Autoblog UK

Michelle Heaton has given a fine demonstration of how not to reveal a car when whipping the covers off the 2011 Ford Fiesta on the Irish version of The Apprentice.

All the one-time pop singer had to do was say a few words, take one side of the sheet covering the car and walk to the back of the stage with it.

Sadly she only managed the first two of these considerable challenges successfully, the third proving rather tricky, as this video shows. Oops.

Lebanon - a country which has gone from rack to ruin and back again - is probably more likely than most to have its fair share of head cases and thrill chasers.

So, the echo of motorbikes may be a common sound on the streets of Beirut but may be less familiar in the harbour - until the normally more sedate St George's Yacht club gets involved.

Once a year the club hosts a competition for stunt riders, daredevils, nutters - call them what you will - and builds them a ramp facing the harbour. Then they're free to leap as far as they can into the water.

Amazingly no one seriously crocked themselves although the winner, Joseph Geaga, didn't escape unscathed. That didn't seem to bother him though as he picked up his cash prize of $1,000. We just hope he thinks it was worth it.

Combat Armoring Group are launching a new Russian-built tank onto the market. This monstrosity goes by the name of Combat T98 and looks as though it could be quite useful in a scrape. At four tonnes in weight and over four metres in length, the vehicle manages to combine the attributes of jeep, SUV, estate car and limousine all on one set of wheels. The St Petersburg-based manufacturers assert that it is the fastest armoured cross-country vehicle in the world. The Combat T98 peaks at a top speed of 180 km/h (112mph) and is powered by a General Motors eight-cylinder big-block engine delivering 400 horsepower. Consisting of two steel skins, the armour-plating is claimed to withstand quite a pounding. The windows have been manufactured from two-inch (5cm) composite-reinforced glass.

When I found a family of mice feasting on my breakfast cereal in the kitchen cupboard, I thought that was probably the worst thing that could ever happen to my house. I felt my sacred ground had been invaded by uninvited, disgusting little squatters. Even now, months after they've departed, I can still hear the sound of the munching at night and have to rock myself to sleep.

When I see what some other less fortunate people have to put up with, I put things in perspective and complain less. Some people are invaded by drink-drivers and their cars. Like the Australian couple whose bathroom wall was destroyed by a car which lost control and ploughed into their house.

That was already bad enough, but the misfortunes of the Melbourne homeowners didn't end there. The car broke a gas pipe which caught fire – the blaze was put out very quickly, but not quickly enough to save the house from being nicely baked all over. Whatever wasn't destroyed by the fire and smoke got soaked by the firemen's powerful hoses.

The poor couple are now between a rock and a hard place - do they sit where its burnt or where it's wet? And it's not like they can have a nice bath to relax, what with having no hot water or bathroom wall.

The Finns are extremely fond of motor sport. Rallying in particular attracts many followers in Finland. Many of us wonder why so many good rally drivers hail from that country. Some say, it's a result of the relative isolation and the huge distances between places: drivers can routinely find deserted minor roads and hone their skills undisturbed. Others think it's the Viking blood coursing through their veins that makes them fearless. Maybe it's simply the sheer boredom of life in Finland that brings out the devil in them. The following video clip shows Finns blithely hurtling around rally stages.

The last thing you would want to do if you had one of the 200 existing Bugatti Veyrons would be to suffer a tiny scratch, let alone drown it altogether in 3ft of salty water.

Unfortunately this is exactly what happened to Gilbert Harrison in La Marque, Texas.

The car enthusiast and collector got distracted by a pelican and drove his £1.25million pride and joy into a nearby lagoon, destroying its powerful engine, 16 cylinders and four turbo chargers in about 15 minutes.

The poor man has only himself to blame. Well, him and the pelican I guess. If you have something as nice as a Bugatti you shouldn't take your eyes off it, even if a flock of dodos was passing by: a) because it's so damn nice, b) because it's so damn expensive and c) because it's so damn rare.

Seriously, what was he thinking?

If you collect exotic cars you should at least make sure you're able to handle them otherwise, as Harrison demonstrated, you could be praying your insurance company has a very sympathetic attitude.

Watch the footage of the car plunging in the lake (warning: this video contains swearing)

And watch it being dragged out

Advertising should attract attention but you can go too far. In a new advert on TV, Volkswagen shows a man who kills himself simply because he didn't get to own the new Scirocco.

The main character in the British Volkswagen commercial has lost everything. At the casino, he put his money on black and red came up. He moved into gold just as the clever money moved out, and now he's ruined both financially and mentally. He decides to end his miserable life.

That's a summary of the storyline of a new VW Scirocco commercial broadcast on the famous British motoring magazine show Top Gear. The message is clear: if only the man had waited for the launch of the new Scirocco, things would have gone better and he wouldn't have topped himself. To quote from their ad: "Life is not so bad!" The producers of the commercial think that their work is plain and straightforward. Tasteless and provocative, say many British viewers about the depiction of suicide on screen. Find out for yourself. Take a look at the new Scirocco TV clip. Should something like this be broadcast? Top Gear presenter and humorist Jeremy Clarkson seems to think so...

If you were going to sail across the Irish Sea, a 100 quid French saloon car would probably not be your transport of choice - especially in October.

But high seas or not, a Renault Laguna was what four friends from Ireland decided to charter for a 23-mile trip from Donaghadee Harbour to Port Patrick - and remarkably, the amphibious craft carried them across in one piece.

Skipper Peter Martin and his 'crew' Carl McConkey, Rick Miles and Mark Farrell, left the Irish port at 9.30am on October 31 crammed aboard the modified Laguna and reached their destination seven hours later.

This was a huge step forward for the team after the dismal failure of their first attempt in 2007 when their craft, Sir Galahad, sank within four minutes of setting sail.
Not wishing to embarrass themselves again in front of the large - and sceptical - crowd that had gathered, Martin and his mates left nothing to chance, sticking an outboard motor on the back - perhaps an improvement on the standard engine - as well as attaching plenty of foam to the car.

"Nearly everyone on shore thought we wouldn't make it, but confidence rides high on the boat", Martin said. "At one point some of the crew even got in a little fishing."

The cruise wasn't some bizarre protest at Irish Sea ferry prices but rather a trip in the name of charity - and with £3,000 raised, the four can regard that as a job well done.

Sir Tristram sea trials:
Launching Sir Tristram:

Nobody can say precisely how many lives have been saved by the three-point safety belt since the 1960s, as no standard global statistics have been kept during this period, but it is estimated that the figure could be as high as one million. This invention has additionally prevented many serious injuries.

So there are very few people who can claim to have saved as many lives as Nils Bohlin. The Volvo engineer first presented his three-point safety belt on 13th August 1959. This was the date on which the lifesaving device was first fitted to the cabin of a Volvo PV544. Volvo still lead the way in terms of safety innovations and, despite the more recent introduction of airbags and other features, the humble safety belt remains the most important development in the history of road safety. The video clip presented here provides a brief review of how the safety belt has developed and of possible future advances in safety equipment.

The legend of the Silver Arrows was born on 3rd June 1934 when the W 25 made its racing debut at the Nürburgring after having its paintwork stripped off overnight to reveal the aluminium bodywork underneath. 75 years later, the W 25 returned to the birthplace of the Silver Arrow mystique to celebrate its own jubilee along with four other Mercedes-Benz racing cars. Shortly before the start of the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Pedro de la Rosa (W 25), Bernd Schneider (W 125), David Coulthard (MP4-13), Alexander Wurz (W 145) and Niki Lauda (W 196) drove one lap around the GP circuit in the Eifel forest. On the Thursday leading up to the GP weekend, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Pilot Lewis Hamilton had already driven a W 25 all the way around the famous Nordschleife (North Loop).