Most crash tests that we see are conducted at 25 to 40mph. What would happen during these same tests at over triple the speeds? Most modern cars can reach these speeds, so what would happen if a concrete wall suddenly appears in the road?

Yep, write off.

One of my favourite cold day foods since moving to Calgary is Phở. Nothing beats trekking through the cold to get your hands on a big warm spicy bowl of soup. I never find Phở to be all that filling which I swear really helped with this review. The Noodle Bus, one of the new food trucks to be roaming Calgary streets, taking up a location usually downtown before lunch and serving quick delicious food to the masses.

I arrived at the bus at 11:10. After snapping a few photos I make my way to the line (the whole 2 people ahead of me) and begin filling out the handy little paper order sheet, which really reminded me of ordering at other sit-down Phở restaurants. I ordered up Satay Beef and Sugarcane Shrimp skewers, the standard deep-fried springrolls, an order of Beef Noodle Soup with Satay and the round it all up Deep Fried Banana Fritters for dessert.

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Spotted this ridiculously insane car outside of Kulu Motorcars waiting for its lucky new owner. You are looking at a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series. Only a little over 100 of these are in Canada. This particular one appears to have been modified by Renntech resulting in over 800 HP and 1000 lb. ft of twist.

The Renntech version of the SL65 BS gets an ECU upgrade, upgraded exhaust system and bigger pumps for the intercooler. A beefier tranny and LSD are also available, but not sure if this particular car has it. I’m sure the driver will get intimate with the seat once their foot is planted on the throttle.

More high-res pictures are available in the gallery after the jump.

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The AMG Performance Tour Road Show made a stop in Calgary this week, bringing with them 14 AMG vehicles for a lucky few to sample. AMG owners were invited by their respective dealerships and sales staff to join AMG in testing out their current line of vehicles in an enviroment they were designed for, on the race track, at Race City Motorsports Park.

Being the biggest AMG fanboy out there, and having owned 4 different AMGs in the past few years, I was given an invite to this event. Seeing as this is the final week for Race City (it’s officially closing after this weekend), what better way than to spend a few hours on the track I grew up with, hammering on some of the finest (and personal favorite) vehicles from Affalterbach.

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Well, this one is too close to call so we’ll say its a draw. You would think that the bridge should be sturdy enough to withstand an impact from a backhoe, but that was not the case for this CP Rail bridge in Lloydminster. A backhoe that was being transported on the back of a flatbed trailer crashed into the bridge knocking it off the concrete support pillars and onto the eastbound lanes of Highway 16. Police estimate that traffic will be re-routed for several days as crews clean up the scene.

I suppose its better that a trailer knocks the bridge off the support instead of a fully loaded train causing the bridge to collapse. I’m no engineer, but I’m pretty sure these bridges should be able to withstand an impact from a trailer carrying a backhoe. Of course, the truck driver could’ve been speeding too. Either way, its going to be one heck of a mess to cleanup and repair.

More pictures are available on the Lloyd FM Facebook Page
Photo by: Lloyd FM 95.9 (Heather Klages) via Thager

This weekend, the City has finished making some changes to 10th Avenue SW between Crowchild and Macleod Trail. The most significant change is the removal of the median at 14th street that prevented traffic from crossing, preventing 10th Avenue from being a east-west corridor. New lights have been installed and will be activated Tuesday October 11th. A new 3-way stop has been installed at 18th street to allow the east/west flow of vehicles through the intersection.

Commuters taking 11th or 12th Avenue to enter and exit downtown are encouraged to use 10th Ave as an alternative route. The changes should help increase access to 10th Ave to facilitate future development. The new traffic pattern will be right next to the future Sunalta LRT station on the West LRT line. Both of these changes will be welcome changes to drivers as they should help relieve some of the traffic congestion on Bow Trail coming into the downtown core.

Cyclists were not left out in the latest changes to the 10th Avenue corridor. A new parking ban will be in effect during the evening rush hour (3:30pm - 6pm) in the westbound curb lane. During this time, the lane wil be reserved for cyclists only. The parking restrictions run on 10th Avenue from Macleod Trail up to 13th street.

Calgary City Council has approved a controversial bylaw that will prohibit parking on designated snow routes for 72 hours after a major snowfall. The goal of the new snow routes is to help make the snow removal process more efficient by providing a clear path for snow plows to work. The snow routes will be located on most priority 1 and priority 2 roads. You can check out the interactive road conditions map that shows where they are located. This map will be updated with a new option to display the snow route later this year.

The benefits to the snow routes are clear, and to be honest it is about time they have been introduced to Calgary. The snow routes will not only speed up the snow clearing on the major routes, but it will allow the plows to hit the smaller roads sooner (if at all). However, there are a lot of consequences of introducing 72 hour parking bans–especially in the downtown core where parking is already at a premium.

Businesses in the downtown core will be affected, and even the City will lose out on parking revenue during the parking ban, but one of the biggest impacts will be those that commute downtown and for visitors to the City who may not be able to find available parking spaces after the lots are filled by commuters.

The City of Calgary has considered many compromises but here are a list of suggestions that I have come up with that may or may not help:

1. Instead of a blanket 72 hour ban I propose the city bans parking for 24 hours after the snowfall stops or after the snow has been cleared, whichever is shorter.
2. Only ban parking overnight so crews can work to clear the roads before commuters hit the streets.
3. Introduce a day of week parking ban so crews can work on one side of the street on certain days of week and switch to the other side after those have been cleared.
4. Make Calgary Transit free during snow events so commuters can take transit to work.
5. Purchase a snow melting truck to speed up the snow clearing process in the central business district

I am willing to bet that we will see the Calgary Parking Authority handing out a ton of tickets during the final hours of the parking ban after the snow has stopped and the plows have gone home, because when it comes to new bylaws revenue is usually one of the objectives. Prove me wrong City of Calgary!

*update: 10/6/2011*
It looks like the City is going ahead with suggestion #2, at least in the dozen or so BRZs in the city. Parking will not be allowed overnight in these areas (9pm until 6am) so crews can clear those areas first.

As the warm sunny days start to disappear, and the weather starts taking a turn for the worse (or better depending on who you talk to) there is one thing that definitely helps get some of us through the cold winter weather. That’s right, NHL hockey is back!

The 2011-2012 NHL Pre-Season is underway and just like last year we have a bunch of Calgary Flames tickets to give away to our readers. We’ll try to spread out some of the ticket giveaways and we’ll do our best to come up with some cool contests this year. For our first giveaway we have four tickets to the Calgary Flames vs. New York Islanders game as well as four tickets to the Calgary Flames vs. Phoenix Coyotes game. To enter the contest, tell us who your favorite Calgary Flames player is by leaving a comment using your Facebook account and have it posted to Facebook. Please also specify which game you would like to go to. We will select two winners in the comments below, one for each game.

Good luck, and Go Flames Go!

Draw Dates:
Islanders game: 9/27 @ 2pm
Coyotes game: 9/29 @ 2pm

Contest Details:
Winner must be able to pick up the tickets in person by 5pm on game day. Failure to do so will mean a forfeiture of the prize and a new winner may be selected. No compensation will be given.

I’m a Mercedes-Benz guy, have been for the last decade. It comes as a surprise, even to myself, that I ended up back where I started, behind the wheel of a Porsche. My first real sports car was a Porsche 944 Turbo, which I owned since high school, and drove to it’s grave 5 years ago with a hole in the block of the heavily modified engine. I missed her while she was gone, for a few months anyways. Looking back, with all the money that I spent, and the toxic love/hate relationship that I had with the car, I vowed not to get back into a Porsche again.

And here I am today, with a 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo sitting in my garage, a month away from winter. You’ve all seen those Porsche Everyday commercials. This is supposed to be the ultimate winter car. I’ve read about it, heard about it from other owners that winter drive their 911’s in the winter, and see them on the road, which made me curious… is it really the Ultimate Winter Car?

With that being said, here’s the introduction to our 911 Turbo, Ultimate Winter Car series. Let’s take a look at the car that we’ve aquired:

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Do you hate all those product unboxing videos that tell you absolutely nothing about the product? Well, then you might just hate this video too. Adam Frucci from Gizmodo unboxes the 2012 Toyota Yaris.