Avoiding motorway congestion

If you are someone who lives in the UK and regularly travel on the motorway, I can understand how frustrating it can be when you discover that there are mile long jams caused by some repair work or an accident. Even if you don't travel up and down the motorway regularly and venture on to the motor ways occasionally, you might want to check out the following sites below:

1. Frixo, a road / motorway traffic reporting site which is updated every 3 minutes via feeds from various sources.

2, My Way, a joint initiative between RAC and Expedia, which provides alternative routes to some of the UK's worst congestion hotspots.

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Citroen C1 Ev'ie - UK's first 4-seater electric car

UK's first 4 seater family car was launched last weekend. The Citroen C1 Ev'ie was developed and built by the Electric Car Corporation.

It is available in 3 or 5 doors versions. According to their site, the car has a top speed of 60 mph with a range of 60- 75 miles on a full charge. Charging from domestic 13 amp socket overnight takes 6 hours.

The cars cost £16,850.

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LDV files for administration

Birmingham based van maker LDV applied for administration. 800 jobs at its Birmingham factory and another 1,200 in various dealerships are at stake.

However, the interesting news is that Malaysian investor Westar is said to be in advanced talks to take control of the company. If that happens, it will become the second British automobile company to be taken over by the Malaysians. The first was Lotus which was taken over by Proton in 1996.

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Useful law firm site

You don't expect a law firm site to show how auto accidents can be avoided - I mean more accidents mean more business for them I guess. However, found out that the Majlessi Law Firm - Legal Metro site has a extensive collection of videos of various car accident crash tests and shows how to avoid them.

Art Majlessi is a well known personal injury lawyer based in Los Angeles with over over 10 years practice and he heads the Majlessi Law Firm. According to their web site, the firm has helped thousands of their clients recover millions of dollars in injury cases. I was quite impressed after watching the video testimonials of some of their past clients.

You can also read up on the latest law updates including some of the latest law cases on their blog. One article which is a must read is "Nine Things You Must Do When You Are Involved in an Auto Accident".

This is one of the most informative sites I have come across recently and they have so many resources including articles on the site which anyone can access totally free of charge. Even though I hope that none of my readers (or myself for that matter) would never be involved in a major accident (touch wood), I feel that we should definitely be aware of the various types of accidents and common injury risk factors including including whiplash.

Do go over and check out the site.

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Cool MINI Cabrio ad.

Check out this crazy Mini Cabrio ad:



The second clip shows how it was made

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2009 Barnard Racer Prototype

2009 Barnard Racer Prototype
(South Africa)


It's been over 50 years since South Africa has produced a home-bred supercar. This is excluding the Shelby Cobras and Noble cars assembled in that country but basically originating from elsewhere. A chap by the name of Chris Barnard wants to change all that by introducing a car he simply calls the Barnard.

The Barnard is powered by a twin-turbo Porsche V8 engine with a power rating of 617bhp (460kW). It should deliver a sub-4 second 0 - 60mph time and a theoretical top speed of over 240mph (386km/h). Only the driver really holds those horses back because the Barnard is missing some equipment namely power steering, ABS brakes and traction control. Even the windows require manual manpower to operate. It's a contrast to the cockpit which is inspired by one of Barnard's other interests, aviation.

Built on a monocoque chassis that's made from lightweight hi-tech steels like Domex and Docol, the car is more race road car than anything else. It's designed to accommodate buyers' interests and can be personalised to a great extent, depending on budgets offered. The engine itself can be uprated to suit the buyer's desires.

"This is a car which has been built with the objective of breaking barriers, and no expense has been spared to make it into what I believe is the most single-minded performance machine yet from South Africa," Barnard said.

To help keep it on the road are things like a rear diffuser, a flat undertray and cutouts on the front wheel arches that generate larges doses of downforce.

Customer deliveries of the Barnard will begin in the middle of the year at a cost of about R1.1 million (about US$110,000) a pop.

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The Proton Exora

Malaysian car maker, Proton has launched their MPV - the Exora. It is Malaysia’s first locally produced MPV.

It was launched on Wednesday by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The 7-seater is powered by Proton's own 1.6 Campro CPS engine linked to a 4 speed automatic transmission.

The MPV has a top speed of 165 km/h (103 mph) and is available in six colours - pyrite brown, gaia blue, genetic silver, tranquillity black, blue haze and solid white.

Prices start at RM69998 going up to RM75998 for the higher end models. Proton had accepted bookings since Feb 21 and it was reported that more than 2500 orders have been received.

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