Ten things we learned this week: 2 October 2015 edition

McLaren has made only 375 P1s, and it appears at least half of them may be owned by racing drivers. Following Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton into the McLaren P1 owners club comes another former McLaren Formula 1 driver and world champion, Mika Hakkinen.
 
The fast Finn has been spotted in Monaco with his 900bhp acquisition, wearing the principality’s brilliantly dinky number plates. The McLaren’s wearing the number plates, we mean. Not Mika. That’d be odd.
 
And the P1’s subtle grey ensures it matches Button’s car, which also been spotted in Monaco recently. Quite what will happen when they eventually meet each other side by side at the lights remains to be seen.
 
Who would your money be on?

Picture: Autogespot

You’d assume a man who regularly tops 200mph in one of the most complex cars on Earth – and has finished a Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton – knows how to drive.
 
But Max Verstappen, it would seem, has only learned this week. F1’s peskiest whippersnapper has become a man, and marked his 18th birthday on Wednesday by passing his driving test. And, to the likely relief of his no-nonsense dad ‘Jos the Boss’, Max did so at the first attempt.
 
He can properly celebrate now, too: should he finally get the podium that’s so far evaded him, he can legally drink the champagne.

Taking the double-the-price-because-a-celebrity’s-on-the-V5 rule as verbatim this week is a racing blue Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, like the one above. But, um, blue.
 
A lovely car, yes, but the $299,999 pricetag - £200,000, give or take – is as much as you’ll likely pay for a shiny new Huracan Spyder.
 
Happily, evidence that potential future president Trump owned the Diablo comes not only in document form, and a Trump presidential sticker in the weeny rear window, but via the carbon fibre roof panel.
 
It’s an addition far more structural than a fabric roll-up jobbie, y'see, and therefore much better for keeping one of the most unmistakeable heads of hair in politics in one piece…

We’ve known for a little while that the bonkers Deltawing racer would spawn a road-going performance car.
 
Well here’s the evidence, a concept for Deltawing Technology Group’s ‘highly efficient street-legal two-seat GT car’.
 
It uses the racecar’s chassis as its basis, and 350bhp-plus is promised. Though it’s fair to say bets are being hedged in the powertrain department, with claims the Deltawing GT could utilise petrol, diesel, gas, electric or hybrid propulsion.
 
We might know more once testing begins before the end of the year…

We have a soft spot for Ssangyong here at TG Towers, not least because the South Korean manufacturer's curiously styled and oddly named cars have been the willing butts of many disparaging jokes.
 
With the new Tivoli, though – a value Juke rival that doesn’t look half bad – Ssangyong appears to be getting good.
 
This has been recognised with a nomination for the World Car of the Year award, the winner of which is announced at next spring’s New York motor show.
 
The Merc C-Class is the current holder, while the Ssangyong is fighting illustrious company like the new Audi A4, Jag XE and Mazda MX-5. And the Subaru Levorg. Fancy its chances?

“Have you been mis-sold TDI?” joked many a social media user in the wake of the VW emissions scandal.
 
The laughs might not last for long, though: we may have to brace ourselves for a barrage of PPI claim-like calls, the arrival of this website merely the start of it.
 
“We are receiving over 200 contacts a day from UK diesel drivers regarding potential compensation action,” the site reads, before nonchalantly claiming it believes other manufacturers will be embroiled too.
 
Approach them at your own risk…

Such a thing may sounds impossible, but it’s happened. Charles Ingram has lived out of his old Mercedes C-Class at the side of Scotland’s A9 road since 2012, but after Transport Scotland described Ingram's infamous site as a hazard for drivers, officials closed the road while they broke up the 69-year-old’s camp.

Transport Scotland said concerns for Ingram’s personal welfare had also led to the decision. "The extent of the encampment on the A9 has grown in recent months and it is now a safety hazard and distraction for drivers and we have no choice but to take this action.

"All partners remain on hand to provide any support we can to Mr Ingram to ensure that his welfare and possessions are protected."

Picture: Aaron Sneddon

Lots of people are scared of spiders. And many of them irrationally so, refusing to enter rooms until an entirely harmless little arachnid has been pacified and forcibly removed.
 
Some way north of that level of hysteria lurks the man so petrified of a little eight-legged beastie that he decided to throw a lit cigarette lighter at one. While filling up with petrol. The clip is here.
 
We’ve no doubt, as spider-extinguishing goes, this is quite a successful idea. But it’s also rather effective for extinguishing cars and fuel stations, too.
 
If only he’d been able to find an old lady who’d recently ingested a fly.

Want to drive the world’s smallest car in perhaps the world’s biggest game?
 
Good news! The mighty Peel P50 – and all three of its horsepowers – can now be downloaded into Grand Theft Auto V.
 
If you need any convincing that’s a brilliant idea, then allow us to direct you to this YouTube clip, with donuts and skids ahoy. In fact, much as GTA V is rather good at realism, the cyber P50 appears to be capable of rather a lot more than the real thing…

The list of ‘exciting things to happen in St Albans’ has literally doubled this week, a large, imposing sinkhole opening itself up at the end of a driveway in the quiet English town.
 
Sinkholes are all the rage nowadays, replacing quicksand as the thing we worry most about. And Hertfordshire’s most happening town can’t escape their wrath; residents of Fontmell Close awoke to a 20-metre hole, one house in particular cut off from society while 58 families are without gas, electric and water.
 
Ten Things suspects mutant moles.
 
Picture: Roy Wilsher