Ten things we learned this week: 10 February 2017 edition

Italian designer Evren Milano, founder of E. Milano and someone who’s not what you’d call terrible with a pen, has sent us a render of what he wants the new Mercedes Project One to look like. 

Of course, he’s not affiliated or associated with Mercedes-AMG (although some would argue he should be) and this is just a speculative render. That said, we’re fans.

… And who are we to argue? Of course, being Renault, they weren’t about to put the DS or Traction Avant on display, so the most beautiful piece was probably this Viva Grand Sport Cabriolet from 1935. 

That said, there was more modern diamond-badged metal on offer as well, like the Renault 5 Turbo and  the TreZor concept from the 2016 Paris Motor Show. 

If you’d like to see a raft of historical Renaults, you’re in luck – its heritage collection comprises more than 740 vehicle. Zut alors!

Photo: Renault / Antoine Pascal

Yes, it’s probably not the first car you’d associate with the gentlemanly 2009 F1 champ, but this brutish chunk of American metal was once ordered by Mr B, directly from Ford. The Ford GT is a 2005 model, from when Button was driving an unreliable and uncompetitive Honda-powered F1 car (make your own connections as you see fit) but was managing some pretty strong results nonetheless. 

This particular GT is apparently one of only five that were “marked ‘VIP’ by the Ford National Sales Company’, which likely means something very important. Possibly that they were built properly, when no one on the assembly line had a hangover. We don’t know. Jenson held on to the car for about six years, before selling it on to its current owner. Neither drove very far, it seems – there are just 8,350 miles on the clock.

It’s available from Silverstone Auctions for somewhere around £250,000. And it’ll only need a few thousand more in petrol bills per week.  What are you waiting for?

… And we’re going to try to explain what happened without disappearing down a political rabbit hole, wandering into the middle of a political minefield or inexplicably finding ourselves atop a political volcano, in a manner that tends to happen when one discusses President Trump. 

The ’Bridges, not walls’ campaign, which Mexican GP officials and Perez have thrown their support behind, started out in Britain, but quickly grew as demonstrators marched on bridges across the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Australasia and the United States to hang banners that supported inclusion, migration and integration.

And what appears to be closest to Mr Perez’s heart is the proposed wall between his native Mexico and the United States, which Trump signed an executive order to begin. It would effectively seal the entire border between the countries, as some have pointed out, much like the Berlin Wall that separated the East and West German parts of the city during the Cold War.

American manufacturer of crash test dummies, Humanetics, is creating a new kind of crash-test dummy – one that deviates from the ‘standard’ body type, better reflecting the new normal – old, fat people. 

It’s of little surprise to anyone that the Western world’s population is getting older (living longer and having fewer children) and it’s even less of a surprise that we’re getting fatter, too. 

After poring over oodles (that’s the scientific name for it) of biometric and anthropomorphic data, researchers found that the standard dummy didn’t take into account the increase and redistribution of fatty tissue that happens when you’ve had one too many birthdays and three too many slices of pie. 

And it seems that accidents are much worse for said body types than they are for the slimmer occupant. There’s more mass for the forces to act on, and the surfeit of fat around their waist and torso means they’re much more likely to submarine under a traditional three-point seatbelt. The elderly are at risk, too, with weaker bones and smaller muscle mass contributing to larger injuries in serious accidents. 

The idea of the new dummy is to rethink passive safety devices on future cars so that your next prang is survivable, regardless of your body type. Until then, try not to crash, especially if you’re on the large side of things. 

One of the great things about a capitalist democracy is that, if you have the money and it doesn’t hurt anyone else, you’re able to do just about anything you want. And, if you want to buy a yellow Vauxhall Corsa, it’s not exactly pushing the envelope. 

That is, unless you live on picturesque Arlington Row, in the charming Cotswold village of Bibury. 

For some reason, miscreants tore into a man’s inoffensive Vauxhall Corsa, likely because it wasn’t in keeping with the village’s rustic aesthetic. In total, the damage apparently runs to more than £6,000. 

It’s been the centre of an entirely ridiculous argument between tourists who complained about the little yellow car ‘photobombing’ their Instagram shots and 84-year-old Peter, who actually lives in the Cotswold village and has the right to own whichever car he damn well pleases.  

If the car is a write-off, we’re told that he intends to replace his beloved Corsa – with a bright green one. 

Photo: BBC News

Listen up, handymen and women of the world – Mercedes has built a wheeled toolbox. With compartments for roughly every kind of tool (and some seats up the front for the people who use them), the Merc van is a mobile workshop, fresh off the production line.

Just think of what MacGyver could do with one of these. Build a nuclear reactor, probably, or a deep orbit satellite. Also, if you don’t know who MacGyver is, ask a thirty-something – but only if you have a spare hour or so. 

Also, as far as we can tell, the handle is likely decorative, unless you have Paul Bunyan working day shifts.

More than 84 million of the things, in fact. According to research from Jato that takes in 52 new car markets, we just can’t get enough of the new car smell. Across Europe, North America, China, India and South East Asia, sales are up on last year. 

And the most popular type of car? You guessed it – SUVs. Global sales of the jumped-up wagons are up 20 per cent on last year, but we have to stress that this number includes everything from Nissan Qashqai to a Toyota Land Cruiser, so it’s a pretty big list. 

It’s interesting to see the kinds of cars that make it big globally, rather than the more parochial best-seller lists we’re used to. For instance, we’re not intimately familiar with the Changan Oushang or the Wuling Hongguang, but they’re the worldwide bestselling MPVs. Apparently. Let us know if you’ve driven either (or both) and let us in on the magnificence that makes them such sales successes.