12 Camrys Leaping
Is that a bird? A plane? Superman?
Nope, just a Florida man and his Toyota Camry.
At around 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 5, the driver began to feel dizzy while cruising along U.S. Highway 98 and hit an embankment at full speed. His Camry travelled 139 feet (42.4 metres) in the air and cleared 12 cars before crashing into the facility.
Four cars were hit by the identified flying object, and the dealership’s damage is expected to be in the thousands.
“We had customers all over the place, probably about 15 to 20 people on the lot at the time,” said the dealership’s sales manager Bruce Azevedo. “It was a Christmas miracle, you know, for it to happen with that amount of people around and nobody to get seriously hurt.”
Watch footage of the incident here.
Corvette Christmas
In December 2015, Vancouver, B.C. resident Mike Boivin was less than enthusiastic when his wife insisted they trek out to Fraser Valley to get a real Christmas tree—he would rather be in his auto shop.
Mike, who performs show-quality Corvette restorations in his free time, grew frustrated when the first two farms were sold out. He was ready to call it a day when the third farm they visited was closed.
As the couple drove up a dead-end road toward another tree farm, Mike spotted a familiar shape under a nearby tarp. He ignored his wife’s protests and pulled over for closer inspection.
Underneath the tarp were the remains of a 1963 Corvette sport coupe with a one-year-only split rear window—one of the most sought-after Corvette collectibles.
“I could tell from the serial number that this was a fuel-inject split window,” said Mike, recalling the day leading up to Christmas 2015.
Mike discovered the car belonged to one of the two men living in a trailer on the property—and they needed it gone by the end of the month. A deal was arranged, $5,500 was exchanged and Mike hauled off his new Corvette, parts and all.
The original engine had been sold with the car. Through his research, Mike discovered the car had previously been in a local repair shop with money owing when word had come that the bailiff was on his way to close the business and seize all assets. One of the employees then took the car out and stored in on the farm, where it sat for 40 years.
Now the car is in better-than-new condition and back under the tree for this year’s holiday celebrations. Its estimated value it approximately US$250,000.
“The moral of the story is, if your wife wants a live tree, you should always go with her anywhere she says to find one,” said Mike. “You never know what you might find.”
Sandy Situation
It took artist Leandro Erlich two years and 299 tonnes of sand to create his largest-ever work of art—a giant, life-sized traffic jam made entirely out of sand.
The installation was commissioned by the city of Miami Beach and was unveiled during Art Basel, a recent art festival. It depicts 66 life-sized sculptures of cars and trucks in an imaginary traffic jam on Lincoln Road’s oceanfront.
The art is meant to suggest a future relic and alludes to Florida’s fragile position in relation to the climate crisis and rising sea levels. It was on display in Miami Beach, Fl. from Dec. 3 to Dec. 15.
It cost more than US$1 million to erect, but the city paid US$300,000 thanks to sponsors and donations.
