Fun Stuff

Taking your first sniff of that new car smell is one of the most iconic (and, in most of the world, most popular) part of any new-car purchase.

If someone in your life would rather be driving than tucking into Christmas dinner, this list could be a life-saver. We're here to help with gifts any car tragic will love and cherish.

The first trailer for Ken Block's new Amazon series The Gymkhana Files has hit the internet, with the human smoke machine offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at the making of his epic videos.

How many cars are there in the world? Short answer? Lots. Lots and lots and lots.So many, in fact, that if you were to park them all nose-to-tail, the line would stretch from Sydney to London, then back to Sydney, then back to London, then back to Sydney. Or at least, that's what our rudimentary calculations tell us.So yes, there are lots. Oh, you were hoping for a little more detail? Well then, read on.How many cars in the world?The specific numbers are a little hard to obtain, what with all the different bodies responsible for counting them, but the best estimate put the figure at around 1.32 billion cars, trucks and buses in 2016. That was the number settled on by US auto-industry giant WardsAuto, with the caveat that it didn’t include off-road vehicles or heavy machinery. (Source: Wards Intelliegence)Some industry analysts think the number has already surpassed 1.4 billion in the few years since. And it continues to grow at an astonishing rate. To put that growth into perspective, the world was home to around 670 million vehicles in 1996, and just 342 million vehicles in 1976.If that staggering rate of growth continues, the total doubling every 20 years, then we can expect to see some 2.8 billion vehicles on the planet in 2036.I know what you're thinking; just who is driving all these cars? What percentage of people in the world have a car? Well, according to the most recent estimates, the world’s population is a (quickly growing) 7.6 billion, and with an estimated 1.4 billion cars on the road, that puts the vehicle saturation at around 18 per cent. But that’s before you take into account children, the elderly and anyone else who doesn’t have, or doesn’t want, a vehicle.It’s an uneven spread, or course, with car-per-capita numbers much higher in the west (you might be surprised just how many cars are in the US) than they are in the developing east. But that pendulum will swing the other way in the coming decade, hence the continued boom in our global carpark.What country has the most cars in the world?For the longest time, the answer to that question would have been the USA. And as of 2016, the total American carpark stood at around 268 million vehicles, and was growing at a rate of around 17 million vehicles per year. (Source: Statista)But the times they are a-changing, and China has now overtaken the States, and was home to 300.3 million vehicles as of April 2017. Importantly, China residents are now not only buying more cars per year than America (27.5 million vehicles in 2017 alone), but the per-capita penetration is still much lower. That means that there is still much room to grow, especially given China’s 1.3-billion population. (Source: China's Ministry of Public Scrutiny as reported in the South China Morning Post)According to one report, if per-capita car ownership in China were to equal that of the USA, the country would be home to one billion vehicles alone. But the most sobering statistic, perhaps, is that of the record 90-million-plus vehicles sold globally in 2017, more than 25 per cent of them were sold in China. (Source: China Daily)Everyone else are mere minnows by comparison. Australia, for example, is home to a fleet of just 19.2 million registered vehicles (according to ABS data), while the Philippines, for example, was home to just 9.2 million registered vehicles in 2016, according to data analysts CEIC. (Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics and CEIC)Which country has the most cars per capita?On this the data is much clearer. In fact, the World Health Organisation and World Economic Forum published a study on this very topic (total registered vehicles divided by population) at the end of 2015, and the results might surprise you. (Source: World Economic Forum)Top of the list was Finland, with 1.07 registered vehicles per person (yep, more than one per person), with Andorra a close second with 1.05 vehicles. Rounding out the top five, Italy had 0.84, then the USA wth 0.83 and Malaysia with 0.80.Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland, Austria and Greece held spots six-through-10, with between 0.73 and 0.75 vehicles per person.How many electric cars are there in the world?For this, we turn to the Frost Global Electric Vehicle Market Outlook 2018, a study that tracked EV sales across the globe. The report found interest in EVs is growing, with the 1.2 million electric vehicles sold in 2017 expected to climb to around 1.6 million in 2018, and around two million in 2019. The growth is partly due to the 165 different models now offered globally, as opposed to the sprinkling on offer only a handful of years ago. (Source: Forst Sullivan)The report put the total global EV carpark at 3.28 million vehicles, including full-electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid models. (Source: Forbes)What manufacturer produces the most cars per year?Volkswagen is the world's biggest manufacturer of cars, with 10.7 million vehicles sold in 2017. But wait, you say. how many cars does Toyota make a year? The Japanese giant actually takes second spot, with around 10.35 million vehicles sold last year. (Source: Self-reported global sales from manufacturers)They're the biggest fish, and they dwarf most competitors. You might consider Ford a global giant, for example, but the answer to how many cars does Ford make a year? Well, the blue oval shifted around 6.6 million vehicles in 2017. Plenty, yes, but well off the pace of the top two.Specialist brands recorded but a drop in the vast ocean. Ferrari, for example, shifted 8398 cars, while Lamborghini moved just 3815 vehicles. How many cars does Tesla make a year? In 2017, it reported 101,312 sales, though that was just of Models X and S, with the more pocket-friendly Model 3s adding plenty more in 2018.How many cars are destroyed each year?Another short answer? Not enough. Global figures are hard to come by, but it's estimated some 12 million cars are destroyed each year in America, while around eight million cars are scrapped in Europe. In the USA alone, that means five million more cars are sold than destroyed each year.

If there was ever a snapshot highlighting the challenges of our brave new driving world, surely this is it.Apple’s autonomous car program has suffered its first bruise – and in a stunning irony, it involves the world’s most commercially successful electric car.Reports from Santa Clara, California have revealed that a 2015 Lexus LX450h – owned by Apple and equipped with a battery of autonomous sensors – was involved in a rear-end collision with a Nissan Leaf late last week.The crash was minor, with the Leaf rear-ending the almost-stopped Apple rig at about 24km/h. No injuries were noted.It’s the first reported incident involving Apple’s autonomous car program, which looks a lot different now than it did in 2014, when the computer company announced it would build its own autonomous car by 2017.However, the program was wound back in 2016, with up to 1000 people cut from the project, while Apple focused its attentions on developing autonomous software.The software, known internally as Apple Automated System, has been rolled out across a fleet of some 45 RX SUVs that are actively testing across the state of California, which has granted the Cupertino company licences to run on public roads.Just six Apple employees are reportedly approved to 'drive' the cars, and all hold senior positions within the company.California’s regulations around autonomous vehicles are very strict, requiring licence holders to submit documents like an annual disengagement report, which show just how many times an autonomous vehicle’s driver has had to take control of the car over the testing period.Even the incident report submitted after the crash was on an autonomous vehicle-specific form.A crash between an autonomous vehicle and an EV serves to illustrate the technology barriers that will need to be overcome if self-driving cars are to become part of the modern motoring mix.The majority of crashes in the United States involving autonomous vehicles have been similar in nature, with a piloted car colliding with a slow-moving or stationary autonomous car.There have been tragic exceptions, with a self-driving Volvo XC90 belonging to ride share company Uber striking and killing a pedestrian in Arizona earlier this year, after it failed to detect her crossing a road late at night. The Uber’s minder wasn’t paying attention to the road.It’s also worth noting that the Leaf was recorded as a 2016 model, which wasn’t equipped with AEB as standard; driver safety aids like AEB and lane departure warning are also vital parts of the new technology mix.

The iconic Aston Martin DB5 piloted by James Bond in 1964's Goldfinger has been declared the greatest movie car of all time, according to a new UK survey.

Okay, so there are tattoos, obviously, but what else can you purchase that shouts your personality, and your stage in life, as loudly and proudly as your choice of car?

You're thinking, "How is this thing legal?" And between a rock from a passing car's tyre nailing my forehead, and pouring rain lashing my face like a cat-o'-nine-tails, I'm wondering the same thing.

From $20 to $2,000 here are ten great gift ideas for the revheads in your life.

Triple Eight drivers Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes are used to smashing stuff, but it's usually in the line of duty.