Ten things we learned this week: 15 January 2016 edition

Did you have to thaw out your car this morning? If so, you might have cursed your lack of de-icer and got a cold hand while haplessly rubbing your Clubcard against the windscreen.

Your pain, though, is not a patch on that of the driver of this Mitsubishi Lancer in Buffalo in upstate New York.

“What Mitsubishi Lancer?” you might justifiably cry. It’s certainly buried rather deeply beneath the ice, after a cold snap hit the region earlier this week.

Such a severe frosting is the result of rain changing to snow overnight. The owner had left his car parked by Lake Erie after deciding to have a drink rather than drive home.

“Would you like ice with that?” has never been such a literal question…

Picture: WKBW-TV

No one said developing autonomous cars would be easy, and so it has come to pass: Google’s development of self-driving vehicles is racking up the near-misses.

Old-fashioned fleshy drivers had to step in to stop crashes on numerous occasions between September 2014 and November 2015, and we suspect there’ll be more instances to come.

The revelation comes via a report which found that in 424,331 miles of autonomous driving, there were 272 cases where the car sensed danger and asked the driver to take control, and 69 further examples where the driver took control themselves to avoid a potential collision. Without intervention, 13 of these are reckoned to have been certain crashes.

Inevitable teething troubles, or proof that self-driving cars are scary?

This week saw Tesla launch its latest software update. And its headline feature is ‘Summon’, a mode which allows you to prod at your smartphone, sending the car breezing out of the garage and to your door under its own steam. Don’t worry, it’ll open the garage door too.

If it sounds a bit too much like witchcraft, then allow the owner here to demonstrate for you. His presenting style may not be as boisterous as others online, but that matches his languid way of living rather well.

He’d rather his car came to him than he to it, after all…

We like Lego here at TG. We also, you may have noticed, have a mild interest in cars. Things that combine the two, then, are automatically excellent.

After the Ferrari F40 and Caterham Seven crafted from plastic bricks comes this, the Lego Ford Mustang.

It’s a proper, bona fide kit too. One that will cost little over a tenner when it goes on sale in March. If that sounds good value, it’s because this is a kit nowhere near as complex as that F40.

Instead, this ‘Stang - part of the Lego Speed Champions series - is designed for a quick build then some endless thrashing around the skirting board-dictated Kitchen circuit. Well, that’s what we’ve got planned, anyhow…

We already have a Challenger and Charger with the 707bhp Hellcat treatment. And they are, quite frankly, mad.

But even they might be made to look lucid next to a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the same engine.

Yup. At the Detroit motor show this week, Jeep boss Mike Manley confirmed the Grand Cherokee (pictured above, in still silly SRT trim) will acquire the same supercharged V8 engine.

Whether it will have the same propensity for tyre killing we don’t know. But the G-force will be strong with this one, no doubt.

Dash cams have given us many things, least of all Russian ghost cars.

But not all dash cam footage is silly, whimsical fun. Allow us to show you a rescue shift during the recent floods in Cumbria.

Britain’s north west was hit hard by December’s Storm Desmond, and the Lake District in particular suffered hard as roads and bridges crumbled under the pressure of flood water.

Here’s what it looked like to plunge through it all helping people out. Not only is it a great tribute to the rescue teams, but an ode to the Land Rover Defender that made progress through such tricky conditions with a mere shrug of the shoulders.

If you miss Subaru from the rallying world it once dominated, you might want to flick through the channels and watch this year’s British Touring Car Championship instead.

That’s because Subaru is back in motorsport, it’s rather niche Levorg estate entering the BTCC. It’s a championship that doesn’t allow all-wheel drive, though, and the resulting news is good: it’s the front, rather than rear driveshafts which have been lost.

Yep, it’s a RWD Scooby set to swap door paint with all manner of saloons and hatchbacks in one of the most slapstick mainstream racing series there is. A four-driver line-up is promised, and it’s a proper effort for the championship honours - the two names so far confirmed are past champions Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.

Up the Levorg!

Alongside rain, sarcasm and heartfelt love for cups of tea, you can rely on Britain for track cars. For a country that spends most of its time gripped by cold, wet weather, its population is a sucker for cars with no roof or windows and rather too much power.

To the list of Caterhams, Atoms and Lotuses, add this, the Avatar Roadster. It launches with Ford’s 247bhp 2-litre Ecoboost engine at its heart, with proven components like a Porsche Boxster-sourced manual gearbox and a Quaife differential to ensure it’s good to drive.

What’s more startling, though, is that Avatar plans to offer the 345bhp 2.3-litre Ecoboost engine you’ll find in the new Focus RS. The Avatar’s modular design means you can simply add this to your car further down the line if you feel 247bhp - and a power-to-weight ratio that matches a Porsche 911 Turbo S - isn’t enough. We reckon you won't, though.

The Nürburgring is no stranger to car development. Nor is its headline 24-hour race, which increasingly attracts official manufacturer entries. Because what’s more comprehensive than a punishing day-long race around the toughest circuit in Europe?

What’s novel about Toyota’s entry this year, though, is that it’s not just sporty Lexus coupes its racing in 2016. Nope, there will also be this, its new C-HR crossover.

Does a Juke-alike look silly with a massive wing on the back? Perhaps. A racing livery will help, something we’re likely to see closer to the race which takes place on May 28 and 29.

The Detroit Motor Show didn’t just give us promise of berzerk off-roaders. There was a wealth of new cars for the American market, as you might expect, this Lincoln Continental among them.

Its styling may appear to have been inspired by half a dozen of its rivals, leaving your eyes firmly in their sockets, but just cast an eye on its door handles.

Aren’t they wonderful? Dubbed ‘Continental door handles’ - Lincoln’s creativity doesn’t cease to amaze - they’re designed to “offer elegant and effortless entry” while leaving the side profile design nice and clean.

The rest of the car may be American car design by numbers, but they’re a nice touch, no?