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What would you say if you heard that you didn’t need windshield wipers anymore? “Cut the crap” probably, but you would be wrong - to an extent.
The Hidra concept car from Pininfarina automotive designer Leonardo Fioravanti has a nanotechnology-based windshield which doesn’t need wipers. The windshield is made out of four layers: the first repels the water, the second pushes dirt off, the third works like a sensor and the fourth conducts the electricity needed to power the whole thing.
Of course, you won’t be able to get this for your car any time soon, but you can hope for the future.
If you know Italian, you can read the whole story here.
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Smoking can kill you, but you might as well do something to get your 15 minutes of fame before you die, right? If the guy who created this smoked all those cigarettes - stop it, dude! But maybe he just gathered the pack, which is sort of eco-friendly - I know my brother used packs he found on the ground and made robots.
Feast your eyes on this great model of a Lamborghini Reventon, entirely made from cigarette packs. The level of detail is awesome.
Two more pictures after the jump.
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More than one Top Gear fan has wondered how it would feel like to be in Stig’s shoes. And, being realistic, he’s realized that it will never happen.
But Scalextric brings the next best thing: the Scalextric Powerlaps set, which includes a Ford GT and Porsche 911 GT3R, a replica of the BBC Top Gear track (including the Hammerhead and Gambon corners) and two special edition Stig hand throttles.
The exact launch date hasn’t been announced, but expect it sometime in March.
If you grew up in the 80s or watched 80s series when you were young, you can’t have missed Knight Rider. A younger and fitter David Hasselhoff and, of course, the Knight Industries Two Thousand or K.I.T.T.
The odds of owning a talking car are slim, let’s face it. Unless you manage to freeze yourself and wake up in the future, you probably won’t see anything resembling K.I.T.T. in your lifetime.
But you can at least get the remote controlled version. The Knight Rider R/C Car is the same customised Pontiac Trans-Am in the series (only smaller). It can travel forwards, backwards, left and right and it has a ‘turbo-boost’ function. The well-known K.I.T.T. features are there: the whooshing sound, the red sensor on the hood, and even the voice. When you push a button on the transmitter the car says: “I am K.I.T.T., whom you may regard as the voice of the Knight 2000.”
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Mattel is celebrating its 40th birthday and what better way to do it than making the most expensive toy car in the world? Uh, ok, a lot of ways, but covering something in diamonds or at least Swarovski crystals seems to be the new trend.
Valued at $140,000, the 1:64-scale Hot Wheels car was designed by celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills and it commemorates the production of the 4 billionth Hot Wheels vehicle. The car is cast on 18-karat white gold and covered in more than 2,700 blue, white and black diamonds. Blue stones mimick the Spectraflame blue paint, black and white diamonds are used for the engine under the functional hood and for the underbelly, and the tail lights are actually rubies. The car comes in a custom-made case which holds 40 individual white diamonds, signifying each year in the legacy of Hot Wheels.
One rich collector will probably be the very happy owner of this vehickle, while the rest of us will just keep wondering why someone would pay $140,000 for a toy car…
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If you’re looking to make your lifestyle more eco-friendly, transportation is one of the key issues. Maybe you don’t want to start biking - a scooter could be the best in-between alternative.
The X-Treme XM-2000 Electric Moped is a Chinese-built scooter powered by a 2 kW electric motor and a 60 volt battery pack. It cannot reach an impressive speed, only 40 to 45 MPH and it can only travel 30 to 35 miles on a full charge. If you need to travel more, you’re out of luck, but it is a good option for a commute of about 15 miles. Given the current price of electricity, this translates as a price of about 1 cent per mile. Charging the battery is simple: it comes equipped with an automatic charger which can plug into a standard 110V socket.
The price is $2000 and you can choose between two colors, blue and red.
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In order to improve traffic safety, Denso Japan will begin testing vehicle-to-vehicle communication in April, on public roads in Abashiri, Hokkaido. By using this technology, vehicles are able to interact with each other via radio waves and the system is expected to help avoid vehicle collisions.
The tests will employ in-vehicle communication devices on the Ultra High Frequency band between 669 and 679 MHz, and frequency band between 5811.5 and 5828.5 MHz, and they will measure noise and other conditions during the travel.
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Did you know you can go green even when having fun, and teach your kids something about protecting the environment, too? All you need is the HF Mach 3.0 from Corgi, a remote controlled car that runs on water, part of a product line appropriately called H2Go. It’s developed in partnership with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies and powered (obviously) by a hydrogen fuel cell. As it’s only powered by water and sunlight, it doesn’t need any disposable batteries.
The kit is £130 and it includes an RC car, a refueling station, a solar panel and a remote control.
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Are you a real Aston Martin fan? No, I mean a REAL fan. You might own a couple of branded products, but for this one you have to be:
a) a die-hard fan
b) very rich
c) crazy about ugly furniture.
If you chose one or more of these, read on.
The Aston Martin DB6 couch is an exact replica of a DB6 rear-end. It’s a limited edition and it comes with an engraved number plate, so if you want one you might have to hurry. Aston Martin Heritage Designs can custom make these in any color scheme you might desire (of course, you want it to match your curtains). But beware of the price tag: it’s over $7300.
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Do you think sculpture is only about the kind of things you see in classic museums? Statues and stuff like that? No.
Sculptor Bruce Gray and Motorcycle #1
Los Angeles sculptor Bruce Gray had a different idea about what sculpture can be about, so he worked with found objects to create a giant… motorcycle. Motorcycle #1 is 55″ in height, 94″ in lenght and 33″ in width, weighs 800 pounds and is made entirely out of steel parts the artist found, such as 2 very heavy massive railroad equipment gears for wheels, a train coupling link for the seat, giant train springs for shocks, oversized chain, and a BMW R75/5 motorcycle engine and tailpipes. Unfortunately, you can’t ride it and pretend you’re Mad Max: the engine doesn’t work.
However, you can buy it and admire it everyday. That is, if you have $25,000 lying around.
Model: Eve Ellis
More photos after the jump.