Land Rover DC100 Sport is a roofless Defender of the future 
Car TechLand Rover has dreamed up a gorgeous 21st-century re-imagining of the canvas-roofed Defenders of yesteryear. Behold, mud merchants, the DC100 Sport.
Actually, 21-st century is a bit of an understatement. The DC100 Sport, a topless version of the newly unveiled DC100 concept, packs so much tech it could feature in a James Bond film with absolutely no intervention from Q.
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Aston Martin DBS Carbon Edition packs added luxury, Garmin Nav
Car Tech
Aston Martin has been busy this past year, churning out the One-77, Virage, Vantage S and Zagato, but despite its hectic schedule, it's still found a bit of time to tart up its flagship GT cruiser, the DBS.
The company has released a special edition DBS Carbon Edition which features a number of aesthetic and equipment tweaks that make the luxury supercar a tad more desirable. As you can probably guess, the most notable addition is a super-light frigate-load of carbon fibre. Continue reading...
Mercedes F125 concept photos show 3D instruments, 17-inch gesture TV
Car TechMercedes-Benz has been churning out cars for a whopping 125 years and to acknowledge that milestone, the German automaker has cooked up the F125 -- a research vehicle crammed it to the hilt with next-gen technology.
The F125's spec sheet reads like it came from the 23rd century. It features a glasses-free 3D instrument binnacle, a 17-inch monitor that's viewable from a reclining rear seat, a mouse touchpad for controlling the rear-projected sat-nav and the very latest lithium-sulphur battery technology. Continue reading...
Frankfurt Motor Show 2011
Car TechKia gets radical with GT Concept
Car TechKia's designers have historically prioritised function over funk. However, the Korean car company's set to embrace an altogether more dramatic design language if pictures of a new concept are anything to go by.
The renders, spotted on Autocar.co.uk, show a vehicle we believe will be known as the Kia GT. As you can see for yourselves, it's not typical Kia fare. It's a sleek, four-door coupe with a Maserati-inspired profile, an aggressive Citroen GT-style front end, a muscular, understated rear and those doors.
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Jaguar C-X16 photos amaze, delight, amaze some more
Car TechStop the Internet. Yes, the whole thing. Now, damnit, put that gif away! Remember a couple of weeks ago we showed you a sketch of the C-X16 'baby Jag'? We've got some official pictures now and it's more beautiful than we could ever have fathomed.
It's reminiscent of the C-X75 jet-powered concept we showed you at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, but with added badassery. Seriously -- it's like staring into the eyes of your first-born child, or gazing upon the Aurora Borealis, or looking directly into Einstein's brain. Continue reading...
Vauxhall electric car concept looks like Batman's lightbike
Car TechThere are plenty of car manufacturers talking the electric car talk, but Vauxhall's one of very few actually walking it. The company's already put its EV money where its mouth is with the range-extended Ampera, and it's now considering a step into the world of fully electric vehicles with a new concept.
Vauxhall hasn't yet announced the name of the vehicle, but we're willing to bet it's something suitably awesome, given the fact it looks like something a superhero might drive. Right now, our money's on 'Vauxhall Energizer', 'Drive-o-Tron 8000' or 'Batsnake Eco Jitney'. Continue reading...
Win a supercar driving day in our competition!
Car TechYou can win a supercar driving day by entering our high-octane, pedal to the metal competition!
Simply click here to enter the competition on Facebook and be in with a chance of winning. The lucky winner will find themselves behind the wheel of a supercar of their choosing, with Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Audi, Porsche, Nissan GTR, Ariel Atom and single-seater motors to choose from.
You'll also get an instructor-driven demo lap -- we recommend listening out for clever-sounding words and phrases like 'torque' or 'double overhead cam' that you can use later with your mates down the pub, while nodding wisely. Continue reading...
Mercedes rings up phone-powered entertainment system
Car TechIn-car entertainment and information systems are usually pants in comparison to everyday consumer tech. They're clunky, lack features and are outdated years before they're released.
Luckily for tech-loving drivers, Mercedes-Benz is planning to bring in-car infotainment systems bang up to date with a next-gen connectivity design for its concept A-Class, Autoblog reports. Continue reading...
Electric cars' total cost of ownership much more than diesels, study claims
Car TechElectric cars such as the Nissan Leaf may be kind to the environment and have low refuelling costs, but they're still more expensive than their fossil-fuelled counterparts in the long run, says a new study.
The total cost of ownership for a Nissan Leaf is a whopping £5,000 greater than an equivalent VW Golf BlueMotion 1.6 TDI over three years and 36,000 miles -- even when you take the government's plug-in car grant into consideration, according to the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association's Business Guide to Electric Vehicles (PDF link). Continue reading...
VW Nils electric concept charges in 2 hours, goes 40 miles
Car TechBack in the '80s, we'd assumed 21st century transport would involve flying cars, squirting our bodies through vast networks of sky tubes, or simply beaming from one location to another. Sadly, none of that has happened yet, but we can at least take solace in the fact that one day our roads might be populated by futuristic-looking, single-seater electric cars like the VW Nils.
Aesthetically, the Nils isn't a car we'd aspire to drive. But it has a funky part-Beetle, part-F1 kind of vibe, and a pair of cool polycarbonate gullwing doors help to differentiate it from the plethora of mundane motors that clutter our roads today. Continue reading...
Invisibility cloak makes tank disappear, enemies worry
Car TechAs if tanks weren't scary enough, scientists have now found a way to make them invisible. Seriously. It makes that Harry Potter Cloak they were working on making real look a little bit pansy in comparison.
The system, known as Adaptiv, allows vehicles to blend into their surroundings and vanish when viewed in infrared, Sky News reports. Sheets of lightweight hexagonal pixels are powered by the vehicle's engine to change temperature very quickly, so when seen through a thermal scope, the pixels disguise the vehicle's heat. Continue reading...
Nissan Leaf diary: Living with an electric car
Car TechWe're big fans of the Nissan Leaf -- the all-electric car impressed the hell out of us when we tested it in Portugal last year, but it would be fair to say the jury is still out on the world's leading electric car. Some people absolutely adore the thing, claiming it's the future of motoring, while others -- mainly in the media -- have given it a hard time over its price, limited range and debatable eco credentials.
Here at Crave, we can see both sides of the electric coin, so we figured we'd try to put the debate to rest once and for all by commandeering a Leaf for a week, subjecting ourselves to its every whim and documenting our experience in excruciating illuminating detail. Continue reading...
Hybrid lorry beats Ferrari in a drag race
Car TechLorries are one of the slowest kinds of vehicle on the road, as are hybrids. So when you combine the two, logic dictates you should end up with a vehicle that can barely move, right? Wrong.
Volvo disproved this theory recently when its hybrid truck, the appropriately named Mean Green, went up against a Ferrari in an exhibition race and won. Continue reading...
Citroen Tubik concept van packs big TV, surround sound, 'cyclotron' module
Car TechVans have always been more practical than pretty, but Citroen's designers have cooked up a bonkers-looking concept that might just put the 'FU' back in 'functional'.
The Tubik, as its name suggests, is inspired by Citroen's TUB and Type H. However, whereas those vehicles were the very definition of 'hideous', the Tubik mainly just looks badass. Continue reading...
Jeremy Clarkson voices TomTom satnav
Car TechFancy going on a drive with Jeremy Clarkson? Now you can: the long-serving Top Gear presenter, motoring columnist and walking opinion-machine in high blue jeans has lent his distinctive voice to TomTom sat-navs.
Let's hope he'll provide directions in a timely manner without the famous mid-sentence pause. You wouldn't want to miss a turning because Clarkson wanted to emphasise... the end of a sentence. Continue reading...
Ford MyKey anti-hoon system to nanny European drivers
Car TechYour days of Ferris Buellering your parents' car may be numbered, especially if the old folks are rolling in a Ford. That's because old man Ford has vowed to bring its virtua-nanny MyKey system, which is already available in America, to Europe starting in 2012.
MyKey is a parental control technology that allows Ford car owners to impose restrictions on how the vehicle is driven in their absence. Continue reading...
Radio controlled truck with webcam helps geek woo girl
Car TechWe've just seen arguably the most impressive radio-controlled car setup known to man. It's so impressive, it helped its owner woo a member of the opposite sex from a thousand paces.
The action, which you can see in the video embedded below, begins with a Tonka Summit Too jeep being driven along a beach, apparently by a Ken doll with his lady friend Barbie in the passenger seat. A rotating camera, mounted where Ken's head would be, feeds live images back to an unseen controller, who seems quite content to take the truck on a merry jaunt along the beach. Continue reading...
Back to the Future's Doc Brown spotted in Argentinian ad
Car TechHeads up, movie fans. Doc Brown and his legendary DeLorean DMC-12 have come back to the future -- or the present -- from the past. Or something.
This time, the wire-haired eccentric's mission isn't to con Libyans out of plutonium. Instead, he's crossed the boundaries of time to flog gadgets for an Argentinian electronics store. Great Scott! Continue reading...
Watch Top Gear on Facebook, and Miramax movies too
SoftwareTop Gear joins Doctor Who on Facebook this week, with a new app that lets you watch the long-running car show on your computer. You can also watch films right there in your browser too, as Miramax adds a selection of indie classics.
The Top Gear app now offers the Polar Special episode in which Top Gear japesters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond take part in an epic race to the Magnetic North Pole. More videos will follow, but be warned they "contain imitative behaviour", apparently. Continue reading...
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