Ten things we learned this week: 11 September 2015 edition

If you can afford a £1 million car – more specifically, the Bugatti Veyron – you can afford a £6 million villa. That’s the probably quite sound reasoning of Damac, a Dubai-based property developer.

And if you’re particularly smitten with said car, surely it ought to be the centrepiece of that villa? Meet the Ettore 971 Villa, complete with seven bedrooms, glass ceilings (the literal, not metaphorical sort) and furniture inspired by the 1000bhp supercar.

There are several for sale, all designed so you can pop your car inside and see it from around your pricey home. And should you ever get bored of doing that, the Veyron villas live on a site that also includes an entertainment strip, a rainforest and a golf course designed by Tiger Woods. Really.

This week brought a rather nifty new video of James Bond's new company car, but you sadly can’t buy the Aston Martin DB10 that’s driven boisteriously in it.

What you can buy, though, is this: it’s Roger Moore’s Lamborghini Islero. A car not from a Bond film associated with someone who no longer plays Bond may be a links at its most tenuous, but hey, it’s Friday. And The Man Who Haunted Himself, the film this exact Islero is from, was Moore’s last before he took over as 007.

The Islero is also one of the few Lamborghinis that’s genuinely cool, too, shorn as it is of silly scissor doors and other flamboyancy. And with just five right-hand-drive examples of the 350bhp Islero S existing, probably a bit of an investment too.

It will be auctioned at Goodwood Revival on September 12. Take at least £300,000 if you want it.

Ever wanted to own a concept car? One coachbuilt by the Italians? Of course you have.

Well that dream could now come true. Bertone – the Italian company behind such gloriousness as the Lamborghini Countach, Lancia Stratos and um, Vauxhall Astra convertible – sadly went bankrupt last year, so now begins the fire sale.

No fewer than 79 cars are on offer, as well as the museum they’re housed in. That includes the glorious Aston Martin Vanquish Jet and the lovely Jaguar B99 Concept, among many, many other things you can see here.

The good news is the cars are ludicrously cheap, some priced as low as £3,000. The bad news is you’ll need at least £1.6million to actually buy anything, as you have to buy the whole lot. And keep it together as one entity. In Italy…

We can normally rely on Russia for excellent car news, and this week is no different. Two five-year-old toddlers have dug their way out of nursery in an attempt to go and buy a sports car.

Yup. With spades nicked from the sand pit, the Komsomolskaya Pravda Daily reports, they dug holes under the playground’s fence, using them to make haste to the local car dealer to buy a Jaguar sports car.

They did so, perhaps predictably, without the requisite money to complete the purchase. But their dignity was saved by a concerned passer-by who swept them up mid-journey and took them back to their concerned teachers.

Good effort though, lads.

Everyone’s favourite Aussie racer has this week tracked his crosshairs onto the fraternity of drivers who pay for their F1 seats, rather than earn them.

"We know we've got quality at the front, but I just still think there's the swing of the financial drivers [into F1], who are coming to basically decide what teams they want to go to, and also if they're going to stay there,” Webber – who now races Porsche’s Le Mans car – told Sky Sports.

“Pastor, for example, saying 'I haven't made my decision yet where I'm going'. What other sports work like that? If you're not performing, mate, on your bike, get out of here.”

We’d miss playing Maldonado Bingo if he did, though, Mark.

For humans concerned with the future of humanity, development of the robot is a true rollercoaster ride, veering dramatically between ‘exciting’ and ‘really bloody scary’ with abandon.

We’ve not yet made our minds up on where this latest video lies. It proves a robot can ride a bicycle. On the surface of it, that may sound quite easy to do when robots can walk, dance and construct goods in factories.

But riding a bike? It’s a balancing act, one with more unpredictable variables to account for. Watch this video closely and you’ll observe very natural, nigh-on human stature and reactions.

Scary. We’re going with scary.

Staying with eerie visions of the future, here’s the latest product from JLR’s slightly intimidating tech lair.

It is, ladies and gents, the see-through trailer. If you’re thinking that will make it hard to load your precious possessions aboard, fear not: it’s visible from the outside.

Nope, it’s from inside the car that it disappears from view, making parking much less intimidating and multi-lane roads easier to manage. And if it’s a horsebox you’re towing, then cameras inside can live-feed into the car, alerting you to any unexpected antics from allowing your mint-crunching chum.

Hashtag FirstWorldProblems, and all that.

It wasn’t going to take long, was it? Turns out self-driving cars – or more specifically the ‘lidar’ signals they use to map out the way ahead – can be confused by something little more complex than a laser pen.

The hack essentially tricks the car into thinking there’s an object ahead, forcing it to react by swerving left or right or grinding to a halt. And all without the no-doubt terrified passengers receiving any sort of inkling beforehand.

We imagine many heads are being furiously scratched from Google to Audi as we speak…

Celebratory cheesy chips at the ready, for Nissan has yet again invested lots of money in its hugely successful Sunderland plant.

£100million is being put towards production of the next-generation Juke, allowing its production to seamlessly replace that of the current car, which has been built in the north east of England for five years thus far.

We’ve no idea what the next Juke will look like, nor will we see it for a little while yet. But know this: it’s helping to keep 34,000 British people in work…

About to complete the week without doing any good deeds? Here’s your chance to rectify that. The National Motor Museum is launching a campaign to help fund the £30,000 needed to replace a gearbox.

If you’re thinking “I knew garage labour rates were high, but…” then rest assured this is no ordinary gearbox. A new one is needed for the Sunbeam 350hp, which 90 years ago topped 150mph, bagging itself and heroic driver Sir Malcom Campbell the world land speed record in the process.

“For the next stage of the Sunbeam’s restoration story, we need to build a new gearbox from scratch,” says the museum’s boss Doug Hill. “As the original gearbox no longer exists and there is no template to follow, this will be a challenge requiring all of our knowledge and expertise. It is a vital step in our journey to restore the car to its 1925 specification and will greatly help us to drive the car closer to the speed it was built for.”

Feeling generous?