Andrew Bodov of 360 Cities took the 360 degree color image of the Gale Crater sent back by NASA’s Curiosity Rover from Mars and turned it into an interactive panoramic similar to Google Maps Street View. You can click and drag to look around and there’s even a pretty good view of the rover itself:
Source: 360 Cities via IO9
The Wall Street Journal posted a pretty interesting article about American lithium-ion EV battery producers, A123, being rescued by Chinese investors. A123 was a startup based on MIT students and professors. They got money from the US Government and the state of Michigan and started producing batteries for a few manufacturers including Fisker and the upcoming Chevy Spark EV. A123 was on the verge of bankruptcy after having to recall the batteries in the Fisker Karma and the US government was unwilling to loan them any more money.
China Deal to Axquire US Battery Maker is Just the Beginning – WSJ
Mitsubishi released this video of their EV program at this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. They fielded two cars, a stock i-Miev and a tube frame i-Miev Evolution that has three motors and almost twice the output. There is footage of the i-Miev Evolution being crashed in practice. The team repaired the car and it came back to place second in the EV category and 8th overall with a 10:30.850. The stock i-Miev was the only showroom stock car to compete and finished with a 15:10.557. For reference, the Toyota P002 finished first in the EV class and 6th overall with a 10:15.380 which is less than 30 seconds off the overall record. Monster Tajima’s E-Runner DNF’ed with technical problems after running strong in practice. The P002 now owns the EV record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife and Pikes Peak.
Some days I feel like I sift through an endless sea of crappy car stuff on the internet trying to find gems to post here on the blog. I worry about being able to tell the difference between just hitting a drought that day or if I’m just becoming jaded and hard to impress after being exposed to a massive volume of content. That’s why it was refreshing to come across this video from Sam Smith of Car and Driver today. He takes a 1967 Lotus Elan and Mazda’s MX-5 Super 20 Concept for a spin out at Laguna Seca for all of us to enjoy. Smith discusses why the Elan was a significant car when it was produced and which of its successful aspects inspired Mazda when they made the first MX-5 Miata. The discussion ends up touching on what the true definition of a “driver’s car” should be. I’m glad to see there are still automotive journalists who are not too rock star to appreciate lightweight sports cars with modest power. It’s still somewhat of a mystery to me why so many people love the Mazda MX-5 but cry bloody murder about how the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ don’t have enough power. That’s the difference between road racers and forum “tuners,” I guess. There goes the jaded part of me talking again. Enjoy the video:
The American Le Mans series put together this video documenting their closest ever finish. It happened at Road America last year: