La Dolce Veloce

Sorry for the downtime…the power outage in LA knocked out power to our server down there, so La Dolce Veloce was unavailable all day! Everything seems back to normal now though…

In spite of its automatic transmission, the Isdera C112 is one impressive car, with classic twentieth century styling and a V12 Mercedes powerplant producing around 450hp. It was never produced, but the sole prototype recently appeared on Ebay (click here for the ad) with a ‘buy it now’ price of $4.8 million (gulp).

Way back in 1991 (boy, does time fly!), Ferrari made an interesting concept, based on a 328. Named the Conciso, this car exuded a level of simplicity and driving purity that, alas, seems sorely missing in their latest cars. Granted, they make some of the best and fastest cars on the planet, but one minute behind the wheel of a Lotus Elise will remind you of the driving pleasure that cars are really all about. The Conciso embodies much of the spirit that Lotus later put into the design of its Elise; what would have happened if Ferrari had moved forward with this concept…? Few cars on the road have more electronics gizmos and gadgets than even Ferrari’s entry-level model, the F430. Yet, is any of that really necessary to enjoy driving a car? C’mon Ferrari, how about building us a basic, pure driving machine? More pictures after the link. (source)
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There’s a really nice selection of simple, FREE online car games over at this website. I like the cone one, it reminds me of the autocross I did last weekend.

As reported in The Sunday Times, Scotland is looking to use wind power to create hydrogen, which could then be sold to the public to power hydrogen vehicles. It’s a neat solution to two problems. First, how to take a variable power source like wind power and find a way to store excess energy produced for use later when winds are less. The second problem this solves is how we can produce hydrogen economically without using fossil fuels. Nice approach…

At Concorso Italiano, representing the company I’ve helped found, Pressure Drop (no, we don’t make car parts), was my magnetic blue Lotus Elise decked out in a few tasefully placed Pressure Drop logos.

I’ll have more picture from the show posted soon.

From Techdirt comes a report from the UK, where a recent study found showed a 55% increase in injury accidents where speed cameras were used in highway work zones, and a 31% increase on freeways without work zones. The same study showed that police patrols produced a significant reduction in injury accidents, further showing that speed cameras do not improve road safety, they are merely a means for the local governments to collect more money.