In previous materials, we warned that it is already too dangerous to park in closed or underground parking lots, because electric cars have access to them.
Electric cars tend to self-ignite, such as this case with a Tesla car in China. The car self-ignites without even charging at the moment of self-ignition.
You can also see how quickly it covers the neighboring cars.
In not a few cases, all the cars in the parking lot are burned by such self-ignitions.

The incredible story of LeTourneau - the most unusual road train in the history of mankind.
The longest road trains in the world live in Australia. They reach over fifty meters in length and have up to seven trailers! But that's nothing compared to the LeTourneau TC-497 Overland Train Mark II, a unique American road train designed to survive in a post-nuclear world. The incredible wheeled monster turns 60 this year. And today it is curious to look at it not only as an engineering miracle, but also as a characteristic artifact of its time.

In the late 40s of the 20th century, the world seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war: the confrontation between the two superpowers was growing, and the arms race became a vital necessity. Assuming that Soviet military forces could undermine both road and rail communications in the country with a few blows, the US Department of Defense ordered the Texas manufacturer LeTourneau to produce a road train capable of transporting heavy loads through the area affected by a nuclear war. The unequivocal choice in favor of LeTourneau (without a tender) was not accidental - the company proved itself excellently in 1953 with the heavy timber carrier VC-12 Tournatrain.

The first prototype of the new road train, called LCC-1, was ready in the fall of 1956 and immediately sent for sea trials in Greenland. The road train consisted of four parts: a Sno-Train tractor and three trailed four-wheeled bogies.

The Sno-Train was powered by a 600-horsepower Cummins engine and was capable of pulling, in addition to the trailers themselves, 45 tons of payload - and even pulling through swampy terrain or over two meters of ford! The tests lasted until 1962 - that year the LeTourneau TC-497 Overland Train Mark II appeared, the second prototype of the road train, which has already gone down in history forever.

The scheme is the same: the head "tractor" plus trailers. But now the number of trailers has increased to 12, the number of 3.5-meter wheels with Firestone tires to 54 (6 for the tractor and 48 for the trailers), and the payload of the train has reached 150 tons! As a result, the length of the LeTourneau TC-497 Overland Train Mark II was an incredible 173 meters, and this record among wheeled road trains has not been broken so far.

The tractor, whose height with an antenna reached nine meters, was no longer equipped with a diesel engine, but with a gas turbine engine. And not one, but four - the total output of such a power plant reached 4680 horsepower. Thanks to the enormous power, a fully loaded road train (which is 450 tons) could accelerate to 35 kilometers per hour. The power reserve was about 600 kilometers.

The Mark 2 used a progressive electronic composition control system, thanks to which the road train could go around obstacles like a snake. Surprisingly, even a separate operator was not required to control this system that controls the links of the road train - one driver coped with all the tasks.

However, for the full service of the train, a crew of six was required, for which special carts were created: with sleeping places, a restroom, a dining room and even a laundry room with automatic washing machines!

The TC-497 was tested until 1969, although already in 1962 the project was actually put an end to: the US Department of Defense opted for Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe cargo helicopters as a universal transport. They were cheaper, did not require an expensive articulation control system, and could easily do without roads.

The US government spent 3.7 million taxpayer dollars on the TC-497 project. After the end of the tests, the road train was put up for sale for $ 1.4 million, but there were no buyers. As a result, in 1971, the trailers were cut into scrap metal, and the tractor was transferred to the Yuma Proving Ground Heritage Center, where it is located to this day.

Fate also spared the Sno-Train of the LCC-1. After working a test program in Greenland and assisting in the transportation of goods in Alaska, he took his place of honor in the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse, Canada.

In fairness, it should be noted that the longest (but inefficient) road train was still assembled in Australia. True, this was done specifically to set a record. The Mack Titan truck pulled 113 trailers for a total length of 1,474 meters, but only managed 140 meters. On asphalt and straight ahead.

Especially for the filming of the film, the car went through a serious tuning.
In the UK, a Christie's charity auction was held, within which the iconic Aston Martin DB5 sports car, driven by James Bond in the movie No Time to Die, was put up for auction. During filming, the car was seriously damaged. However, this did not stop an unnamed buyer from paying $3.2 million for the car. Especially for the filming of the film, the car went through a serious tuning.

Eight identical Aston Martin DB5s were built for the filming of the film. Each car was equipped with an armored windshield, rotating license plates, a machine gun model, and retractable rams in the front and rear of the body. A safety cage, a remote control for gadgets and a copy of the radar appeared in the cabin.

The sports car is powered by a 4.0-liter V6 petrol engine that produces 290 horsepower. The unit is equipped with a five-speed manual transmission. In addition, the car was equipped with rack and pinion steering and steel disc brakes.

During filming, the sports car was seriously damaged. Despite this, the new owner paid $3.2 million for the wrecked Aston Martin.

At the end of August, a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 owned by Sean Connery was auctioned off. The famous film actor drove a sports car in one of the parts of the James Bond spy saga.