Yamaha V Star 1100 Classic Passenger Seat on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: The ABCs of Indy

-- Indy is full of tradition, and ABC is full of Indy. Having covered the Indy 500 for the past half-century, ABC is as "back home again" as Jim Nabors and milk and the forthright assumption that the Indianapolis 500 is the Greatest Spectacle in Racing -- a tagline announcer Charlie Brockman introduced to the world -- which it is. -- How do you design brakes that can stop a 1,000-mph car?

2014 Ford Mondeo testing autonomous driving technologies (video)

The Ford Fusion with its LIDAR ears allowing autonomous driving Car makers are starting to take self-driving, autonomous cars very seriously, and we’ve recently seen Mercedes testing their autonomous driving S-Class in Berlin, Volvo planning a big trial of 100 self-driving cars in Gothenberg and Tesla planning systems that will do 90 per cent of your driving within 3 years. Now it’s Ford’s turn. Ford has equipped a Fusion Hybrid (that’s the North American version of the new Ford Mondeo we still haven’t got in the UK) with its autonomous vehicle technology to conduct research in partnership with the University of Michigan and State Farm (a big group of insurance companies in the US). The test Fusion gets a system called LIDAR (light detection and range – the funny looking ears on the top of the Fusion in the picture above) which can scan the road ahead up to 2.5 million times a second and create a 3D map of the surroundings.

McLaren 12C Concept showcases McLaren Special Operations (MSO) goodies

The McLaren 12C MSO Concept (pictured) highlights McLaren’s MSO upgrades Unless you’ve ever been and bought a supercar (or a high-end luxury car) new, you may not realise that the regular options list is just the starting point for individual customisation. In fact everyone, from Ferrari to Rolls Royce, will do pretty much whatever you want to your new car if your pockets are deep enough, and it’s a game – and a cash cow – McLaren are keen to make the most of. That’s why we had the extreme McLaren X-1 project a couple of years ago, but that went a lot further than most Mclaren buyers want to go with their new car.