Among all the changes those in charge of Formula 1 wish to bring, one of the key directives was to make the cars more aggressive and attractive. In short, F1 cars have to look cool. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but that hasn’t stopped some designers from taking a crack at it.
Much in the vein of the proposal that Ferrari put forth, graphic designer Nathan Dearsley has whipped up his own futuristic McLaren F1 racer. Dubbed the MP6/P, the futuristically angular race car is a possible vision of what’s to come, while still getting back to what made the sport great in the past.
Dearsley has provided his own narrative backstory for the car as well. In it, he states that this is a car designed for the 2056 Gran Prix season and that McLaren is still (I will say inexplicably) using Honda-sourced power plants. Let’s hope the hybrid-electric power plants of the future work a little better than the ones Honda is currently supplying.
The MP6/P also wears a throwback livery sported by the MP4/4 racers that were piloted by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the 1988 season. With cancer eliminated by 2056, it’s apparently okay for tobacco companies to transparently advertise on cars again. Its design is “purposefully primitive” and designed to “punch a non-turbulent flow of air out of the rear.” Dearsley says that the flip-side is that the car is unpredictable in heavy braking and overtaking maneuvers, which is for the benefit and delight of spectators.
This is all very much an exercise in fantasy of course, which makes it all the more fun. In fact, Dearsley’s description of the car sounds a lot like what F1 bosses want: Flashy cars, and exciting, unpredictable racing. We can’t know what F1 will look like that far into the future, of course, but we hope it looks this cool sooner rather than later.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.