Articles by Karla Pincott

The muscled up mutant transport is the brainchild of Czech artist David Cerny, and will perform push-ups -- along with a soundtrack of groaning and grunting -- outside the Czech embassy in London during the Olympics. In the video, Cerny speaks of push-ups being a common exercise for sports players around the world, "but at the same time it’s a punishment ... the push-ups are a very universal movement". But while Olympic visitors may see the bus as being a quirky symbol of London, the artist may be misleading them. This particular make and model of bus -- the half-cab Bristol Lodekka (so called because it was the first ever design to not need a step for passengers to get onto the lower deck) --  was used  by regional transport lines, but never used by London bus companies. However the Lodekka buses cemented an association as being the quintessential British bus by being used in the 1970s hit British TV show "On the Buses", most of which was shot in Essex.  

And it looks like it will get a bigger role than in the recent Casino Royale, where it had a fleeting cameo with Daniel Craig as Bond. That appearance didn’t have it positioned as Bond’s car, although he wins it from a villain in a poker game. This videoblog from director Sam Mendes and producer Michael Wilson talks about the return of the Aston Martin DB5, one of the best-known movies cars of all time and the one that will always be tied to the Bond name, despite the cavalcade of other vehicles throughout the movie series. For Skyfall it sports the BMT 216A number plate of the original car first driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger. That number plate later became BMT 214A in Thunderball. However the car itself is not the original Bond car – which was actually built on a prototype DB4 – which has long since disappeared.

The car will be unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show in November, but in the meantime Kia has released these teaser images showing a strong coupe look for the four-door small sedan. A more upswept ‘tiger face’ grille, sharply angled headlights and accentuated character lines pull the eyes along the rising beltline to the fast sweep over the tail. Like the latest Rio, it heralds that Kia is not resting on the design laurels of the past couple of years – and that we can expect to see increasingly fresher styling roll out under the watch of design chief Peter Schreyer. We will see the new Cerato sedan here in the first half of 2013, with the five-door hatch and Koup following later that year. There’s also the whiff of a turbo option, with Hyundai tipped to be planning a turbo i30 – a car that shares some underpinnings with the stablemate Cerato. There's no news on prices yet, but while Kia has been showing for some time they have moved away from the bargain basement, you can still expect the Korean carmaker to focus on ensuring the line-up is good value for money. So there is unlikely to be a huge change from the current model pricing, which starts just under $20,000 for the base model sedans and hatches and tops out at just under $30,000 for the top spec Koup.    

The gruelling 24-hour Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the headline event in the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series, and one of the most demanding events on the motorsport calendar.McLaren GT 'works' driver Rob Bell gives his views on the challenging 7km circuit, its hurdles and highlights, and what makes the 24 hours of Spa so appealing.

Most tyre makers have trouble getting people interested in the product. It's a grudge purchase: you buy tyres because you have to, not because you're excited about them.Goodyear set about to change that, with the help of Ben Conrad, director of Ken Block's last two Gymkhana videos for DC Shoes - Ken Block's Gymkhana 4; The Hollywood Megamercial and Ken Block's Gymkhana 5: Ultimate Urban Playground; San Francisco.With Hollywood stunt driver Danny Downey posing as a tyre salesman, a few unsuspecting buyers got the demo ride of a lifetime. 

We've no idea why Renault decided to send 'Jenny the Glam Passenger' on a lap of the Nurburgring in a Red Bull Racing Twingo RS......helmed by race driver Margot Laffite. With a goldfish in a fishbowl of water.Renault assures you that "no animals were harmed during the making of this film" but we're not so sure. That goldfish looked fairly unhappy. 

The Japanese carmaker says the faulty locks could allow the vehicles' doors to open unexpectedly.The recall is for the 2012 CR-V sports utility vehicle and 2013 Acura ILX sedan (the latter not sold in Australia).The vast majority of the recall is for the CR-V model, sold mainly into Japan, North America, China and South America. About 7,300 Acura models would be recalled from North America, the company added.No accidents or injuries have been reported due to the door lock defect, a Honda spokesman said. Japan's car giants have recalled millions of vehicles in recent years as they have become more proactive about dealing with faults. 

The Concept One will be presented at the UK's prestigious Salon Privé in September, following which a limited edition of 88 cars will be available for sale. The Concept One is fully electric, with a 92kWk battery pack and four electric motors -- each driving a wheel -- that produce combined outputs of 800kW of power and 3800Nm of torque. Yes. 3800Nm. Rimac claims the 1850kg Concept One can get to 100km/h in just 2.8 seconds, and hits top speed at 305km/h -- though keeping it at that speed is bound to unravel the claimed range of 600km. The four motor systems operate independently and Rimac says they accelerate and decelerate "hundreds of times per second" in an all-wheel torque vectoring process. Rimac is headed by 24-year-old Croationa CEO, Mate Rimac, who says: ‘We started with a blank sheet of paper. The idea was to create an exceptional supercar with a new propulsion concept. What we have here is a fully-fledged hypercar that is as powerful as a Bugatti, as stylish as a Ferrari, and as luxurious as a Mercedes, all while managing to forsake even the tiniest sip of gasoline.’