Ten things we learned this week

We are big fans of rc82 workchop here at TG, namely the exceedingly polished renders it turns out.

Previous highlights have been its Le Mans-ready Ford GT and BMW M4 CSL. Another BMW has received the electronic Crayola treatment this week, rc82 producing this rather wondrous M3 Touring.

It is, perhaps needless to say, not in the least bit official. But it really, really should be. How flipping excellent does it look? And whose dog wouldn't relish the thought of being carted around in a 425bhp rear-drive hot rod? Like the much more real, though sadly no more relevant M3 Pickup, it needs to be made. Now.

Picture credit: rc82 workchop

Lorry accidents aren't particularly unusual. Nor are the miles of tailbacks they typically cause. What does grab our attention, though, is when the lorries are carrying particularly noteworthy cargo.

Cambridgeshire's A14 dual carriageway - a traffic news regular in the UK - hosted a four-lorry crash this week, two drivers suffering minor injuries. What's piqued our interest is that one of the lorries was hauling over seven tonnes of teddy bears.

It's all size-dependent, of course, but we reckon that translates to at least 14,000 bears. Happily for the traffic police (though sadly for lovers of amusing images), the lorry did not spill its load. But with a ten-mile stretch of the A14 closed for several hours, traffic was still stuffed.

And it's tastefully specced, no? Dutch website Autogespot found the F1 driver's LaFerrari outside Monaco Yacht Club - where else? - last weekend.

Looking rather smart in black with subtle red striping, it proves that either a) Williams driver Massa remembers his years at Ferrari fondly, or b) 950 is the correct quantity of horsepower to banish all memories of Fernando being faster than him...

Picture credit: Autogespot

Wasn't the world meant to comprise entirely of monorails, robots and hoverboards by now? Take solace in the fact that fast progress is being made when it comes to the latter.

Hoverboards are not only real and functional, but they've made it to the Guinness Book of Records - the book of all that is important, we're sure you'll agree.

That's because Canadian Catalin Alexandru Duru has taken his self proclaimed "first real-life hoverboard" to 'farthest flight by hoverboard' record glory, clocking a distance of 275.9m.

Given Duru's is the first ever hoverboard, cynics could justifiably claim his 'record' as really bloody easy to achieve, Catalin only having to beat a distance of, um, zero. But then, have they made a hoverboard?

Test drives can be a frustrating experience, 10 minutes round the block at 30mph revealing little about how a car when that equates to 20 per cent of its maximum speed.

Some people, though, try to make the best of a bad situation. Reports suggest the man responsible for launching an RS6 directly into a Polish tram was not the owner of the big AWD estate, rather a potential customer test driving it.

True or not, the driver remains many tools short of a toolshed, choosing to avoid waiting behind a car at a red light by overtaking via the opposing lane of traffic before sweeping spectacularly into the path of an approaching tram, which apparently carried on its day's duties shortly after the accident. We're sure the same cannot be said for the car.

Is this the very definition of ‘pulling rank'? General Motors gained a new CEO in 2014 - Mary Barra - and in need of some new company transport, she's eschewed the Chevrolet Spark and Buick Encore in favour of a Corvette. And not just any ‘Vette, reports Corvette Blogger, but the hardest of the lot, the Z06.

To give her cabrio aggression it really wasn't in short supply of, she's also gone for a black on black colour scheme, Z07 Performance Package and Stage 1 aerodynamics package. If ever there's a reason to be the boss, this is it.

We say ‘disgusting' because we're not in America and able to take advantage. If a document leaked this week is correct, the GT350 - complete with 500bhp V8, ginormous Brembo brakes and adaptive damping - will kick off at $47,870, or roughly £31,000.

Yep. A 500bhp muscle car with a truly iconic badge for the price of a hot hatch. Or more pertinently, the same as a bog-standard Mustang in the UK.

If it's all a bit too cheap for you, then the GT350R - with a Torsen differential, cleverer aerodynamics and 59kg-slimmer kerbweight - is set to cost $61,370, or £40,000. And there'll only be 37 of them, ensuring future value. Disgusting, yeah?

Nissan's GT-R based LMP1 racecar has already done much to make us love it, not least by being a completely bonkers 1250bhp front-wheel-drive racing car.

It has nigh on ensured the collective support of Team TG, though, thanks to Nissan's application of a rose-tinted livery to car number 21, one of three GT-R LM Nismos racing at the 2015 24 Hours.

The blue, white and red design harks back to the Nissan R90CK Group C racer that took pole at Le Mans 1990 thanks to a startling 3m27s lap by Mark Blundell. And fans of that old racer have even more reason to rejoice: it will appear at Le Mans next month too, it and Blundell partaking in a special parade lap. Retro-tastic.

"I guess no customer of an R8 will want to have a self-driving car." So said Audi's Horst Glaser when we spoke to him about the company's Piloted Driving technology last year.

We're slightly miffed to report, then, that Audi has made a self-driving R8. The R8 e-tron Piloted Driving concept has been shown this week at the Shanghai Consumer Electronics Show, mating the tech shown on Audi's autonomous RS7 to the standard e-tron's 455bhp electric powertrain.

As a concept, though, it could simply be a high-profile promo for the autonomous tech Audi will roll out with the next A8 in two years time. Because who buys a supercar they don't want to drive?

Hashtag first world problems. Those who've already had their 918 Spyder delivered - that's 47 lucky blighters in the UK - need to return their car to the dealer for half a day.

Why so? "Because the electric wiring harness for the radiator fan in vehicles manufactured up until the end of April 2015 could be damaged by a carbon-fibre component," says Porsche. A few hours in the workshop will see the vulnerable harness "optimally remounted".

How will stricken 918 owners cope, their plug-in hypercar having been recalled once already? Our heart does bleed for them...