Fun
-
All the attention on Smart at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show might have been directed at the Forvision electric drive concept and the latest, third-generation 2012 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, but Smart still had a use for the previous version. Nestled next to a Ford driving experience was "Smart Ball". If you've ever played the world's first-ever computer game "Pong" then you'll be very familiar with Smart Ball. A large display screen showed two "bats" in the shape of Smarts, and a ball bouncing between the two like a primitive game of tennis. No arcade-style joysticks here though. That is...
-
Friday Fun: Our Top Ten Retro Console Racing Games
Occasionally, the All Car Tech team gets pangs of nostalgia for times gone by, and we often yearn for the days of 1980s excess, when braces were red and Porsches were white with whale-tail spoilers. Inevitably, the subject of video games will pop up. We love a good racing game here, and the...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Creating Hockenheim For The Forza Motorsport 4 Game
The 1980s was an exciting time to be a young person. The reason? Video games. From coin-operated arcade games to the advent of home games consoles a whole generation had a new form of entertainment and for the budding gearheads, the best fun was provided by racing games. Just as car technology has...
Antony Ingram -
Audi R8 LMS Racing Simulator Races In To Gamescom 2011
If you think the racing sim setup you have in your living room is impressive, think again. Audi's racing simulator on show at videogame show Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany makes a mockery of your steering wheel and pedals combo. That's because Audi has created an entire R8 LMS GT3 race car...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Audi A0 Monocycle Concept, Cooler Than A Segway
If you've always found the Segway's two wheels to be a little excessive you'll be pleased to hear Audi has come to the rescue. The A0 - A1 being a European-market minicar and A2 an aluminum-bodied economy car - is a conceptual foray into the world of personalized mobility developed jointly by...
Antony Ingram -
Mercedes AMG Fan? Get Accessories With 'High Tech Qualities'
The world of automotive branded merchandise impresses and amuses in equal measure. For every sleek Porsche Design fountain pen, there's a Ferrari teddy bear to redress the balance. Now is the turn of the Mercedes-Benz AMG brand to offer a range of suitably high-tech merchandise for both business...
Antony Ingram -
Reducing fuel consumption and emissions is only one aspect of automotive sustainability - at the end of a car's life comes the time for its components to be re-used and recycled. We'd hope for Chevrolet's sake that its 2011 Volt models aren't already reaching the end of their life-cycles but it's nice to know that when they do, a little innovation can make old components go a long way. When General Motors' Real Estate and Facilities team moved into a new building and wanted to spruce up the atrium, they had the perfect planter ready and waiting - the battery cover from the 2011 Chevrolet...
-
1939 Plexiglas Pontiac Could Fetch Half A Million At Auction
If you have any embarassing habits as you sit in traffic, then this could be your automotive arch-enemy. Nose pickers and secret scratchers need not apply. The transparent transport in question is a 1939 Pontiac Plexiglas Delux Six Ghost Car that was created for the 1939 World's Fair in New York...
Antony Ingram -
Video: 2012 Range Rover Evoque Stars In 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Game
It's Friday, the sun is shining (well, mostly), and yet, there you sit, stuck in your cubicle, slaving away for The Man. Of course, we'd never encourage you to play hooky, but we can suggest a pretty good way to goof off and still look busy. It involves a new choose-your-own-adventure game designed...
Richard Read -
Video: New Ad For Thor Parodies Volkswagen (But Leaves Acura Out In The Cold)
Andy Warhol famously said that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Thanks to the heady combination of reality TV and the internet, he's been proven right. The culture of instant celebrity is both a blessing and a curse. On the curse side: Rebecca Black and Speidi (who may have...
Richard Read -
Video: Papercraft Audi A7 - Handmade, Not Good In The Rain
The 2011 Audi A7 might be big but it isn't particularly heavy for its size. Weighing in at around 3,900 pounds it's around 300 pounds lighter than its rival the BMW 5-Series GT despite the Quattro drivetrain. You can thank the part aluminum construction for that. Still, it could be lighter. And...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Back To The Future With Aluminum Powered R/C Car
The future is full of powerplant possibilities - efficient gasoline and clean diesel, hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and pure electric - but we don't yet have the technology to power a car using cold fusion, à la 'Doc' Brown's DeLorean in the Back To The Future trilogy. We can replicate the...
Antony Ingram -
Brushing the red line, grabbing top gear and clipping the apex, AllCarTech brings you our full review of the latest racing title to hit your PlayStation 3, Need For Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed. Last week we brought you our first impressions of the EA Games and Slightly Mad Studios racer and with a few more hours behind the wheel, we're ready to bring you our full test. Gentlemen, start your engines... There are two main types of Need For Speed game. The most well-known is the street racing series that have been giving gamers a rush of adrenaline for well over a decade. Always popular, the series...
-
Charlie Sheen Shifts To An Even Smaller Screen -- As An App Developer
Like the streets of his beloved Hollywood Hills, Charlie Sheen's life is full of twists and turns. The actor has a reputation for being a party boy, and his tumultuous life has been well-documented in tabloids and tweets. But Sheen's recent meltdown gave him the opportunity to reinvent himself --...
Richard Read -
Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed: First Impressions
Thanks to the kind folk at EA Games we've got hold of a copy of the latest game in the long-running Need For Speed franchise, Shift 2 Unleashed (S2U), in PlayStation 3 format. As with the previous Shift title, Unleashed errs more on the simulation side of racing titles rather than the franchise's...
Antony Ingram -
Video: Radio Control? Old News! Phones Are Where It's At
Before the advent of video games and thousands of cars stunningly recreated in high polygon models on hundreds of detailed race tracks, we used to use a little thing known as imagination and a little suspension of disbelief to get virtual racing thrills. Diecast cars were at the bottom of the tree...
Antony Ingram -
Young, Thin, & Popular: 2011 Chevrolet Volt Is Hollywood's Next Superstarlet
Hollywood is so fickle. One minute, Neve Campbell is all the rage, and the next thing you know, she's doing guest spots on Medium. (Yes, apparently it's still on.) The same rules apply to cars. Not so long ago, Priuses (or Prii) were all the rage; now, they're yesterday's news, upstaged by the...
Richard Read -
Relive The Thrill Of The 'Bullitt' Car Chase, At 1:32 Scale
At last count, there were at least five reasons to love the internet: 1. [REDACTED] 2. Cat videos. 3. The Oatmeal. 4. The lovely and talented High Gear Media family. 5. The opportunity it provides crazy obsessive people to show off their handiwork. And in service of #5 comes news that graphic...
Richard Read -
Garmin, TomTom, and other aftermarket telematics systems have been fighting an uphill battle since July 2008. That's when Apple launched the App Store and smartphone users began to realize that apps could serve the same function as pricey dashtop units, but with minimal upfront cost and no subscription fees. In the intervening years, the app market has exploded with an array of offerings for nearly every operating system, and telematics manufacturers have struggled to stay relevant. We're happy to report that Garmin may have found a way to keep its head above water a bit longer, thanks to a...
-
Rahm Emanuel Saves Chicago From Winter Storm, Knocks Katie Couric Down A Peg
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair's Juli Weiner published an article entitled, "Rahm Emanuel Should Be Personally Rescuing People During the Chicago Blizzard". (You have to hand it to VF: they know how to put the "b" in "subtle".) Weiner's argument was basically that the mayoral candidate needed to get out...
Richard Read -
Video: Audi Taps Kenny G (Figuratively Speaking)
Not so long ago, Kenny G was a major threat to the civilized world. Sleepy, innocuous notes rolled out of his saxophone and onto the world's airwaves, lulling us all into a false sense of comfort and security. Things could've gone terribly wrong, but Kenny's unearthly talent was, in fact, his own...
Richard Read -
Now You Can Video That Awesome Stunt: Hot Wheels Video Racer
It's either the CIA's next technique for keeping track of kindergarten violence or the best thing to hit die-cast cars since working steering. What are we talking about? Mattel's Video Racer cars. The latest generation of the world-famous Hot Wheels series will let kids everywhere see a previously...
Antony Ingram -
Celebs And Cars: This Week's High (And Very, Very Low) Points
• Remember that clip of 50 Cent jamming $2 million into a Lamborghini Murcielago? Not to be outdone, Verne Troyer has posted a photo reply, featuring the actor with stacks of (possibly real) dough in his own Lambo Countach. It's supposed to represent $2 million, but it looks a little short to...
Richard Read -
Today, In Things Rappers Like: 50 Cent Stashes $2 Million In A Lamborghini
Hear are some questions we're pondering on this peaceful Zen Tuesday: 1. What is the sound of one hand clapping? 2. Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near? 3. What do you do with a drunken sailor? 4. Who's on first? 5. Why in the hizell would 50 Cent stash $2 million in the boot of a...
Richard Read