than $100 million into the program, with over 60 patents pending in nearly every aspect of the vehicle design.

Gibbs has reset the state of the art in numerous aspects of amphibian design. The body shape is both aero- and hydrodynamic, drag reduction in water has been hugely decreased via retracting wheels and an efficient combination of piston power and water jet propulsion, coupled with a planing hull has lifted the Aquada from the sailboat doldrums to a speedboat-like 30 plus mph.

Some of these breakthroughs must work through a thicket of cross purposes. Lighting on a car is nearly opposite to that of a boat; bow lift on a boat is necessary to avoid plunging accidents but front end lift in a car is undesirable at higher speeds. Even the loads absorbed by a boat and a car are near polar opposites; the boat distributes loads relatively evenly across its hull while a car must withstand concentrated loads where the suspension mates to the chassis.

Above all, dual-purpose machines are inevitably heavier and less efficient than the two single purpose machines they synergize. It was therefore necessary to wait for the availability of lightweight-yet-strong modern composites as well as pay strict attention to maximizing powertrain efficiency if a truly functional amphibian was to be built.

Aquada Construction
To meet its lofty speed goals, the Aquada uses a carefully shaped outer body supported inside by a metal space frame. In this is conceptually similar to integrating a NASCAR racer's rollcage into a load-distributing unibody structure as used in a typical sedan.

On the road the Aquada's inner steel frame distributes its loads into the outer composite body, while in water the opposite is true. Neither structure is stiff—or heavy—enough to do the job alone, but together they are.

Perhaps most intriguing is the retractable suspension. Based on the MacPherson strut design, the Aquada's suspension uses a single strut with conventional automotive spring and dampening functions, but also fitted with a 17-valve hydraulic system, folding joints and a safety pin to avoid inadvertent retraction. Upon entering the water, a push of a single button stows the suspension, brakes and wheels in less than 12 seconds.

Propulsion in the ten Aquada prototypes currently testing in Michigan is from a 2.5-liter 160-horsepower engine. Gibb's press materials are careful not to specify precisely which engine this may be, but we assume a turbocharged four cylinder would provide the necessary combination of power and weight (a 175-horsepower V6 is used in the euro-spec Aquada).

A take-off from the transmission powers a carefully designed water jet for marine propulsion; Gibbs says the compact jet produces nearly a ton of thrust at half the size and a quarter of the expected weight. It's enough for the Aquada to have set a 32.8 mph record speed run, and sufficiently reliable for Sir Richard Branson to break the amphibian speed record across the English Channel by four hours. More prosaically, Gibbs demonstration video shows the Aquada pulling a water skier.

What We Expect
While we have not piloted an Aquada, it's clear that its driver-center, three-across seating, no doors and Bimini top will have practical considerations, or at least provide numerous conversation starters. On land we'd assume the Aquada would deliver more than acceptable road handling and middling performance given the moderate power and 3,225 lbs. weight.

In water the Aquada's compact dimensions, relatively flat entry, pure planing design and must-sit accommodations promise a stiff ride in any sort of chop. Its fairly flat rear makes us think following seas would require busy helmsmanship, but given the powerful and responsive water jet, this should rarely matter. Obviously a calm water craft, the Aquada should prove an entertaining combination of capabilities given fair weather and flat water.

Quadski and Humdinga
If the Aquada purports to serve both fun and functional activities, Gibbs' other two offerings, the Quadski and Humdinga, are aimed at the pure recreational and perhaps the functional or military markets.

Using the same propulsion, structural and retractable suspension technologies—if not precisely the same hardware—the all-terrain Quadski is rated at 50 mph on land and water, while the Humdinga can carry five, hit 100 mph on land and 40 mph in water.

Rescue services could possibly use the zippy but carrying-limited Quadski in specialized applications, but the vastly more powerful and weight-capable Humdinga points to the high-speed amphibian's more useful potential.

Gibbs lists a 350-horsepower gasoline engine and full-time four-wheel drive as major Humdinga specifications. Its 9.2-second 0-60 mph land acceleration certainly requires no apologies and its size and weight-carrying promises vastly improved in-the-water utility, not to mention its 10-seconds to plane and 40 mph top water speed. Gibbs says the larger Humdinga illustrates the scale-ability of their technology. They promise any craft from Quadski to passenger bus size can be successful.

What's Next?
Amphibians, like personal submarines, have been the stuff of Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs and boutique conversions such as the Australian Platypus, but Gibbs' technology genuinely seems capable of injecting practicality into the equation. Alan Gibbs suggests urban freeway congestion could be partially alleviated by water-scooting Aquadas; that's fanciful in the car's present configuration but such outside-the-box thinking is necessary with new technology.

One point avoided so far has been cost. Without the economies of mass production and the inevitable trade-offs of a multifunction vehicle, getting something like the Aquada past the playboy stage is formidable. In fact, the Aquada was originally tabbed at $285,000 but not even Sir Richard Branson bit at that price, which was lowered to $142,000 where it still hasn't lit the world on fire.

However, the Gibbs' technologies look viable in commercial and military roles. In fact, General Dynamics is ahead with the concept, their Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle having been in development for the U.S. Marine Corps since 1996. The tracked and water-jet EFV boasts such heavyweight defense department performance as carrying a crew of three and 17 combat-ready Marines 25 nautical miles to shore at excess of 20 knots, then pushing inland at up to 45 mph. This in a cannon-armed, turreted, tank-like personnel carrier. The EFV uses blunt force, however.

Its two-staged turbocharged diesel produces well over 2000 horsepower and planes thanks to an adjustable flat steel plate doubling as armor. Gibbs approach seems more suited to less lead-prone climes where foresters, rescue and tour personnel work.

Currently Gibbs is setting up the business and manufacturing apparatus for North American sales of the Aquada and Quadski in 2009. Militarily, Gibbs has teamed with Lockheed Martin on several concept vehicles. The company is certainly thinking big.

"Our plans for North America are ambitious, aggressive and achievable," Gibbs has said, stating, "Aquada could generate annual sales volumes of 100,000 or more within five years." Perhaps we should get our driving gloves and water skis ready now.

If it has an engine and moves, Tom Wilson is interested in it. Now a freelance auto writer, Tom tries to ride, drive, fly and float everything he can wiggle into. His credits include a few local racing championships, a decade of magazine editing, three technical engine books and many hundreds of magazine articles. Current interests include new fuels and vehicle technology.

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Wacky amphibian car

2008-02-04T16:01:00.000-08:00

Is it a car? Is it a boat? Actually it’s both, it’s an ingenious amphibian vehicle built by the Swiss and it doesn’t look half bad! Take a look:

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