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| Keep your head |
French traffic cops have been catching out irresponsible drivers with speed cameras hidden in the police officers' helmets. The officers ride unmarked motorcycles and the cameras are virtually undetectable to other drivers, with the result that they are not able to warn each other of the police presence.
Posh Punto
In an effort to give the Grande Punto a more upmarket image, Fiat has put one of its models in the window of the luxury London department store Harrods. |
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| Colour blind |
The planet's drivers prefer a silver car, according to a global study by DuPont Automotive Systems. Apparently out of all the passenger vehicles sold around the world last year, one in four was silver. The study also brought to light some interesting national foibles: the Japanese have a weakness for white, the Germans never buy beige and New Yorkers think yellow's a yawn, as it's the colour of their taxis.
Wind power
Nissan's UK factory now takes five per cent of its power from new wind turbines, which were installed in low-lying ground close to the Sunderland plant to avoid upsetting the locals. |
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| Bytes for bullets |
Mexicans are being encouraged to exchange their weapons for computers as part of a quirky new initiative to curb rampant crime in Mexico City. Authorities in one of the city's 16 districts are offering a new computer to anyone who brings in a gun. A charitable foundation has donated 150 computers as swaps in the scheme, which has already attracted a lot of interest among the 18 million residents of Mexico City, where shootings are a daily occurrence. |
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| Wwwacky website |
The know-alls among us may think we have all the answers, but test us with teasers such as 'approximately how many atoms are there in the known universe?' or 'are all human failures the result of a lack of love?' and even the biggest heads are likely to fall silent. However, it is true that some of us do know something about some things, so logically, if we were to pool our resources, then we would certainly have a lot of answers between us. Hence www.answerbag.com, billed as 'a compilation of human knowledge and experience', that seeks to find the answers to some of the trickiest conundrums. Simply send your question out into the ether and magically a reply will wing its way back from a fellow human in cyberspace. |
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Volume 11.02
February 2006 |
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Hello Welcome to the February issue of Fleettorque, brought to you by Fleetcare, the independent fleet manager.
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Mini disk |
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 This disk drive, designed to run a new Toshiba mobile phone, is so small that six of them would fit on a business card. At just 2.1cm the disk doesn't take up a lot of space in the W41T handset which is due to go on sale in Japan early this month. The handset itself weighs just 157g and is being marketed as a phone and music player, although it also features Bluetooth wireless connectivity, a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 2.4in 240 x 320 pixel LCD screen, and an FM radio.
At the moment there are no plans to market this wonder handset outside of Japan, however the 4MB, 3,600 RPM drive itself, which has a maximum read speed of 5Mbps, is on the market as a standalone product with a USB interface. It's being sold by Imation at a recommended retail price of about $240. |
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Fleetcare sponsors TanderSport! |
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 Motorsport fans would have noticed the long-running association between Fleetcare and Garth and Leanne Tander's motorsport pursuits. Fleetcare are again on board with the Tander's for 2006, not only as a personal sponsor for Garth but, also as naming-rights sponsor for our brand new Formula 3 team, TanderSport.
The Fleetcare TanderSport F3 team will compete in the entire Australian Formula 3 Championship.
Finishing a credible 5th in her F3 debut in May 2005 Leanne then finished 4th in another leased drive in November prompting Tandersport to purchase their own F3 car.
At the last round of the Championship in December TanderSport ran their F3 car for the first time finishing in 2nd place.
Garth has also had a fantastic run. He won 4 races at the end of last year which makes him a true contender for the 2006 series.
These were great results and with the continuing support of Fleetcare TanderSport are sure to be in 1st place in the near future.
2006 looks like being a great year for Garth and Leanne and hopefully, their successes will translate to an increased profile for Fleetcare as well. You can keep up-to-date with their season, by visiting the fleetcare website www.fleetcare.com.au or their new website www.tandersport.com (which is currently under construction).
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On the map |
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 It hasn't taken the entrepreneurial types long to figure out that the fascinating Google Maps can be put to better use than just a quick browse of your neighbourhood.
It seems that a growing number of businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity for free exposure these satellite aerial photographs offer, and turning car parks, roofs and any other flat surface they own into huge advertisements for their companies. When snapped from overhead, the whole place turns into a giant ad. Cheeky, but hard to prevent. |
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My name is...? |
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 The twists and turns of the mountain roads in Switzerland will leave one driver perhaps shaken but not stirred this month - an unnamed 45-year-old won the keys to James Bond's silver 1965 Aston Martin DB5 coupe last month with a $2.5 million bid at an annual classic car auction in Arizona.
Bidding at his first auction and placing his bids over the telephone through a car dealer friend, the mystery buyer's instructions were simply to bring the car back to Switzerland.
Driven by Sean Connery, the car boasts built-in Browning machine guns, tyre slashers, an oil slick ejector and a retractable rear bullet-proof screen and was seen in the 007 classics Goldfinger and Thunderball. It's is now part of the unidentified car enthusiast's collection of a dozen classic Aston Martins and Porsches. |
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Environmental support |
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 This is thermal underwear for the Noughties - lingerie giant Triumph has done its bit to encourage us to turn down the central heating when the winter weather kicks in by designing the world's first ever heated bra.
This fluffy creation is padded with eco-friendly gel packs that can be easily heated in a microwave or with a hot water bottle to give the wearer inner warmth for hours. The prototype has been made only in white, but it does come with matching shorts and a furry boa designed to double as a winter scarf, and if it's well received then the company will consider mass production.
However, this garment is only suitable for half the population - the worry is over what they'll think of next.
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