Ten things we learned this week: December 4 2015 edition

“It's not everyday that you see a donkey in the backseat of a police car!” roared the spacebar-averse Facebook page of Oklahoma’s City of Norman Police Department.
 
Indeed it isn’t, but the local plod rushed into action when a stray donkey was found wandering the streets, sweeping the beast up and immediately posting this quite adorable picture on social media.
 
Those anxiously liking, sharing and commenting could breathe a sigh of relief shortly afterwards, though, when Norman Police completed the raid on its exclamation mark cupboard to report a happy ending.
 
“Great news! The donkey has been reunited with its owner!” it excitedly told us, reporting the ass’s owners thanked the police for “providing excellent care for the little guy after its great escape!”

Picture credit: Norman Police

Not all animals have such a pleasant time with the rozzers. Though fear not, for the deer is apparently fine.
 
This video isn’t half dramatic, mind, the errant mammal being catapulted into the air by the Kenton County Police patrol car, before landing and running off into the undergrowth.
 
“Over the weekend, Officer Pittaluga encountered a large deer while driving on Decoursey Pike through Visalia,” reads a police statement. “The encounter was less than cordial and ended as abruptly as it began.”
 
“Officer Pittaluga applied his brakes and steered away from the deer in a controlled manner,” it continues, before consulting the Norman Police school of humour.
 
“Although he didn't manage to avoid the collision, he did maintain control of his vehicle throughout the entire incident, even when the large (but apparently agile and acrobatically trained) deer was performing a Triple Axel over the hood of his cruiser.”

Yep, an Audi TT ambulance. “What medical use might that be?”, you’d be forgiven for pondering, given the two-seater's weeny cabin.
 
It’s actually - we kid you not - used for a home circumcision service. And it was nicked from outside a patient’s house, after its owner - a private doctor - was approached by three men. Whether they were hooded remains unconfirmed.
 
But happily, that’s not the end of the story. Following a tip-off, the TT has been recovered, having been abandoned by the thieves in a pub car park. Its niche schedule hasn’t had to be snipped too much, then.
 
Picture credit: @ShomrimOfficial

Three Aston Martin Vulcans are heading across the pond, and the first has been received by its owner in Ohio.
 
Bernie Moreno owns a number of car dealerships - including an Aston showroom - which has earned him enough to frivolously purchase the $2.3 million Vulcan.
 
He’s driven it on road, too, swerving the Vulcan's ‘track only’ status and convincing the local police to escort him through town.
 
The Vulcan produces a mighty 800bhp, don’t forget, though until owners prove their prowess this is limited, Moreno’s currently pegged at 500bhp. On the road, in front of the local constabulary, we feel this is wise.

The hoverboard, in its commercial guise, may not actually hover. It may only be a Segway with the handles lopped off. But with some generous portions of benefit of the doubt, the almost-hoverboard is possibly the gadget of 2015.
 
Lucky (and lazy) kids the land over will be opening one up come Christmas morning, but some of them might be disappointed: 15,000 apparently unsafe examples have been seized by British Trading Standards, after fears they could cause fires.
 
More specifically, the board's plugs can catch alight while they’re charging up, and buyers have been advised to exercise quality control, and not be “dazzled by prices which seem too low”.
 
Once you’ve negotiated that, there’s just the small matter of finding somewhere to, um, hover, given most are illegal on pavements and roads…

News of the most British variety, with several newspapers reporting that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR for short, of course) is considering buying Silverstone race circuit, home of the British Grand Prix.
 
Before you reach for the Union Flag bunting, talks are still in their early stages apparently.
 
But the potential is exciting: not only would it give Silverstone the investment it needs to help keep its place on the F1 calendar safe in a world of big-money new circuits, but it would be a home for JLR’s heritage collection and driving experience days.
 
Because who doesn’t want to nail an F-Type R around Stowe before nosing around E-Types and XJ220s galore?

Winter is approaching, the time when hopes for a white Christmas are tempered with fear of skidding limply into a ditch the first time your car’s tyres meet frost.
 
The people of Kosovo have no such fear, though: they are ready for winter, however apocalyptic, thanks to their hich-tech, foolproof methods to apply ice-bashing salt to their frozen roads.
 
Don’t believe us? Watch the video evidence right here...

And this could be it. A stripped-out, more scary Huracan seems par for the course given its Gallardo predecessor bred several special editions, and while we don’t know whether it’ll be called Superleggera or not, this image appears to show what it’ll look like.
 
This is perhaps the most revealing image in a series of photos published on Huracan forum site (yep, there really is one) Huracan Talk.
 
You’ve no doubt guessed this is a spy shot, given its distance from the car and the, um, trees it appears to have been taken from. But it’s enough to see a sculptured front splitter, a black fixed wing and a rather excellent hue of blue.
 
A production version would likely produce north of 610bhp, with a top speed in excess of the standard Huracan’s 203mph. Excited?

Nope, we haven’t gone mad. What looks like the scariest, lairiest police car since the Polizia Huracan is actually a fake. Boo.
 
It’s the work of organisation ‘Tune It! Safe!’, which promotes safe and legal car modifying (and indeed exclamation marks) in Germany.
 
As such the Corvette has been tuned itself, beyond the blue lights and fear-bringing livery. There’s a full carbon bodykit, forged alloys and grippier tyres.
 
There aren’t any modifications to the ‘Vette’s standard 460bhp V8 though. It’s all about safety, after all…

Most learner drivers take their test in a small car with an engine possessing little more than a litre of capacity. This is sensible.
 
What isn’t sensible is taking your driving test in a Porsche 911, one you’ve never seen, never mind driven before.
 
Porsche subjected some poor driving students to just that, though, as part of a video to promote its driving experience centres, specifically the new one at Le Mans.
 
Or did it? We sense some illicit scripting at work here, and knowing the rigidly high grip limits of an AWD 911 Carrera, the mini-drift towards the end is particularly hard to believe…