The disgrace that is politics of the @Olympics

After a spectacular opening ceremony to the XXX Olympiad in London, I felt rather compelled to share some news of a disappointing nature. For the whole week, I've been Tweeting patriotic messages about my birth country of the Republic of China, also popularly known as Taiwan. But, at every Olympic Games, I always feel a sharp pang of sadness when my team walks into the arena with a "fake" flag. That is because the International Olympic Committee ruled back in 1980 that Taiwan is not a country in the Olympics sense and cannot compete using its own flag, anthem or, indeed, the proper name of the country at the Olympics.

Anothony Davidson at Le Mans [Video]

Just noticed, I've just reached 300 posts and 50,000 pageviews. No time to waste. Here's a really cool video of Anthony Davidson from Toyota Racing at Le Mans this year.

Turn the volume up. Put on full screen. Enjoy!


Anthony Davidson // Le Mans 24 Hours from thirtyfive on Vimeo.

Incredible waterfall rainbow at Yosemite [PIC]

I saw this picture just a few minutes ago on Huff Post Good News. It's simply incredible and I can scarcely believe its not been CGI'd somehow. But... Well here it is!

Augmenting reality with interactive car windows

Toyota unveiled a rather interesting car concept last year at an ACEA (European automaker's association) event in Brussels. The concept, coming from the company's European division, uses augmented reality to turn car windows into drawing canvases and information display. The concept was extremely popular, gaining over 1 million hits on YouTube quite quickly. It was also widely reported by CNN and even made it on Jay Leno's talk show - albeit as a bit in his monologue. Have a look at this video (and the CNN + Leno reports) after the break.

Toyota Europe's innovative concept recently won this year's Core77 Design Award in the Speculative category.



CNN report


The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Plane vs. lightning (don't watch if you're flying soon)

What happens to a modern airliner when it's struck by lightning? Well... not much actually. Modern airlines are quite safe, even though, statistically, every single plane is struck by lightning once every year. But the new generation of planes, like the Airbus A380, are no longer being made with metal. Weight saving is paramount. So manufacturers are going for carbon fibre. And carbon fibre disintegrates when struck by lightning. See how Airbus is working to prevent future disasters in this BBC clip.


Images: BBC News

Racing in Slow Motion IV [VID]

Another awesome racing video I discovered through CarMagSA today. 15 minutes and you'll understand just why motorsports is so amazing! There's also a great and touching tribute to Italian MotoGP star Marco Simoncelli.

Toyota celebrates 55 years of motorsports

Image courtesy Toyota Europe

And it features the latest footages from this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. It's really fun to watch and quite an emotional piece in my opinion. Really like the soundtrack - sounds familiar if you've ever watched Russell Crowe's Gladiator. But Le Mans isn't all... Toyota's motorsports heritage spans across the globe from rallying to top formula track racing. Enjoy!

Final 3 parts of @TTAC's Lexus LFA story

And here's Bertel Schmitt, the author

Been a little busy so haven't been very good at updating this blog. Anyways, here's the final three episodes of the Lexus LFA story by TTAC. Enjoy!

Rebellion Racing looks back at 24 Hours of Le Mans

This video is absolutely brilliant. It really brings out the emotional parts of Le Mans. Rebellion Racing runs Lola-Toyota cars using V8 powerplants from Toyota Motorsport GmbH. A slightly more advanced version of that engine powers the petrol part of the Toyota Racing TS030 HYBRID which made its Le Mans debut this year. Take 8 min out and enjoy!


24 H du Mans 2012 from Axel ANQUETIL on Vimeo.

TheTruthAboutCars.com goes inside LFA Works clean room

Circular loom, one of two in the world (image courtesy TTAC)

The adventure of TTAC's Bertel Schmitt continues inside the clean room at LFA Works - the birthplace of each and every of the 500 Lexus LFAs. Read about it here. The third part of this five part exclusive series will be online later on today on TTAC. Keep an eye out!

Inside Lexus LFA Works - online exclusive by TheTruthAboutCars.com

Lexus LFA Nürburgring Package from Goodwood last year

Throughout this week, TheTruthAboutCars will run a 5-part series on the inner goings on of the Lexus LFA Works - that's the birthplace of the awesome LFA halo car in Japan. TTAC got exclusive first-hand access to the Motomachi plant in Japan to check out how the car is made. It's no secret that I love the LFA. This article is a must read, even if you don't have such passion about the car as I do. Part 1 was just published. Here's a short extract. Have a read for the full article here.

Gymkhana 5 - mouth gaping in awe-someness!

No need for any more words. Here's Gymkhana 5 by the awesome Ken Block. It's inspired!

Belgian tourism sues Belgian weather service for bad weather

From this week... It's gloomy!

This is definitely the funniest bit of news I've read for a while. It appears the Belgian tourism bureau is going to take the Belgian weather service to court for forecasting really rotten weather for July and August. The weather forecast currently shows just five days above 25°C in July while the first half of August will just be terrible.

Epic road trip Barcelona to Budapest in Toyota GT86

One of my favourite things in life is a nice road trip. The one big dream when I came to Europe was the possibility of going on these cross continental treks and take in the sights and sounds along the way. Sadly, I don't get to do it often enough. Generally, when I have to go somewhere, I can't take it leisurely, so it's flying or train most of the time. Never mind. Others are out there doing it and someone has made a wonderful video with a Toyota GT86 going from Barcelona to Budapest. Got this video from Jalopnik. It's spectacular!

Note: it's about 21 minutes long but it's so worth it! Take it with you while on summer vacation this year :)

Higgs particle and Hawking's sense of humour

Today's big news has been the potential discovery of the Higgs Boson, a.k.a. the "God Particle". This is the main target of research at the $10 million CERN research facility in Switzerland. The discovery of this particle means the last missing piece of the Standard Model of particle physics is found and everything in the cosmos can likely be explained. Speaking of this momentous occasion in our history, renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking, displays an amazing sense of humour after having lost $100 in a bet that this particle could not be found. Check it out here via BBC News: