Formula 1: Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing Car Got the Red Carpet Treatment

by Gabrielle DeSantis

People who wanted to buy a car used to have to schlep to the local dealership and pick from what was on the lot. That certainly isn’t the case anymore. Online stores like Carvana, CarNext, CarMax, and Vroom are making it easier than ever to buy a car from the comfort of home. Or, if you are Max Verstappen, CarNext will deliver your Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car to wherever you need to be.

Delivering the Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing RB14 car

Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing RB14 Formula 1 car | Clive Mason/Getty Images

The Red Bull Racing RB14 is no longer used during Formula 1 races, but that doesn’t mean it is retired. Max Verstappen’s old Formula 1 car is on the move! CarNext picked up the car and drove it around the streets of Amsterdam for a little bit. After a few victory laps, Verstappen’s old vehicle landed at the Max Verstappen shop in Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet in Lelystad.

While this car hasn’t been used since the Red Bull Racing team switched from Renault to Honda engines back in 2019. Even though it was a Renault engine, the engine was rebadged as TAG Heuer. The RB14 was repainted to match the current 2021 color scheme to match the current RB16B car.

CarNext loaded the vehicle onto the CarNext delivery truck that happens to be the perfect truck for show-and-tell. It has clear sides and tends to draw a lot of attention.

You can visit Max Verstappen’s old Formula 1 car in the Netherlands

If you happen to be in the area of Batavia Stad in Lelystad, Netherlands, you can see the Formula 1 car on display. In the promo ad above, Max Verstappen calls CarNext headquarters to arrange for the delivery. When the staff member agrees to deliver the vehicle, Verstappen responds, “That’s simply lovely.” This is just a partnership with Verstappen and CarNext, but it is nice to see a lighter piece of news involving the racer.

The Belgian Grand Prix is up on August 27 at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit. That is followed by the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort. This is the home track for Verstappen, and with all of the drama between himself and Lewis Hamilton, it should turn out to be a great race.

Don’t understimate Red Bull going into the second half of the season

The Red Bull Racing RB14 led Max Verstappen to 11 podium finishes and two wins during the partnership in 2018. When CarNext asked Verstappen about the upcoming races, he seemed confident in his performance. “The second half of the season starts on my home ground, and the whole team is eager to continue our strong performance in this championship so far.”

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have one of the more heated rivalries in recent memory. Neither of the drivers is taking that lightly. The second half of the 2021 Formula 1 season is going to be very interesting. And if you want to go see one of Verstappen’s old F1 cars, head on over to the Netherlands.

RELATED: 5 Most Expensive Formula 1 Cars Sold at Auction, Including One Lewis Hamilton Drove

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Nikola Founder Said Pickups Would Have Drinking Fountains and Other Crazy Claims

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The US Department of Justice has indicted the founder of Nikola Motors for fraud. In that indictment, we learn that among other things Trevor Milton is being accused of, that he tweeted Nikola’s Badger pickup would have “nice cold, clean, pure drinking water.” Nikola engineers scrambled after the tweet to figure out if they had missed that memo, and if it was possible to even do so.

Nikola engineers were caught off guard after Milton’s drinking water tweet

Nikola EV Motors | Nikola

A drinking fountain inside of the Badger is just one of many claims he had about Nikola products. He also said that the Badger would make its own windshield washer fluid. The prosecutors say that after making the clean water tweet, Milton went online to see if it was even possible to pull off. Recovered evidence from his computer exposed the search, “can you drink water from a fuel cell?” 

During the peak of Nikola’s stock popularity, Milton was one of the top 100 wealthiest persons on earth. Telling investors Nikola had over $10 billion in pre-orders, the value of the company surpassed that of Ford Motor Company. And it hadn’t built a single production vehicle at that point. In fact, it still hasn’t. 

Now the Department of Justice says between November 2019 and September 2020, Milton defrauded investors. Through false statements about Nikola’s technology, vehicles, and pre-orders he enticed potential investors to fork over millions of dollars. He left the company in September 2020. 

The Nikola founder is accused of lying about “nearly every aspect of the business”

Nikola truck on mountain road
Nikola EV Motors | Nikola

Milton pleaded not guilty last Thursday to fraud by lying to investors about “nearly every aspect of the business,” according to the US Department of Justice. Other EV companies the feds are looking into misleading investors include Lordstown Motors and Canoo. Both have acknowledged they’re being investigated.

A third EV maker funded through a SPAC or Special Purpose Acquisition Company listing on the stock exchange is also being investigated according to CNBC. The target of this third look by the feds was not revealed. One of the differences between a regular listing and a SPAC is that a “quiet period” is not required with a SPAC. Milton is accused of using this difference to make false claims and spread false info about Nikola. 

“In carrying out his fraudulent scheme, Milton exploited features of the SPAC structure that are different from a traditional initial public offering or IPO,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss told CNBC. But federal securities laws still don’t allow corporate officers to lie about aspects of the company.

SPAC investments are riskier because the companies have no products or assembly plants

Nikola front
Nikola EV truck | Nikola

SPACs raise capital to buy something that doesn’t have a product or operations. They’re a quicker way to be publicly traded in spite of not selling anything. Their only asset is cash from these investments. 

So far the heads of Nikola, Lordstown Motors, and Canoo have been ousted after inquiries from the feds. All of those companies are working with the SEC. Meanwhile, the SEC is pouring more resources into SPAC investigations. 

Other EV manufacturers leaning on SPAC deals include Fisker, Faraday Future, Arrival, and Electric Last Mile. At least some of these companies are heartily using social media to hype technology, products, and investments. Some, like Fisker, even shill $30 T-shirts and $100 sweatshirts. 

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What Does High or Low Mileage Really Mean for Your Car?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

There are many factors that determine how much your car is worth, and they are similar to the factors that we take into consideration when we are purchasing cars brand new, also. How many miles a car is designed or expected to last, for example, is one major concern that many buyers, both on the new and used car market, focus on. How expensive maintenance and repairs are ties in with this idea, as we want to know that we can afford to cover any potential issues that arise and can keep the vehicle in good, running condition for as long as possible. What is considered high or low mileage for a vehicle can vary greatly depending on several factors, and it isn’t as black-and-white as some people may initially think.

High mileage or low mileage is subjective

Mileage displayed on a vehicle’s odometer | Rene Johnston, Toronto Star, Getty Images

What has considered high or low mileage on a vehicle is subjective to the type of vehicle, and sometimes even more specifically, the vehicle model itself. Consumer cars like sedans and SUVs may still be considered lower mileage at 30,000 miles, but sports cars and collector cars like a Lotus Elise would be considered higher mileage at 30,000. The age of the car also determines what is considered low mileage, where an older car with 50,000 miles might be considered low mileage, but the same car a year old with 50,000 miles would be considered high. This isn’t a perfect science or equation, but according to the Federal Highway Administration, the average annual miles for a vehicle is around 15,000. Multiply that number by how many years old a vehicle is, and you can guess what the average expectant mileage should be — for consumer vehicles.

Why do buyers tend to steer away from high mileage cars?

Mileage is one of the biggest ways that we gauge a car’s life expectancy on the road, even if it isn’t the most accurate. Higher mileage cars are typically worth less than the same car in the same condition with fewer miles because higher mileage cars are not expected to stay on the road as long. This isn’t a fool-proof way of gauging a car’s life expectancy, as you can buy cars with over 200,000 miles and still get years’ worth of quality driving with few to no problems. However, cars with higher mileage are typically older in general, which is also a factor in how much the car is worth.

Why do people gauge a car’s life by how many miles it has on the odometer

There aren’t a lot of features on your car that gauge how much it has been driven or how it has been driven or maintained. Mileage is one of the only ways that buyers and sellers and determine how much a car has been on the road, even if it does little to tell us anything about those miles, and it tells us nothing about how hard a vehicle has been driven. Mileage also doesn’t explain how well a car has been maintained, but not every car comes with verifiable maintenance and repair records, leaving us with miles as the only indicating factor of how much of a car’s lifespan has been used.

RELATED: Is Buying a High Mileage Car a Good Idea?

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Tesla Fires Are Notoriously Hard to Put out Due to Their Batteries

by Gabrielle DeSantis

When it comes to car safety, vehicle fires are a rare but scary occurrence. In the past, the source of vehicle fires may commonly have been a result of a collision of some kind. Today, however, with the popularity of electric vehicles increasing, instances of EVs catching fire due to faults or other malfunctions quickly make headlines. Tesla is one automaker that frequently makes the news when a model catches fire. What’s more, due to the unique chemical makeup of lithium-ion batteries, which power Teslas among other EVs, these fires are difficult to extinguish.

EVs are not necessarily more prone to catching fire

Firefighters extinguishing a car fire | Jonas Walzberg/picture alliance via Getty Images

As CNN Business reports, Tesla purports that gas-powered vehicles are 11 times more likely to catch fire than EVs like Teslas. CNN also goes on to discuss that in an investigation that the nonprofit research firm Battelle did for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it deduced that the number of fires from lithium-ion batteries in EVs was roughly the same or slightly less than fires in gas-powered cars.

Tesla models and EVs still have a significant issue

Theoretically speaking, electric vehicles aren’t more prone to catching fire when compared to their internal combustion counterparts. The concern is that once these fires start, they are, in effect, chemical fires that are difficult to extinguish safely. The batteries themselves aren’t faulty, but the concern is the high voltage needed to charge these batteries and the high heat resulting from running the car.

On top of that high heat, these batteries can burn for much longer due to their chemical composition. According to SFist, Tesla fires take upwards of 28,000 gallons of water to put out. Fires burning for longer durations also means that Tesla fires result in more resources from firefighters who need to spend hours extinguishing the blaze.

Another issue is that lithium-ion batteries also do not typically ignite right away should there be an issue. Gasoline, on the other hand, will ignite at the moment it sparks. That delay for EV batteries catching fire, CNN Business says, means that some lithium-ion batteries might sustain damage at one time and place and then ignite sometime later at a moment’s notice. 

EVs are still the safer option overall 

When they are compared with gas-powered vehicles, EVs are still the safer choice. An NHTSA study concluded that consequences of lithium-ion battery fires are fewer because of the relatively small flammable chemicals released when the battery fails or is damaged. 

What’s more, Teslas’ systems are designed to alert drivers of impending battery failures with enough time for the driver to pull over and exit the vehicle. Tesla assures drivers in its blog that firewalls are in place surrounding the battery and its housing or compartment meant to help keep the fire from spreading to the cockpit and affecting drivers and occupants.

Furthermore, it is because of their batteries and driver assistance technology that EVs are becoming more popular. EVs are undoubtedly the future for cars, and more work will be put into perfecting technologies and coping with and anticipating battery and safety issues. As such, EVs will continue to grow in terms of both safety features and ownership. 

RELATED: More Chevy Bolt Fires: GM Quietly Buying Them Back

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