I Just Learned What The First Chimp In Space Did While He Was Up There, And What Was Up His Rectum

When you buy a used car, especially one well out of warranty and advanced in age, it’s generally accepted that a pre-purchase inspection (PPI) is highly recommended. When buying a 20-year-old Land Rover product, that recommendation should be seen more as a requirement than a mere suggestion. Despite this, when I purchased my 321k-mile 2006 Range Rover back in March, my haste to get behind the wheel relegated conventional wisdom to the back seat. After six months and nearly four thousand miles, I’ve grown confident in my Tonga Green bucket of magnificence despite its existing and mounting flaws. Still, I figured it was finally time to open up the metaphorical closet to see what skeletons may be lurking inside. To satisfy my curiosity, and to build a roadmap for what my L322 will need to propel it past the 400k-mile goalposts, I called my local Land Rover dealers to schedule an inspection. While I was fully prepared for a mahoosive list, nothing could have prepared me for a bill that would not only put Caleb Hammer in the grave but have him rolling over in it.

Tesla catalyzed an internet frenzy last week after its long-awaited Roadster was revealed packing a cold-gas thruster setup and a fan suction system, enabling the EV to drive upside down and even achieve momentary flight. But as novel as the idea of a thruster-packed hypercar might seem, Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac recently said the technology has been on his mind for years. In an Instagram post reacting to the Tesla Roadster reveal, Rimac said he was fixated on static downforce systems like the one on Tesla’s Roadster and the McMurtry Spéirling back in 2019. Rimac then showed an email from 2019 titled “Static downforce,” in which he was exploring a fan-based downforce system inspired by the Brabham BT46B F1 car. The 1978 racecar featured a large, engine-driven fan at the rear that sucked air from under the chassis, but the team claimed the fan’s primary purpose was engine cooling. Tesla“Flying cars, cold thrusters, finally, huh? Lots of people ask us if we ever considered something like that, and you would be surprised. The answer is actually yes,” Rimac said in the social media video, which was reposted by the account Entrelligence and brought to broader attention by CarBuzz.

If there's one automaker that could really use a big win in the U. S. right now, it's the sensible Swedish Volvo. A series of blunders has blighted the brand's reputation in recent years, from repeated software problems to ending U. S. sales of its adorable EX30 EV after just two years on the market. It's been a while since Volvo had a home run, and the excellent EX60 midsize electric SUV looked to be exactly the new star hitter the brand so desperately needs. Unfortunately, according to Automotive News, two manufacturing problems at Volvo's plant in Torslanda, Sweden, have caused a catastrophic production shortage. Volvo hoped that it would be producing 2,000 EX60s per week, but just 10% of the planned output has been built. "Volvo sold about 500 EX60s worldwide in July before volumes tumbled to roughly 250 in August, according to GlobalData estimates," reports Auto News. The company hoped to sell 7,000 EX60s in the U. S. this year, but now it'll be prioritizing deliveries for Europe, where EV adoption is better. According to AN's source, "that leaves no additional vehicle allocations for U. S.

Volkswagen is going to push an over-the-air-update to a huge chunk of ID 4 EVs in an effort to prevent battery fires. The company still isn’t quite sure what is causing the fires that prompted a recall of its compact electric car, but apparently they’re less likely to happen if owners cap their charge level at 80%. “The root cause is unknown, however in certain high-voltage batteries within the affected vehicle population, certain charging profiles combined with a state of charge over 80% may trigger thermal propagation within the high-voltage battery,” VW’s recall report said.