At this very moment, a fleet of top-dollar supercars and celebrity-driven classics are cruising the streets of Europe as part of the Gumball 3000 rally. This year, the cars will drive from Dublin, Ireland, to Bucharest, Romania, over the course of one week, but there’s one vehicle that stands out from the rest.
Created by Saudi Arabia’s Team Galag, the aptly-named Batmobile 2.0 is one of the most detailed and eye-catching Batmobiles ever seen outside of a Hollywood set. The vehicle is based on a Lamborghini Gallardo chassis, and as such, it features a wicked 5.2-liter V10 for forward motivation. Even better than the powertrain, though, is the body, which as you can see in the video above by Mr JWW, is made almost entirely from carbon fiber. Eat your heart out, Batfleck.
Why Batmobile 2.0? In 2014, Team Galag was set to enter the Gumball 3000 in a replica of The Tumbler from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, however, the vehicle was plagued by quality issues and the group was forced to withdraw. Team Galag was quite critical of the Tumbler’s production team afterward, so for this year’s go-round, they brought on a lead engineer with 15 years of experience at Koenigsegg.
Read more: The Dark Knight rides: These are the top 10 Batmobiles of all time
Aesthetically, the Batmobile 2.0 is inspired by Bruce Wayne’s vehicular ally from the Arkham Knight video game, which makes it look even more unbelievable as it prowls the streets in daylight. As for the Lamborghini underpinnings, Christian Bale briefly drove a Murcielago (Spanish for “Bat,” by the way), in 2008’s The Dark Knight, so the Batmobile’s Italian roots aren’t altogether random. And so what if they are, just listen to that thing!
You can follow the Batmobile’s journey across Europe on Team Galag’s Twitter page. For the full Gumball 3000 schedule and other information, click here.
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.