Bartek Ostalowski – The World’s Only Armless Professional Sports Driver

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.

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This Carpet-Covered Lada Is the Most Soviet-Era Car Ever Made

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.

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Student Invents Motorcycle That Runs on Swamp Gas

Gijs Schalkx, a Dutch inventor and engineering student, modified his motorcycle to run on methane harvested from roadside bogs and ponds.

Aptly named Sloot Motor (sloot means ‘ditch’ in Dutch), Gijs Schalkx’s ingenious vehicle features a modified Honda GX160 motorcycle engine, with a hole into the airbox, through which it receives the methane. The bright inventor than hooks a balloon filled with methane to the hole, which acts as the fuel tank. The engine still starts with gasoline, but once it starts, it uses the methane to keep going. But what truly makes Gijs’ project special is the fact that he manually harvests the methane himself from roadside swamps and ponds, a labor that takes approximately eight hours. The methane only lasts 12 miles at a top speed of 27mph.

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This 48 Cylinder Motorcycle Is One of the Craziest Things You’ll Ever See

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…

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Big Wind – Probably the Most Powerful Firetruck Ever Built

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…

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Man Uses Lamborghini Exhaust to Cook World’s Most Expensive Skewered Meat

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?

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Goodyear’s Long-Forgotten Illuminated Tires

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.

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Unemployed Man Fasts for 33 Days in Hopes of Winning a Lamborghini

A deeply religious man who became convinced that God would grant him a Lamborghini sports car if he fasted for 40 consecutive days and nights almost died after shunning food for a whopping 33 days.

Mark Muradzira,  a Youth Leader of the Risen Saints Church in Bindura, Zimbabwe, recently decided to put God’s generosity to the test by asking for a Lamborghini sports car. Somehow, the 27-year-old man became convinced that the Almighty would grant his wish if he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, so he isolated himself in a remote mountain area to prevent being tempted by food. The unemployed man had opted for the extreme and bizarre way of obtaining a Lamborghini because he was unemployed and was unable to spend upwards of $200,000 on a new one. However, he was determined to offer his girlfriend her dream car, and fasting was the only affordable way to do it.

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This Van Camper Comes With a Second Storey and an Elevator

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.

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You Can Buy This Electric Mini Pickup Truck for Just $2,600

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.

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LumiLor – The Electrical Paint That Lights Up at the Flip of a Switch

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.

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Thieves Completely Dismantle Mercedes Right In Front of Owners’ House

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…

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Man Crashes Into Wall While Leaving Dealership With Brand New Car

Buying a brand new car is supposed to be one of the happiest moments in a person’s life, but for one poor motorist the experience turned from a dream into a nightmare the moment he put his foot on the gas at the dealership.

A video that shows an Indian man getting ready to drive his brand new Kia Carnival minivan out of the dealership, only to drive it straight into a wall and deploying its airbags has been doing the rounds on social media. The footage shows the buyer getting behind the wheel of the brand new car, and an employee of the dealership giving them some last few pointers before letting them drive out. Things don’t exactly go according to plan though, and the video shows the man driving off and then slamming the new Kia straight into a concrete wall with enough force to deploy the airbags.

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World’s Most Energy Efficient Vehicle Can Carry a Person Halfway Around the World on One Liter of Petrol

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.

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Unhappy With Service, Russian Man Burns His $170,000 Mercedes to a Crisp

A popular Russian vlogger recently made international headlines after purposely burning his expensive Mercedes-AMG G63, because he was sick of it breaking down all the time.

Russian media reported that young vlogger Mikhail Litvin bought his brand new luxury car in December of 2019, for a whopping 13 million rubles, or around $170,000. For that kind of money one would expect both performance and durability, only Litvin claims that his Mercedes-AMG G63 was really short on the latter. Despite having allegedly driven it only 15,000 km (about 9,300 miles), he claims the car has been in and out of repair shops over the last 10 months. Exasperated by the constant need for repairs and the manufacturer’s reluctance to accept responsibility, the Russian vlogger decided that the best way to solve things was to simply burn the car down to a crisp.

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