For the past week motorists in the Southbank Centre carpark beside the London Eye have been greeted with the unusual sight of a Vauxhall Corsa 4.5m in the air, upside down, seemingly gripping to a piece of tarmac it has torn up.
No, it wasn't the result ofa particularly brilliant accident.
It was a brilliant piece of art by British artist Alex Chinneck, commissioned by Vauxhall as part of its "A to Z of Corsa" campaign to launch the new model and celebrate 22 years of Corsa sales in the UK.
Chinneck worked with structural engineers, steel benders, scenic artists, metal workers, carpenters, tarmac layers and road painters to create the sculpture.
It was designed to occupy the absolute maximum UK road-legal dimensions so it could be installed overnight.
Chinneck said: "I see sculpture as the physical reinterpretation of the material world around us and so by introducing fictional narratives into familiar scenarios, I try to make everyday situations as extraordinary as they can be.
"I choose to do this through illusions because I think there is something both optimistic and captivating about defying the realms of possibility.
"With an effortlessly curling road I hoped to transcend the material nature of tarmac and stone, giving these typically inflexible materials an apparent fluidity.
"Vauxhall Motors allowed me a great amount of creative freedom and this collaboration offered my studio an exciting platform to explore new areas of engineering and fabrication."
Which is all fine and well in an artistic sense, and while The Good Oil doesn't know much about art, we do know what we like.
And we do like cars hanging upside down in random places.
We are the world
• Christopher Shirley was arrested in Porter, Texas, outside a Walmart while sleeping inside his truck.
What is so bad about sleeping in your truck, you might ask? Well, he had fallen asleep after backing his truck into a car. Unsurprisingly, Shirley failed a field sobriety test, so was arrested and taken to jail, where he again fell asleep - this time while having his mugshot taken ...
• A truck driver in Alabama caused massive traffic disruptions and closed down a 4.8km stretch of highway after he lost control of his truck and veered off the road.
The cause of his loss of control? He was distracted because he was attempting to pull out a loose tooth ...
Bolting for a new name
Chevrolet Bolt.
When Chevrolet announced that the name of its new smaller range extender electric vehicle - which will slot in below the Volt - would be the Bolt, most thought it was a silly idea.
Why, they asked, would you call a smaller EV a name that sounds confusingly similar to the larger EV you already sell? Also, they added, "Bolt" is just a freakin' stupid name for a car.
Now it seems GM may be thinking along the same lines. Former Holden boss Alan Batey, now president of GM North America, told the Detroit Free Press the company was "aware of the problem" and that while the EV was definitely going into production, it might well wear a different name by the time it launches.
"We're still in the decision phase. It could go either way," Batey told the Free Press. Which pretty much translates into: "Yep, we know it's stupid. Now we just need to let a suitable amount of time pass before we back quietly away from it."
Angry AMG
Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Recently Mercedes-Benz announced (and released a rendering of) the race-only Mercedes-AMG GT3 that was to be revealed at the Geneva show. Now the company has released a photograph of the front of it.
And just look at it! Seriously, that is one of the angriest-looking racing cars The Good Oil has ever seen.
Apparently the AMG GT3 will be ready to race in the 2016 GT3 season and will no doubt pack a heavily tweaked version of the road car's 4-litre twin-turbo V8 that already pumps out ... actually, who cares? Just look at it! It is awesome!
The SLS GT3 has been a pretty relentless winning machine around the world, and we wouldn't expect anything less from the GT3 version of the GT. So we don't expect that angry, angry face to be seen in the mirrors of other GT3 racers for long. Which is probably a good thing ...
GM's designers clearly winging it
General Motors recently unveiled the new short oval/road course aero package that the Chevrolet-powered IndyCars will run in this year's Verizon IndyCar Series and have basically decided to cover the entire car with wings, because y'know, they're cool.
The Chev aero package pretty much looks like a slow child got about five models of an early 90s F1 car mixed together and just started sticking wings on whatever panel was free. Which is probably pretty much how the GM designer did it, because y'know, wings are cool.
"This is an important milestone in Chevrolet's involvement in IndyCar racing," said Jim Campbell, GM US vice-president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. "We focused on developing an aerodynamic package that delivers a balanced combination of downforce and drag, along with integrated engine performance. It's a total performance package." Although he didn't say it, The Good Oil is certain he added "plus, y'know, wings are cool, yo!"
Displaying a clear understanding of what aerodynamics are all about, Chris Berube, Chevrolet IndyCar programme manager, added: "This new aero kit provides Chevrolet drivers the capability to enter and exit corners faster, while maintaining high speeds on the str
Chevrolet IndyCar concept.
aights."
It is not known whether he went on to describe how the engine "made it go fast" while the brakes "made it stop" and the tyres were mainly there to keep all the other bits from rubbing on the ground. But he almost definitely added: "And look at those wings! They are SOO cool ..."
The company will unveil the speedway configuration of the aero package for high-speed ovals in May. Probably with fewer wings. Sadly.
