A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird: From Russia with love. By car.
A team of explorers has just celebrated travelling 4,000 kilometres from Russia to Canada via the North Pole.
No big deal, you say? Air Canada was having a seat sale anyway?
If so, somebody forgot to tell this intrepid gang of Russians, who drove the entire way in specially modified busses with massive tires. They did so over two months, at an average speed of 10 kilometres per hour (and you thought your commute was bad).
Threading between icy outcrops, with the constant danger of falling through the shifting pack ice - it hardly sounds fun, does it. Still, part of exploring is proving something can be done, and the Russian team also had the opportunity to experience polar life in all of its frozen splendour.
They ran across roving polar bears several times, saw the spectacular northern lights, and even bumped into a pack of walruses, about which everyone was very excited until they figured out it wasn't actually that beret-wearing guy from MythBusters.
The cars now sit in Resolute Bay, planning the return trip back across the Bering Strait. I suppose it beats flying coach.
Norwegian supercar owner irons out speed bump
It's not entirely clear what you would do with the only high-revving Lexus LFA in the frost-bitten town of Stavanger, Norway (and actually, the only such car in all the Scandinavian countries), but one lucky owner had a problem bigger than high annual snowfalls. Namely, a speed bump.
This speed bump, also the only one in town, was like kryptonite to Rune Berg Vik's automotive superhero. As fast as the Lexus might be at clambering over a racetrack curb, it couldn't get over this particular berm. So what's a supercar owner with the blood of Vikings pumping through his veins to do?
Bludgeon the offending lump with the Hammer of Thor? Well, no actually. Instead, Vik politely petitioned the local council and they removed the speed bump.
If I'm honest, that's a little bit of a disappointing outcome. Oh well, at least daily driving a 552 horsepower, half-million-dollar, V-10-powered, rear-wheel-drive berserker's battleaxe that screams like an approaching Valkyrie is a bit more Viking-like.
Acura to build NSX in Ohio
I double-dog dare you to point out exactly where Marysville, Ohio is on an outline of the continental United States without any of the state lines drawn in. It's sort of - in the middleish bit. Or to the east?
Well, geography was never my strong point. The point is, Honda's recent announcement that they're going to be building their world-beating, mid-engined supercar outside of Japan is a bit of a surprise.
Of course, being that Honda already has two production facilities in Ohio, perhaps the press release shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, the Accord Hybrid will be built just down the road, and the NSX will contain some of those same components.
NSX production is slated to start sometime in 2015, which means we have approximately two more years of being shown "concept" cars at every single auto show between now and then.
Car thief nabbed in McDonald's drive-through
There is almost nothing filled with the satisfying blend of justice served and schadenfreude that is a good dumb-thief story. Perhaps hearing that Donald Trump's hair spontaneously combusted.
Anyway, sit back and get ready to have the cockles of your heart warmed by this dim-witted ne'er-do-well. Having stolen a 1995 Toyota 4Runner from outside an apartment building, Katherine York immediately left town, right? Wrong.
Being, well - how does the expression go? "A few fries short of a Happy Meal," York instead filled her ill-gotten SUV with stolen clothing and decided to pick up a snack at the local McDonald's drive-through.
This all happened in Kennewick, Wash., which has a population of only 77,000. Oh yeah, and the drive-through in question is just five miles from where York swiped the 4Runner. And it happens to be where the workplace of one Virginia Maiden - the Toyota's rightful owner.
I can't even imagine the roller coaster of loss, anger, resentment, resignation and then, at work: "Hey . . . hey, that looks like my car.
THAT IS MY CAR!"
Off to jail for the miscreant, and keys safely back in Virginia's pocket. So delicious, I think I'll have fries with that.
Watch this space for all the week's best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to brakingnews@ gmail.com. Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendan_mcaleer.
