Articles by Karla Pincott

The Olympic 100m and 200m champion sprinter has become an ambassador for Nissan, and has added his golden touch to a one-off edition of the Japanese brand’s range-topping performance GT-R. The car’s interior fit-out has been finished in real gold, and is embossed with Bolt’s signature. It spearheads the results of another GT-R project in which Bolt is helping Nissan develop a limited-edition version of the already track-worthy car, further tweaked and tuned to respond to his lightning reflexes. Meanwhile, the gold GT-R will be auctioned on eBay, with the proceeds being donated to the Usain Bolt Foundation -- a charity for youth in the athlete’s home country of Jamaica. However it may not remain a one-off. Bolt already owns one Nissan GT-R, but after seeing the gold one built for charity has reportedly asked Nissan to build another personal one for him. The multi world record holder possibly has a vacant spot in his garage. Just days after announcing in June he would become an ambassador for the Nissan GT-R, Bolt crashed his BMW M3 into a guard rail. Bolt was thought to have been attending a party nearby in Jamaica's capital, Kingston, just before the 5am crash. He was luckily unhurt in the single-vehicle accident, the second in which he has come to grief in a BMW M3, having also rolled one in 2009 during his period as a BMW ambassador.  His move to ambassadorship at Nissan saw the roll-out of a global advertising campaign centred on Bolt and his GT-R, and titled “What if...” – to which we’re tempted to add the words "...I try not to scratch up the GT-R”. That gold might be a bit harder to polish than his Olympic medals.  

The recall is for the rear seatback latch strap on Ford PX Ranger Double Cabs sold between 23rd May 2011 - 13th February 2012, and affects 4258 vehicles in Australia and 957 in New Zealand.The recall notice says the rear seatback latch fitted to affected vehicles may not engage correctly, resulting in the rear seatback latch not being secured to the body striker and causing the rear seatback to fall forward.The defect poses a safety hazard to passengers, and owners are warned not to use a rearward-facing child seat in the vehicle until the defect is fixed. Ford spokesman Neil McDonald says there has been only one field report on the problem - a customer notification that something was wrong with the latch - but no accidents have been reported.“The fix is to fit a new metal ring for the rear seatback latch strap,” McDonald says. “It’s relatively minor fix bit quite important. “It will take less than half a day to do, but customers should check with their dealers to ensure they get the earliest possible slot.”It’s the second recall on the Ford Ranger within months, with an August notice issued on 16,287 Rangers built in Thailand from September 2006 to June 2011 for a defect that risked fracturing of the towbar welding.Ford is writing to the owners of PX Rangers affected by the current recall, advising them to  contact their Ford authorised dealership for inspection and rectification. For further information, contact any authorised Ford Dealer or Ford Customer Relationship Centre on 1800 503 672. 

Reports overseas are strengthening the suggestion that Lamborghini is preparing to jump into the Gran Turismo field with a four-seat version of the Aventador, likely to be unveiled next year, Britain’s Car magazine says the Aventador GT will appear next March at the Geneva motor show, dovetailing close to the expected on-sale schedule of the Aventador Roadster, which is tipped to be revealed later this year -- possibly at Los Angeles motor show. While we might only see the Aventador GT as a concept – if it exists at all – the report claims it will have an extended wheelbase and two small jump seats, with access to the rear row through an altered door configuration including suicide panels. The design changes would make for a softer shape than the two-pew Aventador it’s based on, Car says. The concept would also mean a considerable redesign of the flanks and rear of the Aventador to accommodate the changes on a mid-engined platform. Lamborghini is on a campaign to build up their bottom line by building more practical models -- like the Urus SUV -- that will attract more buyers in emerging economic giants like China and Russia, where there’s a taste for luxury but the road infrastructure is still too primitive for a supercar to survive long.  And while the idea of a four-seater Lamborghini seems wildly unlikely, we thought the same thing at the first rumour of a four-seat Ferrari, too.  

Stumped about what to buy this Christmas for your person who has everything? There’s always some inspiration in the annual Neiman Marcus catalogue – the high-end US department store’s gift list for the incredibly well-heeled and insanely over-indulged.The star each of each year’s catalogue is always the car, and this one is sure to win the giver a smooch under the mistletoe – at the very least – after the wrapping paper is torn off to reveal the Neiman Marcus Edition McLaren 12C Spider.It will be one of just 12 built for Neiman Marcus featuring special finishes, wheels, upholstery – and a matching luggage set ready for the trip to McLaren Technology Centre in the UK for a private VIP dinner with the elite carmaker’s boss, Ron Dennis.Listed at US$354,000 ($364,000 here in straight conversion, but would add wads more in import and tax duties), the Neiman Marcus McLaren is likely to sell out swiftly when orders open on October 24. Previous Christmas edition cars have sold out within hours, last year’s 10 Ferrari FFs sold out in 50 minutes, and the 100 Camaro Convertibles in the 2010 catalogue were gone in just three minutes. Think even all the limited-edition trim isn’t enough on the McLaren? For an extra US$150,000 ($147,00) you can dive back into the catalogue and add the Bulleit Woody Tailgate Trailer – an upmarket bar on wheels.You’ll have to talk to Ron Dennis about adding a towball to haul it along. But he’s bound to agree once he sees the Woody’s fit-out of fine leather and wood -- the latter sourced from Bulleit Bourbon casks – sparkling glassware, state-of-the-art home theatre, and year’s supply of bourbon and rye. Just remember: don’t drink and tow.Or you might want to see if the McLaren can take a roof rack for you to carry the $90,000 Pinel & Pinel arcade trunk, with its F1 racing seats and Thrustmaster T500 RS Force Wheel to compete in a selection of PlayStation®3 games – or ramp up the karaoke action with the 1800-watt sound system and SingStar microphones.If wheels are not your thing, unleash your loved one’s inner James Bond and let them get away from the peak hour snarls with a Jetlev R2000 water-propelled jetpack. Put it under the tree for just under $100,000 – a lev-away price that includes helmet radios, boat unit and certification training and safety course. It also comes with a remote throttle control transmitter, which raises the dangerously tempting prospect of perhaps being able to put the wearer through some barrel rolls and spins while you stay dry and snug on shore.Looking for more of a stay-at-home gift? For around $250,000 there’s a one-off private dinner for 10, prepared in your own kitchen by four of the world’s top chefs -- Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Jerome Bocuse, and Richard Rosendale. Accompanying them is the world's first female Maestra Tequilera, Bertha Gonzalez, to kick-start your party atmosphere with a tequila tasting.If you want to ensure the chefs have the freshest ingredients to work with, you could offer to let them raid your $100,000 Heritage Hen Mini Farm. Inspired by the Palace of Versailles, the top-roost hen house features everything a chook could want, nesting area, roosting room – and chandelier. Or for just over $1 million, you can declare your love with jewellery. This year’s ‘his and hers’ gift is a one-off pair of Poetic Wish watches from Van Cleef & Arpels, plus a trip to their Paris boutique and watchmaking workshop. Art lovers aren’t forgotten, with the catalogue featuring the $70,000 ‘Snowy Owl’ video portrait by Robert Wilson, who specialises in featuring video subjects in very static poses with just the occasional blink or slight movement to betray life. Rather like many of our politicians, but much more affordable. But you can also become part of the creative gift, if you’ve got $30,000 to shell out for a walk-on part in the enduring musical Annie “to help the adorably good-natured orphan and her canine companion teach the world that perseverance and unwavering hope can change lives”.It’s the most affordable of this year’s Neiman Marcus fantasy gifts, but still far out of reach of the Carsguide budget, even if we did enjoy nauseating saccharine sung by ginger moppets. However the Annie gift sparked some from two members of the household -- but each of those aspiring cast members has four paws. And even then, one said he’d want to speak to his agent first.Each of the gifts includes a donation from Neiman Marcus for a range of very worthy causes, so you can get the double glow of doing good and knowing that 'tis better to give than receive. Unless it's that McLaren, which we would keep. 

Taxi drivers are usually not surprised to find passengers have left things in cabs. But one driver cleaning out the back of his vehicle at the end of a shift was astonished to find somebody had forgotten a laptop case crammed with money. The Las Vegas cabbie - an Ethiopian immigrant who arrived in the US by winning a chit in a government visa lottery - opened the laptop case to find US$221,000 ($216,500) in bills.  Adam Woldemarim, who works 12-hour days for $350 a week, checked whether the cab’s earlier shift driver could shed light on the case’s owner, and then turned the cash in at his company’s office, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The cab company was able to track down the money’s owner - a young man who had won the cash at the Wynn Las Vegas casino and then left it in the taxi on the way to the airport - and called Woldemarin back to base to meet him. The report says the money’s owner gave Woldemarim a grateful hug - and a tip of US $2000 ($1960). However some of Woldemarin’s friends have told the Review-Journal they consider the tip to be a bit stingy for the safe return of such a large amount of cash – saying that 10 per cent of the winnings, around $20,000 would have been fairer. What do you think? Was $2000 a fair reward for returing the money, or should it have been more? Or perhaps should the cabbie have just been happy with a thank you and the knowledge he did the right thing? Take our poll at left and let us know what you would have done.  

The city of Atlanta has turned down a request to rename a street Ferdinand Porsche Avenue, because of the Porsche founder’s early association with the Nazis – for whom he designed the ‘volks wagen’ (people’s car) that later became the VW Beetle.The street name request was made as Porsche prepares to build a huge new US headquarters – including a test track -- in Atlanta on the site of a former Ford factory, and wanted the street it’s on renamed from the current Henry Ford II Avenue to Ferdinand Porsche Avenue.To their credit, Porsche has not tried to conceal their founder’s Nazi association in Germany's darkest days, which included him heading up Hitler’s tank commission and designing military vehicles, according to a report on the Atlanta CL website."It is highly regrettable but true that Professor Porsche had some direct contacts with the immoral dictators who ran Germany during those terrible times, as did every other prominent German business leader," a Porsche spokesman is cited as saying in a statement to CL.However the statement also points out the measures the carmaker and its parent company Volkswagen have taken to make amends after the war, including leading the formation of and funding for organisations that made reparations to those who worked as forced labourers, and their surviving families.“Today's Porsche AG, like most major German companies, contributed significantly to those funds. The Volkswagen group of companies has been widely acknowledged by numerous organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, as the world's leader in atoning for those darkest of times," the statement says.Acknowledging the reparation, a compromise will be reached on renaming the street, but it will not bear the name of Ferdinand Porsche. Instead, Atlanta is likely to waive current legislation that bans the use of corporate names (rather than the names of people who founded them), and Henry Ford II Avenue will be renamed to just ‘Porsche Avenue’. 

An Italian council official knifed the tyres of a disabled man’s car after being fined for parking in the disabled spot.Antonio Piazza habitually parked his Jaguar in the disabled carpark outside his office in Lecco, but became angry when police fined him and ordered him to move it, according to a report in The Guardian.Piazza was captured on CCTV shortly afterwards returning to slash the tyres of the disabled driver whose Renault had taken the parking spot. The report says Piazza had initially argued against being given a ticket, claiming he had parked there while giving a lift to a disabled person.However, under pressure from his poltical party – beleagured Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom, which is the subject of a slew of scandals and corruption claims – Piazza has now resigned from his position overseeing a housing agency."I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse,” he is quoted as saying in the report. 

It seems the Audi Crosslane Concept unveiled last week at Paris motor show has killed off any build plan for the Quattro Concept – which starred for Audi in Paris two years ago. A report in UK’s Car magazine says Audi has decided that performance car sales have flatlined in Europe’s struggling economy, taking the sleek RS5-based Quattro Concept coupe off the table. With more sales potential in a small crossover softroader, it seems the Audi Crosslane Concept will be developed – and renamed the Q2  -- as a rival against the Range Rover Evoque and other sub-compact SUVs likely to emerge from premium brands. The new baby SUV would slot in under Audi’s Q3, Q5 and Q7, and take advantage of the downsizing trend in the market. The Crosslane Concept at Paris show was powered by a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine and two electric motors. However a production vehicle would likely kick off with a more convention powerplant line-up, with highly efficient turbo petrol and diesel offerings.

You won’t need to shell out top-shelf money to get top-spec technology like fatigue monitoring, lane-wandering alerts and rear-end collision avoidance. A coming smartphone app will add them to any old clunker.  Those high-spec high-tech features are largely seen only in premium and top-spec cars, but you'll soon be able to add them to your car with the CarSafe smartphone app. Developed by a team at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US, the app uses the smartphone’s front and rear cameras to monitor road and driver and raise the alarm if lane wandering, tailgating or eye drooping are detected. The phone is mounted on the windscreen with one camera keeping its digital eye on the driver and the other watching the road, monitoring distance to the car ahead and ysynching with a navigation app to check the car is on track.  “CarSafe uses advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms on the phone to process real-time video from the front and back cameras,” says Professor Andrew Campbell, the experimental computer scientist who leads Dartmouth’s Smartphone Sensing Group. “The front camera tracks the driver’s head position and direction as well as eyes and blinking rate as indicators of microsleep, drowsiness, and distraction.” If the app detects danger signs lane weaving or tailgating, the phone sounds an alarm – and if it suspects sleepiness, it flashes up a coffee cup icon on its screen. Campbell says the team had to develop a process to get two smartphone cameras to work together quickly enough to both be almost constant in operation. “One of the breakthroughs the team made was … coming up with fast camera switching techniques to process each camera’s video in real-time,” Campbell says. The team plans to release the app early in 2013 after further testing and evaluation.  

To mark 50 years of the 007 movie franchise – and in the lead-up to the next one, Skyfall -- Christies is auctioning 50 pieces of rare Bond memorabilia, including a highly desirable Aston Martin DBS.The car was driven by Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace – one of the seven used in the movie. Since it survived the mayhem of the car chase, the winning bidder could drive it away from the auction.Less driveable but equally interesting lots are the pre-production kit-car BMW Z8 (with a Chevrolet V8 engine) used in The World Is Not Enough, and a 3D-printed 1/3 scale model of the Aston Martin DB5 used in Skyfall.Among the other Quantum of Solace props are Craig’s Speedos and sunglasses, and a dress worn by ‘Bond Girl' Olga Kurylenko.Those looking to spruce their wardrobe up to Bond standards might also consider the leather jacket and RM Wiliams shirt worn by Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day – or from the movie’s Bond Girl wardrobe, Halle Berry’s floral frock – or can tap into their dark side with the with gold bullet-buckle belt worn by Christopher Lee as Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun.Gadget fans will vie for the Snooper Dog robot model used by Q in A View To A Kill, the Solex Agitator from The Man With The Golden Gun – or perhaps the four suction pads worn by Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice.The Lotus Esprit driven by Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me isn’t on offer, but you can grab one of its number plates to grace or your wall, or perhaps some of the original movie posters and first editions of the Ian Fleming novels to spice up your library.Christies has the BMW Z8 replica among the 40 items already open for online bidding at http://www.christies.com/sales/50-years-of-james-bond-september-2012/sale-info.aspx while the remaining 10 – including both the real and scale-model DBS – will go under the hammer on Friday evening at an invitation-only gala event in London, with all proceeds going to charity.