Sandy's something of a renaissance man; draftsman, guitar player, teacher, motorcyclist, instrument maker and model builder. When he was in a motorcycle accident which shattered his wrist and put him out of action for a while, he needed something to do. While finishing a canned beverage he thought of model airplanes he'd seen made from cans and thought why not make cars out of the same material? And thus was born the CanCar. The "Coriba Climax" below is his first effort and while impressive in its own right you see the cars keep getting more and more technically detailed with each successive build. Very cool hobby Mr. Sanderson, and talk about a unique (though somewhat spendy) Christmas present opportunity.

Coriba Climax

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The Hot Rod

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The Buggy

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The Guinness

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The Roadster

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The Guinness 2

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The Jeep

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The Mini Moke

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The Heineken

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How They're Made

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(Hat tip to Jan!)

[CanCars]

A highly trained model enthusiast member of the Model Brouwers.nl forum has managed to make us feel like smaller, weaker men than we actually are by carefully assembling this 515 piece Pocher 1/8 scale miniature Ferrari F40. Not content with realism that the Pocher kit provides, he cranked the dial to eleven by including a 1500 piece photo-etched Autograph transkit into the mix.

For a nice cross reference to an actual, full-scale Ferrari F40 build, check out our Supercar Teardown where we get a sneak peek at the rebuild of a Ferrari F40 LM racer.

[ModelBrouwers.nl via TCL]

Yeah, you just never know where this writing thing will take you; one day you put up some photos of a car you owned in 1983, and then some Canadian builds a disturbingly accurate model of that car in what appears to be 1:zillion scale.

Next challenge: I want to see a diorama of the junked Renault 16, with a 1:24 Charles de Gaulle weeping over it!

It's a still-in-shrinkwrap Jo-Han 1:25 scale kit of one of my two favorite musclecars of all time: the '69 AMC SC/Rambler. The current top bid is just $3.25, but there's a week to go. How much would you pay for this rare red-white-and-blue beast?

[eBay]

Along with airing pretty much all of Eberhard's dirty laundry, refuting from his perception, all of the claims in the lawsuit, Musk also makes Eberhard look like something of an incompetent nincompoop. There are some real stingers buried in the enormous writing, complete with emails copied in to back up Musk's story, some of our favorites include:

There were several smaller items I suggested, such as the touchpad door latch that Eberhard tries to use as an excuse for why it cost over $140M to bring the Roadster to market instead of the $25M that he estimated in the 2004 business plan. That would have to be one hell of door latch! The $140M excludes any costs associated with the Model S."

and this not-so-subtle slap:

"All he had was a business plan to commercialize the AC Propulsion Tzero electric sports car concept. Three years later, when Eberhard was asked to leave Tesla, most of the work that he had been paid to do had to be redone."

Ouch.

In any case, Musk goes on to say over the last few years of work, the total bill of materials price which was pegged around $140k when Eberhard was running the show has been reduced to around $80k. Along with improvements to the supply chain, the optional Tesla Roadster Sport and a run rate around 20-30 cars a week, Musk is expecting to see the company turn the corner and see profitability next month.

It's a bit of a long read, but if you want a look at all of Tesla's dirty laundry being aired in pretty much one place and understand a lot of the history behind the car and its delays, it's well worth the time. [Tesla]

One crazy Canadian has started what we're sure will be the next big modelmaking craze, with his 1:24 scale model of the Castor Civic-Ensis 5th-gen Honda Civic, which finished 34th at the 2008 24 Hours Of LeMons Detroit-ish race.

It's possible to get models of so many LeMons cars, from Camaros to Proteges… but why stop there? We're thinking LeMons dioramas here! It wouldn't be hard to change the Tamiya Rally Mechanics into LeMons Mechanics, simply by adding mullets and replacing all their tools with hammers and rolls of duct tape!

[24 Hours Of LeMons Forums]

So here we have a Revell Gaga Rat Fink model. It'll set you back 126 bucks, but you'll be the only one in your prefecture with the Japanese version of the Revell Drag Nut kit.

Sure, you can get the regular Drag Nut kit for $35.99, but the Gaga appears to be in a larger scale. Does it come with the American-flag decals for the car, or must you paint them on? Either way, welcome to Model Car Hell!
[eBay]

While a genuine Revell Deal's Wheels kit would be a lot of fun- you can't argue with the awesomeness of High Bloatation tires- the prices are pretty steep. Anyway, I've got my own full-sized Hell Project to deal with, no time for Model Car Hell. Well, that's what I thought until I found this 1:16 scale RHD first-gen Honda Civic kit on eBay last week. Not only is it a non-worshiped car in a weirdly large scale, it comes with a nicely detailed CVCC engine! No time to build model kits, uh-uh, no way, nohow, I told myself repeatedly… and somehow I refrained from buying it. Big mistake- some lucky bidder picked up The Coolest Model Kit Ever for under 30 bucks, and I'm kicking myself.
[eBay]

I mentioned the must-have Nissan Cedric Brougham kit a while back, and that inspired Paul Y to do some more searching. It turns out that all manner of insanely detailed Dekotora kits may be obtained from The Land Of Insane Model Kits: Japan!
[1999.co.jp]

Musk, responding to a question posed by Lyle Dennis at GM-Volt on his feelings about the range-extender concept behind the Chevy Volt and why he's not considered it it any Tesla products, says:

We looked closely at a range extender architecture for Model S. It ends up costing about the same in vehicle unit cost, a lot more in R&D and a lot more in servicing. Also, although performance is ok when both battery and engine are active at the same time, it turns really bad when the battery runs out and an undersized engine is carrying all the dead weight of the pack. Essentially, a REV is neither fish nor fowl and ends up being worse (in our opinion) than either a gasoline or pure electric vehicle.

That'd be perfect, make it clear you looked at the idea for the Tesla Model S Sedan and dismissed it after a simple cost-vs-return analysis, then pivot into a positive statement about your product. Musk, who's not yet figured out the best way to go after the competition is by talking flowers, sunshine and honey publicly, saving the knife-and-dagger treatment for his PR team during after-party drinks with the press later on, should have just left it there. He didn't.

An important consideration that people without a technical background don't understand is that you can either have a high power or a high energy cell chemistry, but not both. Since the battery pack in a plug in hybrid like the Volt has to generate the same *power* as a much larger battery pack in a pure electric vehicle, it has to use a low energy cell chemistry.

So, is he saying GM's Volt engineering team lack a technical background or is he saying potential customers lack a technical background? Unknown. Either way, he probably should have left it with just the "REV doesn't make sense" comment. Lesson learned? [GM-Volt]

Tesla claims the Model S sedan will be produced at a rate of 20,000 units per year, with an expected 3rd quarter of 2011 start of production and an expectation of mid-2012 for when they hope to hit that 20,000-per-year number.

The Tesla Model S Sedan will supposedly have a 300 mile range from its floor pan-located, easily removable battery pack which Tesla claims will have a quick-charged capability allowing it to partially charge in just 45 minutes. The company is considering renting customers a long range battery pack for long trips. The regular batteries are available for lease and are expected to last from 7 to 10 years depending on use, but expect closer to 10 for normal use. The entire car will be covered under a warranty, the length of which is expected to be between 3 and 4 years.

The interior features 2 LCD screens, one displaying the gauges and one mounted centrally featuring a full touch screen. Seating has five seats facing forward with two seats folded down into the trunk space that flip upward and face out the back of the Model S. We don't have pictures of it, but Elon Musk tells us it's true so it must be.

Sport and AWD models are being planned, but the stock model can run 0-60 MPH in 5.5 seconds using its single-speed transmission.

The Tesla Model S will be built in Southern California, while the drive train is manufactured in San Jose. Although we initially believed they might be using a Mercedes platform, but we're now told personally by Tesla's Elon Musk the platform is their own design and they plan on manufacturing it themselves. Where they'll come up with the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to accomplish that is anyone's guess.

UPDATE: We now have all the details and a slew of live shots of the Tesla Model S concept. Read the full story here!

What these first shots reveal is a rear 3/4 shot of the new concept, a side look and an interior filled to the brim with wires, looking like it's still being put together. Makes sense, as it appears the shots were taken three days ago, probably as they were still putting together this hand-built concept. Other than those details, we guess we'll just have to wait a few more hours to find out more information — like, for instance, what car platform they're planning to build it off of.

Because here's the problem. If Tesla claim they've built their own chassis, then this car is vaporware. Because in order to get a new chassis on the road, they'll need much more capital than what they've already asked for to do the necessary safety testing and durability testing. So it has to be another automaker's chassis. But which one?

Even without details there's a lot we can learn from these pictures. For starters, Tesla already has a deal worked out with Mercedes for providing electric drives for a small batch of Smart cars. Assuming they continue that relationship with Mercedes, and given the wheels, for instance, appear to be a version of this Lorinser wheel and seems to carry the 5-112 bolt pattern, means if it's a Mercedes, it's likely based on a Mercedes C, E, or CLS chassis. If those are 20-inch wheels it's unlikely it's a C-class platform and more likely to be E-series or CLS-based. Of course this is just our stretch-of-a-guess, no matter how educated they may be. We really will have to wait until later today to find out for sure how Tesla built this concept.

Also, that's one seriously sweet full-screen dashboard.

UPDATE: For some odd reason, Tesla's asked Kevin Rose to pull his pictures down off Flickr. We echo Kevin's comment of "not sure if the company knows how the 'ol web works."

(Hat tip to Noah!) [via Flickr]

The yet-to-be-fully-unveiled Model S, with its all-electric powertrain, will surely garner more green-cred than the Karma (especially since Fisker is using a dirty old GM four cylinder) and a price tag of $87,900. Never mind the Karma has an unlimited range — the Model S is all-electric and cheaper!

The original projected price for the Model S was $60,000 but, after the Federal tax credit of $7,500, the four door Model S will cost buyers a mere $49,900. This news will undoubtedly charge the batteries of any would-be buyers, though we suggest they lock in their orders early . [Tesla via Carscoop]

We have one thing to ask - Can we play the part of the passenger seat belt next time?

[didntyouhear via Sports Illustrated]