The Good Oil: Aston Martin's speedboat

The Aston Martin Voyage. Photo / Supplied

Secret agent James Bond's boats are as varied as his cars. But one designer has sought to bridge the gap with the Aston Martin speedboat. Called the Voyage, this futuristic 55-foot design is the vision of naval architect and Aston Martin owner Luiz de Basto, who has several Magnum yacht designs to his credit.

The name follows traditional Aston Martin nomenclature evident in the Vantage, Virage, Vanquish and Volante models, but goes far beyond semantics with a raft of design elements familiar to the British carmaker's GTs: the grille shape has been interpreted into the windshield, the side vents into hull portals, the centre console into a cabin access hatch.

The result isn't just a boat inspired by Aston Martins, but an Aston Martin designed for the water.

Camaro convertible packs power punch
General Motors is calling the 2013 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 convertible the "world's most powerful droptop".

Like its coupe kin, the convertible will pack 430kW and 745Nm of torque from its supercharged 6.2-litre LSA V8, besting the Ford Shelby GT500 convertible's figures of 410kW and 680Nm. But Ford is working on an all-new supercharged 5.8-litre V8 for the next-generation GT500. The horsepower wars are anything but dead.

The Camaro soft-top will be unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show next month.

Misled movie-goer driven to sue
A Detroit woman is suing her local movie theatre, claiming the trailer for Drive duped her into going to the film, which stars Ryan Gosling.

Sarah Deming wants her money back and also seeks to put an end to "misleading" trailers.

Her lawsuit describes the film's contents as "extreme gratuitous, defamatory, dehumanising racism directed against members of the Jewish faith".

Drive won its director, Nicolas Winding Refn, a Best Director Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Runabout sells for $5.8m

The world's oldest running car, an 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trapardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout, has sold for US$4.62 million ($5.81 million) at auction in the US.

The 127-year-old Runabout had been in the same family for 81 years and is one of six De Dion tricycles known to still exist. Only 20 were built. The trike had a top speed of 60km/h and a range of 30km on one tank of water.

The auction example was the only car to show up for the world's first car race, where it averaged 25km/h over a 30km course.

6D scanner faster than human eye

Mercedes-Benz is developing new technology that can spot a hazard quicker than the human eye. The 6D-Vision system will first appear on the S-Class in 2013.

It can calculate the precise location of a hazard in three dimensions, and the direction and speed of travel in a further three. It's designed to spot pedestrians and cyclists appearing from behind parked cars.

The average human will take 500 milliseconds to process that information and instigate emergency braking. But 6D-Vision can do it in 200ms. It works via two cameras at the top of the windscreen behind the mirror, which scan the road ahead for up to 50m.

"On test, we avoided 15 per cent of all accidents in the urban area," said researcher Uwe Franke. After debuting on the S-Class, the system will be available for other carmakers. Mercedes-Benz did the same with ESP and the airbag, which it also invented.

Tailored to suit Opera lovers

Italian specialist manufacturer Vygor has unveiled its wickedly expensive Opera, an SUV that looks like a GT. But speaking of those looks, would you really want to turn up at the opera in one? Each of the planned 150 Operas will be tailored to the owner's requirements.
Big boss Bentley

Bentley figures owners of the top version of its forthcoming SUV, being billed as the world's most luxurious 4WD, will want a 12-cylinder engine. Well, of course.

"We will be first to use a 12-cylinder petrol engine in a luxury SUV," boasts Bentley boss Wolfgang Durheimer. "I like this idea; it makes clear whose car is the boss." The engine is likely to be an updated version of the W12 used in the Continental.

Fonz's bike up for auction

The Triumph Trophy TR5 ridden by Arthur Fonzarelli, aka The Fonz in Happy Days, has been found in a motorcycle shop. It was owned by stunt rider Bud Elkins, who hung on to it after the show shut down in 1984. Elkins was the man behind many film stunts, including Steve McQueen's fence jump in The Great Escape. Elkins kept the Triumph until 1995, when he sold it to a friend. It goes to auction in Los Angeles on November 12, where it's expected to fetch around US$100,000 ($126,000).

BMW logs on to Facebook friends

BMW has used social media to help launch its sixth-generation 3 Series to the world. The company unveiled the car live on its Facebook page.

Although a sedan was used for the latest big reveal, BMW will also introduce Touring, GT, coupe, convertible and GranCoupe versions, some under the new 4 Series designation. The 3 Series takes much of its styling from the bigger 5 Series.