trishbits  march  2011

A partially paralysed tortoise is on the move again after vets attached a pair of wheels from a toy Ferrari to the bottom of her shell.  Tzivka the tortoise was treated at the Ramat Gan Safari, near Tel Aviv, after she was run over by a lawnmower. 

F1 TV audience increased in 2010 by 7 million to 527 million viewers.

Because parking officers have been unfairly issuing tickets, Joseph Darling of ParkPatrol in Sydney, has developed a scheme whereby drivers alert each other on their mobiles with a cartoon sign about where ’officers’ are.

Research ‘experts’ want the government to impose a maximum 2 hour limit on continuous night-time driving.  They found that a few hours driving at night has the same effect as being over the drink-driving limit.

Judge Michael Rosenberg has ruled that the Segway is a motor vehicle and so cannot be used on UK footpaths, however the government does not allow them to be ridden on public roads as they do not comply with road traffic law.  They can be used in 43 US states and many European countries. 

Retired factory worker Li Yunian, of Taiyuan, has invented an electric unicycle (Cool Friend) which can travel 40 miles on a single charge at 12 mph.  It has one major wheel and three smaller wheels which act as stabilisers and help control direction. 

Toyota Motor has recalled 1,202,800 cars and vans due to possible fuel leakage. 

A lawyer acting for Renault in the alleged industrial espionage affair is claiming French Secret Service are leaking information to the media. 

Online tyres distributor Blackcircles.com and UK supermarket giant Tesco have joined forces to launch Tesco-Tyres.com.

In an unusual move the VSCC decided to allow the Pomeroy Trophy event to be open to the spectators. 

The town of ‘Speed’ in Victoria, which has a population of just 45 people, will be knownas ‘Speedkills’ for a month  after locals decided to help promote safe driving.  

A car collector who wanted a "piece of history" paid $120,000 at an auction in Arizona for a 1963 ambulance which purportedly carried the body of President John F. Kennedy after he was assassinated. 

Remember the A1 GP Series which ran out of money?  Fraud investigators are now investigating the Series and A1 Holdings (with debts of £100m and creditors of £300m) both of which are linked to Tony Teixeira (SA diamonds entrepreneur).

When Andrew Nairn took his car for a check-up due to poor performance, the mechanicfound 6 lb of peanuts in the engine’s air intake – pinched by a squirrel from the bird table.

Mazda is recalling 52,000 of the Mazda6 in the USA because yellow sac spiders have been attracted to the petrol smell from its two fuel pipes and built webs in vent lines.  A mechanism will be installed to stop spiders entering the pipes (how can you stop them?)And researchers have found that rats are attracted to the warmth of battery-powered electric cars and gnawed their way through wiring.

The Donington Park Festival has been reduced to a 2-day event as the Council has decided it cannot run 3 days of ‘noise’ – despite the planes flying constantly!

Céline’s creative director claims the autumn/winter collection at the Paris prêt-à-porter was inspired by automotive interiors and women behind the wheel.

Researchers have found that air near garages is often polluted. Experts say a ‘minimum’  of 50 yards should be maintained between petrol stations and housing.  The research team measured the levels of ‘typical traffic’ pollutants and calculated the quotients for the levels of an aromatic compound (benzene) and a hydrocarbon (n-hexane) at 3 Murcia petrol stations – to find the distance at which the service stations stop having an impact.  In the 3 cases studied, a maximum distance of influence of 100 metres was found although the average distance of contamination was around 50 metres.  But, they said  - the distances depend on the number of petrol pumps, the amount of fuel drawn from them, traffic intensity, the structure of the surroundings, and weather conditions. 

Auto windscreens, the UK’s second largest repair and replacement group, has collapsed after Aviva terminated a contract.

The Liège-Rome-Liège rally has been cancelled.

The Formula One Group has lost its claim to the exclusive rights to F1 as a trademark.

Polish motorists have demanded the scrapping of a road sign in Gdansk, because it carries 12 different and contradictory instructions to drivers.    

Finnish rally champion Juha Kankkunen shattered the world speed record on ice, reaching 205.48 mph in the 600-HP  Bentley Supersports convertible on the frozen waters of the Baltic Sea.

Ferrari announced that it has renamed it's new 2011 F1 chassis the "F150th Italia" to avoid confusion with the Ford F-150 truck.  (Ford had threatened a law suit).

An investigation has been launched into Delta Topco, the company which ultimately owns the commercial rights to F1, over payments received by jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky who was arrested in January for allegedly receiving $50m in return for undervaluing shares in Delta Topco’s subsidiary SLEC, which were sold by German bank BayernLB to CVC in 2006.

Photo retailers, including PhotoMe, Jessops and Timpson, allege that the  DVLA  has handed an effective monopoly of the driving licence photo market to the Post Office and is paying them an extra £4.50 ‘kick-back’ per licence processed.  The PO will only renew a driving licence if the photo is from one of their own booths.

Mas du Clos, near Clermont Ferrand, is under threat from the Conseil d’Etat which has ordered it to close on safety grounds.  The circuit belongs to Pierre Bardinon.  

The UK car manufacturers produced 110,000 cars in January 2011 , a rise of 8.9% on the previous year but 25% down on 2008.   85% were exported. 

Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that sprinkler systems should be used during the last 10 laps of a Grand Prix to spice it up.  It is not known if he is serious.  He has also tipped a woman to replace him at the head of F1.

A traffic warden issued a parking ticket to a one-legged woman in a disabled bay - despite being shown her false limb.  Mrs Taylor, of Llanedeyrn, Cardiff, forgot her disabled permit when she parked at a shopping centre, the fine was eventually cancelled but one might wonder who was using the permit if it was not on her

car?
 

A 19-year-old Nevada man arrested for burglary managed to drive off in a police car despite wearing handcuffs, only to be caught a few hours later as the stolen car was fitted with GPS.

A police unit dedicated to tracking down the 150,000 cars stolen in Britain every year is to close down due to lack of funding.  It recovered £48 million worth of stolen cars - 2006 to date.

Bharti Arora, police commissioner in Gurgaon, India, has started a scheme to make the worst drivers work as traffic constables to see what it is like.  “Some say it has changed their attitude.” she said.

Rolls-Royce is in joint talks with Daimler to buy Tognum who use Daimler engines which are converted for use by a range of industrial and off-highway vehicles like harvesters.  Daimler which is enjoying soaring Mercedes-Benz sales already owns 28.4% of Tognum.

A new poll shows that young drivers are more likely to use mobile phones while driving and 30% have recently texted while behind the wheel.

The French government has told drivers to inflate tyres and drive slower to save fuel.

Bristol cars name and assets are to be sold to the highest bidder.