Sicily’s Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, said in myth to house the forge of Hephaestus, blacksmith of the Greek gods. It has been an ever present threat of destruction and has laid waste to villages, train stations, and cable cars alike. Leave it to a rally driver to look at it and say: “sure, I’ll give that a whirl.”
In a video recently released by Peugeot, rally driver Paolo Andreucci climbs up the rich volcanic earth up to the peak in a Peugeot 208 T16 R5 rally car.
The car is powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces about 280 horsepower, sending it to all four wheels by way of a five-speed sequential gearbox. It premiered last year, quickly getting victories under its belt shortly thereafter in European Rally Championship events.
All the shots of this volcanic hill climb are gorgeous, showing Andreucci masterfully dancing the French rally car across the terrain. It isn’t done for any particular reason other than for the fun of it, unlike its superpowered counterpart that Sebastian Loeb drove to set a record climbing Pikes Peak.
Firing up an active volcano in the middle of the Mediterranean in a rally car wasn’t on our bucket list before, but it sure as heck is now.
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.