The parking boot is outdated and inefficient, according to startup Barnacle Parking Enforcement. In Barnacle's view, we should retire the old boot and use its new product instead, cleverly dubbed The Barnacle. It's significantly more high-tech than a parking boot, and significantly more bizarre.
Using two industrial-grade suction cups, the Barnacle mounts to a car's windshield, which unlike a boot, allows the car to be towed. The Barnacle comes with a screen to let the parking offender know why it was installed, and a credit card reader, so they can pay to have it removed. If the offender tries to drive off, an alarm will sound.
It's a definite improvement over the old Boot, but the people who made it clearly have never heard of the windshield-less Morgan 3 Wheeler. In addition, if an owner was motivated enough, they could just replace the windshield.
The Barnacle is certainly strange, but honestly, anything is better than getting booted.

A 45 year old man has been handed a 2 year suspended prison sentence after stealing an Aston Martin DB11 from the British manufacturers headquarters in Gaydon.
In a very strange twist of events, the man claims he had an argument when out with some friends, that left him abandoned in the area with no way of getting home. The stranded man wandered into Aston Martin's HQ and was able to get away with an Aston Martin DB11!

That night there just happened to be a glitch in Aston Martin's security system, which allowed the 45 year old to drive away in an unregistered DB11.
The next Morning, police were alerted to a disturbance, describing an Aston Martin driving wildly around the streets in the early hours. The police found the car abandoned, and sniffer dogs traced the man to his house, where he was found with keys to the DB11 and another Aston Martin model.
​

Aston Martin have said that they were forced to write-off the car, as the damaged caused by the man meant that the car could not be sold as new, and as the car had no registered keeper, could not be sold as a used vehicle either.
The man was given only a minor sentence as the judge ruled that the theft was coincidental, and not planned.

THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS.It's no secret that tensions are high between North Korea and the United States, if not the rest of the world. With Kim Jong Un frequently testing ballistic missiles and allegedly getting closer to getting a nuke, you can't be surprised. For this reason the U.S. has been training with South Korean forces for the sake of security. Also, B-52s and B-1s have been flying around the border as a form of deterrence. In the end it's all games and flexing muscles, but it's necessary.
As a "comeback" some might say, North Korea just held its first ever military air show. The purpose of course was to show their military might and attract more tourists so they could come witness it. Not sure if that'll work, but we got our hands on some of that footage. You can judge for yourself. 
Not surprisingly, the airshow featured lots of Russian equipment. What is odd however, is seeing Hughes 500Es as part of their show. Definitely not sold or gifted by the United States at any point in time, there's major speculation that they've been illegally supplied to them by another country. Makes sense. 
Now, we know you've been waiting for this for years, so check out this video. Some of you might get a good laugh. 

If you see a dude on a jet ski with a full face helmet, keep your eye on him because there is a high chance of radness. Also a fan of the dude below who goes with the Cascade lax helmet to protect his noggin while throwing doubles:

Very little equates to the feeling you get when you buy a new car.
The possibilities of the stuff you can do surges adrenaline through your body, and you never want to stop driving. You want to hit speeds, blast the stereo as loud as possible, be that guy who gives lifts to your annoying mates who shout things out of the windows. It's all part of having a new motor.
What isn't on the agenda, though, is crashing the new vehicle shortly after purchasing it. This guy clearly didn't get that agenda and ended up writing off his brand new Ferrari.
Police released pictures of the wrecked £260,000 Ferrari 430 Scuderia which had been in the fella's possession for no more than an hour.

I don’t think there’ll be any significant protest when I say that speedboat design peaked in the mid-20th century. Of course, the materials, engines, and hydrodynamics, have all improved considerably in the decades since. However, when it comes to style and design, you just can’t beat a svelte mahogany speedboat with brass fittings, analog gauges, and a flag hanging off the back.
The concept behind the creation of this boat was developed by Ken Bassett of Onion River Boatworks in Vermont and Tony Brown at Western Runabouts in California, they used the design of a 1920s-era Hacker-Craft named “Nick-Nack” as a basic blueprint – but many modifications needed to be made to accommodate the new engine and handle the power it develops.
The idea of fitting a Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 tank engine to a speed boat is exactly the sort of thing we’d associate with the folks over the pond in the United States. It’s why they’re our favorite cousins.

The Meteor V12 was a development of the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine from aircraft like the Spitfire and P51 Mustang. The Meteor was developed for use in tanks, and it was so successful that it fundamentally changed the way tanks were designed. With a capacity of 27 liters (1648 cubic inches), no supercharger (as was used on the Merlin) and a power output of ~650 hp, the Meteor proved both reliable and easy to produce – in fact many early Meteors were built from the remains of crashed Merlins.
The original boat, Nick-Nack, had been a major icon in its day, it was owned by Commodore Humphrey Birge of Buffalo, New York and it shattered one-lap, 50-mile and 150-mile records at the Wood-Fisher race at Detroit, Michigan in 1921.
The Commodore’s vessel had a 200 hp Hall-Scott motor fitted – approximately 70% less powerful than the mighty V12 sitting in the new boat handcrafted by Brown & Bassett in 1997 from mahogany. The interior is upholstered from maroon leather and there’s a forward jump seat that is said to be for “brave passengers” – you certainly wouldn’t want to sit in it on a choppy day.
If you have a V12 speedboat shaped space in your garage the Brown & Bassett Gentleman’s Racer is due to be auctioned by Mecum between the 16th and 19th of August and it’s offered with a custom-configured trailer.

tags: breed of speed , vintage wood boat , rolls royce boat, vintage speed boat, nathan finneman , v12 wood boat , chris craft 

This is what happens when Somali Pirates attack a ship with a armed maritime security on board. Spoiler: it doesn’t go well for the pirates.The video below was filmed using a helmet mounted camera by some private security contractors on board a cargo ship attacked by Somali Pirates back in 2012. 
Warning: This video is is pretty violent.

A crowdfunding-powered privateer effort has done what Dodge never officially attempted to do: Set a Nurburgring lap time in the soon-to-be-discontinued fifth-generation Viper. With professional racer Dominik Farnbacher at the wheel, a brand-new, bone-stock Viper GTS-R just set a 7:03.45 lap time at the famed German track. This was the first traffic-free timed lap on a dry 

The Viper 'Ring Record Run powered by Kumho and co-sponsored by Prefix brought two brand-new, bone-stock 2017 Vipers in GTS-R spec to the famed German racetrack. Funded largely by private donations from individual Viper enthusiasts, and utilizing cars straight off the showroom floor of Texas dealership Viper Exchange, the effort marks the first Nurburgring lap record attempt in the current fifth-generation model.
Farnbacher, the driver who set today's lap time, was the man at the wheel for the Viper's last Nurburgring record attempt in 2011. Back then, Farnbacher drove a factory-backed fourth-generation Viper ACR to a 7:12.13 lap time. 
Since the introduction of the current-generation Viper, Dodge has refused to return to the 'Ring to pursue a new lap time, opting instead to claim production-car lap records at 13 road courses in the United States. But with production of the American sports car set to end later this year, a private group of die-hard Viper enthusiasts raised money through crowdfunding, sponsorship, and private donations to bring the car to Germany for one last crack at the 'Ring.
It wasn't easy: the privateers originally scheduled one hour of closed-track lap time on Monday, July 24th, to attempt to set a lap time. But heavy rains all day scuttled those plans, leaving the team only able to practice during open lapping sessions with significant traffic, often under wet, rainy conditions. When a brief window of track time became available this afternoon, the team scrambled into action.
Road & Track has been traveling with the privateer Viper team in Germany all week. The lap time was set on brand-new, stock, street-legal Kumho Ecsta V720 tires (295/25 front, 355/30 rear on factory 19-inch wheels) supplied by Kumho, a sponsor of the attempt. And this is only the first lap attempt: the team plans to go for another flying lap later this week.

This Is Really A Historical Event.So this just happened. While the annual Oshkosh Airshow is in full swing with many surprises still to come over the next few days, vintage warbird fans just got a major one some 30 minutes ago. Two B-29 Superfortresses flew together.
The reason this is so significant, although we assume most of you know that, is that this hasn’t been seen in decades. The reason? We didn’t have enough airworthy ones. FIFI, a B-29 Superfortress operated by the Commemorative Air Force, has been the only one in the airshow circuit since 1974, although she had a couple minor hiccups along the way.
DOC, the other B-29 you’ll see in the video, was just restored and certified as airworthy just a few months back. Her restoration, however, took decades. 
All that work led to this point in time. Although the video isn’t of the best quality in terms of capturing the grandeur of this event, it’s still a solid reminder that people out there work tirelessly to keep these historic planes alive.
Keep up the good work everyone.

Britain will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars starting in 2040 as part of a plan to get them off the roads altogether 10 years later, environment minister Michael Gove said.
Gove's comments confirmed U.K. newspaper reports on Tuesday that said from 2040 all new vehicles sold must be fully electric as part of a plan to clean up air pollution.
The sale of new hybrid vehicles that have an electric motor combined with a gasoline or diesel engine would also end under the plan, The Times said.
The U.K. is the latest European country to focus on electric vehicles for future transportation. France also plans to end the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040in a bid to become a carbon-neutral nation. German cities including Stuttgart and Munich have also said they are considering banning some diesel vehicles, which are blamed for harmful NOx emissions.
The U.K.'s step will likely accelerate the decline of diesel cars in the U.K., Europe's second-biggest market after Germany. 
Demand for diesel cars fell 10 percent in the first half in Britain while sales of gasoline vehicles rose 5 percent, according to industry data. Sales of electric and hybrid models increased nearly 30 percent in the same period, the fastest growing section of the market, but it still accounts for less than 5 percent of new-car registrations.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said consumers should be given incentives to buy electric cars. "Outright bans risk undermining the current market for new cars and our sector, which supports over 800,000 jobs across the U.K.," he said. "The industry instead wants a positive approach which gives consumers incentives to purchase these cars."
Hawes said demand for alternatively fueled vehicles is still at a very low level because consumers have concerns over affordability, range and charging points. "We could undermine the U.K.’s successful automotive sector if we don’t allow enough time for the industry to adjust," he said.
Diesel restrictions
In a BBC interview on Wednesday, Gove said the government would make 200 million pounds ($261 million) available to local authorities shortly for schemes to restrict diesel vehicles' access to polluted roads. He said he favored road-by-road restrictions for diesel vehicles rather than outright bans from town centers or costly vehicle scrappage schemes, but did not rule them out entirely if they were local authorities' preferred options.
"It's important we all gear up for a significant change which deals not just with the problems to health caused by emissions but the broader problems caused in terms of accelerating climate change," Gove said on the "Today" show on BBC Radio 4.
The British government is right to put an expiry date on dirty gasoline and diesel engines, "but 2040 is far too late," said Areeba Hamid, a clean-air campaigner at Greenpeace UK. "Car manufacturers like Volvo have announced their intention to move away from petrol and diesel by the end of this decade. Germany, India, the Netherlands and Norway are all considering bans by 2030 or sooner," Hamid said in a statement.
The U.K. has been under pressure to take measures to reduce air pollution after losing legal cases brought by campaign groups. The decision is partly brought on by stringent European Union emission rules that the U.K. must follow even as it is set to leave the bloc.
Ahead of the June general election, the governing Conservatives pledged to make "almost every car and van" zero-emission by 2050. "Today we are confirming that there should be no new diesel or petrol vehicles by 2040," Gove told BBC Radio on Wednesday.
The move comes as the U.K. plans to invest more than 800 million pounds ($1 billion) in driverless and zero-emission technology as part of its post-Brexit industrial strategy. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy outlined plans to invest 246 million pounds in battery technology research earlier this week. BMW said on Tuesday it will build an electric version of its Mini car in Britain.
The global shift toward electric vehicles will create upheaval for industry - from oil majors harmed by reduced gasoline demand to spark plug and fuel injection manufacturers whose products aren't needed by plug-in cars.
Car manufacturers are already adapting to the new reality. Earlier this month, Volvo became the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine by saying all its new models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids.