New Kawasaki ZX-10R for £5795

Did you put down a £500 deposit on a 2011 ZX-10R priced at just £5795? If so MCN would like to hear from you urgentlyThe offer – run by Birmingham-based firm “Friends & Co Ltd” and advertised on Ebay - promised a range of 2011 Japanese sports bikes such as the ZX-10R, ZX-6R, R1 and R6 for bargain basement prices.With the ZX-10R’s official price sitting at £11,999, the £6204 saving has attracted interest from professional race teams and private buye...

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2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848

Ducati has finally confirmed (publicly) the release of the 2012 Streetfighter 848 – and here are the first officially released images of the brand new model, which we’ll ride later this month. The new bike uses a re-engineered 848 Testastretta 11° engine in the existing Streetfighter chassis, plus a raft of improvements over its bigger brother with styling solutions for all those ugly bits we were never meant to see. The power delivery is claimed to be ‘smooth and flexible’, a consequence of the re-engineering of the motor, but power delivery is likely to still be typically aggressive. The...

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Calibre’s New 18″ Dub Wheel

eading wheel designers Calibre have officially released their newest wheel, one which is certain to get Volkswagen, and other Euro car fans rather excited. The wheel in question is an 18″ version of Calibre’s own best selling 15″ Dub wheel, and creates an extremely stylish, stunning design with a ‘pseudo-split’ rim appearance (see picture). The 18″ Dub is available in a wide variety of PCD’s to fit all of the usual 5-stud suspects, and can also be ordered blank so that custom drilling can be carried out. It also features a finely polished outer lip, with a healthy protrusion from the hub,...

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Yamahas 2012 Revealed

Yamaha has released first images of their new 2012 anniversary colour schemes, which sees the iconic ‘speedblock’ graphics making their way on to pretty much the entire range, while the YZF-R1 also gets a bit of a face lift, and a new electronics package which includes traction control. The R1′s 6-mode Traction Control SystemThe new TCS constantly monitors sensors in the front and rear wheels, and when any rear wheel spinning is detected the system alerts the ECU which instantaneously adjusts the degree of throttle opening, fuel injection volume and ignition timing. With six settings...

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Crazy Helmet Designs

Buying a new motorcycle helmet? Your first choice for head protection may predictably be an AGV, Arai, HJC,Shark or Shoei… Well how about one of these barmy ‘pisspot’ lids from Borat’s beloved Kazakhstan instead? You can see all the styles at the Daily Mail’s website. They are only concepts from the Kazakh marketing agency Good!, but with enough interest, maybe we’ll see them produced one day. We’d love to see more wacky designs like these in racing, how can we forget the infamous, AGV’s ‘big-face’ Valentino Rossi lid, penned by...

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UK's hydrogen refueling station opens

If you live in Britain and are debating whether or not you should purchase a hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity, well ... your decision may now be a bit easier to make. In order to encourage development of fuel cell vehicles such as the FCX, Honda has just opened the UK's first open access station for hydrogen-powered vehicles. It's located on the grounds of Honda of the UK Manufacturing in Swindon, and everyone who needs a little hydrogen in their lives is welcome. The commercial-scale station can fill vehicles at either 350 or 700 bar, which are the two standard pressures...

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Tron Lightcycle hits the streets

Practicality tends to take a back seat when you combine sci-fi cult status with custom chopper building - and there's no room for a pillion passenger on the Lightcycle. We first spied Parker Brothers Choppers Lightcycle project last year when it surfaced in gas-powered form, now the company has released video of a fully-electric version of the neon-packing two-wheeler in action. The electric motor may be quieter, but this one's still guaranteed to turn heads. The Lightcycle is based on the conveyance from 2010's Tron: Legacy and in its latest real-world form it has...

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Lamborghini's most outrageous Gallardo for now

The Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo Stradale is the most extreme V10 yet produced by Volkswagen's Italian supercar subsidiary. Only 150 of the four wheel drive 570 bhp carbon fiber projectiles, no doubt due to the extreme effort required to shave another 70 kilograms off the already anorexic Gallardo LP 560-4. The motor might be the same as a "normal" Gallardo but the aerodynamics and lightweight construction are what make it a genuine racer for the road. Much of the technology introduced in the new car is derived from lessons learned in the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race...

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2009 Prius: Fast or Not

A third generation of the Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid car has been eagerly anticipated. Though Toyota has not officially announced when the redesigned Prius would appear, unofficially, automotive journalists had been tipped to expect it sometime in 2008, as a 2009 model. However, news reports from Japan last week said the car has been delayed by at least six months, to early 2009. A Toyota spokesman said the company would not comment. The reason? Because no official launch date had ever been confirmed, there was no way to officially confirm a delay. Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, a Japanese...

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F3 Adrenaline 3-wheel motorcycle

January 4, 2007 We've encountered a raft of exciting three-wheeled motorcycle designs in recent years including the Can-Am Spyder, Brudeli's Three-Wheel Leanster, the VentureOne plug-in hybrid and the T-REX from Campagna. More recently, scooter manufacturers have embraced the wide-track stability, braking power and cornering prowess of the two at the front/one at the rear configuration with the release of models like the Piaggio MP3. While many designs are still in prototype phase, it seems certain that the three-wheeled footprint will become an increasingly...

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Infiniti M Hybrid equals Lamborghini Countach

Records may come and go but, aside from grabbing headlines, they're a way of benchmarking the progress of new technologies. In the automotive world this means hybrid drivetrains and we've seen a number of new record attempts in recent times - usually related to fuel economy as with the Kia Optima Drive. The latest comes from Nissan, whose Infiniti luxury division is claiming the world's fastest accelerating full hybrid vehicle in the form of the Infiniti M Hybrid. The M Hybrid has covered the standing quarter mile (400 m) in an average time of 13.9031 seconds - putting it on par...

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New Jensen Interceptor

With more comebacks than Dame Nellie Melba, the Jensen Interceptor must surely be the most revived name in automotive history. It was first used between 1950-57 for a 4.0 liter convertible based on Austin componentry, then rose to international awareness with its second coming as the dream car of the sixties when in 1966 it was released as a Grand Tourer designed by Italian design house Carrozzeria Touring. The Jensen Interceptor of this period was a genuine supercar, running huge Chrysler V8s with first 6276 cc and later 7212 cc. In 1967, the FF variant had four-wheel drive, anti-lock...

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Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14: the most powerful and the fastest production motorcycle in history

For several years now, the 178bhp Kawasaki ZX12 has had the most horsepower of any production motorcycle, though it has played second fiddle to the 175 bhp Suzuki GSX1300 Hayabusa (named after the Japanese Peregrine falcon, one of the few animals on the planet which can travel at 300km per hour which it does during a dive) because the Hayabusa has a higher top speed – the Suzuki’s aerodynamics enable it to more than make up for the slight horsepower deficit and it has now held the title of the world’s fastest production motorcycle for six years since it launched. The Hayabusa’s top speed...

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The Babyblade is back!: 2011 Honda CBR250R

Twenty years ago, quarter-liter sportsbikes ruled the roost in many regions, offering a mix of racy looks, light weight and snappy performance. But in recent years, with all the other major players leaving the segment, Kawasaki has enjoyed unchallenged sales success with its sharp-looking, yet friendly Ninja 250. But the mini-ninja will soon face stiff competition from Honda's totally re-conceived babyblade CBR250R, equipped with a 249cc single-cylinder, fuel injected engine, a tasty fairing that mimics the CBR1000RR and the first instance of optional ABS to grace the market segment. This...

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Kawasaki goes all-in: the 200+bhp 2011 Ninja ZX-10R

Kawasaki has stamped its foot; Team Green is sick of playing catch-up in World Superbikes, it will no longer be content to languish at the back of the field. But defeating the monstrous Aprilia RSV4 and the ominous BMW S1000RR is going to require a motorcycle leagues ahead of what Kawasaki has been rolling out in 2010. Behold, motorcycle fans, the new king of the castle. Ripping out a terrifying 210 horsepower and weighing just 198kg full of fuel and fluids, the 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R leap-frogs to the front of the power and power-to-weight charts. But it's not just muscles that make...

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