Autoblog

Opa! Flaming cheese closes tunnel in Norway after truck fire [w/video]

Jonathon Ramsey — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:58:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Europe, Safety, Videos

Behold, the power of cheese. Flaming fromage has clogged up the Brattlitunnelen in Norway for almost a week. According to Reuters, a truck was hauling brunost, a caramelized Norwegian goat cheese, through the tunnel when the cheese somehow caught fire. Due to its high percentage of fat and sugar, the cheese can burn "almost like petrol" if it gets hot enough, and the fire-concentrating properties of the tunnel meant it took four days to put out the flames.

But there's still the toxic fumes to deal with - the tunnel near the costal town of Narvik remains closed and might not reopen for another week until fondue and its odors are cleared. You can watch firefighters work to put out The Tunneling Inferno in the video below.

Continue reading Opa! Flaming cheese closes tunnel in Norway after truck fire [w/video]

Opa! Flaming cheese closes tunnel in Norway after truck fire [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Watch BMW drop a priceless Art Car onto a cliff

Jonathon Ramsey — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:46:00 EST

Filed under: Videos, BMW, Specialty, Design/Style

BMW isn't saying exactly why it put the M3 GT2 Art Car done by Jeff Koons atop Norway's 640-meter-high (2,112 feet) Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), but it did. There's said to be some connection to Edvald Munch's painting The Scream, but things are a bit fuzzy there (and Koons is American), and does there really need to be a reason anyway?

The racing coupe was on display in London during the Olympics, where BMW was the transport sponsor, so we suppose this is one way to top the quadrennial spectacle. While it would have been much simpler and far cheaper to drag out the green screen and video workstation, or Photoshop, or a matte painter, that's not the BMW way. So the real car was driven to a landing zone and a helicopter hauled the M3 to the top of the rock, where we suppose it can now stop pining for the fjords.

There's a video below with the action, and another here that the owner won't let us embed.

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Watch BMW drop a priceless Art Car onto a cliff originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can a Lamborghini Aventador beat an F-16 Fighting Falcon in a drag race?

John Neff — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:58:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Lamborghini, Military

The Lamborghini Aventador is one of the quickest and fastest supercars on the market today, but does it have what it takes to beat a fighter jet? And not just any jet, but an F-16 Fighting Falcon, perhaps the most iconic plane flown by the U.S. Air Force? Danish auto rag Bilmagasinet (literally translated as "car magazine") aimed to answer this question, and brought both vehicles to an active air field to find out whether or not this bull could beat a little old bird.

All we have to go on is their well-produced YouTube video, but from the footage we can see the Aventador more than holds its own in a straight drag race with the fighter plane. Once the Falcon takes flight, however, the Lamborghini gets left behind.

This stunt was of course performed by Richard Hammond back in 2007 with a Bugatti Veyron and Eurofighter Typhoon jet on Top Gear. We're no experts on military jets, but the Eurofighter is a much newer design than the F-16 Fighting Falcon and we suspect a much tougher opponent to face across the Christmas Tree of a makeshift drag strip. As such, the Veyron, today's current king of super cars, was no match for the Typhoon.

Scroll down to see how well the Aventador fared for yourself, as well as relive the Veyron's challenge.

Continue reading Can a Lamborghini Aventador beat an F-16 Fighting Falcon in a drag race?

Can a Lamborghini Aventador beat an F-16 Fighting Falcon in a drag race? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan Juke-R goes ice fishing in Norway

Noah Joseph — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:32:00 EST

Filed under: Performance, Europe, Videos, Crossover, Nissan

There's something about the boffins over at Nissan - particularly those working at its racing headquarters in the UK. We're not quite sure what it is. Oh, right: they're bonkers. Absolutely off their rockers, in the best way possible. How else would you explain the decision to take an entry-level crossover and swap out its powertrain for that of a supercar?

We're talking, of course, about the Juke-R, the 480-horsepower demon cockroach from hell. After racing it against a field of supercars in Dubai, Nissan has taken the Juke-R to a decidedly different setting - an ice track near the former Winter Olympics site in Lillehammer, Norway - and set it loose.

And if that wasn't quite enough, the Japanese automaker didn't put it in the hands of an veteran ice racer - say, the four-time Formula One World Champion who drives for its sister company in the Andros Trophy, they gave it over to its gamer-turned-racer Lucas Ordonez who, being from Spain, had never driven on ice before. Sounds sane to us. Scroll on down to see the results in the brief video clip.

Continue reading Nissan Juke-R goes ice fishing in Norway

Nissan Juke-R goes ice fishing in Norway originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How not to tow a big rig on a snowy mountain

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:31:00 EST

Filed under: Truck, Etc., Safety, Videos, Work

Towing a load as massive as a semi and its loaded trailer is a dangerous undertaking no matter the circumstances. We don't have any first-hand experience in the matter, but we'd wager that the danger level goes off the charts when that load is being towed through the winding roads of a snowy mountain overpass.

Need proof? Check out the video after the break, wherein a tow truck driver barely escapes death as his rig switches roles from the vehicle doing the towing to being towed itself... toward a guardrail and a massive cliff ledge that leads to an icy river below.

Like we said: dangerous. According to reports, the driver of the tow truck was taken to a hospital in Norway where he was listed in stable condition with broken bones. Click past the break to watch the dramatic video.

Continue reading How not to tow a big rig on a snowy mountain

How not to tow a big rig on a snowy mountain originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motor Trend visits Norway, looks for lineage in Audi R8 Spyder

Jonathon Ramsey — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:59:00 EST

Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Etc., Videos, Audi, Luxury

When Motor Trend tecnical director Frank Markus decided he needed to get away, you should know that his 'time out' wouldn't merely be a weekend at the local hot springs or camping down by the river. The MT crew has made fine work of taking glorious trips in glorious cars - and a Subaru Outback - and Markus would keep it up, tracing Viking routes and his own heritage in an Audi R8 V10 Spyder along Norway's Atlantic Road.

We'd love to tell you about it but we'd be remiss - the story is worth the read and the video, after the jump, is even moreso worth the watch. To Markus and his steed, we say "skaal!"

Continue reading Motor Trend visits Norway, looks for lineage in Audi R8 Spyder

Motor Trend visits Norway, looks for lineage in Audi R8 Spyder originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kenneth Moen drifts a hillclimb with his bonkers Toyota Supra turbo

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:57:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Etc., Videos, Toyota

Nothing incinerates a perfectly good set of tires better than a drift car. And no drift car makes as much smoke as Kenneth Moen's turbocharged Toyota Supra. Yes, Ken Block turns out some great videos with high production values and plenty of tail-wagging craziness... but wait 'til you get a load of this.

Moen pointed his battle-scarred Supra in the general direction of 'up' at the Lysgårdsbakkene Ski Jumping Arena in Lillehammer, Norway, a facility you may recall from the 1994 Winter Olympics. Smoke-filled antics ensued, and it was all captured on video for your viewing pleasure.

If you fancy yourself a fan of drifting insanity, do yourself a favor and watch the video after the break.

Continue reading Kenneth Moen drifts a hillclimb with his bonkers Toyota Supra turbo

Kenneth Moen drifts a hillclimb with his bonkers Toyota Supra turbo originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry owner catches would-be Mercedes thief... with a forklift

Jeff Glucker — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:59:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Mercedes-Benz

Forklift operator foils Mercedes-Benz theft - Click above to watch video after the jump

Forget LoJack, your Viper alarm system and The Club, all you really need to nab would-be car thieves is a forklift. That was the preferred tool of one Norwegian man who was set on stopping a crook from pinching a Mercedes-Benz E-Class from the W210 generation. The man grabbed the Benz with his tractor-based forklift and raised the front end of the car off the ground, damaging his car in the process. Tourists caught it all on tape, and the police arrived to find the not-so-grand larcenist sitting in the driver's seat.

Click past the jump for the clip. You can click forward to the two minute mark if you want to see the fuzz arrive.

Continue reading Angry owner catches would-be Mercedes thief... with a forklift

Angry owner catches would-be Mercedes thief... with a forklift originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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John Haugland Rally School - Driver's education for the terminally slow

Zach Bowman — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:57:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Hatchback

John Haugland Rally School with Subaru - Click above for high-res image gallery

Our goal here is pretty simple: drive consecutive laps around a varied and technical rally training course without killing 63 year-old world rally competitor and all-around good guy John Haugland. You see, the man has been brave enough to strap himself into the copilot's chair of the same race-prepped Subaru WRX STI that we've been charged with wrangling, and judging from the relaxed look on his face and his calm tone of voice, he doesn't quite get the mortal danger he's placed himself in. He must have excellent life insurance.

Haugland has trained some of the world's best rally drivers, including the guano-crazy-fast Petter Solberg, but today, he's trying his best to impart a minute fraction of his encyclopedic knowledge on the art of going faster to a handful of journos just outside of Oslo, Norway. The idea here is that Subaru wants us all know as much as we can about flinging the beauty of all-wheel drive around a rally course before we get introduced to the 2011 WRX and WRX STI next month. To that end, we spent about 20 minutes in a classroom where the underlying message went something like this:

Forget everything you know about proper driving lines, car control, traction and speed. You're in our sandbox now.

Gallery: John Haugland Rally School

Continue reading John Haugland Rally School - Driver's education for the terminally slow

John Haugland Rally School - Driver's education for the terminally slow originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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