Billionaires Shortcomings

Are all billionaire's twats?

Elon Musk clearly is.

And Donald Trump.

And Rupert Murdoch.

And Bernie Ecclestone.

And Philip Green.

And Viscount Rothermere.

This isn't looking good.

But there are thousands of billionaires.

Paul McCartney & Oprah Winfrey seem nice.

And so does Bill Gates.

I've never liked Beyonce's music - until she did Texas Hold 'Em - which I love - and she seems OK as a person too.

So where are all of these billionaires living.

I'd fancy a nice mansion with a big garden and a big garage.

But I'm not rich so that's irrelevant.

It seems car companies are building towers for billionaires to live in.

In Dubai, Bugatti is building its first residential tower. The cheapest apartments are set to cost £3.9m. The less cheap ones will have private lifts meaning that owners can park their cars inside their apartments.  It doesn't say how many cars you can get into an apartment but I love the idea.

Porsche's Design Tower in Miami opened in 2017, while Aston Martin's Residences Miami launched last year.

"Meanwhile, in Texas, Discovery Land Company's upcoming residential Austin Surf Club is centred around a vast man-made surf lagoon."

Is that a Land-Rover Discovery or an Austin project?

Fancy a drink?

If, so, then you might want to consider one of UniBev's products.

Like Bra Tea.

or

Algae To Go (I've deliberately spelled those very slightly wrong for comic effect)

or

Firewoman Sam.

The product is called, "FEUERWEHRMANN SAM" - I don't speak German so may have translated that for comic effect.

They seem to have a new product now called Cybercab.

A bit more embarassment for not-the-top-producer-of-electric-vehicles-in-the-World.

Also known as Tesla.

They've lost their top-seller crown to BYD of China and seen sales falling not just because of Elon's far right tendencies.

So they are pinning their hopes on autonomous taxis that they have decided to call Cybercabs.

What could possibly go wrong?

THIS!

 

What does a Renault 5 cost?

About £23K

But that's one of the brand new, most excellent, electric ones.

I was watching an episode of Flipping Bangers this week.

It's a programme I saw a series of a few years back and quite enjoyed.  I assumed that there was only one series and thought no more about it.

Then they started showing more episodes this year.

Then I saw the two blokes off it at The Classic Motor Show talking about their latest endeavours.  Turns out they've gone onto YouTube.

Anyway, I must have been watching Series 2, Episode 7.

It was an original Mark I Renault 5.

They bought it for £1000 and spent £485 doing it up.

I've just found out they they bought it off Sam Brackley, son of Paul Brackley - the mechanic off Wheeler Dealers in the Edd days.

They didn't do anything about the brown headlining or dodgy dash area above the ashtray.  It had obviously spent a lot of time being smoked in.  They didn't mention a smell though.

It also had some black tape pretending to be trim going between the wheels at the bottom of the doors.  They sort of sorted that.

They did do some actually vital stuff too.

Then they sold it to a dealer for £2600.

This was in 2019.

As soon as I saw the car I thought I recognised it - had I remembered it from seeing the show a few years back?

Nope - it wasn't series two that they broadcast.

Turns out I remembered it from here.

Twincam, another of my favourite Youtubers, has some sort of arrangement with auction house Manor Park Classics.

He reviewed it and they sold it last year.

For £4140.

Somebody somewhere has probably not done very well out of that between 2019 and 2024.

It still had the horrible headlining.

So I'll have one of the new ones please.

Van Gogh-ing Nowhere

I had to register to read this article in Autocar.

It was free but I didn't have to register when I read it at lunchtime.

And now they have my details - I've ticked all the don't send me stuff boxes.

On top of that, do I want an organisation who have produced an article with a massive flaw in it having my details?

For those of you who haven't read the article or don't want to register to read the article, they are stating that UK vehicle production is dramatically down on the same period last year due to a significant drop in commercial vehicle production - 78% in fact.

They state that the SMMT have stated that the fall was "mainly down to work taking place at Stellantis’s Ellesmere Port plant, which is being upgraded to take on extra workload resulting from the closure of the firm's Luton factory."

I think, the fall may actually be down to something alluded to there that happened in March - THE CLOSURE IF THE FIRM'S LUTON FACTORY.

Jacked Up

Sometimes when you're walking along the pavement, you may see a glove or a baby's hat on a fence or wall.

Someone has lost it and some other kind soul has put it somewhere safe and visible for when whoever lost it goes back to retrace their steps.

Today I saw this:

I can only assume that somebody had a puncture, swapped the wheel at the roadside then completely forgot about their jack.

And whoever found it and put it out of the way of being a trip-hazard is a diamond.

A Jack of Diamonds.