A Swiss motorist was fined over $100,000 for driving too close to the car in front of him on the motorway. That’s about double the worth of the car he was driving.

Switzerland is notorious for its strict driving laws and staggering fines. The European country is one of the few where fines are calculated according to the taxable income of the offender, to ensure that they are felt by the poor and rich alike. For example, a fixed $300 fine may bother someone earning minimum wage, but for a millionaire, it’s like a drop in the ocean. In Switzerland, the wealthier you are, the more you pay, even for minor offenses, which leads to unlikely scenarios where people are fined huge sums of money, sometimes more than what their cars are worth. Case in point, a Swiss lawyer who was fined over $110,000 for driving too close to the car in front of him on a motorway.

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Built from six 1976 Cadillac El Dorado limousines, The American Dream is over 30 meters long and has enough interior space to fit up to 75 people. It’s not the easiest vehicle to maneuver, though.

Originally built in 1986 by renowned car collector and customizer, Jay Ohrbeg, The American Dream measured “only” 18.28 meters (60 feet) and was powered by a pair of V8 engines, one at the front and another at the rear. Ohrberg later extended his unique vehicle to a whopping 30.5 meters (100 feet) long. Guinness acknowledged The American Dream as the world’s longest car in 1986, and the giant limousine was featured on the cover of several magazines, on television shows and even in movies, but its meteoric rise to fame was followed by an abrupt drop in popularity. It ended up abandoned at the back of a New Jersey warehouse for decades until a pair of automotive enthusiasts bought it and restored it to its former glory.

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An Englishman who had his luxury SUV stolen from his driveway less than 60 hours after driving it home claims the dealership assured him that the vehicle was “unstealable”.

John, a 45-year-old man from Warwickshire, UK, bought a £183,000 ($227,000) Range Rover 2024 SV Edition One from a dealership in Coventry on December 14, last year. The limited edition SUV (only 550 units were released in the United Kingdom) featured £10,000 graphite wheels, a luxurious high-tech interior, and all sorts of interesting features, like seats that vibrate to the sound of music playing inside the car. John knew that it would attract unwanted attention in a country where the number of luxury vehicle thefts have been increasing in recent years, but he claims the dealership told him that the car featured a new Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) security upgrade that made it unstealable. Less than 60 hours later, John’s car was stolen from his driveway.

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A VW Golf abandoned in the short-term parking area of a Berlin airport for a whole year has made international news headlines after racking up a whopping 201,480 euros ($209,124) in parking fees.

Airport parking fees are notoriously high, and Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport is no exception. The first ten minutes in the facility’s short-term parking area is free, after which it costs $11 for 30 minutes, $23 per hour, and $552 per day to park your car there, a significant chunk of change for any motorist. Now imagine parking a car there for a whole year. Unless you’re talking about an ultra-expensive luxury vehicle, you’d probably be better off just leaving the vehicle there than paying the ludicrous parking fees. Which is probably what the owner of a gray Volkswagen Golf told himself after leaving the car parked there since January of last year.

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An English engineer spent almost 750 hours turning an old Yamaha R6 motorcycle and several hundred pounds of spare steel into the world’s fastest penny-farthing bike.

Popular during the 1870s and 1880s, the penny-farthing bicycle is considered a symbol of the late Victorian period and the ancestor of the modern bicycle. Its odd name was inspired by the size difference between its front and rear wheels, with the British penny coin being considerably larger than the farthing. The iconic bicycle was only in style for about a decade, until the invention of the modern bike, which proved much safer, more comfortable, and easier to ride, but there’s just something about the odd look of the penny-farthing that still fascinates people. Case in point, this young engineer from Swindon, England, who spent hundreds of hours converting a 20-year-old motorcycle into the world’s fastest penny-farthing.

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A mini Mercedes G Class SUV with an electric motor and luxury trimmings has gone viral in Russia for costing 11 million rubles ($110,000) despite being somewhat of a children’s toy.

It’s no secret that the Mercedes G-Wagon is a lot of young people’s dream car, but would you pay over $100,000 to buy a miniature version for your teenage kid? A dealership in Moscow, Russia, is selling an electric Mercedes G-Class aimed at young people below the legal driving age for a whopping 11 million rubles ($110,000). At only 800 kg, it’s considerably smaller than the regular G-Wagon, and comes with a parental control function that allows you to limit the vehicle’s speed from 60km/h to 40km/h or 20km/h. But other than that, it comes with all the bells and whistles of a normal G Class, including leather seats, a digital display, parking sensors, soundproofing, steering wheel controls, and a rearview camera for parking.

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An Indian family recently went viral for their decision to send their old Suzuki Wagon to the grave rather than the scrapyard in a lavish burial ceremony attended by around 1,500 people.

They say you shouldn’t get too attached to material possessions, but try telling that to the Polara family in Padarshinga Village, Gujarat, who recently said goodbye to their 18-year-old Suzuki Wagon R by laying it to rest in a lavish burial ceremony attended by over 1,500 locals. The Polara believed the popular hatchback to be their “lucky” car so they wanted to say goodbye to it properly, rather than abandoning it at a scrapyard after nearly two decades of faithful service. Patriarch Sanjay Polara told reporters that he owns several more expensive cars, including an Audi, but credits the old Wagon R for being instrumental in achieving prosperity for his family, so he wanted to do something special for it.

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The Nano Tracks N320 is a miniature remote-controlled excavator that, although only 1/64 the size of the real thing, is not a toy, but a fully-functional excavator.

The world’s smallest excavator might be tiny, but it’s certainly no joke! It features 6 fully independent, proportional motors, giving you precise control over every movement, as well as an electronic slip ring, independently controlled boom, dipper, bucket, swing, and individual tracks. You may not be able to fit in its cabin to manually operate it, but the Nano Tracks N320 features extremely precise RC controls with the available modes. One offers the industry standard ISO controls (Caterpillar controls), while the second allows you to control the tracks independently, just like a real excavator.

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Transformer trucks that turn into large banquet halls at the press of a button have become popular in many rural areas around China in recent years.

Recently, a video showing what looks like a container truck capable of morphing into a banquet hall in just six minutes went viral on Chinese social media, but according to several news reports, the intriguing vehicles have been around for a while now. They first appeared in China’s Inner Mongolia region but proved so popular there that they quickly expanded to neighboring provinces like Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Gansu. In recent years, they have been spotted in rural areas of northern Shanxi, northern Hebei, and western Shandong. The trucks can transform in just six minutes and can accommodate up to 200 people.

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Authorities in China are reportedly testing powerful laser installations on motorways in an effort to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel, but drivers’ feedback has been mixed, at best.

Last year, clips of colorful light beams being projected from motorway signs in China started going viral on social media, leaving people scratching their heads about their purpose. What looks like a light show at an open-air rave is actually a trial method of preventing drivers, especially truck drivers, from falling asleep at the wheel. The most popular clip of the bizarre installation was shot on the 1,600-km-long Qingdao–Yinchuan Expressway, which is reportedly mainly used by heavy trucks from the capital city of Ningxia traveling to the port city of Qingdao.

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Dylan Phillips, a car mechanic from Pembrokeshire, England, recently set a new Guinness Record for the world’s fastest wheelbarrow with a contraption capable of speeds of up to 52 mph (84 km/h).

The idea of a super-fast motorized wheelbarrow came about in a pub, after a few drinks, but Dylan Phillips, being the tinkerer that he is, decided that it was just the kind of crazy project he wanted to work on. The 38-year-old mechanic started working on the wheelbarrow in his shed in Crymych, Pembrokeshire, and before long, he had a working trial version. He reached 37 mph during a test drive, and that’s when he started looking into the world record for the world’s fastest wheelbarrow.  He learned that the Guinness record stood at 46 mph, and decided that it was worth a shot to challenge it.

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Powered by a Soviet tank engine and weighing over 5 tons, the Panzerbike is by far the world’s heaviest rideable motorcycle.

The story of the world’s heaviest motorcycle can be traced back to 2003. Brothers Tilo and Wilfried Niebel of the Harzer Bike motorcycle shop in Zilly, Germany, were in Halberstadt where a former Red Army Barracks was being demolished. The two tinkerers have always been of the opinion that old materials can be repurposed, not just discarded, so they were there looking for parts to use in their custom motorcycles. While looking around, the two brothers found an impressive cutaway model of a Soviet T-55 tank engine and were so fascinated by it that they asked if they could have it. Little did they know that this would be the beginning of a very special project that would see them claim a Guinness Record and hold it for nearly two decades.

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A dragster-style custom car designed as a casket on wheels was recently auctioned off for $28,750 and went viral because of its unconventional look.

Inspired by the Drag-U-La coffin car featured in a 1965 episode of the television series The Munsters, this unusual vehicle features a custom box-frame chassis and an 8’ fiberglass casket as bodywork. It’s not actually a functional casket, as it was modified to house a driver’s seat behind the rear axle, but it certainly looks like one. Complete with wide rear wheels wrapped in racing slicks, organ-style vertical exhaust pipes, and lantern-style lighting, this coffin car looks more like a movie prop than an actual road-worthy vehicle, but it is in fact registered in New York as a 1928 Ford and has a valid license plate.

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A German engineering student spent 10 months modifying a toy car and turning it into an extremely fast vehicle capable of reaching speeds of up to 92.24 mph (148 km/h).

31-year-old Marcel Paul has always been fascinated by Bobby Cars, a type of toy car that was invented to help children learn to walk but that gained a cult following among downhill racing competitors during the 1990s. With 14 World Championships and 9 European Championships under his belt, Paul is one of the most successful riders in the history of this wacky sport, but to really cement his legacy, he decided to do something even more ambitious – create the world’s fastest rideable toy car. It took him 10 months to research, design and build the tiny speed demon, but he was able to smash through the old record of 88 mph on his first try.

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UK-based company Amalgam specializes in miniature models of iconic sports cars that feature all the features of their full-size inspiration down to the tiniest elements and have a price tag to match.

Founded in 1995 in Bristol, UK, Amalgam has built a reputation for building the most detailed miniature car replicas in the world. By maintaining close relationships with top manufacturers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Aston Martin, the company has access to the original CAD data and engineering drawings of the vehicles they replicate, as well as to their paint codes and color samples. Amalgam also uses high-resolution photos and digital scans to recreate each vehicle perfectly. Every one of the company’s 1:8 scale replicas takes between 250 and 450 hours of painstaking work to complete, hence the eye-watering price tags which can reach $30,000, depending on the model.

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