Etc : Car News And Reviews

I recently had the opportunity to attend my first ever drag race event with the National Hot Rod Association. I’ll start out by saying that no amount of photographs or video can really capture what you’ll experience at a drag racing event.

We like to think we know a thing or two about cars, so it’s rare that we come across a vehicle that we’ve never, ever heard about – let alone have a chance to see that rarity in person. 

OPTIMA Batteries and the Ultimate Street Car Association have announced a 10 event series designed to give garage mechanics the chance to take their street cars onto tracks all over the United States and show that they’ve built the ultimate street car.

We’ve always thought the Subaru WRX was a great little tuner car, but we had no idea that it could also perform double duty as a tow truck. In this brief clip, watch as all-wheel-drive WRX revs up its wheels, and manages to pull a police car out of the recent heavy snows in Michigan.

Audi is trying a one-of-a-kind marketing technique to introduce their latest A8 sedan to their most valued customers. What they’ve been doing in some European countries is delivering a mysterious black cube to those potential buyers that, when activated by pushing a “Start/Stop” button, begins a countdown to delivery of a new A8 for a 24-hour test drive.

If you have an hour to spare today, how about assembling a full-sized car? You can do that thanks to the open source TABBY framework created by OSVehicle. The TABBY platform provides an open source framework for designing vehicle components that work together and are made for easy assembly.

Today’s cars are loaded with all sorts of tech to improve vehicle safety and driving comfort, and many can also stream data and content via mobile devices. Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)  is taking steps to have vehicles start communicating with each other in order to further aid safety.

John Bitmead of Oxfordshire, England decided to take the iconic plastic kids’ car, the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe and created a full-sized, roadworthy version. Bitmead and his brother, Geoff, began with a Daewoo Matiz as a starting point.

We normally try to stick to adult-sized vehicles here on 95Octane, but from time to time, we’ll see an extraordinary go-kart or other conveyance that’s worth a mention. This is one of those times. What you’re looking at here is a tiny Aston Martin DB Convertible, perfect for kids (and small adults) ages 10 and up.

While you can’t yet own a Lamborghini Huracán, you just might be lucky enough to see one tooling around the streets of your city, like the folks who shot this video of one zipping around for a commercial shoot.

Renault has announced that it will be unveiling a new concept car at the New Delhi Motorshow on February 5, 2014. Along with the announcement, Renault released this mysterious teaser video showing a quadcopter flying around the bright, neon-colored grey, yellow, and red vehicle.

Custom car builder Mike Vetter, owner of The Car Factory, creates some amazing custom vehicles. One of his latest creations is a version of his ETV (Extra Terrestrial Vehicle) line of cars. This car, which apparently comes to us from the future, has a 270hp engine under its space-hood, with Lamborghini doors, and a custom-made body.

The current land-speed record for a vehicle was set all the way back in 1997 by pilot Andy Green and his ThrustSSC turbofan-powered car. It was the first supersonic ride on wheels, with his top speed hitting over 763mph over the course of one mile.

The Lazareth Wazuma V8F Matt Edition is an extreme quad bike with a Ferrari 3.0 V8 engine and a BMW M3 gearbox. We don’t have speed specs for it, but that’s a 250hp engine pushing just over 1,430 pounds down the road, so it’s got to be hyperfast.

We recently featured a virtual tour of the secret Top Gear test track done via a 360-degree camera and The Stig in a Mercedes SLS AMG Black. Well, it turns out Google turned up at the track with a “Street View” car and mapped the track while Stig stayed in his AMG.