Overdrive TV

This week it’s all gone a bit hybrid. We reviewed the future, in the form of the Honda CRZ and the brand new Lexus CT200h, which sounds like a microwave.

This week we reviewed two cars, one of which could probably fit inside the other. Audi’s tiny new car with a huge price tag, the Audi A1, and Mercedes Benz clever, fuel efficient and massive Vito Shuttle. Guess which one fits where.

This week it we featured two French rivals in a bit of a civil war. The Megane GT is a fine contender, with a 1.4T petrol engine you’d expect it to be boring but is exactly the opposite. A superb car i if you enjoy driving but don’t want the fuel bills. The Citroen C4 is the more luxurious, more laid back option, but both are superb value for money.

We’ll be back next week on Expresso with the Audi A1 and the Mercedes Vito. Which we imagine the A1 could slip into comfortably.

I wonder if the Secret Service have a protocol for this? In a fairly low-tech glitch to Obama’s visit of the Irelands, his super-limo beached itself leaving the US Embassy in Dublin. We’ve all had that feeling before, driving over a severely angled parking ramp or such, waiting for the car to scrape. The longer the car, the worse the problem.

By the sounds of the horrible clanging sound at the beginning of the video, the official Presidential Limo becomes horribly stuck, much to the delight of the Irish crowds.

The Presidential Limo is nicknamed “The Beast” – and for good reason. It’s actually built on a truck chassis, with ridiculously thick steel plated armour, sculpted to look a bit like a Cadillac. The limo is flown with him around the world, and given that this is the President’s first trip outside the USA since the killing of Osama Bin Laden, security is tight.

I imagine this will make the news later this evening.

By the way, rumour has it that when Obama has a pint of Guiness later today, they Keg will have been flown in with him from the USA, for safety concerns. Now that is just silly.

Launched in Geneva this year, the Aventador is the successor to the Murcielago, which was the successor to the Diablo after Audi got involved. But if this new super-Lambo is anything to go by, the marriage between the Germans and Italians is working, and working well.

Typically, they’ve gone simply nuts with the power and speed: 0-100km/h in under 3 seconds, a top speed of 350km/h, just shy of 700hp (515kW) makes the Aventador faster than anything from arch-rival Ferrari.

The hype for the car is just starting to kick in, and this long form advert is the first in look at the car in action. And hell’s bells does it look good.

Interesting tidbit for after you’ve watched the video, the Murcielago was designed by a Belgian called Luc Donkewolke, or Luke Dark Clouds. Coincidence?

Gavin Williams, a co-editor on this site, recently bought a Subaru. He loves it, but has to put up with at least one person every day asking “But why did you buy a Subaru?”

Well, this little video should help. It might be a little old we reckon but it’s still astonishing to watch. Quite simply, the smallest sedan Subaru makes, albeit in it’s most powerful form here, the WRX STI, is called upon to pull a huge truck through the snow and ice of some godforsaken freezing cold country.

Can you just imagine the conversation that happened before they tried this? The owner must have incredible debating skills; even as a motoring scribe and fan of Subarus, if I was on the scene, I would never have believed that the Impreza could manage. I would have also had a huge cackle at the foot-high pile of snow on top of the Impreza.

Obviously the car’s all-wheel drive helped, and obviously the truck driver was flooring it as well, but this remains an advert for Subaru sent from PR heaven.

As an added bonus, take  a look at the big brand name painted on the truck as it goes past.

Ciro De Siena

Modern windshields are pretty incredible, but there’s always a limit to what they can actually withstand. As any physics student will confirm, at highway speeds any object takes on a whole new level of force.

This driver captured a wooden pole, maybe a metre long, falling off the trailer in front of him, bouncing off the tarmac and crashing straight through the windscreen.

Unbelievably rare and chance footage, it had be jumping back from my screen!