Any man will tell you that there is no bigger thrill than rocking up at a public bathroom urinal and finding a stash of ice at the bottom, just waiting to be melted.
The challenge: how much of the ice can I melt with just one bathroom break? Or better yet, can I do it all.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil they don’t use ice though, they use a whole other sort of rocking out.
The Guitar Pee urinal was an ad campaign to promote the Billborad 100 and the idea is simple: unzip, start playing your solo with the strings connected to an amp above you and then check your Mp3 number on the readout above. Then visit www.guitarpee.com and download an Mp3 of your pee.
Now here’s a company that just isn’t bothering with the touchscreen VS QWERTY keyboard debate, they’re just offering everybody the best of both worlds. Well they will be sometime in 2013.
Sounds too good to be true, but April was over months ago.
Tactus Technology have recently shown off their morphing touchscreen tech which lets keys on the screen appear and disappear as they’re needed. Using a science called microfluidics, the Android phone it was shown off on had a network of tiny channels running below the flexible screen in which a reservoir of oil could dump it’s contents into, inflating the keys as they were needed.
Coming to a tablet, smartphone or other touchscreen near you…in 2013…we hope.
Mercedes Benz South Africa are welcoming in the third generation of their premium all-wheel-drive SUV with a range of cars that boast efficiency uber alles. Seriously, they’re only concerned with you knowing that their new M-range consumes 23-28% less fuel than the outgoing range. In the battle for green, an almighty blow for the premium Germans.
A combination in the range, BlueTEC Diesel models and a BLueEfficiency petrol engines.
The ML 250 BlueTEC 4MATIC produces 150 kW of power and 500 Nm of torque, and a combined fuel consumption of 6.5 l/100 km.
The ML 350 BlueTEC 4MATIC has a revamped 3.0- litre V6 which offers 190 kW and impressive torque levels of 620 Nm. Increased performance and efficiency, 24% increase from the last model to be exact.
The lovely sounding ML 350 4MATIC V6 petrol engine produces 225 kW of power and 370 Nm of torque, with a combined fuel consumption of 8,8 l/100 km.
And the ML 500 features the new V8 direct injection engine with 300 kW of power and 600 Nm of torque. Massive power for an SUV.
Efficiency? Blue? What does it all mean in real life? In the ML 250 BlueTEC 4MATIC, it means driving 1500kms on the 93-litre fuel tank before needing to refuel.
The efficiency and performance bug has been caught by the new big boy too…the ML63 AMG.
Only 11.8-litres to 100kms is pretty decent for an AMG car and this is a proper 28% increase on the last model.
The AMG 5.5-litre V8 biturbo engine puts out 386 kW and a peak torque of 700 boostable to 410 kW if you opt for the AMG performance package (at an extra R70 000).
Boasting rights come standard. An SUV that does 0-100 in 4.7 seconds and reaches 250km/h is a sight to behold.
At R1 380 000 though, one has to imagine the family that needs to get anywhere that quickly? Perhaps a banking CEO with two kids who both captain the Rugby team and a wife who doesn’t see men, she sees minions.
All my years of High School science have done me bugger all good save for one process in nature I can still understand and even explain if asked: photosynthesis.
Handy then that I can tell you about this gadget, a piece of designer furniture that uses the energy released (and wasted) in photosynthesis to charge your smartphone or light a bulb.
The folk at BioPhotoVoltaics, who can explain to you many more processes in nature than I, have developed this table to demonstrate a potential future application of BPV technology.
BPV devices, like this table, generate electricity from light energy by exploiting the photosynthesis of living organisms such as moss, algae and vascular plants.
While not enough energy is being developed by BPV yet, not even enough to power that light you see, the potential is there and the hurdles that need to be jumped are being overcome.
At the moment the table plays a little animation which demonstrates the energy coming off of it.
For those who I didn’t lose during the science lesson: the table currently produces 520 Joules (J) of energy per day. A typical laptop requires about 25J per second, so in a day the table would produce enough energy to power a laptop for just 20 seconds!
When I got into the cockpit of the McLaren MP4-12C, I was suffering from a terrible sinus head-ache. It was turning winter, the air in Jozi was dry, and it was just something I lived with.
When I got out of the car, I didn’t have a sinus headache anymore. R4-million, but there’s no denying the results.
This should give you just a small idea of the brutal acceleration you’ll experience in this car. Remember when you were 16 and you took your first drag of a cigarette, the head-rush that kept you coming back for more. Identical experience here only this won’t give you cancer, it’ll straight up kill you if you get it wrong.
Happy “but” here. It’s implausibly hard to actually get it wrong in this car. So much so that it’s a criticism Pedro from Daytona is happy to share with me “people say this car is actually too perfect”.
The McLaren MP4-12C is the first production car from the British car manufacturer since the mesmerizing F1 set records in 1992. That’s almost 20 years without so much as a facelift, and this time around, instead of relying on the Germans at Mercedes to do it for them, the McLaren team hosted an all-British tea party and did it themselves.
The kudos would be showered on the Brits outright, but you must bear in mind that McLaren have one of the most successful Formula 1 teams ever. Some of that tech has been squeeze into this long awaited supercar to make it more exclusive and sought after. The inclusion of “brake steer” for example, tech which slows the inside/turning rear tire to reduce understeer when cornering hard.
Driving this car can actually be simulated by heading around a go-kart track on a Sunday morning with your buddies. Of course you won’t experience the speed or the longing looks from everyone you pass on the road, but my example is a lot more accessible.
The car is only 1.2m high when the gullwing doors are closed, so you can just picture your ass getting torn up the tar as you break laws on our nation’s highways. It’s this low center of gravity as well as the ProActive Chassis Control that make this car so easy to handle. The steering is actually quite heavy to the touch, but that’s mostly down to the thick tires you’re being carried around on. Once you’re at speed and actually driving, the steering is so responsive you have moments of nerves between lane changes.
When it comes to changing lanes, there is always the blind spot to think of in a coupe-like car such as the McLaren. And there pretty much isn’t one here. Of course you’ve got more than enough power to take on anyone coming up from behind you, but there is always that split-second of “did I check right before I moved?”
You would imagine driving a supercar to be a quite frightful experience. But in the McLaren, it isn’t at all. Sure there are moments of fear as you hit 220km/h through Woodmead, but robot-hopping in Sandton, even as you put-foot to get to that robot in time, just isn’t that scary. In fact the thing you’re worried about the majority of the time is scratching the body-paint, not totaling the car.
“It’s a car you can drive everyday” I’m told, “the kind of car you can really own and drive.” And they’re not lying. The drive of the car is far from uncomfortable; in fact, I’ve driven some hatchbacks that don’t take bumps as well. Inside they’ve gone for minimalism while still giving you most of the essentials you’ll need day-in and day-out, like a radio with a touchscreen control, and air-conditioner and the world’s smallest sun-visors. So minimal is the inside of the car in fact, that the unboxing video I did took all of 55 seconds.
So you’ve got a car you can (if you want) drive every day. But you’re not buying a McLaren for its convenience, you want to know about the performance.
In the corners this car is great, and I look forward to the track day they’ve promised us they’ll put together so we can really put it through its paces. But even at average speed, this car handles brilliantly. As I said above, the low-center of gravity makes it handle like a go-kart, and couple that in with the almost 50/50 weight distribution and the F1 inspired “brake steer” and you have a car that if anything will oversteer, and when that happens you rub yourself out of the corner with a bit of extra speed.
Get yourself a patch of open highway, and you’ll see the true meaning of McLaren. The acceleration in the MP4-12C (crap name, we all agree) comes almost immediately thanks to the twin-turbo set up. There’s no waiting around or anticipating like in a Ferrari. It’s just there and it’s efficient. You stick your foot into the floor board, grip your hands to the steering wheel and duck your head into your shoulders to avoid any whiplash. Soon you’ve run out of road, the back of your head is a bloody mess and your eyes are trying to find their way back to the front of your face.
Speed is addictive and we all love to go places quickly (well in Jozi we do anyway) but frankly the McLaren failed to scare me too much. Let me tell you what I mean.
My first car: a Toyota Corolla 1600. One of those box shaped ones. The perfect car to be handed down at age 17. “Off you go, crash it if you must but just learn to drive” my Dad said.
At 110km/h on the M1 to Pretoria that car became that house you always see getting lifted up into the eye of a tornado. The seats slid back at least 5-inches, the windows rolled down if they were up and if they were down the back windshield flew out, the radio just stopped working altogether and the engine started poking its head out of the bonnet.
Terrifying, yes. But at the same time, you knew you were pushing the limits of a machine, you knew you were tempting fate, you knew that you were glad you didn’t have any dependents and didn’t need an up to date will. You knew what it felt like to drive a stock car in the 50’s.
With the McLaren, you kind of hoped that they had created something that would let you feel what it’s like to drive a Formula 1 car. F1 drivers are after all the fittest athletes on the planet and their bodies can take up to 6 Gs and yada yada whatever else your mate said to you in the bar last week.
The McLaren isn’t like that though. It’s really calm and easy to drive inside. The seats are comfortable and the Meridian audio system is good enough for you to play your favorite song at full tilt. In all it’s a driver’s car, not a racing driver’s car.
As with any car capable of 130km/h or more, what’s the point though? Sure I get why we have speed limits, but spending this amount of cash on a car you can only ever drive sensibly is a complete waste of resources. I take the same stance with this car as I did with the Mini Roadster, a car made with a track in mind: take it out, as often as you can to a racetrack and remind yourself why you work so hard for your money (with apologies to the Grillhouse in Sandton).
Ask any petrolhead and they’ll agree: manufacturers are slowly reducing the need for a driver in modern day cars. Seriously! As soon as you begin to pass a certain segment or price range in a car these days, the car starts to take away more and more responsibility from the driver, to the point at which driving some premium cars is as easy as offending a South African politician.
We want to drive, take risks, be irresponsible, show off. We’re South Africans after all. It’s our car, let us drive it.
Lexus though, admit this is a problem, and they’re doing something about it in their new GS range. “Cars are being over-engineered and slowly removing the driver from focal point”, is their thinking. And isn’t this the exact reason you drive (aside from getting to places)? I mean, you’re the one laying out the cash on the car. You’re the one who should get to drive it, no? Not the ESP and the BMG and the S&M.
Lots of talk though, how have they faired?
Quite well actually. The new Lexus GS is as smooth as P Diddy to drive and the good news is they haven’t compromised on anything through the range. Buy the top end or the entry level and you’re getting yourself a luxury sedan.
So much so, that Lexus point out that to get to the same spec level as the GS350 in a competitive BMW sedan, you’ll need to spend a whopping R169 000.
Lexus is introducing a new identity for its cars with this range and it’s marked by the Spindle Grille and a likeness that kept reminding me of the LFA supercar. I can dream!
In all honesty it’s not much to look at from behind, but the front end is very aggressive, especially when you consider that those driving this car turn and run when someone else they don’t even know gets into a fight in a bar.
The GS range features three V6 engines, only two of which are coming at launch, the 3.5-litre and a quite brilliant 450 hybrid which has the 3.5-litre engine mated to a powerful electric motor and high voltage battery.
The 3.5-engine is as you can imagine quite powerful. A decent 233 kW and 378 Nm of torque as well as the compulsory din of a V6 will keep you quite content with this car.
It’s the hybrid that’s more impressive though. Many a hybrid would leave the driver with the shivers in passing a truck on the mountain pass. The 233kw engine is complemented to a grand total of 252kw, all of which comes through as smooth as if you were idling a 1-litre engine in a Pick n Pat parking lot.
At 120km/h on an open road, gear down from 5th, to 4th, to 3rd, and there’s not a wince from the engine. Sure the real petrolheads will groan at this ‘cos we want the thrust from behind and the rev of a V6, but a civilized human with his family in the car is going to welcome the electric motor picking up the slack of the gear change.
Over 160km/h the car did get a bit wobbly, but how often are you going to drive that speed anyway?
Driving the 450h is like walking into a bank with a fully loaded AK47 and a pair of tights in your pocket. You feel invincible!
Inside the Lexus GS is as comfortable as you can imagine. Leather all round with contrasting trim, a Playstation steering wheel and the party piece: a 12.3” center console display. Some would call it overkill, others unnecessary and others “still smaller than my penis”. Whatever your take on it, it’s so big they have had to chop their OS in two. The familiar Lexus mouse system can hover from the right section to left.
Gripes? Is it necessary to have such a big button for switching between Eco, Sport and Sport Plus? Couldn’t the mouse control go there instead. That’s all.
As for pricing, there is only one option in this range and that’s the 350. The cheapest hybrid model is R180 000 (and then some) more expensive than the most expensive 350 model. That’s a down-payment on a new house in a decent neighborhood. Frivolous spending really. And for what, to save a few trees?
Model
GS 250
GS350
GS 450h
GS 450h F-Sport
Engine type
2500 cm³ V6
3456 dm³
3456 dm³ Hybrid V6 with electric motor and battery
3456 dm³ Hybrid V6 with electric motor and battery
Max power
154 kW @ 6400 rpm
233 kW @ 6400 rpm
213 kW @ 6000 rpm
(252 kW total system output)
213 kW @ 6000 rpm
(252 kW total system output)
Max torque
253 Nm @ 4800 rpm
378 Nm @ 4800 rpm
345 Nm + 275 Nm
345 Nm + 275 Nm
0-100 km/h
8.8 secs
6.3 secs
6.1 secs
6.1 secs
Gearbox
6-speed auto
6-speed auto
e-CVT
e-CVT
Consumption (combined)
8.9 ℓ /100 km
9.4 ℓ/100 km
6.2 ℓ/100 km
6.2 ℓ/100 km
CO2 (comb.)
215 g/km
223 g/km
139 g/km
139 g/km
GS 250 EX R494 400
GS 350 EX R564 900
GS 450h F-Sport R753 700
GS 450h SE R771 700
There’s always one guy who has to ruin the party for everyone else. And in the tablet market, this month it’s eGlide who are now offering a properly decent specced tablet for less than R1 500.
The eGlide Steal has everything that the big boys have, at a fraction of the price:
A 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM which means it’s fast
A dedicated GPU which means graphics work without any lag
4GB of internal storage (granted, that’s not brilliant)
Wi-fi but no GSM SIM support
So there are some concessions to be made, including that you’ll need to order it from the States, but all that aside. Somebodies pissing a lot of people off.
Well at least that’s what 10 million people who pre-ordered before it’s launch said!
Now that it’s officially been released in 28 countries (and will arrive here on the 11th June) we know exactly what the most awaited for phone looks and feels like.
Main specs:
Android
4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD Gorilla Glass screen
136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm and 133g
1.4GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM
16GB or 32GB
8MP camera
More news coming at the launch. Follow @FHMMotoring for more!
