Concrete Circus – last night’s urban sports documentary on Channel 4 – while overly long, slightly up itself and ironically lacking in momentum (according to some crits) – had one spectacular redeeming feature. Stu Thomson’s short film of Scottish street trials rider Danny MacAskill tearing up a disused railway yard.
A thing of beauty.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1QdkqTUfFg
Designer and futurist Da Feng’s concept for a car with an adaptive ‘active aerodynamic’ shell looks like sci-fi, sounds like sci-fi but is, he insists, perfectly feasible.
Partially inspired by the lateral movement of the Cars characters, the ash from his cigarettes and concepts like BMW’s Gina, Feng’s vehicle started nearly three years ago as his final project at Conventry University.
What you see here is the third iteration of the Flake, which uses 250 active body panels controlled by mini solenoids pulling on carbon nano-tube wires. The result is a body that can lay flat to decrease drag, hinge upward to slow the vehicle and collect solar power or open fully to aid cornering and increase downforce.
Just as trick are the “D-Wheels” which are made up of 12 individual legs that extend upwards and contract downwards to fit the driving surface. Both the wheels and the body structure act as part of the suspension, allowing the Flake to corner hard and even go off road. Theoretically.
But you know what they say about flakes.
The Flakey Story (Pretending Pretentious)
Designboom continues its tour of the Ferrari plant at Maranello with a feature on the 15,000 square meter, temperature, humidity and decibel controlled ‘nuova meccanica’ or mechanical workshop where engine parts are produced.
Ferrari vehicles are assembled and completed by hand, but in recent years the company has integrated automation and robotics into certain elements of the production process. at the ‘nuova meccanica’, robots work in conjunction with one another and with human technicians to produce parts, temper cylinder heads (with liquid nitrogen), and complete other machining.
GALLERY: Ferrari Factory Tour: Mechanical Workshop (Designboom)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD7pgT8dZss
And three sons. Tasmanian Devil keepers at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, show off four diabolical new joeys.
Exclusive kennels by Best Friend’s Home
‘Ein Königreich für kleine und grosse Hunde.’
Indeed. From about €1400 and up.
Part one of Designboom’s photo feature on Ferrari: pictures of the company’s ‘new assembly line’ faciliity at Maranello – one of the final stages of a manufacturing process that produces between 10 and 12 hand-built cars a day.
Scroll. Growl. Drool.
