A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Study indicates spike in crashes on 4/20
Why 4/20 has become such an inside joke with marijuana consumers is something of a mystery. The date supposedly traces its roots to a group of California high school students in the 1970s, who would meet up in the afternoon to go hunt for pot plants in the surrounding area.
Whatever the case, it’s become an international day of celebration for cannabis. Don’t even walk past Vancouver’s Sunset Beach on April 20 unless you want to accidentally get caught up in a cloud of skunk-smelling smoke and arrive home with a vague craving for Doritos, a new appreciation for Seth Rogen films, and, like, have you ever really looked at your hands, man?
However, as much as marijuana advocates would point out the medicinal possibilities for cannabinoids to be used in place of opioids, and the tax revenue implications for a recreational drug thousands use regardless of legality, pot does have a problem where driving is concerned. Driving while intoxicated by alcohol is relatively well understood, with guidelines already broadcast to the public in regards to acceptable blood-alcohol levels, how the police will screen for them, and how little you should imbibe to be on the safe side. Marijuana use is less well understood, especially as it varies in potency and in effect from person to person.
Now, a new 25-year study shows a significant increase in road fatalities after April 20 celebrations. According to the study, recently released in the Journal of the American Medical Association, traffic deaths increased by 12 per cent after 4:20 p.m. on April 20, as opposed to the weeks before or after. Further, road fatalities among those under 21 increased by 38 per cent.
That’s roughly the same as the spike after the Super Bowl, when foolhardy fans sometimes drive home before letting the festivities wear off. As we slowly move towards legalized marijuana, the evidence seems to show that driving under the influence is dangerous, whether it’s Bud Light, or just bud.
Range Rover drives up a really big staircase
One has the feeling that Land Rover is running out of stunts to show off the off-road prowess of their expensive, shiny machines. Case in point: this time the Range Rover publicity machine hasn’t gone for the obvious ski hill or treacherous mountain pass, but for the Heaven’s Gate staircase in China’s Hunan province.
The staircase to Heaven’s Gate, a huge chasm in the rock, numbers 999 steps, and normally takes gasping tourists about 30 minutes to climb. The stone steps are slippery, and Tianmen Mountain is quite high up – Heaven’s Gate itself is the highest natural stone arch of its kind in the world.
Happily, if you have a red Range Rover P400 plug-in hybrid, you can drive right up to the summit without too much of a bother. It beats walking, and all you need is special permission from the Chinese government and Ho-Pin Tung, a Le Mans winning Chinese racing driver, at the wheel.
Mid-engined Hyundai sports car on the way?
Once upon a time the only way to get a Hyundai to accelerate quickly was by dropping it out of an airplane, and the only way a mid-engined version would be considered is if you crashed your Pony into the back of a semi-trailer. However, in this brave new world, Hyundai’s come over all performance-minded.
Plans recently emerged for Hyundai’s latest turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder, which they’re calling the Theta III. It’ll come with approximately 350 horsepower worth of forward thrust, and is being developed for use in front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, and mid-engined applications. That latter is the most interesting part.
Hyundai’s shown off mid-engined concepts in the past, but aside from the now-defunct Genesis Coupe, they haven’t really gone for the gusto in the performance department. That’s changed of late, with the new N-badged performance models (N for Nürburgring, where they’ve been tuned) set to start arriving in North America with a hot hatchback version of the Veloster.
A little mid-engined sports car wouldn’t be a volume seller, but it might just be the thing to show off Hyundai’s engineering flexibility, especially with the Genesis range pushing hard into new territory. The more, the merrier.
BMW’s M2 gets power boost
The M2 is a great little car, small, widely flared, and fearsome. It’s now getting even more power from its turbocharged straight-six, with the 405 h.p. M2 Competition slated to show up at the Beijing Motor Show in April.
On one hand, hooray for little stunted BMW sports cars, a throwback to the 2002tii and the E30-chassis M3. Those cars were boxy, fierce, and plenty of fun.
On the other hand, is more power really a good thing? Obviously, greater horsepower means greater speed, but what if BMW hadn’t cranked up the boost, but removed weight instead? What if they’d tried to go back further in time to the lightweight, slightly tail-happy machines that we all fell in love with?
I put it to you that sheer power and chasing lap time records is producing modern cars that are fast without flow. Speed limits haven’t changed on the street in decades, but our machines have all increased in their capability. Maybe what we could use is a little bit less power under the hood, and a little bit more exhilaration under the sheet metal.
You can submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
