Who knew that of all the parts laying around McLaren’s technology center, there’d be a flux capacitor handy?
A few things are coming back to McLaren this year for this year’s 2015 Formula 1 season. Honda is returning as its engine supplier and Former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso returns to the team after a scandal-fueled separation from the team in 2008. These circumstances have surely inspired this Back to the Future style video where Alonso and teammate Jensen Button take a page from Doc Brown’s handbook, converting a McLaren 650S into a familiar-looking time machine.
The video starts with Button skateboarding to McLaren’s tech center, where he encounters the silver 650S unloading from a transport truck. After uttering “Lewis? is that you?” (sounds like Button is already stuck in the past if the thinks Lewis Hamilton is showing up in a McLaren), Alonso urges him to climb in (don’t ask where he got schematics for a time machine, We’re sure they came from a legit source this time), whipping the tail of the 641 horsepower sports car via remote control.
Button incredulously discovers the 650S has indeed been converted into a time machine at this point, and the two plot to where they will take the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 powered supercar.
Button suggests they travel back to the 1988 Brazilian Gran Prix, where F1 legend Ayrton Senna took his Honda-powered McLaren from 21st place to second after an amazing display of driver talent. Although he was disqualified after a disallowed vehicle change, it still remains an amazing moment in McLaren and Honda’s history together.
Alonso suggests instead they look ahead to the near future, leaping to this year’s Melbourne Gran Prix that will kick off the season, and the two take off. You’d think the sports car with its 3-second 0 to 60 time would get up to 88 miles per hour rather quicker than demonstrated in the video, but maybe the new Mr. Fusion system is heavier than we realize.
It’s a fun video that’s designed to get us excited for what McLaren has in store for us this season. Still, If we had a supercar time machine, we’d be more inclined to see some of racing history first before hopping forward a couple of months.
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.