The Lotus Exige is already a rather remarkable little car, so when you take it and hand it off to a tuner, the results are often mind blowing.
Sector111’s Exige is a prime example of that fact. The track-tuned terror is ready to take on any supercar thanks to a roots hybrid supercharger that brings horsepower up to 240+. (Which doesn’t sound like much, until you remember that the car weights just 2,000 lbs with a full tank and a fat driver.
With great power comes great responsibility however, so the Sector111 Exige also includes aerodynamic enhancements like a carbon fiber front splitter, undertray, 5-element rear diffuser, side skirts, rear wing, and arch louvers. In addition, carbon fiber body mods include a CF roof, rear hatch, access panels, and side scoops to keep weight down without sacrificing aerodynamic performance.
An AP Racing Big Brake Kit brings everything to a halt when needed, and a Nitron Exige GT3 triple adjustable suspension system keeps all four wheels planted through even the most pant soiling turns.
Want more?
That’s just too damn bad, because there’s just not much left on the car to modify! (Lightweight valve stems coming soon…)
At the end of the original version of The Italian Job (yes, this will contain a spoiler so don’t read on if you haven’t seen it) the gang is left perched atop a cliff in their bus, with them at one end and their gold at the other. (Literally, a cliffhanger.) Knowing that it would be impossible for them to get to the gold without tipping the bus off the cliff, they make the wise decision and abandon hopes of endless riches.
However, the Royal Society of Chemists wasn’t convinced that the gang needed to leave without the best of both worlds, and created a competition to see who could come up with the best solution.
In the end, John Godwin came up with an idea that’s as genius as it is plausible, and won himself a trip to Turin with the following solution:
Break the windows at the back to reduce weight; break the windows at the front inwards to save weight; hold one gang member upside-down out of the window to deflate the front tires and stabilize the vehicle; drain the rear fuel tank through an access panel at the bottom of the bus; gang members leave one by one from the front, collecting stones to replace their weight; keep adding stones until someone can safely go to the rear to retrieve the gold.
Easy, right?
In addition to John’s entry, more than 2,000 people submitted their own ideas, so be sure to visit the RSC website for more, or download Godwin’s PDF if you’d like to see all the science behind his daring gold rescue.
Count It Off is a new web app/iPhone app that helps you count calories and track your weight, and roobaLog has done a complete rundown of the before and after as the app went from concept sketch done on a long flight to the final 1.0 app that’s available now.
Since Microsoft went straight from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, they didn’t stop to do any revisions to the original like Sony did to the PlayStation 2.
However, this didn’t stop one crafty modder from making his own “Xbox Slim” project, and using it as a media center that can play games.
The Xbox Slim cuts more than half the weight from the original, weighing in at just four pounds, and adds in advanced features like a DVD/CD-R combo drive, 60GB of onboard storage, a built-in Wi-Fi receiver, and a built in receiver for the Logitech wireless controller.
Along with the hardware revisions, XBMC has been added for media center capability, and SNES, Sega, NeoGeo, and other emulators have been added for classic gaming goodness.
It might not be certified by Microsoft, but chances are, that isn’t exactly a bad thing.
While the Bugatti Veyron is obviously king of the former, a much smaller competitor is trying to become the king of the latter: The Hayabusa Kart.
By taking a shifter cart chassis and strapping on 1,300 cc’s of Suzuki Hayabusa power, the power [...]
Though it doesn’t look like much, this 1959 Opel T-1 managed to get 376.59 miles per gallon back in 1973! How did it manage such an impressive number?
The weight was reduced as much as possible by stripping out every part of the interior except for the seat.
The wind resistance was reduced by chopping the top [...]
