Ten Things We Learned This Week: 7 Oct 2016 edition

If at first you don’t succeed, then take on the biggest name in the industry. That’s how the saying goes, right? It’s the philosophy of Henrik Fisker, who, we learned this week, is planning a shock comeback in carmaking with a 400-mile electric saloon aimed at beating the Tesla Model S.

You’ll remember Fisker’s last carmaking enterprise, the Karma, didn’t go too well, though the hybrid coupe-saloon has now been resurrected without the Dane's name on the bootlid.

With cars such as the Aston Martin Vantage and Artega GT already in his back catalogue of design, it’s a fair bet the new Fisker car will be a pretty machine. But a viable one? Hmmm. Let’s wait and see.

Are you the sort of person who likes the notion of going for a cycle but goes off the idea half way though? Then BMW has the two-wheeler for you: a hybrid-drive bike with a 400Wh battery and electric drive. A promising-sounding ‘Turbo’ mode ups crank assistance by 275 per cent, though like many German performance cars, it has a limited top speed. To, erm, 16mph.

Anyway, for your €3500 you get the only bike in the world that can claim to have been inspired by a BMW i8 sports car, and there’ll only by 300 made, so it’s a lot rarer than BMW’s flagship too. Over to you, M Division...

A company in Seattle that manufactures body cameras for police use is offering new employees a free Tesla Model 3 as a deal-sweetner. The catch? You have to make it past 90 days in the job, and it’s only for senior positions within the organisation. But hey, given the order list is already 400,000 strong, bagging a web developer job in Seattle might be the most convenient way to get the baby Tesla.

The Porsche Macan is, as SUVs go, superb to drive. Properly chuckable and very fast. It’ll even oversteer like a sports saloon if you get really stuck in. For this, TG greatly respects it. However, thanks to some dodgy anti-roll bars, models built at the start of August this year may slide a bit too readily, Porsche has discovered, so it’s issuing a recall notice for 243 affected cars to replace the ARB links and stop any unwanted slip-slideyness. With winter approaching, that’s probably for the best.

Y’know pick-ups, yeah? All useful and that? Not once they’ve been to SEMA, thanks very much. Ford’s revealed four examples it’ll be displaying at this year’s event, the maddest of which is this Hulst Customs number. A Whipple supercharger ups the V8 to 750bhp, while air suspension allows you to drop the ride height to settle nicely on the, ahem, 26-inch rims. This is not coming soon to a B&Q near you.

So much for the AMG GT C and E-Class All Terrain – this is the new Mercedes we’re really excited to have a go…on. It’s an AMG GT Bobby-Car, designed to accommodate children aged 18 months and up. Made from plastic and powered by the sugary torque of your child’s legs, the Bobby-AMG GT has “whisper tyres” that promise much grip, and “direct steering” – probably the most direct steering of any Mercedes – for optimum manoeuvrability. Then you have the Bobby-AMG GT S, which has LED headlights and the same “Solarbeam” paintjob as the big car. Trust Mercedes to introduce a range hierarchy to toddlers.

Most car manufacturers are going for improving MPG as a way of making it so their customers have to stop less frequently for fuel. Not Bentley, which as part of a partnership with tech’ start-up ‘Filld’ (without the ‘e’ for literally no reason), is set to offer fuel deliveries for its Californian customers. All owners will need to do is open an app and select a time. A full tank is then delivered to your Bentley, wherever it may be. You don’t even need to be with the car. Screw EVs, this is the future. 

The Kirobo Mini is a “cuddlesome” four-inch talking robot from the same company that builds the GT86. Why? Toyota developed it to “provide companionship” to what Reuters points out is a rapidly aging Japanese population. The synthetic baby can gesture and engage in conversation, and it has a camera to pick up on the user’s mood, and adjust its responses accordingly. It can also draw information from your house or car to, for example, congratulate you for making it home after a long road trip. On sale soon in Japan for the equivalent of about £311. Surely you can buy an actual human friend for that…

Alex Zanardi is a bit of a TG hero. He returned to racing in 2003, less than two years after an accident that resulted in both his legs being amputated. After a few years in the WTCC he switched to handcycling, a sport in which he won medals at the London and Rio Paralympics. But he didn’t give up racing cars. More than a year since his last competitive race, Zanardi will compete in the final round of this year’s Italian GT Championship in a specially modified BMW M6 GT3. We hope he wins. 

Flyin’ Miata will, on request, fit a Mazda MX-5 with a 525bhp Chevy LS3 V8 engine. This much we have known for some time. This week they announced that, so similar is the Fiat 124 to the car on which its based, they’ll be offering the same kind of treatment for the little Italian. Very Good News, we’re sure you’ll agree. We’d be tempted to go for the MX-5 on looks alone, but we know a load of you prefer the 124’s more butch, more American face…