Articles by Karla Pincott

Just days after announcing he would become an ambassador for the Nissan GT-R, Bolt crashed his Beemer into a guard rail around 5am on Sunday.The triple Olympic gold medallist and multi world record holder is alleged to have been attending a party nearby in Jamaica's capital, Kingston, just before the crash.Bolt is said to have been 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.Nissan has just launched its first-ever global brand campaign, centred on Bolt and his Nissan GT-R. The campaign is titled "What If --". Would anybody care to complete the sentence...

At the time we tipped it as some sort of steering wheel remote control, and we may have been close to the mark. Apple overnight announced the new Eyes Free system at its World Wide Developers Conference, saying in the keynote speech it would be rolling out into car brands over the coming 12 months.Apple’s Eyes Free will integrate the tech giant’s Siri voice controls for iPhones and iPads into the ‘hands free’ button on steering wheels. Apple also announced it has added its own maps – with turn-by-turn navigation and crowd-sourced traffic information.The carmakers already signed up to introduce Eyes Free into their cabins include Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Honda, BMW and Chrysler.GM has been announced as joining the band, despite there seeming to be a clear overlap with the functions of their own Onstar system.Ford is not on the list, and may not join as it’s been in constant development and expansion of its own Ford Sync system based on Microsoft – as is the Uvo system used overseas by Hyundai and Kia.We’re still hoping the patent sketch doesn’t represent the true size of the Siri button. With Apple’s winning formula of making every object easy to use, it’s hard to see how they would accept a design for something that could so easily hinder steering. 

Ohio resident Michelle Mathis demanded the damages after her 2002 Saturn SC2 coupe was towed away and disappeared while she was in hospital after a crash in January. She’s looking for $500 billion in compensation – roughly half Australia’s GDP – or just a mere 27 billion less than Switzerland. Cynics might suggest she could replace the car easily, and if she’d accept a 2001 model, eBay’s US site currently has one for about $1700. That’s 17 hundred, not thousand – let alone million. She’s also seeking another $20 million in punitive damages, plus injunctive relief. According to court documents obtained by U news site Newspaper.com, Mathis claims the car was sold without her knowledge or consent while she was hospitalised. According to the handwritten note in which Mathis has outlined her claim, she believes the Columbus Department of Public Safety's Impound Unit was in violation of her constitutional rights "under the Fourth Amendment for improper search and seizure; under the Fourteenth Amendment for violation of the Equal Protection Clause; and under the Ninth Amendment for violation of her inalienable rights." However the court system so far has shown a perhaps unsurprising lack of support for her arguments. A magistrate has recommended the case be dismissed. But given that we’re talking about the US -- where anything is possible – we could suggest Wayne Swan snap up the Saturn SC2 on eBay and ship it to Ohio. Ms Mathis would obviously be delighted to hand over any damages she receives in exchange for the fine vehicle. And the profit could go into our national coffers, filling the fiscal black hole that is the government’s mining tax.  

A battle over territory turned into street rage between rival ice-cream vendors in the UK town of Blackburn. Families watched in shock as the Mr Yummy vendor smashed Mr Whippy’s window with a tyre lever, and Mr Yummy rammed Mr Whippy’s van. Witness Mobeen Yaseen – who caught the incident on video – says it is the latest flare-up in what has been a long-running rivalry between the two brands in the area. “It was like watching Tom and Jerry. However, it’s unfortunate they chose my street as their battleground,” he says. “It irritates and scares the hell out of me to think that our vulnerable kids are being sold ice-cream by these anger filled ice-cream men. “The chap in the vehicle in front, Mr Yummy, is a vendor from another town whereas Mr Whippy in the back there is a resident ice-cream man. As Mr Whippy was serving a customer Mr Yummy pulled up alongside Whippy’s truck saying to the customer that he'd do the ice creams cheaper. “He then drove past Whippy’s van cutting off his route (following which the argument turned violent).” Mr Yaseen says the incident won’t discourage him from letting his four young boys patronise the vans. “I won't ever stop my kids buying ice creams but I will be even more vigilant and watchful of the behaviour of ice-cream vendors,” he says.  

The Leaf House 2 -- there was an earlier and smaller one -- claims to be able to comfortably house a family of two adults and two children for around US$50,000. The brainchild of Canadian home builder Laird Herbert, it is fully self-contained with a kitchen, bathroom - including small bathtub - composting toilet, gas fridge and heating for water (from the 132 litres on board). There are still some space compromises… part of the sleeping arrangements include a sofa bed in the ‘lounge’ area, while a mezzanine deck adds more sleeping space.  The 6-metre construction on a caravan base leans strongly towards recycled cedar timber and other eco-friendly materials. But the design also aims for a proper home interior, with features like hardwood timber flooring in the living area and granite tiles in the bathroom. Herbert has several other designs - some smaller - on the market, and has become something of a small house enthusiast and promoter, saying he is “inspired by the philosophy of the owner-built home, and a creative approach towards designing and building.” The Leaf House is a legal size for US roads, and given the dimensions of some of the caravans we've tried to struggle past on Australian roads it shouldn't have any problem here either. It would certainly set a new style standard among the acres of white aluminium favoured by the Grey Nomad set. And would make a statement in any of the suburbs slowly being infested by the blocks of bland McMansions, too.  

A court in Massachusetts, US, heard that the car driven by 17-year-old Aaron Deveau crashed into a vehicle driven by Donald Bowley in February 2011, killing Bowley and seriously injuring his girlfriend. Deveau claimed he was tired after leaving after-school job, and distracted by thoughts about homework. However, phone records showed he was texting just before the crash. The jury took less than four hours to find Deveau guilty on two charges: vehicular homicide and texting while driving. He was sentenced to two and a half years prison for the homocide and two years for the texting, to be served concurrently. He has been banned from driving for 15 years, and will also be fined a sum yet to be announced.Massachusetts has long been giving fines for texting while driving, but this is the first case in which the offender has been convicted of homicide. We’ve yet to see a similar situation in Australia. But the question remains: will the news of this penalty – or a similar one here – stop people texting (and phoning) while driving?  

Unveiled globally yesterday, the SLS AMG GT variants slip into the middle of the range under the GT3 track day version - and have filched some of its hardcore aspects, with more power, race-tuned suspension and a tweaked transmission. The ‘entry level’ SLS AMG’s 6.3-litre V8 remains as does the 650Nm peak torque, but with power boosted 21kW to 441kW. Mercedes-Benz says the GT gets to 100km/h in just 3.6 seconds – 1.1 seconds faster than the standard SLS AMG, and has a top speed of 319km/h (electronically limited). To accompany the power lift, the seven-speed AMG dual-clutch transmission has been recalibrated for faster shifts in Manual mode, with newly developed gear change logic and optimised transmission control shaving off the shift time for each change. The transmission’s automatic double-declutching on downshifts is function when shifting down is also more definite and faster. And sounds even better, the Mercedes statement says.  Experience gained in racing the SLS AMG GT3 has gone into the GT’s new adaptive performance suspension set-up, with stiffer springs and specially-tuned electronically-adjustable dampers added to the twin aluminium wishbones front and rear. The selectable ride control has two track-focused modes: Sport for “bumpy tracks like Nordschleife, which requires higher suspension travel” and Sport plus for “level surfaces such as Hockenheim”. The SLS AMG GT rolls on unique 20-in alloy wheels with red brake calipers, while gloss black accents inside and out, set off with red interior touches - and the GT badging on the decklid -- set it apart from the standard Gullwing. The cars have an October on-sale schedule for European markets, priced at the equivalent of $260,000 for the coupe and $270,000 for the roadster. Don’t look for it here, though, because it won’t be arriving in Australia. “We’re not taking it,” Mercedes-Benz spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says. “We could have the GT but have opted not to take it as we’re putting our hand up for something that’s coming a little bit later that we think will be a little bit more desirable in our market. It will be more powerful.” Stamoulis would not  go into any further information, but the next arrival it could be the SLS AMG e-cell – or if you’re talking really desirable it could even be something as tasty as the Black Series rumoured to be testing in Europe.  

Everything comes to those who wait, it’s said. And Toyota fans have been waiting a long time for passion to return to the brand.It’s been eight years since Toyota killed off its last rear-drive MR2 and the affordable and stylish – although often maligned with hairdresser references – Celica sports car. So the Toyota 86 holds the promise of disrupting the seemingly endless roll-out of anodyne wheeled whitegoods – for which the boss Akio Toyoda publicly apologised not long after taking the top chair.And as a highly-publicised joint project with Subaru –  it should also be more than the sum of each brand’s best. Is it everything the waiting fans want? Well, yes. And not quite.The aim was always to make the 86 affordable, and the starting price for the manual 86 GT is $29,990 -- a stunning $10,000 less than anybody guessed --  and the 86 GTS starting at $35,490. The auto is $2000 more.Standard interior kit includes all the expected mod-cons, and the becoming-expected features like voice recognition. There’s a sporty three-spoke steering wheel – the smallest on any Toyota – and touches of sporty fabric (think wetsuits) on shift and brake levers. On the 86 GTS look for 17-in alloys with full-size alloy spare wheel, auto-levelling high-intensity headlights and front foggies. It has keyless entry and start, and in-cabin goodies include red-stitched leather/alcantara upholstery, heated front seats, dual-zone aircon and a higher-spec wheel. The premium audio/comms system is worth a special mention, with the 6.1-in touchscreen also serving up satnav, SD card slot and SMS/email text-to-voice. As an affordable, rear-drive 2+2 stylish sports car -- especially at this price -- it’s hard to find other apples to compare against. There’s plenty of choice in rear-drive two-seaters, but buyers looking for an affordable one will have already bought the Mazda MX-5. That leaves you waiting to see what happens with the Toyota’s clone -- the Subaru BRZ -- or looking at front and all-wheel drive options. Ranging in a tight price-tag scale between $38,990 and $40,700, you get some desirable front-drive choices: RenaultSport Clio 200 Cup, Volkswagen Golf GTi, Mazda3 MPS and Mini Cooper S would be at the top of the list. In that range you also get the AWD Subaru Impreza WRX hatch. And handing over another $7000 or so gets you into the Volkswagen Scirocco R. And if the Honda Civic Type R spotted in testing last week comes to our showrooms, there’ll be another to consider.It makes the most of a small body to give a fairly useful capacity. Nobody wants to be in the rear seat of any two-plus-two coupe for long, but it offers more flexibility – we won’t say practicality – than a two-seater. It’s a well-proportioned headturner, and one of the few cars that looks good from the rear at this price. Make that most price levels. Key cabin cues are the small steering wheel and large tacho, the GTS’s mandatory aluminium pedals and sill plates, a charmingly old-school frameless rearview mirror and tacky carbon ‘fibber’ accents. There are some miscues.It’s case of who did what. Subaru donated the basic engineering, including both the chassis and the engine – chosen because its compact size allowed it to be mounted low and towards the rear of the bay. The naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre flat-four engine has an appetite for revs, with the peak 147kW of power hitting at 7000rpm and peak 205Nm of torque at 6400-6600rpm. It’s aided by Toyota’s latest D-4S fuel-injection system with separate twin injectors delivering high pressure on the direct combustion chamber and low pressure on intake port duties. The system’s ability to mix and match fuel delivery is claimed to add 10kW and 20Nm more than would have been possible with port-injection. There’s been special – and very un-Toyota attention – paid to the engine, induction and exhaust sound. And drivers get to hear the end result, with induction sound being piped back into the cabin via a rubber tube. Toyota also brought the new six-speed manual and sequential auto transmissions – the latter with paddle-shifters and some Lexus IS-F input for sharper shifts and a few bars of downchange blips to hum along with in Sport mode. Porsche’s Cayman 2+2 coupe was used as the benchmark for steering and handling, with the stiff and low-squatting 86 underpinned by MacPherson strut front and double wishbone rear suspension.Not tested here yet, but will be hunting a full five-star ANCAP rating. Equipment includes seven airbags, anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist, traction and five-mode stability controls.With an endless conga-line of marketing blather as every car goes on sale, you can’t help becoming sceptical about any carmaker’s statement. Especially when it’s Toyota promising passion. But just about every box has been ticked and promise delivered – many more than we expected. The 86 is alive and kick-arse.Steering feel is excellent, with good weighting and feedback. The car feels taut and agile, turning in nimbly and gripping the road aggressively. The six-speed manual is one of the best around: short, sweet and snickety. Even hardened stick-shunners could be won over by this one. It gets off the line smartly, and delivers decent in-gear acceleration, despite there not being any sense of huge torque on tap.The in-car soundtrack improves once you push it up above 3500rpm, but apart from that the engine noise is subdued and it’s the tyres you hear. That aside, it’s nearly everything most people could want in terms of bang for the buck. But you can’t help thinking some turbo effort boost the fun. There have been spy shots of the Subaru version testing in Europe with a turbo-hinting bonnet bulge, but Toyota is keeping their version on the pure path.Full of fun and few flaws. Toyota is on a winner with this one. Get in quick or miss out.

If you think parallel parking is boring, see how Chinese expert steerer Han Yue tackles the task of getting into a space just 15cm longer than his car. He has broken the Guinness world record set just last month by Patrik Folco, whose car was just 22cm shorter than the space he tucked it into. Han deftly drifted his machine to victory early in the day to break Folco's record with a 21cm difference, then had the organisers keep whittling the gap down until he shaved 7cm off it. We'd love him to get over here and teach some of our city drivers how to parallel park. Or just how to park properly at any angle for that matter. Getting the whole car in between the lines shouldn't be considered advanced driver training. Hans' Guinness World Record-winning performance was part of the Beijing launch of a new Mini special edition called The Chinese Job. Good job, that.  

The Volvo V60 ‘Panther’ commercial shows the black car demonstrating its dynamic abilities – along with its capacity to carry the big-cat pet in your household. It’s a far cry from the staid Volvo image of years ago, and certainly got our attention. But it also got the less applauding attention – and a round of tutt-tutting – from viewers who complained to the Advertising Standards Bureau, saying the ad “unambiguously depicts behaviours which would be both illegal and dangerous on a public road”. After taking a look, the ASB decided the footage depicted “reckless speed” and “unsafe driving”, and directed that it had to be dropped or the footage modified. Volvo agreed to modify the advertisement, and duly took it away to have any of the bits cut out that might be deemed to alarm the complainers. In other words, the exciting bits. “We took down the offending video and put up one that complied with the regulations,” Volvo spokesman Oliver Peagam says. “It was a version of the Panther ad, but we edited and removed the elements that were causing concern. There were cuts of sequences that showed things like the car going sideways.” However the Panther ad, plus the recent Suzuki Swift ad that showed some equally spirited driving, were among those that have sparked a review of car advertising’s current self-regulating code. Over the next six months, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport will examine the code, how it is interpreted and how the ASB handles complaints about car advertising. Peagam says the code currently acknowledges that advertisers can make use of fantasy, humour and exaggeration in commercials, which can be used to produce exciting footage that fits with Volvo’s changing image. “Volvo is unlikely to return to the staid image of previous years,” he says.  “A return to the old days doesn’t fit with the way the brand is developing and changing with new models coming through – and the new audiences and new demographic of buyers that are interested in them.”