The Good Oil: Lexus distracts gamers

US model Tori Praver is the main player in a car racing video game. Photo / Supplied

Lexus is the official automotive marketing partner of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, which is why it is using US model Tori Praver as the main player in a car-racing video game. It's all to do with curves.

The game shows two racers drifting a 2013 Lexus GS F Sport around a makeshift track drawn around the gigantor-size bod of Praver.

Now there's an app for Apple's US i-devices. It's called Tori 500 and allows players to pilot Lexus GS sedans around digitised 3D renderings of Praver's body.

The Lexus team began by photographing Praver in poses that mimicked the angles and curvature of a racetrack. The images of Praver were then photomapped and used to design the digitised racetrack.

A behind-the-scenes video of both the photo shoot and the race is available at Lexus.com/tori500.

We are the world

* A list of people injured in alcohol-related car crashes in the US includes the names Chad Beers, Richard Booze Jr, Scott Martini - and a fellow called Bourbon Rocks, who has since changed his name to Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop.

* Texans Pedro Prieto and Yordan Llauger settled on a second-hand Nissan Maxima for US$9000 ($10,790) and asked car salesman Frank Ready if he took Visa. "I said yeah," Ready told a TV station in Austin. The next day, Prieto and Llauger returned with 90 $100 Visa gift cards. Ready called the cops, who found at least 28 counterfeit credit cards on the pair and charged them and a third person with fraud and identity theft.

* The Drive A Tank company in Kasota, Minnesota, offers packages that include history lessons on battletanks and the chance to fire historic military firearms. There's even a "car crush" package that lets you drive a Chieftain tank over a car that's past its prime.

Now the company has added mobile home crushing to its list of options, using homes headed for the junkyard. "Crushing" packages are priced between US$500 and US$3495.

Chinese pick-up truck flatters with Ford imitation, but falls short on quality

Chinese vehicle manufacturer JAC (China-Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd) has been blatantly knocking off cheap copies of Japanese and South Korean vehicles since it began business 50 years ago.

Now, it has gone further afield with its own version of the Ford F-150, the biggest selling pick-up truck in the United States.

The JAC 4R3 knockoff looks remarkably similar to the F-150, down to a blue badge in the grill.

But it falls apart under the skin, where the chassis is said to be cheap and nasty and its 2.8-litre diesel donk delivers 80kW/235Nm.

Compared with the F-150's range of engines Stateside, this equates to disappointing puny power.

US Army truck delivers peak performance using 25% less fuel

The US Army took its Clandestine Extended Range Vehicle (CERV) to the Chicago motor show to showcase its latest energy-efficiency efforts. The all-wheel-drive CERV uses a hybrid diesel-electric powertrain built by California company Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide. It weighs 2.2 tonnes, has a top speed of 130km/h, whopping peak torque of 6700Nm, and can climb 60 per cent gradients. It is designed for reconnaissance and rescue missions and can run silent on electric power alone for 13km. The US Army says the CERV uses 25 per cent less fuel than conventional vehicles of similar size. Its research shows today's soldier uses 22 US gallons (83 litres) of fuel a day. In World War II, it was one US gallon (3.7 litres) a day.

Smartphone car docking made easy

Plugging a smartphone/iPod thingy into your car's stereo often requires a tangle of cords or battery-sucking Bluetooth. Not any more, if the Devium Dash gets off the ground. Dash is a standard double-deck head unit (180mm x 100mm) with a magnetic aluminium faceplate to dock the phone straight into a vehicle's dashboard. From there, accessing sat-nav, sending voice texts and playing music is as simple as swiping the screen. Dash features a video pass-through so users can play video on external monitors, and the system keeps the phone charged while in use. The unit pumps out 4x50w of power and includes two preamps for front and rear subwoofers. The system is expected to go on sale in the US in June. Dash will only support the iPhone 4 and 4S initially, but Devium hopes to support other smartphones in the future.

Mini's carry-all work van adds class

Mini says its carry-all Clubvan concept is the ideal fleet vehicle for fashion designers and art gallery owners rather than plumbers or carpenters.
There's not much to separate it from the current Clubman, save for a flat rear floor and cargo tie-downs in place of rear seats and the addition of a stainless steel honeycomb partition.
But unlike more work-focused vans, the side walls and load floor of the Clubvan are lined with anthracite-coloured cloth rather than a durable plastic compound.
Mini says the Clubman "combines driving fun with increased load-carrying capability".