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Hulme F1

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 June 2005, 12:00 CDT

As if it wasn't bad enough having New Zealanders (and more than a fair share of South Sea Islanders) slapping us all over the rugby park at the moment, we could also see them whipping us in the street soon as well.

As sweet as a Daniel Carter field kick and as swift as Sitiveni Sivivatu with the try line at his mercy, this car was inspired by Kiwi racing driver Denny Hulme, designed to give road drivers the feel of a Formula One car, and has been developed in secrecy until recently, when a consortium based around Massey University unveiled it on an unsuspecting motoring world.

Fitted with a five-litre V8 usually found in a BMW M5, producing 450bhp while weighing only 1,200kg, it is expected that the Hulme F1 will reach a top speed of around 190mph.

Expect to get into competition with oil sheikhs for one. They will cost around $460,000NZ (around pounds 178,000) and Supercars New Zealand is planning to build only a maximum of 20 this year, and 150 overall.

The competition: Ford Shelby GR-1 Concept. Stunning - a 200mph space-age machine that takes you back to the beautiful Lamborghini Muira.

IT had to happen - sooner or later a phone manufacturer would realise that you could cram an iPod into a mobile and just sit back while the tills ring and ring and ring.

Sure to be on everyone's Christmas list when it comes out in the last quarter of this year, the N91 has a 4GB hard drive - on an iPod Mini, that means 1,000 songs, and will play MP3, WMA, M4A and AAC files for up to 12.5 hours on a charge. Right, so everyone bar the 'techies' among us only knew what the first one of those were.

Incredibly, it also comes with a camera, and wi-fi for internet coverage - a lifesaver if you're out and need to know the final scores. In addition, it also looks the business, with one of those sliding access keypads that we have all loved since The Matrix.

How long before Nokia fit a lightsaber into a mobile?

The competition: Motorola V3. This is how French film-makers of the 1960s would have imagined phones - only far, far narrower. Comes with a guarantee to attract women in bars. Maybe.

THE long-promised handheld PS2 (it stands for PlayStation Portable) has finally arrived, and gamers are comparing it to the Second Coming.

Small wonder - have you seen how great it looks? You would never have believed, in your lifetime, that you would see graphics this good on something this small - it can be cupped in two hands.

In addition, the design and positioning of its buttons will make PS2 owners feel immediately at home, and will allow them to get straight to the important business of killing aliens, Nazis, and driving everyone else off the virtual road.

It also plays movies, a huge range of titles are promised, and it costs just pounds 180.

You can buy these on import, through the internet and the occasional shop, for around pounds 300, but they come to Britain proper from September 1.

The competition: Nintendo DS - perhaps not as advanced on the graphics front, but a very natty touchpad and built-in messaging to fellow DS owners has made this a buzz item among eight to 16-year- olds.

WHOEVER thought it would be a good idea to call computer hardware a 'tower'?

Such words are anathma to today's modern minimalists. And why would you need one when the Apple Mac Mini - boasting the kind of beautiful design we have come to expect from the company - does all a computer should but only takes up 6.5 inches square space?

You need a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse, but for as little as pounds 340, it does exactly what it should - pictures, music, film, internet, email, looking cool and proving to any ladies you have back to your home that your good taste doesn't stop with a Hulme F1.

As if. More likely, you will be proving to her that you can hack it in the refined stakes after she saw the Mini Metro on the drive.

The competition: Sony VGC-V3S. A 'pull it out of the box and away you go' computer. Will record live TV, can be hooked up to your plasma screen, and all the rest of the things it should. Looks brill, too.

TECH-LOVERS still don't appreciate that pounds 2,000 seems like a lot of wedge to the rest of us, but you do get a lot for your money with this rear-projection telly.

First of all, a 45-inch screen, a great wavy design, and it's all High Definition ready, which will be the next big thing. Hook up the Sky Plus you should already have (and if you haven't, can we recommend that you run rather than walk to the nearest Dixons and get one?) and a decent home cinema system (more of which later), and away you go. Great for football, rugby and Star Wars films. Or Last of the Summer Wine, if that's your bag.

The competition: NEC 61XR3. Clear your biggest wall - this beast has a 61in screen. Only con - it costs pounds 13,000.

WHAT'S this? Big Boys' Toys recommending a DVD player that only costs pounds 75? Yes, and it's a stonker, with cracking picture quality and you can also put all your posh cables in it, too.

Hang on, though - there is a catch. The Mission M:Cube speaker system costs a grand, so you're still paying a fair bit, but you can play all your CDs on this combo, too, and you get five marvellous flat panel speakers, four of which you can hide, so that when you're blasting your guests with Kaiser Chiefs, they'll be thinking to themselves, 'Where is all that lovely noise coming from?'

The competition: Kef Kit 100. A little more expensive at pounds 1,200, but without having to flutter about trying to find all the different bits - and with speakers that you won't want to hide.

ALL the talk this year among posey cyclists has been about the Schwinn choppers, but really, how are you supposed to get around on one of those?

These are way, way cooler, and championed by the likes of Outkast and Pharrell Williams (of N.E.R.D and The Neptunes), and this 20in Lowrider costs pounds 329.95, which seems a fair enough price to pay for your very own bit of individuality. Think you'll have to scour the internet to find one of these? Think again. Tenby Bikes in West Wales stock them - and promise free delivery. May we also recommend a Port Seattle bag if you're going to use this to commute? At pounds 35 it looks like a natty messenger bag, but one in which you can fit your laptop and all kinds of other big boys' toys?

The competition: Fuji track bike. Wanna be a real cyclist, like those bike couriers who are faster than everybody on the road and do it with just one gear? Beware, these are fixed wheel, meaning - you stop peddling, the bike stops rolling, you crash. Get it fitted with a front brake to make it road legal. Brixton Bikes are doing these for pounds 375.

WHY is it that East Africans can always run faster and further than anyone else in the world?

One of the reasons is that they learn barefoot, giving them extremely strong feet that can see off anything us puny Europeans can develop. Of course, were you to starting shoelessly pounding the streets it wouldn't be long before your local A&E would be digging bits of smashed WKD bottles out of your tootsies.

Far better to learn with Nike's Free, which will emulate that barefoot running, but without all the pain, and at pounds 60.

The competition: Adidas 1. They cost a bit more (pounds 175) but they are supposed to be 'clever', with sensors and a motor.

MOST of us don't want to be able to put 10,000 songs on an MP3 player. Do you know anyone who's filled theirs up yet? In fact, most iPodders wear the amount of free space as a badge of pride.

Small wonder. Who has the time to put 1,000 albums on it. What about 100 albums, or 1,000 songs? That's better. That's the 4GB Mini, at pounds 139.

That way, you'll listen to it, and that way, you'll tinker with your play lists at leisure on iTunes, rather than spend every evening frantically trying to get all those songs on the big brother version.

And it looks cooler. Especially in silver.

The competition: Creative Zen Micro. Costs a bit more (pounds 150), has around the same capacity, and looks cool. But, like all the competition (and there's a lot these days), it suffers from having to fight its way into a market sewn up by Apple, and because iTunes is so wonderful to use.

JAMES BOND? Ancient history, leave him to his fags and vodka martinis in the old people's home while you go off and defeat Spectre and save the world in one of these.

Lacking only a nose-mounted Gatling gun, developers Innerspace say it will fit two people, have a surface speed of 40mph, and will dive underneath the surface, where it can travel at 20mph, allowing you to safely avoid fire from Blofeld's henchmen.

Cost? Innerspace is seeking a sponsor so they can build these things for demonstrations, stunt shows, and film and TV work. A truly unique big boys' toy.

The competition: www.b-americanboats.com will sell you a real life, decommissioned US submarine, but you have to be serious about buying before they tell you how much it will cost.

Source: Western Mail

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