Here’s a great Motor Trend video, reporting from the Unimog Museum in Gaggenau, Germany. They delve into the history of the Mercedes-Benz truck line as well as explain how the trucks actually work. Later they motor a huge Unimog around the proving ground out back.
It’s well worth a watch.
What do you get when you put a 750cc, 150hp sportbike engine in a 687 lb. kart? A “Crosskart” that produces about as much horsepower per ton as a Lamborghini Aventador.
A pretty amazing thing showed up on Bring a Trailer yesterday: a Dutch company that sells vintage G-Wagens from German fire departments. They’re all incredibly low mileage, reasonably priced, and — if I know anything about Germans — extraordinarily well maintained.
Take the 280 GE above example. It’s covered only 21,000 kms since 1983. That’s only a hair over 13,000 miles! The price? 19,900 Euros. You’d pay a mere $26,259 at today’s rates.
This one is equipped with a gasoline-powered, 6-cylinder, fuel-injected, M110 engine, mated to a manual transmission, of course. The ad doesn’t state whether the emergency lights and siren are functional but that awesome fluorescent red paint seems to be working just fine.
It’s over 25 years old, so importing it to the U.S. should be hassle free. And this isn’t the only one on the site.
Link trail: Bring a Trailer post > Original ad
Update: Here’s a video of a similar one in action. Read the rest of this entry »
I love watching this video. It documents British cyclist, Danny Hart’s, phenomenal downhill run at the 2011 UCI Downhill World Championship in wet conditions at Champery, Switzerland in 2011. It’s totally amazing. The announcers are just beside themselves and throw out some classic commentary.
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Independent filmmaker Andrew Miller shot this footage while riding along with AEV in Iceland this year. This gorgeous stuff.
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If you can get past the pomp and circumstance, here’s some nice footage of 1930s-era, high-speed rail in action. The film shows The Coronation Scot, an English steam train, reaching 114mph on a test run between the stations of Crewe and Euston.
Put into service in honor of the coronation of King George VI (hence all of the pomp and circumstance) it offered regular service between London and Glasgow, a 400-mile run which it made in 6.5 hours.
Today’s trains make the journey 4.5 hours albeit with less style.
Look at these photos. You can still do this kind of thing, probably in more places than you’d think. One of them is the Klarälven River in Sweden. The outfitters from a company called Vildmark will take you out to the woods, show you how to lash up your raft, and then give you the heave ho. Read the rest of this entry »
If you have a taste for airborne adventure, check this out. Gliders flying over the Alps? Not sure. But it’s pretty cool. Great soundtrack as well by The Naked And Famous. The song is “Punching in a Dream.”
Photos: Aden BayneMy friend Greg’s friend Aden spotted this rare Pinzgauer 712K, a 6×6 hardtop in part of its natural alpine setting, Zug, Switzerland. Aden says, “It’s hard to see in the photos, but the railing down the side of the vehicle is teak. And the paint is a really nice matte black. Overall exterior was in top shape, really nice resto job.”
Well spotted!
In 1955, six Oxford and Cambridge students set out to travel overland from London to Singapore. The 18,000 mile journey would be the first of its kind. Never before had such a long and difficult route been driven to completion. Men had attempted the London to Singapore route before, making it as far as the middle eastern deserts or the Indian plains, but the mountainous jungles of Assam and Burma had previously thwarted all efforts. In fact, the route was thought to be impassable. Read the rest of this entry »
