Ten Things We Learned This Week

Enterprising snappers on Tokyo’s Wangan Line expressway put the ultimate tick in their “I-Spy” book this week: Batman, on his Batbike. 

Usually this type of thing is a ruse by a multinational movie-making corporation to announce their latest release. But there is no new Batman film on the horizon. Therefore, we can only assume that this really is Batman, and he’s been eating a lot of ramen during his relocation to Japan. That, and his bike is even cooler than Honda’s recent anime-inspired tribute.  

Yes, yes, the Brabus Business Lounge announced this week may be the last word in shouty Merc transporter bling, but for the more discerning customer of Mercedes trucks, how about this? 

Going on sale in the Silverstone Salon Prive auction next Thursday is lot 105: a 1954 Mercedes-Benz 170SD ‘Fangio’ Service Truck. And what a story. It was found languishing in a Buenos Aries Mercedes dealership run by the legendary Fangio family in the 90s by an enterprising fizzy pop salesman. 

The truck had been acquired by Juan Manuel Fangio when he began marketing Mercedes in Argentina after his F1 career ended, and was used to ferry spare parts around as well used as a support vehicle at the 1962 Swedish Grand Prix. 

But forget all that. It’s an Anthill Mob-inspired blue behemoth once owned by arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time. Who wants it? 

Well, it is if you’re one of the people responsible for painting the roads in the Old Market area of Bristol City Centre.

This week we posted a story on a German tuning company – Arden – having the sheer effront to modify one of the most beautiful British cars in recent memory: the Jaguar F-Type Coupe. 

We battened down the hatches for a torrent of comments along the lines of “MY EYES!!11!”, but actually, you all seem to like it. That, and the wonderfully pointless upgrades to the lunatic V8 that would give it more power than a Ferrari 458 and thus spit you into the nearest hedge almost immediately. 

Good job Arden.

A heroic stand against pointless emails and for the sanctity of two weeks on a Mediterranean beach has come from a most unlikely source: a German corporation. 

The Financial Times reports that Daimler’s 100,000 employees now have the option not only to send a smug “out of office” reply while on their summer holidays, but also simply auto-delete any emails that arrive.  

" ‘Our employees should relax on holiday and not read work-related emails,' said Wilfried Porth, board member for human resources. ‘With ‘Mail on Holiday' they start back after the holidays with a clean desk. There is no traffic jam in their inbox. That is an emotional relief.'

Exactly the kind of traffic jam policy we can get behind at Top Gear HQ. 

“Full throttle in a P1 is like Christmas. It's something that you can only use once a year. And even then only briefly, because it actually hurts. When this car accelerates, it beats you up. It hurts your face.”

The wide-eyed words of Jeremy Clarkson, the first time he stepped out of McLaren’s mighty hypercar, the P1. 

But there is something that can help you keep up with a P1 on track. Weight. Or rather, lack of it. As this excellent video demonstrates, with Oliver Webb in a plucky BAC Mono doing a damn good job of stopping British GT racing driver Paul Bailey in a P1 disappearing into the distance at Silverstone. 

The 5Club MX5 Cup doesn’t quite have the glamour and prestige of Formula One, even if it does share a venue at Silverstone. 

But don’t think that it doesn’t matter to the racers. And no trick is too dirty… Watch the video here for one of the lowest overtaking manoeuvres we’ve ever seen

James May says that owning a Volvo is like going to the dentist, something you have to do at some point, so you may as well get it over with. Well, the new XC90 announced this week should make the process even easier. We will brook no argument on this. It looks great.  

Have you joined the increasing band of F1 naysayers this season? Then how about this: Moto GP comes to Britain this weekend, with the 12th round of the season at Silverstone. If Lewis Hamilton thinks he faces an uphill struggle to be F1 world champion this year, then feel for the riders chasing leading GP rider Marc Marquez – he’s won all but one of this season’s races, and holds a 77-point gap over teammate Dani Pedrosa, who’s second in the championship. Much over-taking and wheel-to-wheel action guaranteed. 

Stig’s been on somewhat of a global tour recently, being spotted in an Italian piazza and bungee-jumping a Lotus F1 car of a crane in South Africa among other places. 

Happily, the virtual tame racing driver is, at least, back on damp home soil. In the latest update to the Race The Stig game for mobile and tablet (almost five million downloads and counting!), Stig is back in the old-people carrier from series 19 and the Rolls Royce from series 6, all the while dodging bobbies on bikes and the like. There are new helmets too. 

Get it here on iOS, Android, Google Play and Windows Phone. Did we mention it’s completely free?