Awesome Rides

Zooming down a drag strip inside of a plastic trash can seems like a terrible idea. Regardless, that’s what speed freak Chris Rollins did. In his quest to set a new world record, he built a motorized tricycle that fits inside the can and outfitted it with a 12 hp Honda clone engine. We can only imagine how terrifying it is to drive.

The physics of Star Wars aren’t the same as our reality, so you have to take this video from RED SIDE with a grain of salt. But they did their best to convert science fiction to reality and calculate the relative speeds of various vehicles and spacecraft. Place your bets now on the fastest way to travel in a galaxy far, far away.

Vehicles that roll on tracks are generally built for their terrain-handling capabilities and not their speed. But rctestflight managed to achieve both with this machine, a direct-drive snowcat driven by electric skateboard motors. With its skinny tracks installed, the custom-built R/C vehicle can hit speeds up to 50 mph.

It’s not nearly as large as their record-setting ice carousel, but this spinning race track from the Beyond the Press channel looks like a fun wintertime activity. We did get a little dizzy watching the video at times, though. In case you’re interested, those three-wheeled, all-season scooters come from Skick.

We previously enjoyed a few snowy days driving the Ram 1500 TRX. After another week of living with this bonkers truck in warmer and drier surroundings, we’re convinced no production pickup’s more fun-to-drive or off-road capable. This one looks incredible, bathed in pearl-coat Hydro Blue paint with black accents.

This factory video from All Process of World takes us inside Hyundai Sungwoo Casting for a look at the machinery used to produce wheels. The process starts by melting aluminum bars, pouring the molten metal into molds, then quenching the wheels for strength before grinding away excess metal and finishing them.

After making a homebrew hovercraft with a leaf blower, Hideyasu Ito created his own unique take on the air-cushioned ride, a single-person hovercraft that floats on four plastic bubbles. Tom Scott had the rare privilege to meet the inventor and take his amazing creation for a ride.

There’s no mistaking the red-trimmed kidney grille on this hybrid SUV as anything but a bonker’s BMW. The automaker’s most potent M car uses a twin-turbo V8 and electric drivetrain to crank out 738 hp and 735 lb-ft. of torque. The performance-tuned XM Label Red zooms from 0-60 mph in 3.7 sec, with a top speed of 175 mph.

There’s a good reason that wheels are round: friction. But basic physics are never going to stand in the way of mad builder The Q. His latest creation is a standard bike frame with one major modification – it rolls on custom-made square wheels. It rides pretty smoothly, but it also doesn’t work how we assumed it would.

Most gas-powered cars use a large, 12-volt battery to start their engines. The guys from Garage 54 previously figured out it was possible to start a car with 1000 AA batteries, but this time they conducted a little experiment to see how few of the 1.5-volt batteries you could get away with. They should try it again with rechargeables.

The Nissan Armada has been the Japanese automaker’s largest SUV for 20 years. We hadn’t spent time in one in a while and recently had the opportunity to live with the 2023 Armada for a week. Does the upscale Platinum model have what it takes to keep up in today’s crowded 3-row SUV market?

In 2011, Vagabond Works created a skateboard like no other. The Land Crawler eXXtreme is a robotic skateboard that walks using a mechanism based on Theo Janssen’s Strandbeests. It uses two motors and 24 legs to scurry along and has a load capacity of 300 kg or about 661 lb. We imagine its battery doesn’t last long.

Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 EV swept the 2022 New York Auto Show awards. This week Hyundai did it again with the IONIQ 6 and unveiled the IONIQ 5 Disney100 Platinum Concept car, the first-ever collaboration between Disney Imagineering and an automaker. A limited-edition production version will commemorate Disney’s 100th anniversary.

Mountain bikes are fun to ride, and so are skateboards. So is riding twice as fun if you combine the two? Master of weird bikes Sam Pilgrim put the idea to the test by grafting skateboard trucks onto the front fork and rear end of his bike. It works surprisingly well, though we think he should have welded the pedals in place.

We love the bold black styling of Ride1Up’s REVV1 pedal-assisted electric bike. It rides on fat tires, and its 750-watt motor can hit speeds up to 20 mph. Take it off the public streets and kick it up to 28 mph in off-road mode. It comes in two models: one with a full suspension and a hardtail version with front suspension only.

For two consecutive years, our favorite NY Auto Show moment has been the concept reveal at Genesis House. This week the Genesis GV80 Coupe Concept blew us away, not only for its sporty profile, Magma paint, and carbon-fiber-shelled Recaro seats, but because this is no pipe dream: a tweaked version will be produced next year.

Stunt driver Paul Swift and his precision driving team have performed in numerous movies, TV shows, commercials, and live shows. This showreel compiles some of their many amazing stunts, including Audis dancing in a swimming pool, a Ford Raptor jumping from an airplane, and cars balancing on two wheels.

Jeep heads to the 57th Annual Easter Jeep Safari with a fantastic set of concept off-roaders. The custom 4x4s include a 1978 Cherokee with a hybrid powertrain, lifted Wrangler and Gladiator Rubicons, a modern Jeep Scrambler with a 6.4L HEMI V8, and a battery-electric Wrangler that makes 625 hp and 850 lb-ft. of torque.

Presumably, because his wife was sick of him tearing up their lawn, inventor Colin Furze set out to come up with a mod that lets him ride a drift trike without chewing up the grass. The trick was making lightweight, spherical “wheels” by welding together sheet metal and hydroforming them using a pressure washer.

Bye bye Aventador, hello Revuelto. Lamborghini’s high-performance hybrid combines a naturally-aspirated V12 engine with three electric motors and a unique eight-speed, double-clutch transverse gearbox to produce 1001 horsepower. It zooms from 0-to-62 mph in 2.5 seconds on its way to an insane top speed of 217 mph.

A normal bike uses a set of gears to influence the amount of torque sent to its rear wheel. Tom Stanton wanted to see if it was possible to create a bike transmission that uses magnets to turn its wheel and create resistance. Put your thinking caps on for this brainy video that incorporates physics, math, and engineering.

Locking up your bicycle to a rack or pulling your car into a marked space seem like nice, low-tech approaches to parking. Tom Scott explains why some locations in Japan have adopted a much more complicated system, using underground garages and massive, robotically-controlled systems for parking bikes and cars.

Got an old ATV and a moped sitting in your garage? You could take them to the junkyard, or you could do what Meanwhile in the Garage did and turn them into a tank for your kid. Of course, there was much more to it than rearranging parts. Quantum Tech HD boiled down the laborious 6-month project into a 20-minute video.