Friday, May 21, 2010

Chris Evans buys Britain's most expensive car – £12m Ferrari

Chris Evans has bought the most expensive car in Britain just days after pulling in the biggest ever audience for a radio show in the country. The Radio 2 DJ, who took over from Terry Wogan as the station's breakfast host, spent £12m on the vintage Ferrari 250 GT.

The 44-year-old, who is known for his admiration of expensive sports cars, sold three Ferraris from his collection to pay for the 1963 model, the Sun claimed. The car cost £6,000 when it was first sold 47 years ago.

Evans posted a picture of his latest motor on Twitter with the caption: "The new one has arrived."Only 36 of the 174mph top speed racing cars were made. The car has five manual gears and does zero to 60 in 6.1 seconds.

Earlier this week it was announced that Evans had beaten his predecessor, Sir Terry Wogan's record for the largest ever audience for a British radio show. His Radio 2 show averaged 9.5 million weekly listeners in his first three months in the job – a rise of almost 1.5m on Sir Terry who stepped down in December after 27 years.
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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Is it Australia's most expensive roundabout?

MORE multimillion-dollar roundabouts could be on the horizon for Wagga. The decision to budget $2.85 million for the Glenfield Road and Dalman Parkway roundabout was yesterday defended by Wagga City Council as future proofing the city's traffic control.

Director of Infrastructure Services Terry Dodds said new technologies meant roundabouts costed more but lasted up to five times longer. Mr Dodds said the technology of geofabrics and roller compacted concrete would ensure the construction lasted and saved council thousands of dollars.

"Geofabric between the layers of road reinforces the tensile strength of the base while the roller compacted concrete takes the forces of traffic a lot better and doesn't react as badly to water," he said.

"It (million dollar cost) will become standard because we can't afford to keep building them (roundabouts) in the conventional manner.

"Using conventional techniques we have to spend $100,000 every six or seven years to maintain the roundabouts but the new technology will see them last as long as 30 years."

Mr Dodds said building roundabouts cheaply now would create a false economy as they continued to degrade due to an increasing population.

He said a conventional roundabout would cost only $700,000 less than the new style, however, The Daily Advertiser found a report from Cooma-Monaro Shire Council stating a roundabout could be built for just $600,000.Glenfield resident Graham Jackaman said the price was extreme but at least something was happening.

"I'm pleased it's finally happening even though almost $3 million is more than expected ... although no start date has been announced yet," he said.

"We nominated traffic lights as our preferred choice, however, the RTA and council decided a roundabout would be better so I only hope there is provision for lights in the future."

Included in the project are one-off costs associated with power supply relocation estimated at $139,000.

Adding to the original budget of $1.3 million is $407,500 for roller compacted concrete, $97,250 for a geogrid, $60,840 for guard railing and purchase of fill material costing $113,243.
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Friday, May 14, 2010

World's most expensive stamp has a price tag of 5m pounds !

The tiny Treskilling Yellow, weighing just 0.03 grams is worth a whopping 5 million pounds. The stamp, which will be auctioned off in Geneva next week, exists only because a 14-year-old Swedish schoolboy rescued it from his grandmother's rubbish bin in 1885 and sold it onto a dealer for the lowly price of seven Kroner.he three-shilling stamp was first issued in Sweden in 1855 and used in 1857 to mail a letter.

Its rarity is augmented by the fact that it was the only one in the batch to printed in yellow by mistake, when it should have been printed in green. The last sale was in 1996 when it sold for 2,875,000 Swiss Francs, to collectors who remain anonymous.

"There was hot competition when it was sold last time. People collecting stamps like to have rare things, like to have special things. I think maybe it's because it's been known for so many years, it's special," The Telegraph quoted Thomas Hoiland, a Danish auctioneer, as saying.
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Thursday, May 13, 2010

HTC's EVO 4G May Be The Most Expensive Smartphone Ever

4G smartphones have been around; HTC made one for Russia's Yota carrier around two full years ago. But 4G as a whole is new to America, and while just a few cities have the service now, even those within a 4G area could only use mobile data devices to take advantage. Sprint and HTC announced the EVO 4G back at the CTIA trade show in March, promising America's 4G smartphone on an Android-based device that is seen by many as the iPhone 3GS killer.

Tonight in an event in New York City, both Sprint and HTC finally announced the final details surrounding the phone. Namely, a price and release date, but they also threw a twist in that no one saw coming. For starters, the smartphone will ship on June 4th for $199.99 after rebate and a 2-year contract agreement. That's not so far off, and it's almost certainly prior to Apple announcing the next generation iPhone.

And while this price is par for the course when it comes to revealing a new "superphone," there's a little more red tape to get to. Unlike existing smartphones, all of which surf at a 3G maximum, this phone will utilize the newer WiMAX standard where available. In order to pay for that, users will be forced to pay another $10 per month for WiMAX access.

This extra fee enables users to watch high quality YouTube clips right on the phone (or on an HDTV via HDMI), as well as engage in video chats using the front-facing camera. There's also the promise of simultaneous voice and data capability in 4G areas, and if you want to use the mobile hotspot feature--which provides 4G/3G access to up to eight Wi-Fi devices--that's another $29.99 per month. So the EVO 4G may be your ultimate smartphone, but it'll definitely drain your wallet quickly.
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Saturday, May 8, 2010

World's Most Expensive Car! 1936 Bugatti Atlantic Sells For More Than $30 Million

Earlier this week, a Bugatti originally built in 1936 sold for more than $30 million to an anonymous buyer, Autbolog reported. USA Today calls it "the most expensive used car ever," while the Wall Street Journal called it the "most valuable car ever known to have changed hands."

The auction was handled by Gooding & Company, a Santa Monica, California-based auction firm. In a statement, David Gooding, the company's president and founder, called the vehicle "one of the world's most significant and valuable automobiles."

The Bugatti 57SC Atlantic was previously owned by the trust of the late Dr. Peter Williamson, a neurosurgeon and car collector. The vehicle was the first of just three Atlantics built, according to Gooding & Company. Whoever the buyer was, they join designer Ralph Lauren as the only two owners of these extremely rare rides. The Wall Street Journal has some background on the vehicle:

The 57SC Atlantic was based on the Aerolithe Electron Coupe, a show car built for the 1935 Paris Auto Salon. The car's low-slung, pontoon-fender design was the work of Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore Bugatti. The show car was fashioned out of magnesium panels that were difficult to weld, and so Bugatti employed the car's distinctive riveted seams. And while the three production Atlantics were built of weld-able aluminum, the seams were retained as a design cue.
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Thursday, May 6, 2010

Most expensive art works sold at auction

The ten most expensive art works ever sold at auction, following the new record set in New York by a 1932 Pablo Picasso painting, "Nude, green leaves and bust". Unless stated otherwise, all works quoted are paintings.

1. Picasso, "Nu au plateau de sculpteur" (Nude, green leaves and bust): 106.4 million dollars - sold May 2010

2. Alberto Giacometti, "Walking Man I", sculpture: 104.3 million dollars - sold February 2010

3. Picasso, "Garcon a la Pipe" (Boy with a Pipe): 104.2 million dollars - sold May 2004.

4. Picasso, "Dora Maar au chat" (Dora Maar with cat): 95.2 million dollars - sold 2006

5. Gustav Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I": 87.9 million dollars - sold 2006

6. Francis Bacon, "Triptych 1976": 86.2 million dollars, sold 2008.

7. Vincent Van Gogh, "Portrait of Dr. Gachet": 82.5 million dollars, sold 1990

8. Auguste Renoir, "Au Moulin de la Galette": 78.1 million dollars, 1990

9. Peter Paul Rubens, "Massacre of the Innocents": 76.7 million dollars, 2002

10: Mark Rothko, "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" - 72.8 million dollars, 2007.

The above list does not include art works sold privately, which can sometimes go for even higher prices. The most expensive work ever sold is believed to be Jackson Pollock's painting "No 5, 1948", which changed hands privately for 140 million dollars in 2006.
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