Knorreck reportedly spent 10,000 hours and €15,000 (approx. $22,300 (USD)) to build this one of a kind vehicle. The Snafell is a combination of a Laverda motorcycle which Knorreck bought in 1976 and had already modified to be a sport bike, and the custom-built carbon fiber and polyester sidecar. The sidecar’s parts were culled from various automobiles, including a Volkswagen Golf GTI,  a Citroen Xantia and an Audi 80.

The Snaefell – which incidentally is also the name of three volcanoes in Iceland – is powered by the Laverda’s 1000cc engine. I barely know anything about vehicles, so I don’t know if the triple exhaust is necessary, but damn if it doesn’t add to the quirkiness of this ride.

The sidecar has a gull-wing door and has a car seat, complete with seat belts. Say what you will about the Snaefell, but it’s sidecar might just be the most comfortable and safest one on the planet.

There should be more pics at Knorreck’s website, I just don’t know for sure because Internet fame has brought down the site. I really want to see it in action! Man this thing is weird.

[via designboom & kneeslider]

The gun-shaped controller projects a bright red light beam (not sure it’s really a laser beam) where you want the car to go, and the car follows along. The vehicles stick to smooth surfaces using a reverse-fan mechanism that creates suction between the bottom of the car and the wall or ceiling.

Each car has a set of photosensors mounted into it that detect the light beams’ position and tell the car which direction to turn. Place the light beam in front of the car, and it follows, place the beam at the back of the car, and it turns around and starts following the light again. And if you thought that all sounded cool, wait til you get a load of this…

Convinced? The guy in the skintight blue suit has me sold already. In action, the cars are actually pretty cool. Here’s a good video clip showing off how the Aero Spider Laser works. And more people dressed in silly outfits for no particular reason. You gotta love Japanese marketing.

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Aero Spider Laser cars start shipping early this month, and are available over for pre-order over at Hobby Link Japan for ¥6,000 (appx. $65 USD).

The system uses a custom wireless computer that receives digital information via a Wi-Fi connection and translates your maneuvers into servo control signals for R/C cars. There’s also a USB jack for a compact webcam. Joker Racer lets you use a web browser to drive cars on a closed course, and watch POV video from tiny cameras on-board each car.

There’s even an iPhone app coming in 2010 that lets you control cars using the iPhone’s motion sensors. In addition to being able to drive their remote-hosted cars, in future you’ll be able to buy your own Joker Racer R/C Server hardware for your own racecars.

Here’s a couple of videos showing off Joker Racer in action…

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Joker Racer’s website recently wrapped up its initial beta and is moving on to a full release in early November. For now, you’ll just have to sit back and enjoy some of the site’s pre-recorded clips and maybe remotely control the course webcam.

[via TechCrunch]

Auto-modder Edd China of Cummfy Banana has fabricated these ridiculous motor vehicles, fashioned to look like ordinary furniture. In addition to the speedy bed pictured above, he’s also built an oversize office desk on wheels, complete with multiple swivel chairs.

But his pride and joy is the “Casual Lofa,” which was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “world’s fastest furniture”. The Lofa is a motorized sofa that tops out a speed of 87 MPH. (Edd beat his own record sofa speed in 2007, by getting a sofa to drive 92 MPH – go figure).

If you happen to live in the UK, you can get a chance to take a ride on all of these vehicular monstrosities thanks to a special “day at the races” tour package that lets you experience them all.

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The guys over at IWantOneOfThose are now offering the World’s Wackiest Racers package, which includes rides on all three of these oddball pieces of furniture, as well as a funky double-decker car. The 3 hour experience is conducted with a group of up to 6 participants, and will set you back £99 (appx.$163 USD).

The set comes with a pair of wired remote controls, and wheeled versions of Sonic and Tails to race around the 4-foot oval loop track. The guys over at Sonic fanblog Emerald Coast got their hands on a set, and weren’t that thrilled with how frequently Sonic goes flying off the rails though. Somehow Tails manages to stay on the track better. Go figure. I blame Dr. Robotnik.

The Super Sonic Racing System is available from UK retailer Play.com for £8.99 (appx. $15 USD). Frankly, I think this would have been way cooler if it had some crazy loops and corkscrews on the track. Oh well, what do you want for $15 bucks?

[via Nerd Approved]

Actually, that’s Mr. Pac-Man to you, sir. This over-the-top red and yellow 1996 Chrevrolet Caprice is decked out with custom Pac-Man leather seats.

And check out those rims… Mr. Pac-Man is hiding behind the chrome wheels, showing his face over and over again as the wheels turn.

If Pac-Man drives an Caprice, what sort of car do you think that Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde drive? I was thinking maybe they each had an AMC Pacer in their respective color.

[flickr via GadgetHIM via walyou]

As you can see from the pictures, AIDA has its own set of facial expressions, to help it “establish an affective bond” with the driver. I guess it is more pleasing to interact with something that has a face, as opposed to talking to the air like the Hoff used to do with KITT, but won’t it become a distraction?

What I like about AIDA though is its ability to familiarize itself with the needs and habits of a driver, like one’s usual destinations, or how one drives. It will then combine that information with real-time data like traffic or weather, stuff that may not be immediately available to the driver, to give hints and tips:

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What do you think? Will AIDA be a helpful companion, or a nagger that you won’t be able to kick out of the car?

[via MIT via Popular Science]

Here’s iDriver and Spirit of Berlin in action:

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Praise Apple and the iPhone! Well, not really. Upon reading about iDriver at 8bitfix, commenter Solidsnake72 took time off from sneaking about and shared the video below. It starts small, but an insane turn of events comes about 2 minutes into the clip:

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Blackberry FTW! Although RIM’s smartphone loses points for using Bluetooth, which of course has a limited range, I think we can all agree that controlling a real F1 car is infinitely more fun than controlling a station wagon, even if said station wagon has lasers onboard.

Update: as nobbi points out in the comments, the Blackberry video is (almost) certainly a viral marketing stunt. Can anyone confirm this? At least no kids on balloons  were involved. And thanks to gusto for the tip!

The PCRides Dodge Charger SRT8 PC is an officially-licensed scale replica of Chrysler’s beefy muscle car. Each one features a complete small form factor PC running on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor under the hood -literally. The DVD player ejects from the front bumper of the car, and all of the ports are located in the rear bumper area.

In addition to performing computing tasks the PC has light up headlights and brake lights, which is exactly what I expect from a PC. According to PCRides, the computer is supposed to be available in a variety of delicious and bold colors with macho names like Hemi Orange, Detonator Yellow, Brilliant Black, Bright Silver, Deep Water Blue, B5 Blue, Plum Crazy, and Tor Red. Ok, Plum Crazy isn’t that masculine.

Alas and alack, the guys at PCRides announced these at the end of last year, and seem to have left us with a website with the dreaded “under construction” sign, so it’s not clear if they ever got these to market. Perhaps it was the exorbitant pricing, which ranges from $1850 to $2495 (USD) that kept them from hitting stores. Or maybe it was the auto industry meltdown. For now, you’ll have to admire these from afar. Or just buy a real Charger SRT8.

[via Autoblog]

Kairos Autonomi showed off the Pronto4’s capabilities at the recently held Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International demonstration. The kit was installed on a pickup truck “fitted with a heavy weapon”, and it went through a maze, following waypoints. The folks at Popular Mechanics were kind enough to share the fun of seeing a vehicle drive itself:

The vehicle is steered by a ring of actuators, while the transmission and throttle are “controlled by lines from a main box”.  Like most of the awesome tech we’ve featured here, the Pronto4 is primarily for the military, so they can conduct night missions more easily, or allow one soldier to man the weapons while the vehicle takes care of the driving. Or they could install the kit for vehicles on patrol, and even put it on an expendable car for target practice.

So if you’re thinking of saving up to get your own Pronto4 so your vehicle can also be your designated driver, you’re out of luck. The kit isn’t sold to the public. Not yet anyway. Man, I can think of a dozen pranks that you can pull off with this kit. Viva technology!

Well now you can, thanks to this little bit of modern technology from Korea’s Selfic Technologies.The Selfic Cube 7100 mounts on the windshield or dashboard of your car, and captures your every move on a built in digital video recorder.

The tiny black box camera (appx. 1″ x 1″ x 2″) features a 360-degree swivel mount and can record each of your driving sessions, automatically tracking date and time stamps, as well as the speed of your vehicle, your exact GPS coordinates and any shock due to an impact. And it can also record audio, so if you decide to turn the camera on yourself and your passengers and shoot your own episode of Taxicab Confessions, you can do that too.

The Selfic Cube can capture video at 640×480 resolution at 30fps, and stores all of its images and data on either a micro SD (2GB) or micro SDHC card (up to 8GB). Here’s a little bit of sample video shot with the Selfic that I found over on YouTube. Not exactly thrilling footage, but it sure would come in handy if you got broad-sided by a moose.

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Of course if you get hit from behind, you’d better hope you bought a second one of these for the rear window. At this point the Selfic Cube 7100 is only available in Korea, but if you’re willing to deal with the translation and currency challenges you might be able to grab one over at the Early Adopter Shop for 207,000 South Korean Won (appx. $167 USD).

As in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flying Car, except that it uses a nylon “Paramenia Reflex” wing to control its flight. The car is able to fly thanks to its gigantic back-mounted propeller, kinda like Thunder in Thunder in Paradise, except that it’s a car and not a boat. Why is it that I forget a lot of the things that my girlfriend and I talk about, and yet I have neurons to spare to remember Thunder in Paradise? Dammit.

The SkyCar’s capabilities were put to the test earlier this year when Neil Laughton, who I bet has 4 sets of balls, rode/flew the SkyCar from London to Timbuktu in India, a 5,000-mi journey. On the road, the SkyCar can go up to 140 mph. In the air the SkyCar has a take off range of about 490 ft, a cruising speed of 82 mph and a maximum altitude of 15,ooo ft. Here’s CNN’s coverage of the SkyCar prior to Laughton’s epic journey:

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And now, thanks to ParaJet, any ordinary citizen on the planet can own a flying car, as long as that citizen has $82, 165 (USD) (£50,000) to spare. Check out ParaJet’s website for more details or to pre-order.  A flying car. WOW.

[via LikeCool]

As you can see Campenhoudt did the “writing”. The 4 dots on the roof of the car was tracked in real time using a camera and a custom software designed by fellow artist Zachary Lieberman of openFrameworks. Here’s the video of the one-of-a-kind creation of the iQ font:

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And here’s the iQ font!

You can download the font here; stills from the video can be found at theokguy’s Flickr page. If you were to make a font, what would you use? Subatomic particles? Tornadoes? Turtles?

[thanks to Ramin for the tip!]

The subcompact AIRpod runs on compressed air instead of traditional automotive fuels. A set of carbon-fiber tanks sit underneath the passenger compartment, loaded up with 2900psi of compressed air. The tanks power a tiny engine capable of cranking out a whopping 5.4 horsepower and 11-foot-pounds of torque. Woo-hoo!

It takes 2 minutes to fill up the tanks, and a single occupant should be able to go somewhere around 90 to 125 miles on a full set of tanks. And with air costing just €1 (appx. $1.40 USD) for a fill-up, fuel costs are pretty much a non-issue. Of course, that all assumes you can find a place to fill up the tanks.

MDI says the production version will transport up to 3 adults and 1 child, with a single front-facing driver’s seat, and a rear-facing bench for the other occupants. This tiny green car looks awfully cramped – not to mention a bit dangerous for the passengers, but maybe that’s just me.

Want to know how it drives? The guys over at Edmunds Inside Line have actually gotten a chance to test drive the prototype and it through its paces.

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While the current prototype car can only hit 30mph, the production model should hit 50mph when it hits at the end of 2009. The 2010 AIRpod is expected to be released by the end of 2009 in France for €6,000 (appx $8380 USD). MDI plans on offering additional compressed-air cars in the not-too-distant-future.

[via WOW-POW via Slashgear]

The Porta-Pizza oven could be just what the doctor ordered. This 12-volt pizza oven looks almost like an April Fools prank from The Onion, but it’s real. Now I’d be afraid that I’d kill my car battery with the amount of power you’d need to cook pizza, but what the heck do I know? And what’s to stop you from making toast in your front seat with this? Yay, toast on the go! Just plug it into your 12-volt accessory outlet, add your ingredients and get cookin’!

Now I thought people texting and driving were bad, but I bet dropping a scorching hot slice of melty mozzarella and pepperoni onto your lap is sure to get you into an accident or two.

This Stupidiotic invention is available from Stupidiotic for $36 (USD). I wonder if this is how Domino’s plans on reviving their 30-minutes or less promise now…

Created by Mexico City industrial designer Alberico J. Camacho, the ROCK dons a tiny Nissan logo, and looks something like an oversize bowling ball on wheels. Or maybe the Dark Helmet that Rick Moranis wore in Spaceballs.

Yanko thinks ROCK might be some kind of interactive music player, something like the Sony Rolly. I’d rather dream big. I say it’s the first generation of vehicles for felines. I bet there are electrodes in there that plug directly into your cat’s tiny brain, which let your orange tabby become a yellow cabbie (see what I did there?). Go, Toonces!

Of course, my all my hopes and dreams of kitty traffic jams were shattered when I stumbled onto Alberico’s portfolio over on Coroflot. Turns out the ROCK isn’t a miniature car at all, but a scale model prototype for a concept car that Camacho worked up for Nissan.

Apparently, the car is designed for the Guitar Hero/Rock Band crowd, and comes complete with a trunk that appears to hold nothing but a guitar.

It’s still a pretty cool design, and I like it much better than those squared off “Cube” cars that are rolling off the assembly lines these days. But damn, what will my cat do to get around now?

The ZERO from Italy’s Tazzari Electric is getting set to hit U.S. shores by early 2010, and now there’s a chance for you to be the tooling around in this cute subcompact car before anyone else gets one.

The eco-friendly ZERO runs on lithium batteries, and is made from 100% recyclable aluminum. The ZERO is designed to handle like a sports car – assuming your definition of sports car tops out at 55 mph. At least it can accelerate from 0 to 30 in under 5 seconds. The real wheel drive ZERO features a wide wheelbase, a centrally-located engine, 15-inch wheels, and a low center of gravity in order to keep things feeling sporty.

Driving range is 140km (appx. 87 miles) per charge, and an innovative superfast charging system lets you recharge the car’s batteries to 80% capacity in just 50 minutes – although a full charge takes 9 hours, so an overnight juice-up is best.

Opening bid for the first ZERO is a cool $25,000, and you’ll need to pre-qualify to bid. In addition to the vinyl-skinned green ZERO pictured above, the winner will be flown to New York city to receive their car along with some other special perks. The auction ends on Wednesday, June 3rd, so if you want to bet the first, you’ll need to get over to eBay and get your bids in soon.

[Tazzari ZERO via i drive green]

Then I realized that it wasn’t real, and only a graphic rendering by artist John ‘Jazz’ Vernon. Damn you and your photo-realistic rendering skills! My only hope is that since John’s company RodVisions does conceptual renderings of vehicles before owners invest tons of money painstakingly restoring them, maybe, just maybe, somebody is actually getting ready to make a real version of this car.

I’d be more than happy to do donuts on your lawn with this bitchin’ Camaro.

[via Steampunk Workshop]

The contest was initially employees-only, but SparkFun realized it would be much more fun to have their customers join so that was what they did. Sixteen robots in all shapes and sizes – some ground, some aerial – participated in the race. How many of them finished? Two.

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Blurr they ain’t, and judging from the results we still have a long way to go before we see transforming vehicles. Watch the video and you’ll see that the teams already had their hands full just trying to stop their creations from killing themselves. The teams mostly failed on that account, but they still had a lot of fun anyway.

WIRED’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson’s team DIY Drones (pictured above) bagged first place. Their UAV clocked in at 36 seconds, while second-placed Deathpod 3000 (below) took nearly three times as long at 1 minute and 32 seconds. Which is kind of unfair really, because it’s a ground vehicle going up against a Decepticon plane.

Awesome. I wish we had more robot contests, like ASIMO versus a Roomba or something. These demonstrations are really comforting; at least we know we’re not going to be enslaved by robots anytime soon.

[via BotJunkie]

You can certainly drive this R/C car around the floor just like any other, but the real fun kicks in when you kick it into Breakin’ II Electric Boogaloo mode. While the Twister Edition Stunt R/C car can’t pop-and-lock or do The Robot, it definitely can do head spins, windmills and even The Worm. A unique spinning joint system lets the car perform all sorts of crazy stunts using the included wireless remote-control.

As it spins and rolls along your floor, the car offers up an LED lightshow that’s nothing short of a nighttime drive down the Vegas strip and downtown Osaka rolled into one. The car works on just about any surface, and can even handle itself on bumpy outdoor roads when it’s not doing a dance routine.

The pictures above give you a pretty good sense of how flexible this vehicle is, but to really understand its B-Boy moves, you’ll need to watch this video of the car in action:

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If your name happens to be Boogaloo Shrimp or Shabba-Doo, you can pick one of these up over at Chinavasion for just $10.09 (USD) – cheaper than a breakdance mat unless you happen to make yours out of cardboard refrigerator boxes.