Around the Tracks: General Motors to develop next-gen Lunar Rover for NASA

When we’re not creating it ourselves, the CarAdvice team spends a lot of time finding and consuming motoring content from all over the world.

Here’s a handful of the photos, articles, videos or social media posts that most caught our eye last week. Some of them are brand new, others have been online for a while.

Enjoy them – just not too much, okay?

General Motors is collaborating with spacecraft experts Lockheed Martin to develop the next generation of lunar vehicles. As part of NASA's Artemis program these will transport astronauts on the Moon.

NASA put the challenge out to the tech and mobility industry to manufacture a new Lunar Terrain Vehicle. Once created, the LTV will allow astronauts the ability to study the surface of the moon in greater depth.

Features such as autonomous, self-driving systems will be incorporated to allow the rovers to prepare for human landings.

The truck had previously hit 2700 horsepower on the dyno at home, so the owners thought they'd bring it to a public event to show off its power.

On this occasion, unfortunately, all the nitrous and boost firing through the truck's engine had a bad effect on it, and it exploded. Thankfully, the audience was not harmed, even with large chunks of debris flying into the crowd.

Ford is lending a Mustang Mach-E to all residents of the UK’s smallest town. The American company has high hopes that this will convince those in rural areas to make the switch to electric vehicles.

It was all sparked by research conducted by OnePoll (published in March) revealing that 82 per cent of respondents in the UK’s countryside would not feel comfortable buying an EV as their next vehicle.

What's more, as access to charging stations is few and far between in rural areas, Ford is working with British Gas to install a charger in the town.

One of the highlight features inside the Hyundai Ioniq 5 are the specially-designed reclining seats that let you lie back and unwind while the car is plugged in to charge. The comfortable design was actually based on NASA’s zero-gravity posture shuttle research.

According to internal Hyundai documents, the Ioniq 5’s driver’s seat was designed with reference to a NASA study titled ‘Evaluation of Neutral Body Posture on Shuttle Mission STS-57 (SPACEHAB-1)’

The eighth-generation Sonata sedan is also available with a Comfort Seat design that reclines and tilts into a "zero gravity position".

The 1963 Chevrolet Impala that once belonged to American rapper Dr. Dre is now up for auction. The proof of ownership comes in the form of a video plus signed documentation.

The standard engine was a 3.8-litre six-cylinder unit, with the base V8 a 4.6-litre Turbo-Fire mill. However, Chevrolet wanted to ensure there was an engine for everybody, so the lineup included multiple six-cylinder and V8 units.

The auction is through eBay, with bids starting at US$100,000 (AU$130,000) – though keen buyers with deeper pockets can avoid the bidding wars and take the car home right now for “just” US$150,000 (AU$200,000).

MORE: Everything Around the Tracks