There’s a guy, he’s thirty-five. Let’s call him Marcus. When Marcus was ten, he caught his first glimpse of a Gordon Murray creation. It was the McLaren F1, and it became the subject of his obsession. He got the posters, the cutouts, the whathaveyous, anything and everything to fuel his desire. Whatever it took, he was going to get behind the wheel of this beautiful car. Star light...star bright... He works hard, gets through college and qualifies. He puts in the hours, climbs the ladder, edges his peers out. Every day, as soon as he rises, he stands by and stares at his McLaren F1 poster. Every day, before bed, he closes his eyes and imagines what it would be like to drive one. Manifestation 101. He’s well aware that he’d have to pay upwards of $15 million dollars to get one. This doesn’t hinder him. It spurs him on. Year in, year out, on NYE he tells himself: “This is it. This is the year I get my McLaren F1.” Until one fine day, twenty five years to the day he first fell in love, he comes across another 3-seat hypercar with central driving position, almost 20 per cent…
The Champions League is back this week, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Sure it’s going to be a little different this year, what with COVID and all. I mean, we should already have a winner by now, but it's August and we're still playing the round of 16. Just a reminder that Atalanta, RB Leipzig, Atletico Madrid and PSG are already through to the next round. Some of you have lost touch with reality, so here’s a recap of who’s playing whom this week, done the Mikaniki way. Juventus Vs Lyon When and where: Turin, Friday 07/08/2020 at 23:00 GST First leg recap It’s not everyday that a team takes a 1 - 0 surplus into the second leg against Juventus. No sir. But Lyon shocked us all with a commendable performance, capped off by Tousart meeting a cut back to fire the French side ahead. Sinking the ship from Turin Nevertheless, any team that steps on Turin turf will have to be prepared to face a star-studded side that includes veteran Goalie GiGi Buffon, Argentine dynamo Paulo Dybala and, of course, one of the greatest of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo. Form Lyon have caught Juventus at…
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Sony and cars? Sound systems, stereo head units, that kind of thing, right? Alas, the electronic titans have entered the automotive fray, with a rather mysterious debutante: The Vision-S. What happens in Vegas... It started back in January 2020, before COVID-19 came in full force and forever distorted the cosmic balance. Sony first showed their concept off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan 7th, alongside Hyundai’s flying air taxi, Mercedes’ Avatar-inspired deliciousness and BMW’s revolutionary car interior that takes design cues from La-Z-Boy. After announcing it on the big stage, Sony went MIA in Austria and has now resurfaced half a year later with a teaser that reveals less than Kylie Jenner’s cow print swimsuit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=75&v=qiw0sCNP8ck&feature=emb_logo As you can see, the Sony’s Vision-S concept rolls out of the cargo van like a Backstreet Boys dance move. The word that comes to mind is: supercalafuturisticexpialadocious. It appears to be steering itself around, until it becomes immediately apparent that there’s a man behind the wheel. The Vision-S takes a spin around the block, a group of people gather around it and marvel at some of the…
When it comes to commercials, it's pretty hit and miss. Especially for cars. I think we all wanna forget Jennifer Lopez’s Fiat 500 debacle, right? Cringe factor 3000. Still love ya J'Lo! Conversely, there have been some insanely epic and creative car commercials. Here are five of our favourite. 5. 2011 Chrysler 200 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYsFUFgOEmM What’s cool about it? A brief history of industrial Detroit explicated through the rich reverberations of ad monster Kevin Yon, seen aboard the Chrysler 200, depicting the ardour of labourers’ efforts. And who else is behind the wheel but legendary rapper; the GOAT, Eminem? A beautiful segue from narration to “Lose Yourself” instrumental, with gospel overtones is just about as close to perfection as you can get in an ad, taking nothing away from the wonderful cinematography and snapshots of a truly underrated city. At just over 2 minutes, this was one of the longest commercials to have aired at the Super Bowl, but when you’ve signed Eminem up, you have the license to bend the rules a bit. The Chrysler 200 may have bombed in the market, but the commercial that aired at the Super Bowl on Feb 2011 changed the way the public saw…
The road to a greener, cleaner future is paved with many challenges. But it seems as though we’re moving in the right direction. From an EV emoji petition to a Wireless Charging Rank, it’s all taking off, and taking off fast. Come on people, we need 'em emojis! Something that the EV agenda seems to be lacking is consistency, and a coherent action plan. I mean, nowadays, finding a charging station isn’t an issue, you’ve got thousands you can find at the touch of a button. BUT, as we discussed in this article, you may find a fast-charging station, but the charging pin may not be right for your car. In some cases, there isn’t even an adapter for some of the chargers, which leads to endless frustration. In other cases, it takes forever to fully charge an EV. Meanwhile, sneering petrolheads are in and out within fifteen minutes, all stocked and ready to roll. It seems as though there’s a lot of work to be done to fully realise the electric dream. EV in the big city Let's take the case study of George. George lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Central London. Every day, he drives the…
Picture this. You’re taking a leisurely stroll around the neighbourhood, when you spot this parked along the curb: Well hello there! A TR6! In red! Who's the owner? How did he or she get one of these? What're the specs, what's the exact make, the model? What's the story! AAAAAAAARGGHHH! You wait, and wait, but the owner's nowhere insight, and you've really got to dash. Such a shame, if only there was someway you could magically pluck information about this car out of thin air... You’re about to walk away, stumped, when suddenly you notice this in the windshield: This might be your lucky day A QR code? Let’s get scanning! You pull your cell phone out, aim the camera at the disc, and Oh. My. God. Everything there is to know about the car’s right there on your screen. The make, model, year, specs, the whole shebang. No apps, no digital hurdles, nada. Seeing is believing Oh la la... I just scanned the code, and learned that the owner always wanted a purple TR6. He bought his first one for just over £2,000! But thanks to high insurance costs, he shelved the dream car for another day, and settled…
It’s happening folks. Lamborghini is preparing its departure from its very successful V12 engine, and its doing it in style. They’ve announced the arrival of its new glorious track-toy, the Essenza SCV12, and it's to die for. Those curves doh... Onward from the mighty V12 engine We here at Mikaniki revere the V12 engine. It's quite remarkable what this large infrastructure of engineering supremacy has achieved. We’ve paid our own tribute to it, and have counted down our top five V12-powered cars. But what Lamborghini have done with the Essenza SCV12 has made us sit up and take notice. In many ways, this is the same engine you’d find beneath the hood of the Aventador S. A 6.5L unit with the capacity to deliver mounds of power. But there are a few very significant tweaks that have taken this to a new level, starting with repositioning. Aventador S V12 engine...many cylinders right thurr... The team at SC has taken the engine, and given it a 180. Yep, it’s now facing the other way. This meaning that the output, which drives a central differential in the all-wheel-drive Aventador, now comes out of the back. Facing the other way also means its…
How can any iconic car series possibly not dedicate an entire section, as a minimum, to one of, if not the, greatest film spies of all time? I’m of course talking about Bond, James Bond, the action man with style, swagger and a whole lotta panache. For over 50 years in film, and even more in novels, this legendary spook graced the silver screen with his suave demeanour, euphemistically named love interests and, most importantly, those sweet, sweet rides. We’re counting down five of our favourite Bond cars in July’s iconic and unusual cars in film and television. AMC Hornet – The Man With The Golden Gun Kicking off this list is a car that barrel rolled it’s way into our hearts. The AMC Hornet, Roger Moore, Loren ‘Bumps’ Williard; remember these three, because they achieved something historic in this movie that made the crowd "ooo" and "ahhh". Keep rollin' mollin'...barrel rollin'... This was the very first time computer simulations had been used in planning a film stunt. They needed to jump 15.86 meters over a bridge at a speed of 64.36 km/h in just one shot. If that isn’t impressive, then I don’t know what is. The Hornet weighed…
Who let the dogs out? C’mon you could see that coming from a mile away. Apparently, Ford did, and it’s not the kinda sniffer dogs you find at airports. These are robotised, mechanical, and creepy AF, like something out of a Black Mirror episode... Dogs, you say? So what’s Ford’s deal with them dogs? Not something as sinister as hunting down idle workers and annihilating them, if that’s what you thought. No sir. They’ve leased two of these acute K-9s to map their Van Dyke Transmission Plant out in 3D, so Ford can have a better understanding of what tools they need to add or replace for new products. Oh and, they’ve got names. Fluffy (could there be anything more fluffy?) and the original name on the box, Spot. Seriously, Ford, you couldn’t have come up with a second name for Fluffy’s playdate? Spot ain't gonna be happy...Don’t go crying to Boston Dynamics when one of your guys disappears, and all that’s left of him is an ominous blood trail… You can teach a new dog old tricks... Deploying these canine creepers isn’t the worst idea in the world. They’re both equipped with five traditional 3D cameras on tripods each…
UAE's fuel prices for August 2020 have been announced. We have another month of no changes on the fuel price. The prices have remained the same since April, when the fuel prices saw an average drop of about 10%. This marks the fifth month of same fuel prices. The oil market seems to be stable now, with prices not fluctuating and discussions settling down a bit, this doesn't mean things are ok. We will have to wait and see what happens in the future. For those people who lived in UAE before August 2017 would remember a time when the fuel price was regulated and, to some extent, subsidized by the government. The fuel price before that time, the price was AED 1.73/litre for Special 95. Sure the astute observers amongst us will say, that is still lower than what we have now. Yes, you are right but thats not the point. As stated in last month's fuel announcement, the fact that the fuel price is steady is just a coincidence (or rather a decision by the governing body to keep it steady), it doesn't mean they won't change in the upcoming months. As before let's enjoy fuel prices that…