Ten Things We Learned This Week: 10 June 2016 edition

As you’d expect from a company that has made the world’s fastest production car, carved a legend in the terrifying Can-Am aeries and just finished production of a 986 bhp hybrid track car, McLaren will have a pretty strong showing at this year’s power-themed Goodwood Festival of Speed. In fact, it’s going to be somewhere close to utopia for fans of McLaren.

P1 GTR? Check. Every model in the current McLaren road car range? Check. Global debut for the track-only 570S Sprint? Checkity-check. And that’s before we count the retro stuff. There’s the Can-Am M8D, the M15 Indy car, and Prost’s championship-winning MP4-2C F1 car. We’d buy shares in earplugs right now.

On top of all that, McLaren have announced that two P1 GTRs will make an appearance at Goodwood later in the month. One will be “an extensively modified version of the original which was initially created by McLaren Special Operations”, and the other will be the model pictured above.

Designed to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of James Hunt’s F1 title – famously snatched from Niki Lauda in the last grand prix of the season in 1976 – the special livery is a one-off to mark the occasion.

The base black colour contains red, yellow and blue stripes, mimicking the helmet James Hunt wore during his racing days. It looks pretty neat, and it should sound pretty neat too when McLaren stick ex-F1 driver Bruno Senna behind the wheel...

Several motorists learned the hard way this week that the British summertime weather is just too darn unpredictable for your regular road-going cars. After parts of south London were drenched in the deluges that’ve caused chaotic flooding across Europe this fortnight, the limitations of the likes of a Vauxhall Zafira when it comes to wading through four feet of floodwater became cruelly apparent. Someone get this individual an outboard motor please. And a modicum of common sense.

Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft are already altering the way thousands of people travel across cities. They will never, we can assume, become transport of choice for safari parks, however. This video of a friendly bear attempting to grab a lift with a family of tourists in a drive-thu-zoo is all the proof we need. Get your own car, Mr Bear. Perhaps a Paw-sche 911? Renault Grizzly? Okay we’ll stop now.

If the prospect of driverless cars being let loose on the roads gives you the heebie jeebies, we have some news that might scare you even more.

As of this week, The State of Nevada (through NIAS) will help test autonomous passenger drones through the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to try and make them a thing of the future.

Yep, instead of having a little camera dangling under a drone, in the future that could be you. 

It was a concept shown by Chinese company Ehang Inc earlier this year at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. They pulled the sheets of the Ehang 184, a single-seat passenger drone capable of flying for 23 minutes at a quoted average speed of 60mph, with at least two hours needed for a single charge of its batteries between trips.

So, without any need for a pilot, you could hover your way to school/work/the pub with an optimal cruising altitude between 1,000 and 1,650 feet. 

Now, hands up if you think this is a good idea.

If you rewind back to earlier this year, you may remember that Fernando Alonso had a far from insignificant shunt at the Australian Grand Prix. 

His McLaren clipped the rear of Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas and ploughed straight into the barrier. Initial TV footage only showed Gutierrez’s car skidding off into the gravel, but the scale of the crash only emerged once we saw what was left of Alonso’s McLaren. Put simply, not a lot.

This week the FIA released the official figures that show just how monstrous the accident was.

The report states that Alonso was travelling at 313km/h when he tried to overtake Esteban Gutierrez, with his impact against the Haas rear wheel taking place at 305km/h.

With his front suspension broken, Alonso's car careered into the wall at the side of the track with a peak lateral deceleration of 45G. That’s forty five times his body weight. Yowch.

The report also revealed that Alonso's head struck the left inside of his headrest twice during the incident.

Then, as the car slid down the grass, it dug in and flipped over – which resulted in another 46g lateral deceleration– as he barrel rolled through 540-degrees whilst being airborne for 0.9 seconds.

As it landed on its rear impact absorbing structure, it recorded a longitudinal acceleration of 20G.

Amazing then that he walked away with only a few cracked ribs. So, once again, everyone raise their glass to improved safety.

Woop-woop! That's the sound of da police! And… as of this year, it’ll be the sound of silence.

BMW is set to lease 100 i3 electric cars to the LAPD to be used on the beat. In the last year, the LAPD has been seen testing Tesla’s P85D, but decided on the BMW i3 instead. Boo.

Unfortunately, the i3 (with 168bhp and 184lb ft available from standstill) won’t be using its 7.3 second 0-62mph and 200-mile range to chase crims. Instead, they’ll be used for less serious police business and community outreach projects.

Remember a couple of months ago when a recalled Vauxhall Zafira caught fire? And a few weeks back when Vauxhall announced a further recall? Well, if you’re affected, it’s probably time to ring your local dealership.

43-year-old Damian Fisher was driving through South London earlier this week when he noticed smoke coming out of the dashboard. Three minutes later, the car had gone up in flames.

Cruelly, he arrived home later that day to find a letter from Vauxhall on his doorstep informing him of the latest recall.

Warning others of the dangers on Facebook, Mr Fisher said: “If you have a Vauxhall Zafira, don't wait for the recall notice, contact your local dealer now so this doesn't happen to you.”

Image credit: Damian Fisher

Take a metal detector to the beach and you will probably unearth a handful of coins, if you’re lucky. You’ll probably never discover a pair of cars, though.

Apparently laid to rest in the undergrowth of a British forest for multiple decades, these two E-Types have recently appeared on eBay with an asking price of £20,000.

While the roofs and interiors have succumbed to the power of time and nature, the cars do at least contain their engines and have all of their wheels still attached.

At the time of writing the online listing appears to have closed, suggesting that someone has stumped up the required cash. They’ll need much deeper pockets if they’ve got a restoration job in mind...

Image credit: jaguarimports

When the NYPD set up a blockade for the President of the United States, most people realise that it’s probably best to stay out of the way.

However, not everyone is that sensible. An onlooker in New York captured the moment a cyclist attempted to cross the road just seconds before Barack Obama’s motorcade reached the crossing, and needless to say he didn’t get very far.

Police officers pinned the man in question to the ground as the President’s Cadillac – known as ‘The Beast’ – coasted past, and reports say he was later charged with disorderly conduct.

Kids: this is what happens when you don’t wear a helmet.

Image credit: mattpeco