Ten Things We Learned This Week

Art cars. BMW's done them, we've tried to do them and now Lamborghini want to get in on the act, too.

Recently a Lamborghini dealer in Miami teamed up with Franco-American artist and musician Duaiv to make the stunning 700bhp, £300,000 Aventador Roadster their canvas.

Now, we're not exactly experts, but we've taken a few steps back (something experts do), tilted our head sideways (something experts do), scratched our chin while nodding (something experts do) and concluded that it looks like the result of a pretty significant explosion at a rave paint factory with elements of a colour stick of Blackpool rock.

What do you think?

For this year's San Diego ComicCon, creators of playthings Mattel decided to put a miniature Darth Vader Hot Wheels toy car under Wayne Szalinski's industrial-sized growth machine to make it big enough for actual humans to drive. And doesn't it look mighty?

It's based on a C5 Corvette chassis and has a big LS3 V8 up front chucking out a healthy 562 horsepower. Because of course, the ability to destroy a set of tyres is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

We haven't had the complete spec list sent through, but we're guessing that there's enough in the back for at least two light sabres, emergency respiratory system in the glovebox and a CD with the Imperial March on repeat.

Should you ever meet Terry Hollands in a drinking establishment and accidentally upset his drinking vial, apologise profusely and pray for mercy.

Why? Because he was Britain's Strongest Man in 2007 and is a regular contender for the World's Strongest Man title. And this week, to promote the release of The Rock's new film, Hercules, Terry decided to pull an 18-tonne truck through London's Oxford Circus.

Watch the video here. Suffice to say, don't try this at home, or indeed, in Oxford Circus.

Research carried out by sat nav aficionados Garmin has revealed that one third of British people don't know how to navigate using a traditional map, instead needing the guidance of a sat nav system.

Further, one in ten admit to using sat navs all the time, even for those journeys they make often, which goes some way to explaining the carnage in a Tesco's car park up and down the nation (and why everyone under the age of 25 in the Top Gear office gets permanently lost).

RM Auctions' annual Monterey sale has unearthed a proper gem: a 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale by Scaglietti.

It's just one of three built to this specification (and is therefore rare than the 250 GTO), features a ‘matching numbers' 320bhp 3.3-litre V12 engine, boasts a known provenance from new, and will probably be the only 275 GTB/C to ever come up for sale.

Price is on request, but conservative estimates reckon it'll head north of £20 million. Best up your paper round.

Yes, it's a bus. But this is no ordinary bus. This is a General Motors ‘Futurliner' bus. Between 1940 and 1956, GM had a travelling show called the ‘Parade of Progress'. Designed to impress the American public with glimpses of the near future, the show was ferried around in these enormous Futurliners.

They were twenty foot tall, weighed 13 tonnes and could hit a frightening 38mph. The Futurliner goes on sale in January 2015, and last sold in 2006 for $4.1 million. Expect an even bigger number this time.

0-62 in 2.8 seconds. 217mph. Gullwing doors. Fuelled by sea water. Interested? This week European officials gave the Quant e-Sportlimousine (catchy) approval for testing on public roads.

Don't know what a Quant e-thingy is? It's a four-wheel-drive electric supercar from Lichtenstein, that uses a ‘nanoflowcell' directing power to a motor at each wheel.

Oh, and did we mention it has the possibility to run on SEA WATER?

Dodge recently announced that its Hellcat (the SRT Challenger) would pack a monumental amount of horsepower. 707 horsepowers. And having just driven it, TG's Pat Devereux can confirm that it will in fact, go around a corner without spearing you off the road.

"Its attitude is fully - and hilariously - adjustable on the gas almost as much as with the wheel," our man reports. Read his full verdict here. Want one?

Oh dear. Honda's new NSX - yes, it is coming at some point this century - was testing at the Nürburgring when apparently it caught fire. Luckily, the driver on board managed to escape unharmed, but the car was a wreck.

A moment of silence, please. And now, look at this picture of a non-fiery NSX. There, much better.

And finally, a wider Thing We Learned This Week. News has surfaced of a monumentally powerful solar storm that erupted on 23 July 2012, which could have ended life on Earth as we know it.

This solar storm pumped out one of the largest plasma clouds ever detected - a speed of 3,000km a second, no less - that, if it hit, could have wiped out our planet's entire electronic capacity. Phones, computers, satellite transmissions, GPS, TV, radio, hospital equipment, electric pumps... and, of course, every Nissan Leaf and G-Whiz in existence.

"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," Daniel Baker, at the University of Colorado, told The Guardian. Presumably picking up the pieces in Hyundai's zombie apocalypse car (pictured).

Source: The Guardian