Tag Archives: Automotive

Ducati Formula 73: Bologna Reaches Back 50 Years to Build Its Most Soulful Cafe Racer in Decades

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There are motorcycles built to go fast, and then there are motorcycles built to make you feel something. The Ducati Formula 73 sits firmly, defiantly, in the second camp, and Ducati knows it. Unveiled on February 12, 2026, as part of the brand’s centenary celebrations, the Formula 73 is a love letter to one of the most consequential machines ever to roll out of Borgo Panigale, the 750 Super Sport Desmo, wrapped in modern engineering and limited to just 873 numbered units worldwide.

The story starts in 1972, at the 200 Miglia di Imola, Europe’s answer to the Daytona 200 and the first major competition for production-derived motorcycles. Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari crossed the finish line in a 1-2 sweep aboard the 750 Imola Desmo, a moment so electrically important to Ducati’s identity that the brand built a street-legal replica for the public the very next year. That replica became the 750 Super Sport Desmo, the first road bike Ducati ever equipped with its now-legendary desmodromic valve timing system. The Formula 73 name connects all the dots: the FIM Formula 750 series began that same year, 1973. History, compressed into two words on a steering plate.

Designer: Ducati

Fast forward to 2026, and Ducati’s design team dug deep into the company’s historical archives to resurrect the look with surgical accuracy. The result is a silver and aqua green livery that mirrors the original 750 SS almost note for note, right down to the vertical gold stripe running down the fuel tank. That stripe, easily the most poetic detail on the whole bike, references the unpainted strip on the original Imola racer that allowed the team to check fuel levels at a glance without adding any instruments or weight. On the Formula 73, it becomes a design flourish that ties the bike to its racing lineage without saying a single word.

The silhouette is pure café racer: clip-on handlebars with bar-end mirrors, a short and sharp front fairing, tapered tail section, single seat, and a steel trellis frame painted green to echo the original Desmo’s frame. Spoked 17-inch wheels reinforce the period-appropriate aesthetic, swapping out the standard Scrambler’s cast units in favor of something with far more visual character.

Under all that gorgeous bodywork beats an 803cc Desmodue engine, an air-cooled L-twin with two-valve desmodromic distribution that happens to produce exactly 73 horsepower at 8,250 rpm. That number is deliberate, almost theatrical, and completely perfect. Torque comes in at 48.1 lb-ft at 7,000 rpm, and while those figures won’t rattle any Panigale V4 cages, that’s entirely beside the point. The engine’s voice, amplified through a custom Termignoni silencer developed specifically for this model, is the real headline. Raw, characterful, and loud in the best possible way.

The Formula 73 rides on the Scrambler platform, which turns out to be a genuinely smart choice. That means KYB suspension front and rear (a 41mm inverted fork up front, preload-adjustable shock out back), Brembo four-piston radial-mount brakes, and a wet weight of 403 pounds. It handles like a Scrambler, which is to say it handles accessibly, predictably, and with enough personality to keep city riding engaging and canyon roads entertaining. Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV tires add a layer of grip that the original 750 SS could only have dreamed about.

Ride-by-wire throttle, cornering ABS powered by an inertial measurement unit, Ducati Traction Control, a bidirectional quickshifter, two ride modes, and a 4.3-inch TFT display with Ducati Multimedia System and navigation are all standard equipment. Rizoma billet aluminum components including brake and clutch levers with integrated oil reservoirs, footpegs, and a fuel cap add premium texture to every surface your hands and eyes land on.

Each of the 873 units comes serialized on the steering plate, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a collection of period images and sketches from the Ducati Style Centre, all presented in a special collector’s box. Ducati has also produced a short film called “A Piece of Timeless” featuring Italian actor Stefano Accorsi, a committed Ducati enthusiast, exploring the emotional experience of riding the bike for the first time. It’s the kind of cinematic treatment usually reserved for something you’d hang in a gallery.

Pricing starts at $19,995 in the US, and £15,095 in the UK. European dealerships get first crack at the 873 units this spring, with global distribution completing before the end of summer 2026. For a machine built on half a century of mythology, with the kind of detail obsession that makes collectors and riders equally weak in the knees, $20,000 feels less like a price tag and more like a conversation starter.

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Wingcube transforms from compact box trailer into spacious family camper

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Camping by the lake or on the beach has many facets. For some, it means camping inside their toned-up vehicles, and for others, it’s to snuggle up in a towing mobile home at the end of the day’s fun. In the latter category, there are choice and one that’s really caught my attention is the new Wingcube. This is a compact box when in tow, and at the camp, it opens up like a butterfly to become a complete, weatherproof home you can casually live in with your family for a few days.

Of course, when you see the press image,s you feel it’s another AI hoax. But it’s not really that, however, it is still a work in progress. The Wingcube is only a prototype at the time of writing but substantially a perspective gamechanger if it can be pulled of as is in the near future. The design is under constant change, so we cannot for a fact say what’s going to be what when it hits the market, but that’s not going to stop me from enjoying what it is at this point in time; that is a two-bedroom folding tent box with its own outdoor dinette, kitchen and lots of storage inside.

Designer: Wingcube

Conceived with the idea of making your family adventures more enjoyable and convenient, the Wingcube is easy to handle on the road and effortless to setup and repack. The trailer-based folding tent is extremely lightweight to tow behind any vehicle type (actual specifics of weight and dimension are not available). When you have reached your destination, the two main wings (on either side of the box) fold out manually (yes that can be electronic, going into production), parallel to the ground with the tent canvas – attached to the frame – folding down along with it.

The Wingcube, interestingly, doesn’t come with an integrated trailer. If you choose to dismount the box from the trailer, the latter can be used for a range of other tasks. Similarly, the cube itself can pitch in as extra bedroom at home. In the given form factor, Wingcube, according to the makers can sleep eight people, but from the images it seems comfortable for a family or group of four. The fold-down wings on either side of a central frame (comprising storage shelves) are the two bedrooms of the Wingcube, while on one portion of the central frame, you have the outdoor kitchen with a fold-out prep area which doubles as a dining table with stackable chairs.

A small ladder is provided to climb in and out of the bedroom, each of which feature a window and a large skylight. The introductory video (above) will give you a clear picture of what to expect from the final product, but it’s fitting to reiterate that this is still a prototype and a great deal of changes can be expected in the final version.

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This $15K Electric Mini Morphs Into 3 Car Styles – And It’s Only 8 Feet Long

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There’s something cheeky about mini cars that grabs attention. The MINI Cooper and Fiat Topolino are very good examples of compact hatchbacks carrying the aura of a supercar. The small size of a four-wheeler is more valued in modern times, where roads are flush with vehicles, and the maneuverability of a mini car promises so much value.

Now, designer Wini Camacho takes the Topolino as his canvas to graduate into a versatile mini car dubbed Topolino XS that morphs shape depending on the rider’s intent. It can be a roofless targa on a bright sunny afternoon, a coupe for a ride to the party in the evening, or a roadster for late-night skirmishes on the freeway. The versatile three-in-one system of the modular concept vehicle nevertheless preserves the minimalist appeal and simplistic design approach.

Designer: Wini Camacho

Wini retains the basic DNA of the mini hatchback while exploring the elements like the balanced out front and back section for a more flowy design. All this while making the overall footprint of the electric vehicle smaller and compact at 2.4 meters long and 1.4 meters wide, even though the Topolino itself is quite compact. The headlights on the XS modification have a more human-like character to them – they actually do look like a real pair of eyes with the circular dots encapsulated by the white LED beams. Tailights on the rear are made up of hundreds of little LEDs that the rider can customize to their liking.

On the inside, the driving dynamics take a huge leap with the central steering wheel hub for more centralized control of the instruments and safety features. This doesn’t affect the driver’s style of driving in any way, as the vehicle is already quite small to make much of a difference. If it were a Dodge Viper, Rolls-Royce Phantom, or Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, this would not have been an optimal strategy. The display elements with the Topolino XS are kept to a minimum in line with the less-is-more wireframe.

To spice up things for the prospective riders, the designer imagines the XS in two variants: PURO and ABARATH. While the PURO stays close to the roots with respectable performance figures and a rear carry-on luggage accessory for daily driving, the ABARATH is more of a beast with its bumped-up performance rating for adrenaline-pumping weekends. The looks also take a more aggressive positioning for the ABARATH in glossy black skin paired with the contrasty red wheel rims.

The post This $15K Electric Mini Morphs Into 3 Car Styles – And It’s Only 8 Feet Long first appeared on Yanko Design.

Awaken RV’s MorningStar camper blends dual-hull fiberglass design with all-weather durability

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Fiberglass makes a camper lightweight and durable, and double-shell fiberglass construction makes it doubly tough, all-weather proof, and sublime to live in. This is the new MorningStar from Awaken RV, a manufacturer in Ohio, that’s changing the image and construction parameters for a traditional travel trailer and giving it a sleeker but tougher makeover, which is surprisingly pleasing to the eye.

This is perhaps because of its curved appearance, which is interestingly achieved by piecing the camper body together with an inner and outer shell of molded fiberglass boosting design, ruggedness, and of course, all-weather insulation. Talking about insulation, Awaken has provided the MorningStar with a bright and airy interior, and filled the split-shell fiberglass body with reflective bubble foil insulation that makes the space cozy for living in all types of weather conditions.

Designer: Awaken RV

Measuring 23.9 foot long, the trailer, owing to its construction, is almost corrosion and rot resistant, and should be able to carry a payload up to 6,235 lbs. The MorningStar itself weighs only 5,320 lbs., and its interior is designed to accommodate a small family on a journey of their lifetime. The smooth exterior with a curvaceous detail is provided with windows on practically all sides, in fact you get a skylight for a captivating view of the starry night, when you’re at your favorite stargazing spot, doing what it demands, practically lying comfortably on the bed with your partner and kids.

The timeless interior of the MorningStar has a full standing height of 6.8 feet and an open living layout that makes space for everything from cooking to dining and from sleeping to washing up. What really comes in handy for the storage inside is the specially designed storage case on the outside, behind the hitch of the trailer. The long kitchen inside features a three-burner glass-top stove, rectangular sink, microwave, and a 212-L dual door refrigerator.

The wraparound sofa on the opposite side faces a dining table comprising two swiveling tables that offer flexibility in their usage – from dining in the day and converting into a flat bed in combination with the sofa. The entertainment suite adjacent comprises a 32-in smart TV and Klipsch Bluetooth speakers, which you can detach and carry outdoors as well. The cabin is provided with cable and Starlink internet for uninterrupted entertainment and work.

The bedroom with a twin (or queen bed, if you choose) has a good view of the TV but is at the far end from the bathroom. The bathroom featuring a fixed porcelain toilet, a vessel sink, and a separate shower compartment is placed on the left of the entrance, so you can also use it to your advantage when you’re getting into the camping trailer after drenching in the rain or with a muddy pair of shoes from a hike.

A trailer these days is incomplete without an off-the-grid support system. Awaken has provided the MorningStar with a 250-Ah lithium battery and 500 watts of solar power for this. The travel trailer also features a 3,000-W inverter and a ducted heating and AC system for your comfortable travel all-year long. With a 147-L fresh water tank, an outdoor shower and other add-ons like a power awning, this fiberglass travel trailer starts at $88,900.

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South Africa’s TrailPod brings retro teardrop camping to 2026

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Like it’s the case with the other parts of the world; in South Africa too, teardrop campers are becoming adventurous but with a very contemporary approach and a high-ticket price. TrailPod, an outdoor adventure brand in Cape Town, is doing things differently to keep their generation of teardrop rigs closer to the good old past, while integrating features that make it completely modern and dependable.

TrailPod shares our love for adventure and is therefore providing bespoke 4×4 teardrop trailers, which are designed for off-roading, but have a very nostalgic appearance to them. These rigs are made from zero-wood composite construction and feature a suspension system ready to deal with all road types.

Designer: TrailPod  https://trailpod.co.za/

The TrailPod Cricket series teardrop trailers are therefore cut out for off-roading, but they are subtle, competitively priced, and retro-inspired. Staying true to the teardrop shape and style from the past, these are ideal for adventurers seeking a variety of camping options without breaking the bank. For this, the foam composite body trailers have an aluminum layering underneath, prioritizing durability and retro-aesthetics.

The Cricket series may be new, but the first Pod was made in a garage setting during the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea back then was to build a vintage-style teardrop, close in aesthetics to the ones built in the 1940s with aircraft aluminum and army jeep wheels. “Feeling a bit like Pinocchio’s Geppetto,” this rig was called Tintin. Over the years with tweaks and perfection, the Tintin prototype is now evolved into a fully-fledged TrailPod Cricket teardrop series, which people are loving for obvious reasons, which definitely starts with the woody construction that dates back to the teardrop’s earliest days. It looks woody, but as said, it features a foam-composite body and no wood is involved (so not roting, mold and corrosion at any moment of its lifetime).

Tough laminate finish on the inside of the Cricket and thin aluminum cladding on the outside, which is overlaid with foam composite, make it a completely different teardrop option we have seen in recent memory. The comfortable and spacious interior of this trailer, which measures just 3.5 m long, is provided with a sleeping arrangement for two people, a small side-mounted kitchen, and cupboards for storage. Internal and external lighting are provided with energy by a 100-Ah lithium battery onboard and solar panels. Owing to its size and lightweight build, the TrailPod Cricket can be towed behind almost any vehicle.

Available in wide and extra-wide body options, Cricket can hold up to 200 kg on the roof when camped, so it’s possible to fit a rooftop tent on it. TrailPod has three teardrop variants in the Cricket series: Cricket, Cricket Lite, Cricket Max. While Lite is the smallest and cheekiest of the three, the TrailPod Cricket Max is the flagship model designed to go off-roading and ensure a prolonged off-grid stay. Its extra-wide body makes space for a double bed and a tailgate galley (a teardrop charm). Though TrailPods come in standard color options, they can be customized in a color of your choice, if you want.

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World’s First 5-Ton 10-Seater eVTOL Takes Flight In China

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The air taxi revolution has so far been imagined in miniature. Companies across Europe and the United States have poured billions into developing sleek, four to six seat electric aircraft designed to hop across congested cities. These nimble vehicles promise a new era of urban mobility, whisking passengers over traffic jams on short, efficient flights. The prevailing industry wisdom has been to start small, prove the technology, and then gradually scale up. This cautious, incremental approach has defined the first chapter of the eVTOL story, creating a landscape of compact, lightweight designs.

Then, Fengfei Aviation Technology decided to skip a few chapters. With the successful transition flight of its V5000 Sky Dragon, the company has introduced a heavyweight contender into a field of lightweights. This five ton aircraft is less of an air taxi and more of a sky bus, built to carry ten passengers or significant cargo loads. By achieving stable flight in a machine of this scale, Fengfei has fundamentally challenged the industry’s step by step consensus. The V5000 suggests that the future of electric aviation might arrive sooner, and in a much larger package, than anyone was expecting.

Designer: Fengfei Aviation Technology

The design is dominated by stacked booms and a multitude of rotors, an architecture that prioritizes aerodynamics and redundancy over conventional aesthetics. This form-follows-function approach gives the airframe an honest, engineered quality. It avoids any attempt at flying car nostalgia, presenting itself as a purpose-built system for vertical lift and efficient forward flight. The fuselage is a smooth, automotive-like pod, but the wings tell the real story. Multiple rotor booms create layers that resemble a giant quadcopter stretched over a commuter plane frame. It looks precisely like what it is: a new class of aerial vehicle that doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

As a five ton class eVTOL, its ability to carry ten people or an equivalent cargo payload places it far beyond typical prototypes currently flying. The pure electric version has a stated range of 250 kilometers, sufficient for many inter-city routes. A hybrid variant extends that operational radius to 1,500 kilometers, enabling regional logistics and transport missions that were previously theoretical for electric aircraft. This leap in capacity and range fundamentally alters the economic models and potential use cases for operators. Suddenly routes that required traditional turboprop aircraft or simply didn’t exist become viable with vertical takeoff capability.

The V5000 executed a complete transition at the Kunshan test base, shifting from vertical takeoff to fixed-wing cruise and back to a vertical landing. For a five ton airframe, this proves the maturity of its flight control software, which must manage up to 20 lift motors and forward propulsion systems simultaneously. The stability required to navigate this transition phase cleanly is a core challenge in eVTOL development. Smaller prototypes have demonstrated wobbly, uncertain transitions. Achieving it at this scale, with this much mass and complexity, represents a substantial systems integration accomplishment. Any control hiccup in that flight regime becomes dramatically more consequential as weight increases.

The distributed electric propulsion, with its numerous motors spread across compound wings, means a single motor failure is a manageable event, not a catastrophic one. This design philosophy trades the mechanical complexity of traditional aircraft for the electronic complexity of advanced power management and flight control algorithms. The V5000 operates less like a conventional airframe and more like a distributed computer with wings, a direction indicative of modern EV platform design. Instead of gearboxes and mechanical shaft redundancy, you get software managing power distribution across independent electric motors in real time. The approach mirrors how automotive platforms evolved, leaning into electronics rather than adding mechanical safeguards.

Western competitors have largely treated the three ton plus category as a future goal, to be addressed after smaller air taxis gain regulatory approval and market acceptance. Joby, Lilium, and Archer are all focused on lighter machines designed for short urban hops. Nobody in that group has attempted a five ton airframe yet. Fengfei’s flight effectively bypasses that incremental roadmap, establishing a credible presence in the heavyweight class right now. It forces a strategic reconsideration for other players, proving that the technology for larger, more practical eVTOLs is viable today. The psychological shift matters as much as the technical one, reframing expectations about how quickly the sector can move toward serious payloads.

More transition flights will follow, along with envelope expansion testing and the inevitable slog through certification, particularly for its multi-motor and hybrid systems. The key development will be observing its initial commercial applications. Cargo operators, who can tolerate tighter operational constraints and don’t need passenger certifications, may adopt the platform first. Regional passenger services would follow, potentially redefining connectivity between cities and offering a direct alternative to ground-based infrastructure. The V5000 has shifted the eVTOL narrative from urban mobility experiments to the creation of genuine regional air networks, the kind that can move meaningful numbers of people and goods across distances that matter.

The post World’s First 5-Ton 10-Seater eVTOL Takes Flight In China first appeared on Yanko Design.

Did Ferrari And Jony Ive Just Build The ‘Apple Car’?

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Five years after Jony Ive left Apple, and two years after Apple killed Project Titan, we finally know what the Apple Car’s interior *could* have looked like. It just happens to have a prancing horse on the steering wheel instead of a bitten apple.

The Ferrari Luce, revealed last week in San Francisco, is a transplant of Apple’s design language into automotive form. Everything about this interior, from the E-ink key fob to the OLED dials to the obsessive material purity, carries the unmistakable signature of Apple’s design peak from 2015 to 2019, when Ive still occupied his Cupertino office and the car project remained alive.

The Apple DNA is Everywhere

Walk through the components and the Apple DNA becomes impossible to ignore. The key fob magnetically docks into the center console and changes color via E-ink display. This is MagSafe technology meets Apple Watch complications, translated into a car key. The center screen features an analog clock that transforms into a chronograph and compass with the press of two buttons. Pull up any image of Apple Watch faces and the interaction model is identical.

The toggle switches and knobs scattered throughout the cabin represent the physical interface philosophy Ive has been refining since the original iMac. The Digital Crown on the Apple Watch, the mute switch on the iPhone, the volume controls on the HomePod. These are the same careful considerations about how humans interact with objects through touch and rotation. The OLED binnacle behind the steering wheel uses a parallax effect to create depth perception, the same technology that made the iPhone X’s face recognition possible, now applied to gauge clusters.

Then there’s the material palette: recycled aluminum with a microscopic anodized texture, Corning glass surfaces, leather in muted tan. This is the 2017 iPhone X material story. This is the unibody MacBook recipe. This is every premium Apple product from the past decade, reassembled into automotive architecture.

Wait, Is This the Same Jony Ive?

Consider what Ive said at the reveal: “It’s bizarre and lazy to assume the interface should be digital if the power source is electric.”

This is the man who killed the headphone jack. Who removed every port from the MacBook. Who spent twenty years eliminating physical buttons, physical connections, physical everything. And now he’s arguing that physical controls matter? That tactility is essential? That you can’t just solve everything with a touchscreen?

Maybe the context really does change everything. A phone lives in your pocket. You can look at it. A car moves at 200 kilometers per hour. Looking away kills people. Or maybe Ive has simply evolved. Perhaps LoveFrom represents a different philosophy than Apple did, one less concerned with relentless minimalism and more interested in appropriate solutions. Or perhaps this is who Ive always was, and Apple’s commercial pressures pushed him toward deletion when his instincts wanted refinement.

The Luce interior suggests that physical interfaces weren’t the enemy. Bad physical interfaces were. Give Ive the freedom to perfect a toggle switch, to make a dial that clicks with precision, to create a button that feels inevitable, and he’ll choose physical every time. The question is whether we’re seeing growth or contradiction.

The Timeline is ‘Interesting’

Apple started Project Titan in 2014. By 2016, Ive had become increasingly involved as the project shifted from full autonomy toward driver-focused experiences. He left Apple in 2019 but reportedly continued consulting on the car. In 2024, Apple abandoned the project entirely. During those years, Bloomberg reported that the Apple Car was supposed to feature premium materials, minimalist interiors, physical controls prioritized over touchscreens, and a “living room on wheels” concept.

Here’s what actually happened: Ive leaves Apple in 2019 and forms LoveFrom. Two years later, in 2021, Ferrari announces the partnership. That means conversations started immediately after his departure, possibly before. Ive spent a decade developing car interior concepts at a company with unlimited resources. Then he got to actually build one at a different company with unlimited resources and, crucially, manufacturing capability that Apple never developed.

My guess is Ferrari didn’t hire LoveFrom for an overhaul. They hired them for battle-tested thinking that never shipped.

Why Ferrari Said Yes

From Ferrari’s perspective, the logic is clear. They’ve never built an electric vehicle. Their customer base is deeply skeptical of electrification. They need to signal that the Luce represents something genuinely different, something beyond an electrified 296 GTB. So they hire the two most famous industrial designers on Earth, who happen to have spent years thinking about this exact problem at a different technology giant.

It’s outsourcing credibility as much as design. When people inevitably say “that doesn’t look like a Ferrari,” Ferrari can point to LoveFrom and say “well, exactly.” They’ve purchased permission to break from tradition by hiring people with no Ferrari tradition to break from. The prancing horse gives LoveFrom legitimacy in automotive circles. LoveFrom gives Ferrari legitimacy in technology circles. It’s a perfect exchange.

But the question remains: did Ferrari want Ive’s vision, or did they want Ive’s brand? Because what they received feels unmistakably like Apple-thinking while wearing a Ferrari cap.

The May Reveal Will Answer Everything

The real test arrives in May when Ferrari reveals the exterior. Right now we’ve only seen the interior, which is LoveFrom’s natural domain: screens, materials, ergonomics, spatial relationships. The exterior is different. It has to work in a Maranello showroom next to a 12Cilindri and an SF90. It has to look fast while standing still. It has to carry seventy-nine years of design language forward into an electric future.

Can Ive do that? Has he ever designed anything with that kind of visual aggression? His career has been defined by approachability, by objects that invite touch, by forms that recede rather than announce themselves. Ferraris don’t recede. They dominate spaces. They demand attention. If the exterior looks like an Apple product in May, then this really could be what the Apple Car might have become. If it looks genuinely Ferrari, then maybe LoveFrom understands they serve the brand rather than the reverse.

What This Tells Us About the Car That Never Was

The Luce interior reveals something bittersweet about the Apple Car that never was. This is the closest we’ll get to seeing what that vision might have looked like. But it also proves why Apple was probably right to kill the project. It took Ferrari, a company with seventy-nine years of automotive manufacturing experience, five years and presumably nine figures to turn Ive’s concepts into reality. And they still don’t know if customers will accept it. Imagine Apple attempting this from scratch, competing with Tesla on price, managing recalls and service networks and dealer relationships.

The Luce interior is stunning. It’s also a monument to why the Apple Car would have most likely been an operational nightmare, given that Apple isn’t an automotive company.

The irony is perfect: Jony Ive finally got to build his car. He just needed Ferrari to do the hard part.

The post Did Ferrari And Jony Ive Just Build The ‘Apple Car’? first appeared on Yanko Design.

Leisure Travel Vans Unity TBX redefines luxury motorhomes with a true adventure garage

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Ideal luxury motorhomes don’t fuss about your adventure gear and supplies. Their primary focus there is a premium small home on wheels that may cater to the rugged roads, but leaves you guessing when you reach the fathomed wilderness. Canadian RV company, Leisure Travel Vans, is changing this notion with the newly revealed Unity TBX series that has a spacious pass-through cabinet to carry along a great deal of equipment you may need in your time outside of your house.

So, whether you want to go biking, fishing, or surfing, with the TBX you can carry it with you. But the facility doesn’t come cheap; the motorhome is steeply priced at around $245,000 for its adventurous, all-wheel-drive (AWD) model. Yes, Leisure Travel Vans provides the TBX in two models: the TBX base model, which doesn’t have an AWD option and costs roughly $237,000, and the TBX all-wheel-drive variant.

Designer: Leisure Travel Vans

Of course, the TBX is aligned with the notion of a toy hauler, but it doesn’t compromise on the space, luxury, or convenience of a motorhome you can desire. Unity TBX motorhome visions to provide a new alternative to all-weather, all-terrain adventure vans that keep you content and cozy, like in some more than basic hotel room.

For this, the Unity TBX is based on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500 and measures 25 ft (7.6 m) long. Within this form factor is the 1,727-liter defining pass-through garage you can use to carry mountain bikes, surfboards, skis, and other supplies you can possibly stock up in the space. It would just be a dull space without the 12- and 120-V outlets here that would allow you to charge electric bikes right within the motorhome. Anything that is not easy to stuff into the pass-through garage can be carried on the hitch, which provides an additional 5,000 lbs. of carrying capacity.

If you thought this was almost about it, the TBX series is a lot more than that. The 6.3 ft. high interior is provided with sleeping facilities for up to four people. At the far end of the bedroom is a twin bed featuring a nightstand in the middle. On the front of the motorhome is the versatile swivel lounge. It features a two-seat bench, which turns 90 to create a lounge space, and in tune with a third cushioned seat and the two swiveled cab seats, you have a nice lounge area with a set of Lagun tables for dining and working. The space easily folds and converts into a double bed.

In the middle of this van home – on the driver’s side – is the bathroom with a shower, a wash basin, and a macerator toilet. Right in front of it is the kitchen, complete with a dual-burner induction cooktop, a sink, pull-out pantry, microwave, and double-door compressor fridge. Leisure Travel Vans has furnished the Utility TBX series with a capable off-road and all-season motorhome. It features a 270-Ah lithium battery, up to 400 watts of solar panels, and a 3,000-W inverter. Onboard, you have 151 liters of fresh water and 132.5 liters of gray water storage capacity. While the Truma Aventa Eco air conditioner takes care of the summer months, the same company’s VarioHeat furnace sees you through the winter in the TBX.

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The Navy’s Batwing Fighter Jet Promises Mach 4 Speed… But It’s Still Just A Concept

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David versus Goliath stories captivate us, especially when David brings a slingshot that looks like alien technology. Enter Stavatti Aerospace, a 25-person firm from Niagara Falls taking on Boeing and Northrop Grumman for one of the most lucrative defense contracts in naval aviation. Their weapon of choice? The SM-39 Razor, a fighter design so visually striking it demands a double-take. The triple-fuselage “Batwing” configuration breaks from a century of conventional aircraft architecture, presenting a form that’s more science fiction than traditional aerospace engineering.

The radical design supposedly delivers Mach 4 speed, Mach 2.5 supercruise, and performance metrics that eclipse what defense industry titans are proposing. Stavatti built these ambitions on titanium foam construction and aerodynamic principles that challenge orthodox thinking about fighter design. The catch? Stavatti has never manufactured an actual aircraft. Since opening in 1994, the company has produced concepts, proposals, and computer-generated imagery. Nothing has left the ground. The SM-39 represents either visionary thinking waiting for its moment or the latest chapter in a long catalog of paper airplanes.

Designer: Stavatti Aerospace

Three distinct fuselages merge into a blended wing body that genuinely resembles the vehicle Bruce Wayne keeps in his cave. The central section houses the cockpit while two outer nacelles sweep back at aggressive angles, each tapering to needle-sharp points. From above, the silhouette reads as pure menace. From the side, you see how the bodies integrate into the wing structure rather than sitting on top of it like conventional designs. Variable-camber technology supposedly lets the wing morph its shape for different flight regimes. Stavatti claims this delivers efficiency from carrier deck launches all the way through to near-hypersonic speeds.

Speaking of speeds, let’s talk about that Mach 4 claim. Current fifth-generation fighters top out around Mach 1.8 to 2.0. The SR-71 Blackbird, built with exotic materials and specialized engines for one specific purpose, hit Mach 3.3. Stavatti wants us to believe their turbofan-powered fighter will casually exceed that by nearly a full Mach number while also handling carrier operations, dogfighting, ground attack, and electronic warfare missions. The physics gets dicey here. At Mach 4, ram air temperature at the intake approaches 400 degrees Celsius. The skin heats up enough to glow on infrared sensors from a hundred miles away. Stealth becomes a joke when you’re essentially a flying torch broadcasting your position to every heat-seeking sensor in the battlespace.

Those elongated outer nacelles look sleek in CGI but imagine the torsional loads during a 9G turn. You’re talking about tremendous stress on the attachment points where they meet the central wing structure. Conventional aircraft concentrate mass along a single fuselage spine for good reason. Spreading things out multiplies the engineering challenges exponentially. Stavatti’s answer involves titanium foam, a material with impressive strength-to-weight ratios in theory. In practice, nobody has built a supersonic fighter from it because manufacturing consistent, reliable structural components at scale remains a massive hurdle.

The elephant in the room is just the money. Stavatti pulls in about $3 million annually, reportedly from venture capital, government incentives, and IP sales. That budget wouldn’t cover the coffee bill at Boeing’s fighter division. The company has zero prototypes, zero test flights, zero production experience. The Navy hasn’t even confirmed receiving their F/A-XX submission. Meanwhile, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have actual sixth-generation fighter programs with actual hardware being tested at actual classified facilities.

That being said, the SM-39 Razor does look absolutely fantastic. That counts for something in an industry where form follows function to an extreme degree. Wild unconventional designs sometimes break through. The Northrop flying wing became the B-2 Spirit. Skunk Works turned crazy ideas into the U-2 and SR-71. But those programs had serious funding, experienced teams, and institutional backing. Stavatti has renderings and ambition. Beautiful concepts deserve appreciation as thought experiments. Treating them as legitimate competitors requires suspending disbelief past the breaking point.

The post The Navy’s Batwing Fighter Jet Promises Mach 4 Speed… But It’s Still Just A Concept first appeared on Yanko Design.

Retro-modern Stärke Gen 2 Speedster is a Porsche 356 dupe spiced-up with modern creature comforts

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The world is gradually moving towards zero-emission vehicles that have sharper aesthetics and a modern appeal. That said, the appeal for classic cars is undeniable amongst enthusiasts who value the presence of gas-powered performance cars that bring the raw feel, fusing man and machine into one.

Stärke Motor Company didn’t want to create something that every other automaker is doing. Their ambition is to fuse classic performance four-wheeler vibes and modern features into a vehicle that is hard to miss on the streets. Meet the Gen 2 Speedster that looks like the Porsche 356 dupe (it actually is), albeit a little longer and having a lower ride height than the all-time classic.

Designer: Stärke Motor Company

The retro-inspired roadster borrows the look of a 1950s classic while bringing the comfort and drivability of a modern Porsche into a hand-built car that time-travels. Infact the heart of the Gen 2 Speedster is a 2017+ Porsche 718 Boxster platform with the chassis of the original making up for the structure. The real magic happens with the custom-fit interiors and other body components that are 3D printed to fit the 718 chassis. The brain of this damsel is the optional turbocharged flat-fours, or the naturally aspirated 4.0L flat-six. Buyers can choose from a 6-speed manual, or a 7-speed PDK transmission.

Gen 2 Speedster retains the old school vibe of the bumpers, round headlights, and oval taillights. The unadorned flanks fit right into the mix, and the low-profile tires lend the car a bit of chalk and cheese aesthetic. On the inside, creature comforts extend to the heated stitched steering wheel and seats, as well as a power soft top. The two-seater also comes with a modern touchscreen infotainment system and full-leather interior in 25 color variants. To keep up with the theme, flooring can be customized, too.

Given that the Gen 2 Speedster lives up to its bespoke aura, interested buyers can get the roadster done in their theme and liking. There is so much to choose from: the body paint, interior hues, choice of materials, or any other small detail that matters. Customization of that level does not guarantee a steep starting price tag of $135,000. However, if you bring your own Porsche 718, that slides down to $1189,000, which by no means is cheap either. Since the roadster will be hand-built, it will take a time of 6 months for delivery.

The post Retro-modern Stärke Gen 2 Speedster is a Porsche 356 dupe spiced-up with modern creature comforts first appeared on Yanko Design.