Fun Stuff

The mayhem of the ultimate American sport – monster truck racing sees one “daredevil,” take off fast only to fail and crash into a water main. Good work buddy.  

Unless you throw a ribbon into the equation. At least there wasn’t a piece of string nearby.  

Wouldn’t you love a quick-fix solution to those dull days? Press this button and untainted drama ensures. Mundane Monday could be filled with power sliding vehicles, police responses, gun battles and throw in a semi-nude woman riding a motorbike for good measure. TV channel TNT placed an ever-so-tempting big red button in a quiet street in Belgium - and waited. Curiosity soon prevailed and members of the public hesitantly stepped forward for a press. We won’t spoil the surprise but mayhem soon ensues on the sleepy street. The Carsguide team are in awe of this idea. Someone please make it mandatory daily occurrence. Quickly.

Carsguide doesn't advocate scaring people, unless it will stop them doing something stupid. Or unless it's fun. This video is both. The campaign comes from Belgium, where they seem to be facing the same problem as Australia with drivers -- largely young drivers, but not exclusively -- texting and chatting while they're driving.The video has had a huge amount of traffic on the internet, and comes at a time when the latest report from the US shows that young drivers there continue to text and make phone calls despite knowing it is dangerous.A Consumer Reports survey of drivers aged 16  to 21 found eight in 10 knew phoning and texting was unsafe, but 29 per cent reported texting and 47 per cent admitted making a phone call while driving -- without a hands-free device.The survey also found that 48 per cent said they had seen one or both their parents using a phone while driving, without a hands-free device.  

And the auto giant has been involved in another people's car project for the past year in China.The venture saw 33 million visitors to the website, where people could create a concept online. And more than 119,000 car ideas were submitted, ranging from the intriguing to the ... well, quite odd.Three of the People’s Car Project’ concepts are on show at Auto China 2012 in Beijing: the Hover Car, the Music Car and the Smart Key.The ‘Music Car’ has been blinged up with organic light-emitting diodes, brightening (or darkening) the car with the driver’s choice of music. Just the thing for a spot of suburban Shanghai Saturday night fever.Looking like it is straight out of a sci-fi film, the two seater Hover Car is an electric vehicle that is imagined as travelling on the future's electromagnetic roads.The ‘Smart Key’ features a 9mm touchscreen that keeps the driver up to date on the car’s fuel situation, climate conditions and security. Forgetting where the car is parked is no longer an issue as the car can be monitored through a real time birds-eye satellite transmission. 

According to Codemasters, Dirt Showdown will be its most connected game ever.Codemasters is investing a lot of energy in spruiking the game's extensive multiplayer options, as well as its new social tracking service RaceNet but solo play hasn't been left out of the equation.After some hands-on time with the first half-a-dozen events in Career Mode the divide Dirt Showdown is attempting to straddle is clear.The menu overlays and transitions instantly smack of the Dirt series players have come to admire and the car and track visuals themselves retain that familiar Codemasters aesthetic.It's abundantly obvious, however, that Dirt 4 this is not. This is something a bit left-of-centre.Read full review here 

But the release date for the long-awaited next version of the smash-hit game may have been leaked by an employee working on the project. Alex O'Dwyer, a character animator at Scotland-based Rockstar North - who are developing the game for parent company Take-Two Interactive - added the Grand Theft Auto V project and an October 2012 release date to his online CV on networking site LinkedIn.com this week.The CV was quickly pulled, but not before word slipped out on gaming site Joystiq. O’Dwyer and Rockstar have declined to comment on the incident - or to confirm whether the October schedule is accurate.O’Dwyer’s LinkedIn profile shows he’s previously worked on other auto games, including NASCAR, Pimp My Ride, and Big Mutha Truckers, but all mention of GTA V has been removed.However the profile shows he’s still working at Rockstar, which he joined three months ago. Rockstar is reportedly just sticking to saying that GTA V will be on the market in a few months.

Since the end of World War II, getting a driver's license has been a rite of passage for teens, but that's less and less the case. The share of people in their teens, 20s and 30s with driver's licenses has dropped significantly over the past three decades, not only the United States, but also in some other wealthy nations with a high proportion of Internet users, transportation researchers have found. One possible explanation: Virtual contact through the Internet and other electronic means is reducing the need for face-to-face visits among young people, researchers say. From 1983 to 2008, the share of 16- to 39-year-olds with driver's licenses declined markedly, with the greatest decreases among drivers in their late teens and early 20s, according to a study at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor.About 69 percent of 17-year-olds had a driver's license in 1983. By 2008, that had dropped to 50 percent. Among Americans ages 20 to 24 in 1983, nearly 92 percent had driver's licenses. Twenty-five years later, it was 82 percent. The older the age group, the less dramatic the declines, the Michigan study found. But even among 35- to 39-year-olds, there was a 3.2 percent decline in the share of licensed drivers.More recent data from the Federal Highway Administration indicates the trend has continued, according to a report released Thursday by the Frontier Group, an environmental organization, and the consumer-oriented U.S. PIRG Education Fund. The share of 20- to 34-year-olds without a driver's license decreased from 89.6 percent in 2000 to 84.3 percent in 2010, the report said.Michael Sivak, co-author of the Michigan studies, also confirmed the continuing decline. There are likely several factors behind the trend: a difficult economy for young workers, the high cost of buying and maintaining a car and a migration of young adults toward large cities, where there are more alternatives to driving, Sivak said.There also is evidence that social networking may be reducing the need to for face-to-face contacts, he said. In countries where "more people use the Internet, there is a lower proportion of drivers,'' Sivak said. A recent study in 14 countries found seven of them had experienced a similar decrease in the share of young people with driver's licenses: Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Germany. Compared to the other countries that didn't experience a decline, the study found four characteristics common to the countries where young people are driving less: They are wealthier, a high share of the population is older, a high share of the population lives in very large cities and a high share of the population uses the Internet. There isn't enough information to say for certain that teens and younger adults are replacing trips with social networking and other Internet usage, but ``there is strong data supporting this hypothesis,'' Sivak said. The institute's research is paid for with federal, state and auto industry contributions. Carmakers have been aware of the trend for about five years, said Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. It's one reason the industry is looking toward markets in Asia for growth, rather than in the U.S. and Europe, she said. "For generations, the automobile has typified freedom,'' Bergquist said. "At 16, many people wanted to get their driver's license because that was the way people connected with their friends.''Now, she said, "We're seeing people connect through their iPhones. That's their primary motivation - they want to be in touch with their friends, so they are less focused on buying a vehicle.''Not surprisingly, the number of miles young Americans drive every year has also been declining as measured by the Transportation Department's National Household Travel Survey.From 2001 to 2009, the annual number of vehicle miles traveled by drivers 16 to 34 years old decreased from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita - a drop of 23 percent, Thursday's report said. 

Now you have the answer don’t forget to submit it here. If you haven’t already noticed the smarter than ever Carsguide.com.au has a list of luxurious features which include: in-built navigation for smarter searching; a boot-load of tips, news and reviews for access to smarter advice; and a powerful new engine to deliver more listings and more choice than ever before.  Competition closes 23:59 AEST on 12.05.12. Competition is drawn 16.05.12 at MCN, Level 6, 60 Union Street, NSW 2009. Winners will be notified by email and published in The Australian on 23.05.12. NSW Permit No: LTPS/12/02630; ACT Permit No. LTP:TP 12/01196; SA Permit No. LTP:T12/550; VIC Permit No. LTP: 12/693. Full terms and conditions can be found here.

Watch as a tow truck driver converts this ute into a compact car.