Ten things we learned this week: 29 January 2016 edition

There can be few cooler things to dedicate your latest special edition sports car to. Meet the Aston Martin V8 Vantage S Blades Edition, a long name for an exceptionally cool car.

It takes the glorious (both to look at and listen to) Vantage S, and gives it a black roof and wheels, a carbonfibre splitter and some orange flourishes. These match it nicely to the livery of the aeroplanes used by Sywell Autodrome’s Blades aerobatics planes.

Even cooler, there’ll be just five of these Vantages sold by Aston Martin Cambridge, each one badged to match a specific aircraft of the Blades team. It’s yours for £119,950. Cheaper than your average plane, at least…

Ten Things loves a bit of Lego. This is the latest kit we’re feverishly saving our pocket money for, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS Technic set.

As if combining the worlds of sports cars and plastic brick-based hobbies wasn’t nerdy enough, the car also comes wrapped in the camouflage spirals worn by GT3 RS prototypes before the car even made production.

Try explaining that next time a, ahem, close friend stops by to visit and asks about the Porsche model on top of your bedroom drawers…

Diversions present an unavoidable familiarity for drivers, particularly in the UK, whose roads seem to be permanently under construction.

Typically they lead you from a dual carriageway and onto minor roads for 20 minutes or so, mildly lengthening your journey.

Not in Royal Wootton Bassett, Wilshire, though. Resurfacing work on the town’s high street - all 300 yards of it - was averted by a 32-mile diversion. Yes, thirty two. Full miles…

It appears to be the result of council guidelines, which led to A-roads having to be diverted to other A-roads, as opposed to littler routes, which would be unsuitable for lorries.

Hopefully most drivers utilised their common sense…

Image: Arriva436

And if you’re wondering quite what that means, allow us to elaborate. Wind back to the early 1990s and the internet was a scary, ominously looming thing accessed by the few and treated with suspicion by the many.

Now, it’s everywhere, all the time, for everything, including weekly roundups of weird car news.

And this week, the government’s roads minister Andrew Jones has likened its rise in popularity to the one we’re seeing - and will see - from electric cars.

“The internet started small, as a niche interest, but then it snowballed, and now it’s hard to imagine being without it. I think we are seeing a similar picture emerging for ultra-low emission vehicles in Britain today. ULEV sales are not just growing rapidly, they are rocketing.”

With the rise of in-car 4G, you’ll even be able to read Ten Things aboard some of them…

Source: The Telegraph

‘Invents’ is a strong word. ‘Draws picture of’ would be more accurate.

Following his Mach 10 ‘Skreemr’ concept jet from 2015, Canadian engineer Charles Bombardier has come up with this new supersonic plane called ‘The Antipode’ which is designed to be capable of a scarcely comprehendible Mach 24. According to NASA, that’s not far off the re-entry speed of the now decommissioned Space Shuttle.

Bombardier previously admitted that the materials required to withstand flight at Mach 10 didn’t exist yet, however he believes that an airflow technique called ‘long penetration mode’ (no sniggering, please) could help cool components sufficiently to make his idea work.

At the Antipode’s full chat of Mach 24, you could travel between New York and London in just 11 minutes. TG recommends reinforced seatbelts.

Picture credit: ImaginActiv

If you are vulnerable to cuteness, we advise that you skip this slide urgently.

Transport police in Ecuador had to deal with an unusual problem on the roadside, after spotting a tiny sloth clinging to the barriers separating a busy highway not far from Quevedo City last week.

Photos of the incident were uploaded to the Facebook page of the Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador, where they quickly gained traction online.

After being checked over by a vet the little creature was eventually released back into his natural habitat, no doubt returning to life in the slow lane.

Picture credit: Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador

Kind of. It didn’t actually belong to the Pope, although he did sit in it while touring the US a few months ago.

A couple of years prior to his trip to the States, Pope Francis reportedly encouraged priests to drive “humble” vehicles as part of an effort to focus more intently on the poor.

Presumably the 500L fits this papal description as it is due to be auctioned at the Pennsylvania Convention Center later today, with the proceeds going to a handful of charities working with the less fortunate.

For his next trip abroad, why not transport the leader of the Christian world in a Hyundai Genesis?

Remember that stunt Red Bull did on a ski slope in Austria a couple of weeks back? Apparently the local authorities weren’t too impressed.

It has been reported that Verstappen and his team didn’t get proper permission for the demonstration in Kitzbühel, and could be fined up to €30,000 (nearly £23,000 based on the current exchange rate).

It’s not entirely clear exactly what Red Bull did wrong, although some have speculated that they should have stuck to marked route instead of venturing off line. Or as Charlie Whiting would call it, ‘exceeding track limits’.

Joking aside, if Red Bull did put the environment at risk, then that’s snow laughing matter...

Are you struggling for a summer break this year? Have you got £100,000 in your pocket desperately wanting to be burned? Well, GOOD NEWS! Because Range Rover can ease both of your burdens.

Having teamed up with posh travel agents Abercrombie & Kent, Range Rover is offering a 21-day trip that promises "unparalleled luxury combined with the greatest driving routes the world has to offer, both on and off-road."

The trip starts off in Europe. Surprisingly, not Faliraki, but Lake Como in Italy. During the seven-day euro stint, drivers/holidaymakers will stay in luxury hotels, have a sunset cruise on Lake Como, and take a helicopter trip to have a picnic on a glacier.

They then hop over to Marrakech to pretend to be a Dakar test driver by pounding the dunes around Ouarzazate. Next, they head to the United States – we’re guessing via aircraft rather than by a secret submersible Range Rover – to visit Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. 

And because that's not dusty enough, they're then flown to Chile and the driest place on earth – the Atacama Desert.

For the final leg, it’s back on the plane to head down under to Sydney where a behind-the-scenes tour of the Opera House is on the itinerary.  The perfect trip for a pre-uni gap yearist, then.