A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Musk unveils traffic-dodging tunnel
If you鈥檝e ever visited Los Angeles, you鈥檒l know that the weather there is perpetually lovely, and the traffic perpetually bad. If you鈥檙e at the beach, just stay there.
That鈥檚 not good enough for Elon Musk, the billionaire genius with the attention span of a labradoodle. Apparently not busy enough running a bunch of actual rocket scientists with SpaceX, and trying to manage a breakthrough car company with Tesla, Musk has launched a tunneling division over the past few months.
Dubbed the Boring Company, they鈥檝e just successfully opened their first tunnel, mostly to a chorus of booing. The tunnel of the future is 1.83 kilometres long, cost a reported $10-million to make, and is capable of allowing transport of one Model X, at speeds of around 60 kilometres per hour. Reports describe the ride as very bumpy, and note that special guide wheels are required.
The booing is mostly down to the bumpiness, and that the tunnel itself is nowhere near as impressive as initially indicated. Musk fans are calling it a proof of a concept that鈥檚 still far short of the ultimate vision, but just the first step. People who鈥檝e noticed a certain tendency for Elon to overpromise and underdeliver are quick to ridicule his vision of a network of subterranean vacuum tunnels branching throughout L.A., each with vehicles racing along at 250 km/h.
In the meantime, note that the tunneling machine itself is a Canadian-made unit from a company called Lovat (Musk rented it for his demonstration), and wonder aloud if a series of giant tubes wouldn鈥檛 be a solution to the North Shore鈥檚 traffic woes.
The Prius goes all-wheel drive
The Toyota Prius has long been a favourite of people who simply want to use less fuel. And, to look at the modern one, a favourite of people who enjoy the looks of mutant robotic catfish.
However, the electric instant torque of the Prius hybrid drivetrain often made spinning the front wheels in snow a bit of a constant nuisance. Recognizing that it wasn鈥檛 just people in sunny California buying their cars, Toyota went back to the drawing board to make some tweaks.
They came up with the Prius AWD-e, an all-wheel-drive machine that keeps all the best fuel-saving bits of a Prius, and adds a bit of extra traction. Essentially, what Toyota鈥檚 done is add a rear electric motor to power the rear wheels. It only makes 7.1 h.p., but has 40 foot-pounds of torque off the line, enough to get you up and going.
Once on the move, the electric drive switches on only when needed. At 70 km/h or above, it won鈥檛 turn on at all. Thus, if you鈥檙e looking for a true snow explorer, you鈥檙e going to want to wait for something like the Subaru Crosstrek plug-in hybrid. However, if you just want a little more green traction, the Prius AWD-e beats shoving branches under the front wheels of your regular Prius in an effort to get unstuck.
Lincoln brings back the coach doors
Sometimes called 鈥渟uicide doors,鈥� though certainly not by the marketing companies, rear-hinged rear doors were once all the rage. And they still are at companies like Rolls-Royce, where a rear-hinged door remains the most elegant way for a well-heeled personage to exit a car.
When Lincoln was the peer of a Rolls-Royce, the Continental had coach doors too. In order to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Continental, Lincoln is building just 80 specially modified coach-doored modern Continentals.
Regrettably, because of crash-test regulations, the cars will still come with their centre B-pillar, which spoils the all-doors-open look a little. However, for making an entrance, the coach-doored Conti still looks the business.
Once again, Lincoln has seemingly come from nowhere with a refreshed lineup that鈥檚 actually desirable, and a bit of pride in their brand heritage. As Cadillac struggles to find its footing, Lincoln is opening the door to its future success.
New Jersey motorists hit cash windfall
Let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e driving along the road, wondering how you鈥檙e going to pay for all the Christmas presents this year, when a giant sack of cash bounces off the hood of your car. What would you do?
That was the question facing motorists in New Jersey this week, when more than a half-million dollars in cash fell out of a Brinks truck and split open. The resulting hurricane of cash saw people jumping out of their cars to grab as much as they could. There were two reported crashes, although no one has been reported injured.
So far, less than half the amount has been recovered, and police are talking tough about the consequences of finders-keepers. With just a couple of days left before Santa arrives, I think we can all pretend that we鈥檇 only be grabbing the cash so we could return it to the proper authorities, right?
Watch this space for all the best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
