DOMESTIC DRIFT
If you can’t find a racetrack close to home, bring the racetrack home. Takeshi Teruya of Hamilton, New Zealand spent $10,500 converting his family’s driveway into a private drift course, as a way of battling boredom during the pandemic. Teruya said that the motivation behind building the track was “to do something fun for the kids.” A montage video of the track’s construction highlighted the teamwork of the family and neighbours who went to work building the 0.1-mile course. The video closed with Teruya saying, “Huge thanks to my friends, my neighbours and my wife for helping me with this project.”
WHO SENT YOU?
Officers from the San Francisco Police Department were caught on camera in April attempting to perform a traffic stop on a driverless rideshare vehicle shortly before it took off on history’s lowest effort escape attempt. The video shows an officer approaching a Chevrolet Bolt for not having its headlights on, peeking in the driver-side window and finding no driver in sight. As the officer returns to his vehicle, the Bolt peels out and drives through an intersection before parking again on the other side. The Bolt belonged to a self-driving car service called Cruise. The company addressed the incident in a tweet, saying “Our AV (autonomous vehicle) yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic stop, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued.” A maintenance team from Cruise was eventually called by police to pick up the vehicle.
LITTLE TIKES, SUPERCHARGED
With all the teens making headlines recently as would-be stunt drivers, a U.K.-based track experience company is opting for some exposure therapy, offering kids aged ten to 17 the opportunity to drive a supercar on a racetrack. Track Days is charging £79 ($130CAD) per ticket, for a turn behind the wheel of a Ferrari 458 Italia or a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570 Performante. The program will be under strict supervision and come with an introductory lesson, followed by a nearly 10-km run around the track. Track Days says it intends to take the program to ten tracks around the U.K.
BE CALM
A Victoria, B.C. driver got a surprise delivery of wellness and self-care through the window of their Prius on March 6., prompting local police to scour dashcam footage for the mystery Himalayan salt rock thrower. The vehicle was occupied at the time of the salty assault, which took place at the intersection of Douglas and Johnson streets around 6:45 p.m., leaving the driver with non-life-threatening injuries that were treated on-scene. Initially reported as a thrown brick, Victoria police attended to a scene where it was found that a Himalayan salt rock had smashed through a car window, striking the driver and showering them in the glass. Victoria police said the suspect was seen walking away eastbound on Johnson Street. The suspect is described as a 50-year-old Caucasian man with a medium build. He had long grey hair and wore a black winter coat with a fur-trimmed hood.
WINDS OF PROGRESS
When you’re young, you dream about what cause you might end up dedicating your life to—fighting fires, rescuing animals, traveling to outer space—or the fight to keep a vanity license plate that says “FART.” Karly Sindy of Asheville, N.C. is proudly carrying the torch for toilet humour after the DMV told her that they had received complaints about her “offensive” license plate, but that a letter explaining “what the plate means to [her]” could potentially convince the state to allow the gas to pass, as it were. After consulting Reddit for the best course of action, Sindy devised the Friends of Asheville Recreational Trails (FART) club—a completely real and legitimate club in the city of Asheville that held a small meet-up to prove that they absolutely are real and have existed for longer than an hour.
