Ever harboured the desire to start your own air force, invade some tinpot country (New Zealand?) and become a benevolent despot? You've come to the right place baby!
Our friends at Australian Frontline Machinery have 27 slightly used, 1989 build, 1447KW Sikorsky S-70A-9 Black Hawk helicopters and $120m of spares to go to one lucky owner. From its global HQ in Thurgoona, NSW, AFM say: "Our genuine ex-military gear is sold via online auction. All items start at $1 … but these prices do not include on-road costs." Twenty-seven bucks (plus on road costs) to start your own air force?
Helicopters not your go? Too uplifting? What about a porcupine? At July's Bonhams motor bike Summer Sale, the ex-Ted Frend, AJS 500cc E90 Porcupine Racing Motorcycle, yours for around $500k. These were the real winning things and while Bonhams got $700k for a later-model E95 10 years ago, this is a better and more authentic buy.
Better still is the 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB at RM Sothebys Palazzo Serbelloni auction. Bought new by French film legend, serial marrier and philanderer Roger Vadim and later given to wife Jane Fonda, this is a steal at $3m.
OK last Sunday at The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Hamo made a rare mistake allowing Mad Max Verstappen to win. No Coriolis effect on Teslas. But to be fair and balanced, lithium batteries of the type installed in electric cars take more than four hours to put out if they catch fire and, even when they are put out, they have a bad habit of catching fire again and they can emit a toxic gas that can kill you.
As the Battery University says: "If a Li-ion battery overheats, hisses or bulges, immediately move the device away from flammable materials and place it on a non-combustible surface. If at all possible, remove the battery and put it outdoors to burn out. A readily available and effective fire retardant is sand kept in a fire-proof bucket."
This week two people died in Houston when a self-driving Tesla slammed into a tree at high speed, burst into flames, took four hours to put out using 121,000 litres of water and the fireys had to ring Tesla to ask what to do. Local Constable Mark Herman told the Wall Street Journal: "Our preliminary investigation is determining that there was no one at the wheel of that vehicle."