Pink hardly seems like an appropriate color for combat military vehicles, but there was a time when the British military had a fleet of pink Land Rovers that affectionately became known as the “Pink Panthers”.

Khaki and beige are the two most common colors used on military vehicles, but when it comes to desert camouflage, there was a time when pink was the best choice. ‘Desert pink’ as it was once referred to, was first used in the Africa campaign of World War 2, but British researchers later confirmed that it was the most suitable camouflage color for the desert, so a fleet of pink Series 2A Land Rover jeeps was also part of the British SAS from 1968 until 1984. They were known as the Pink Panthers, or Pinkies.

Read More »

Dekochari (デコチャリ) is a bicycle decoration movement specific to Japan, and that is characterized by the use of plywood accessories, chrome plating, elaborate light displays and hi-fi audio systems.

Dekochari can be traced back to the 1970s, back when Japan’s Dekotora truck decoration trend started gaining traction. Unable to unleash their creative decorating talent on trucks, kids started adapting the same general style to their bicycles, and they ended up creating their very own culture. Dekochari thrived right alongside dekotora, but as the trucks’ excessive lighting and extra weight started posing legal problems to drivers, both cultures kind of faded from the roads of Japan, and today dekochari bikes are considered rarities.

Read More »

Despite losing both arms in a tragic accident, a motorsports enthusiast has managed to pursue his passion by using his feet to drive cars and even competing against able-bodied drivers in drifting competitions.

Bartek Ostalowski lost both his arms in a motorcycle accident in 2006, but that wasn’t enough to kill his dream of one day becoming a professional racecar driver. Finding himself armless at just 20-years-old and faced with the daunting task of learning to drive a car on a race circuit must have been quite the shock for Bartek, but he mustered the courage and the drive to push on, and in three years time he became a master of maneuvering a racecar with his feet. Today, Bartek Ostalowski is the world’s only professional sport driver who drives using his feet.

Read More »

A 15-yer-old girl in rural India has reportedly been pumping out small stones out of her eyes every day for the past two months, and doctors don’t have any medical explanation for it.

According to the girl’s family, small stones started falling from her eyes on July 17, and she has been crying between 10 and 15 stone tears every day since. More than 70 so-called stone tears have been collected in the over two months since the bizarre phenomenon was reported. Apparently, 15-year-old Chandni starts eliminating small stones from her eyes from around 6 in the morning and continues to do so until evening. For some reason, the stones don’t form n her eyes during the night…

Read More »

There are many Soviet-era remnants scattered all over the Russian Federation, but few as blatant as this old Zighuli car covered in Persian-style rugs that recently went viral on social media.

The Zhiguli VAZ was a popular car model produced in Soviet Russia and exported all over the world. Outside of the Soviet Union, it was sold under the LADA brand, so it might look familiar even if you’re not from Russia. It was always considered a reliable vehicle that could take some punishment and still run, but overall it was one of the many symbols associated with the Soviet Union. Still, no model was ever as Soviet-ized as “Carpets”, a unique VAZ 27011 that captures viewers’ imagination with its unusual exterior – a layer of old Persian-style rugs that were once all the rage in communist countries.

Read More »

Known as the Whitelock Tinker Toy, this insane 48-cylinder motorcycle holds the record for the functional vehicle with the most number of cylinders.

English motorcycle enthusiast Simon Whitelock is the “madman” responsible for the existence of this outrageous contraption. It is based on the Kawasaki 250 S1, a relatively small bike equipped with a 3-cylinder 250 cc engine capable of putting out 31 hp, but you couldn’t really tell by looking at it. That’s because this souped-up Kawasaki features six rows of eight original S1 cylinders, stripped off of 16 S1 motorcycle engines. All cylinders are connected to a common transmission, borrowed from a BMW motorcycle, and require more than the regular electric starter motor to start…

Read More »

What to you get when you combine an old Soviet tank with two Soviet jet engines and a lot of water? The answer is Big Wind, a fire truck capable of stopping oil well fires all by itself.

In February of 1991, near the end of the Gulf War, the retreating Iraqi army set over 700 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire, thus creating the desert into an almost apocalyptic landscape. Up to six million barrels of oil burned every day for 30 weeks, sending flames as high as 300 feet into the air and covering the sky with thick, black smoke. The fires reached temperatures of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the air around them was an unbearable 650 degrees Fahrenheit, but even if anyone managed to get close enough, putting out the fires was a nearly impossible task. But that was just the kind of job that Big Wind was built for…

Read More »

A young Lamborghini owner in China recently got his five minutes of online fame by trying to barbecue some skewered pork with the car’s fiery exhaust and incurring about $80,000 in repair costs.

A few days ago a group of men gathered around an orange Lamborghini sports car in an underground garage in Changsha, Hunan Province, to witness the cooking of what many have called the world’s most expensive skewered pork. Apparently, the luxury car owner and his friend decided that it would be fun to use the Lamborghini’s super hot exhaust to barbecue a small piece of meat skewered on a stick. The driver kept pressing the acceleration pedal of the parked car, while his smiling friend held the skewer. What could go wrong, right?

Read More »

American tire manufacturer Goodyear once created tired illuminated car tires that glowed from the inside thanks to multiple lightbulbs.

In the early 1960s, Goodyear employees William Larson and Anthony Finelli worked together to create the world’s first neothane automobile tires. Neothane was just a fancier name for urethane, the chemical compound invented three decades earlier by German chemist Otto Bayer. Unlike traditional tires, which required multiple layers of rubber as well as fabric and a laborious process to manufacture, neothane tires were grippy, squishy, responsive and easy to make. But the advantages didn’t end there. Neothane tires were also translucent, could be dyed in various colors, and, as Goodyear demonstrated, they could even be fitted with lights for a unique visual effect.

Read More »

If you’re in the market for the most sumptuous motorhome money can buy, how about a villa on wheels which comes with a second storey and even a built-in elevator?

The Maxus V90 Life Home Villa Edition may look like your everyday modern van camper on the road, but when parked it can transform into a futuristic two-storey villa at the press of a button. That’s right, with a single finger press you can become the envy of your friends and everyone on the campground. Not only do the walls of the motorhome expand outwards to offer more room in the living area and kitchen, but a cool sunroom extends out of the roof as well. It’s truly a sight to behold.

Read More »

If you’re looking for the cheapest electric pickup truck money can buy, you should definitely check out this bargain on Chinese marketplace Alibaba – an all-electric mini pickup truck for just $2,600.

Manufactured in China under the obscure brand “R&Z” this nifty little electric truck sits on 12-inch wheels, has a maximum payload of 500 kilograms (1,100 lbs) and featured a 1.6 m (5’3″) long bed. Not the most impressive specs for a pickup truck, I know, but keep in mind that this costs a fraction of the price of any electric truck developed by western brands. Plus, it does offer a cozy two-person cabin, air vents (air condition costs extra), adjustable seats, seatbelts, LED headlights, radio, and metallic paint. Oh, and the 110 km (75 miles) range of its 72V and 7.2 kWh battery pack is pretty decent as well.

Read More »

LumiLor is the world first and only patented electroluminescent paint, which can light up virtually any solid surface when an electrical current passes through it.

Luminescent paint has been around for decades, but it has never looked as cool as the ingenious invention that is LumiLor. Fluorescent and phosphorescent paints only maintain their glow for a short duration after being exposed to long-wave ultraviolet (UV) radiation while radioluminescent paint contains a small amount of a radioactive isotope mixed with a radioluminescent phosphor chemical. Lumilor, the world’s first electroluminscents coating, only requires an electrical current to achieve its glowing effect, and can be used to create awe-inspiring light-shows at the flip of a switch.

Read More »

The owner of a dark grey C-class Mercedes Benz was shocked to find it stripped down to a metal shell last week, after a gang of “professional” thieves dismantled it right in front of his house, at night.

When 56-year-old Paul Hampton, of West Bromwich, in the UK, saw his neighbor standing in front of his house early Thursday morning, he knew something was wrong, but he never imagined just how wrong. He had been out the night before, and parked his car, a £28,000 Mercedes C-class, outside their home on Marsh Lane, at around 9.30pm. At 4.30am, their neighbor was banging their door down, shouting for Paul to come out and see his car, or what was left of it…

Read More »

The Eximus IV, a student-built railroad car that has been setting records for fuel efficiency since 2016, has once again proven itself the world’s most efficient vehicle in the annual Delsbo Electric contest.

Every year, teams from all around the world travel to a specially-built track in Sweden to test their ultra energy-efficient vehicles designed to cover the longest possible distance on as little fuel as possible. Contestants are tasked with driving their vehicles on a 3.36 kilometer rail track to keep rolling resistance to a minimum, while carrying a total of six passengers, with an average weight of 50kg per person. Ever since it entered the competition four years ago, the Eximus IV has become somewhat of a legend of the competition, and this year it once again proved why.

Read More »

A young Vietnamese fan of the Dark Knight spent 10 months and over $20,000 building his own functional Batmobile.

Nguyen Dac Chung, a 23-year-old architecture student from Hanoi had always dreamed of driving his very own Tumbler, the iconic Batmobile showcased in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy, and last year he decided to make his dream a reality. He poured 10 months of work and over 500 million VND ($21,700) of his own money into this project and he now has his very own life-size, functional Tumbler. Although it’s only 90 percent complete, Nguyen Dac Chung has already been attracting attention on Hanoi’s street and has been featured by major Vietnamese news outlets.

Read More »