Ten things we learned this week: 14 July 2017 edition

Not one for the weak of stomach, perhaps: a truck in Oregon has overturned on a highway. The truck’s contents? A full 3,400kg of hagfish – an eel-like fish. Which means the entire road was covered in slime.

The incident happened on highway 101 south of Depoe Bay, and while nobody was injured, reports say multiple cars were affected.

[INSERT YOUR OWN FISH PUN HERE]

Oregon State Police later tweeted: “In this heat… what is this going to start smelling like in the next few days?”

Well, quite.

The end of November brings the inevitable arrival of Christmas shopping on your to-do list. But here’s an idea: do your shopping in London, and you can nip off and spend an hour or two looking at Ferraris.

In fact, cancel the trip to Oxford Street and just buy some clobber from the gift shop in the Design Museum. From 15 November Ferrari: Under the Skin will be running, and it chart’s the Italian supercar maker’s 70-year history.

There’ll be clay models of early cars, personal memorabilia of Enzo Ferrari and cars. Yes, lovely cars. We’re not told which, other than they will be “some of the most famous Ferraris to be seen on roads and racing circuits around the world”. Get it in your diary.

After a handful of years on sale – and a mere handful of actual sales – the Hyundai Genesis is no longer on the order books in the UK, reports online said this week.

Should it be any surprise? When it cost £48k and used a 3.8-litre petrol engine? With no diesel on offer?

Well, probably not. But it doesn’t make us any less sad that a big petrol saloon with a niche badge can’t catch a break on these shores. Our tears still haven’t dried from the VW Phaeton’s exit.

Still, used bargains ahoy. The swiftest of online searches turned up a 17-plate car with less than 2,000 miles on the clock for £32,000. Yep, almost a whole Ford Fiesta ST in a few months of depreciation. Ouch.

16 July, 1977: Renault entered its very first Formula One race. If you’re a fan of anniversaries, you’ll notice this date falls exactly on the same day Renault will contest the 2017 British GP.

So to celebrate, here is a picture of Nigel Mansell, complete with a trophy and a moustache, atop the podium at the Mexican GP.

It’s not often Ten Things is lost for words – primarily because Ten Things only exists in the world of words (how meta) – but alas today is that day.

This is the Honda ‘Minnie’ Van, a clever/cheesy riff on the fact that it has built a one-off Honda Odyssey minivan to look like Minnie Mouse. It’s not coincidental (wouldn’t it be weird if it was?) – it’s part of the Disney D23 Expo Ultimate Fan Event.

While we attempt to string together some words to describe it, perhaps you lot can jump in first…

Yes, it’s been a (relatively) slow news week.

Sixties chrome corral badge, meet 2018 Ford Mustang.

Next.

This is Rosemary Smith. Rosemary Smith is unlike most modern Formula One drivers principally because a) she actually smiles without cue, and b) she is 79 years old.

As part of Renault’s 40th anniversary celebrations, the team decided to give the 79-year old former rallyist (she trained as a seamstress but soon found a route into rally, and amongst her many trophies over the years, took victory in the 1965 Tulip Rally) a chance to drive an 800bhp F1 car.

“It was definitely very different to the rally cars I’m used to,” she enthused, “but was an amazing experience. I could feel myself getting more and more comfortable with the single-seater, and being able to speak to Jolyon, driver to driver, also helped when the nerves did kick in.”

Ten Things is old enough to remember the mad, 1991 Lotus Carlton (among other things Ten Things is old enough to remember), so when news of a low-mileage minter coming up for auction landed, we clicked the ‘T’ switch on our hearing aids (not really).

The Lotus of course, featured a 377bhp, 3.6-litre, twin-turbo straight-six. This one’s only done 4,500 miles from new, is one of just 28 built, and is expected to go for between £60k to £65k at Silverstone Auctions’ Classic sale on 29 July.

At this week’s surprise F1 Live London event, the entire Formula One circus descended onto a rather narrow London backdrop (Trafalgar Square) in a celebratory build-up event ahead of this weekend’s British GP.

A few of the drivers did demonstration runs, one of which was decidedly quick, sideways and very, very smokey.

Yep, Red Bull Racing’s Danny Ric decided to hoon around the tight circuit in an F1 car and did as many sideways things and donuts as he possibly could. Despite being told by the organisers not to engage in such activity.

“I didn’t do donuts,” he later said. “I did controlled slides.”

Attaboy.

You’ve seen the news already, no doubt, but it’s worth reminding you that this week, Jaguar launched its E-Pace. We could stop right there, because Jaguar literally launched the E-Pace… 15ft through the air as driver Terry Grant performed an actual barrel roll.

The attempt, and successful landing, puts the E-Pace into Guinness’s storied books as holding the record for the longest barrel roll for a production car.

Ready your finest slide whistles here.