News of the Weird
Bits and bytes of the bizarre, and the strange gathered from around the web so you don’t have to…yer welcome!
Leading off with Canadian Content . . . Don’t let moose lick your car!
Yes, you read that right. Officials in Jasper, a resort town in Alberta, have put up signs asking motorists to avoid allowing moose to lick the salt off their cars.
“They’re obsessed with salt, it’s one of the things they need for the minerals in their body,” a Jasper National Park spokesman said. “They usually get it from salt lakes in the park, but now they realized they can also get road salt that splashes onto cars.”
At the Jasper National Park, where people often park on the side of the road in hopes of catching a glimpse of the moose, letting the animals near your car is actually a serious danger.
By allowing moose to lick the salt off your car, they will become habituated with being around cars. That poses a risk to both the animals and the drivers who can accidentally crash into them. “Moose and cars are not a good mix. If you hit the moose with your car, you take the legs out from under it and it’s going through your windshield,” Young said.
The best way to stop a moose from coming close to your car is simply driving away when you see them approaching, he added. While other animals typically run away when humans approach, moose will stand their ground and charge if they feel threatened. Visitors are not allowed to feed, entice or disturb wildlife in national parks and violators could face fines up to $25,000, he added.
U.K. license plate ‘O 10’ sells for $170,000 at auction
Autoblog recently reported about how personalized license plates aren’t offered in many countries and how a cottage industry has sprang up in the UK based on trade and auction of license plate numbers. One family recently sold a simple three-digit plate reading “O 10” for the low, low price of £128,800 ($170,000 USD).
The plate sold at Silverstone Auctions stayed in the same family for 118 years, a result of the seller›s grandfather, Charles Thompson, being the 10th person in line when the Birmingham vehicle registration office first opened its doors in 1902. Since the plates stay with the owner (and not the car, as in some U.S. states) the number subsequently adorned Thompson family cars for two generations, including Austin A35s, Minis, Vauxhall Cavaliers, Ford Cortinas, Peugeots and Jaguars. After Charles Thompson’s son Barry passed away, the family used the plates, which they say have always been a great conversation piece, for two years before consigning them to the auction house.
As a show of how insane the bidding for exclusive number plates can get, this sale doesn’t even crack the top 10 of all-time highest prices paid in the U.K. The most expensive plate is “25 O”, sold in 2014 for £518,480 (about $684,000 at today’s exchange rates) to the owner of a Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta. Today, it’s estimated to be worth £750,000 ($990,000 USD).
According to Car, as of 2018 the sale of desirable plates has raised more than £2 billion ($2.64 billion USD) for the U.K. Treasury. That’s more than the GDP of at least a dozen nations.
The all-time most expensive plate is expected to be “F1”, which sold in 2008 for £440,625, is expected to be worth £1,000,000, but is currently asking £10,000,000 ($13 million USD). As a reminder, for that money you can also buy an actual McLaren F1.
PREEEEESENTING: The Amazing Tesla Cybertruck Camper
There are plenty of Tesla Cybertruck replicas out there, but this is arguably the most useful Cybertruck-based creation we’ve seen to date.
We’re certainly excited about the future of large electric vans and electric RVs. The Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Semi could offer a solid starting point for such creations. However, this particular Cybertruck camper is meant to be towed by any vehicle capable of towing it, though it might draw some interesting attention if you pull it with your coal-rolling diesel. Most of the Cybertruck replicas we’ve seen have either been art pieces, gas-powered vehicles decorated with a Cybertruck-like body, or downsized electric versions of the real deal.
While these Tesla mock-up projects deserve plenty of praise, and some may be drivable on public roads, they›re not going to be very useful once the real Tesla Cybertruck comes to market.
With that said, this Cybertruck camper built by Ivan Zheltonogov is not only already very useful, but it could be an amazing addition to any upcoming Tesla Cybertruck owner’s collection. For people who aren’t planning on buying a Cybertruck, or can’t afford one, the Cybertruck camper might be worth a look. Perhaps you could tow it with your Model X or Model Y? Source: insideevs.com/news/457533/video-tesla-cybertruck-camper/
And finally….Apparently beggars can be choosers…
Among the few bright spots during 2020 was the pheenom response to a TikTok video posted by Nathan Apodaca, as he skated along a road while drinking Ocean Spray cocktail and listening to a 40-year-old Fleetwood Mac song.
As a thank you for the free publicity, the folks over at Ocean Spray gifted Apodaca with a pickup truck after the video, which pictured him skating away from a broken down pickup truck, went viral. Turns out the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X wasn’t much to the recipient’s liking after he was pictured posing with his new Chevrolet Silverado shortly after.
Turns out Apodaca’s action, no matter how unappreciative he may appear to be, isn’t illegal since the truck was essentially a gift from Ocean Spray. Neither Nissan nor Chevy was involved in the trade off. As it turns out, whatever the brand, the vehicle is still considered a gift from the venerable juice company.
