Something Cool: Shelby Supercars

World's Fastest Electric Car
Shelby Super Cars (SSC) Ultimate Aero EV

FAB WHEELS

The Shelby Supercars Ultimate Aero retails at USD740,000 - the fact that it can reach a mind numbing top speed of 430km/h probably has lot to do with the high sticker price. Space age carbon and a ton of tech also help keep costs astronomical indeed for a street racer type with money to burn.
Website: shelbysupercars.com

(article from: MAS Going Places Magazine Nov 2010)

Shelby Supercars maker of the Ultimate Aero, world's fastest production car record holder, now develops an electric version. SSC is now pursuing the title of World's fastest electric car with the Ultimate Aero EV.

The Ultimate Aero EV is powered by a twin motor setup producing 1,000 HP and 800 lb-ft of torque enabling it to rocket to 60 mph in a mere 2.5 seconds and a top speed of 208 MPH. Not only does the Ultimate Aero EV have a range of 150-200 miles on a single charge, but SSC's "Charge on the RunTM" onboard charging system allows for full battery recharges in as little as 10 minutes. SSC's 3-speed automatic transmission transfers the Ultimate Aero EV's power to its wheels and achieves electronically controlled shift times of .24 s. The entire AESP is liquid cooled allowing it to run for extended periods of time at peak performance with no overheating issues.

World's Fastest Electric Car
Shelby Super Cars (SSC) Ultimate Aero EV

Something Cool: Space Tourism

To Infinity and Beyond

Back in the good old days, the Russian Space Agency had monopoly on space tourism, bringing well-healed amateur space explorers to the international Space Station with its Soyuz space craft for a cool USD20-35 million a pop. Now, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is about to get into the game, and we hear that inflight service is really something to talk about. 

Website: www.virgingalactic.com

(article from MAS Going Places Magazine Nov 2010)

The VSS Enterprise was unveiled last December, and today flew for the first time out of Mojave Spaceport in California, as captured in the image above. "VSS Enterprise remained attached to its unique WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, for the duration of the 2 hours 54 minutes flight, achieving an altitude of 45,000ft (13716 metres)." Both crafts are developed for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic by Burt Rutan and team at Mojave-based Scaled Composites.

The VSS Enterprise test flights will continue through 2011, progressing from "captive carry" (that's what today's experiment was), to "independent glide," and then fully powered flight, before commercial operations begin.

More photos (in glorious wide-o-vision!) from the dawn liftoff and flight are after the jump.

More about today's flight at VirginGalactic.com

(Photos courtesy Mark Greenberg)

Resource from: http://boingboing.net

Something Cool: Homes for Super Rich

Villa Leopolda : the most expensive villa in the world !

Premium Pad

The Villa La Leopolda in Nice, France has some very high profile names attched to it. Tech magnate Bill Gates of Microsoft used to own it. Now, Russian football tzar Roman Abramovich has the keys to this prime piece of Mediterranean fronted property since 2008. Encompassing some 10 acres of lush high-end real estate, its price USD398,350,000 is enough to fund a small nation for a few years at least.

  Roman Abramovich

These so called thro­phy prop­er­ties will be directly related to the rest of the mar­ket, namely a lot cheaper. Direc­tor of Sotheby’s Inter­na­tional Realty in Cap Fer­rat, Peter Ilovsky was over­heard say­ing: “Own­ing a prop­erty in Cap Fer­rat is like hav­ing a Picasso. It’s cer­tainly bet­ter than plac­ing the money in a Swiss bank.”

Finding a nice holiday home on the French Riviera is becoming simply impossible. The stock of available properties are going smaller through the years.With grounds so grand that it takes a reputed 50 gardeners to tend them

Antilla - The Billion Dollar House

Antilla Mukesh Ambani or Antilia Mukesh Ambani House Mumbai World’s first Billion Dollar home. Antilia is a twenty-seven floor (560 ft or 173 m) building completed in Mumbai for Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries. This Antilla House is Mumbai largest home in the world. The family will occupy about 400,000 square feet. The Melbourne-based construction company Leighton Holdings began constructing Antilla but Antilia has been finished by another company. The construction is inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Antilla is situated on a 4,532 square metres (48,780 sq ft) plot at Altamount Road on the famed Cumballa Hill South Mumbai, India, where land prices are upward of US$10,000 per square meter.

There will be 600 full-time members staff to maintain the Antilia building. Antilla is named after the mythical island in the Atlantic, Antillia. It is designed by Chicago architects, Perkins & Will. The Antilia Mukesh Ambani House building is equipped with amenities such as a health spa, and small theatre with a seating capacity for 50 on the eighth floor. Other features include multiple swimming pools, three floors of hanging gardens and a ballroom.

Included in the tower are six floors of parking – the seventh floor is for in-house vehicle maintenance. It has been reported in the media to have cost between US$1 billion and $2 billion, making Antilia the most expensive residential building in the world. Reliance, however, said it cost U$50-70 million.

(Resources from: http://icepice.blogspot.com/)

Homes For Super Rich

Big Boy's Toy: Super Yatch

Priced Possessions
If money was no object, would you indulge in this?

 

All Yours, This Yatch
Nothing beats cruising the Mediterranean in your own yatch, for an astronomical USD113,730 per day, that boat could be The Annaliese the mother of all pleasure cruisers. The USD90-million super yatch is owned by Greek entreprneur Andreas Liveras and is the most expensive private yatch charter in the world. A charter means that you and your party of 35 friends will enjoy a day out on the water with access to a spa, including marble Roman bath, saunas and steam rooms, Jacuzzis (in the spa as well as on the sun deck), a full-size movie theatre, a business centre and a helicopter on board. Website: www.liverasyatch.com
(article from Going Places Magazine MAS November 2010)

Owner of Liveras Yatch "Andreas Liveras"

Interior of some Super Yatch

 

Super Yatch

Website: www.liverasyatch.com

Latest Designed: Ciclotte Stationary Bike

By by Luca Schieppati

You can strike ‘poor aesthetics’ off the list of reasons why you won’t ride an exercise bike because the Ciclotte is quite literally a work of art. It turns out you can be a lot more creative with bike design when it doesn’t have to go anywhere, or when not limited by affordability.

The Ciclotte, a stationary exercise bike by Luca Schieppati inspired by his Ciclo concept bike that’s currently in permanent residence at the Milan Design Museum, actually makes art out of spin class.

The Ciclotte was designed by Luca Schieppati (based on an earlier concept bike he created) and is made from carbon fiber among other high-end ingredients. A “dual satellite epicycloid system” of four gears rotate an outer fly wheel four times for every rotation of the pedals, and additional resistance using magnets can be dialed in with a built-in touchscreen display. There’s no doubt it looks amazing, and they’ve got me pretty convinced you’ll get a good workout too.

Instead of a chain-driven system the Ciclotte uses a dual satellite epicycloids system that features four gears with varying cogs. Thus the bike doesn’t have a traditional drive train, and instead has gears that turn the magnetized main wheel, in turn creating a magnetic field and thus maximizing the level of resistance. Ciclottle will be launched in the UK at the 100% Design Show from 23-26 September 2010 at Earls Court, London.Finally I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t mind having this workout equipment in your living room, even when you’re not actually using it! For further information, please visit www.ciclotte.com


Yours for USD$10,700 (price tag)

Permanent display at the Milan Design Museum