By Andrew Liszewski

As Top Gear (season 14, episode 5) once showed, there’s not a lot of great automotive art. The cars themselves can most definitely be pieces of art, but hanging one in the living room is only for those with too much money on their hands. However, I think these 3D track wall pieces strike a perfect balance between minimalist art and fanaticism.

Made from laminated birch and formica cut on a CNC machine, the pieces are simple enough to come off as abstract modern art when hanging on your wall, but won’t go unnoticed by real racing fans. The Linear Edge makes a huge selection of tracks just like these based on real world courses from MotoGP to Formula1 to even Nascar, though it does seem to pass on the boring ovals. They sell for either $199 or $219, presumably based on size, and custom orders can also be made, presumably with a higher price tag.

[ The Linear Edge's 3D Track Art ] VIA [ Jalopnik ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Like squash, the game of jai alai has players sending a ball towards a wall in an enclosed court. But while squash players use a stringed racket and a rubber ball, jai alai players use a scoop called a xistera to rocket a ball (or pelota) made of metal wire wrapped in goatskin up to speeds of 188mph. The game can actually be quite dangerous if you get hit, so it makes perfect sense that someone would apply the same concepts to snowball fights.

This xistera is made from durable ABS plastic and it’s apparently capable of launching a snowball up to 150 feet, which is pretty impressive even if it never reaches 188mph. The handle also features a built-in mold for crafting the perfect snowball, and a set of two is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for just $24.95. Goodbye cold and wet gloves, hello concussions.

[ Snowball Xistera ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s not uncommon for an Ulitmate Frisbee team to have discs printed with custom graphics like their logo, but a custom 3D design in the frisbee itself? Forget about it. But seriously, it’s probably best to forget you ever saw this since while these 3D printed FrisMes are incredibly cool, the basic model that includes a stock texture and your initials is $230 including shipping. And the price goes up from there, all the way to $1,300 if you fancy incorporating a 3D scan of your hand into the design, not including the cost of a trip to i.materialise’s HQ in Belgium to get the scan done.

[ i.materialise blog - Customized 3D printed FrisMe ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Will these basketball-themed textured rubber add-ons for your Xbox 360 or Playstation controller actually improve your performance in basketball games? Probably not. Will they make your controllers look more orange? Absolutely. They also just ‘clip-on’ to your controller’s sticks instead of using an adhesive so they’re not permanent, and they’re available for pre-order from the KontrolFreek website for just $9.99.

[ KontrolFreek Hoops Freek ] VIA [ Joystiq ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Horribly uninspired product name aside, the (ugh) iPong Table Tennis Trainer doesn’t just randomly blast you with a constant barrage of 110 ping pong balls. Not at all. Thanks to a spinning wheel somewhere inside the belly of the beast it’s actually able to put 3 different types of spin on the ball which are selectable through a dial. “Underspin (where the bottom of the ball rotates away from the player, requiring a chopping stroke to return); Topspin (where the top of the ball rotates away from the player); and a challenging Heavy Topspin (high rpm rotation that must be returned with a controlled downward stroke).”

It’s also configurable to deliver anywhere from 12 to 70 balls per minute if you’re looking to practice at either the ‘friend’s basement’ or ‘Olympic’ levels. I’d also say it’s a handy tool for practicing alone, but I think I’d still like to have someone else there, just to pick up the 110 scattered ping pong balls of course. $149.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.

[ iPong Table Tennis Trainer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s really no way on Earth you’ll actually be able to covertly use this weed whacker disguised as a driver while you’re out on the golf course playing a round with friends, but if no one else minds, it could make getting out of the rough a little easier. The single string trimmer is hidden beneath a flip-open panel so with just a passing glance no one would be wise to your scam, but let’s be honest here, it would never slip past a close inspection of the contents of your golf bag. The whacker bit is powered by 6 x AA batteries though I have no idea how much growth that will let you clear, and the club is available for just $39.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer making it perfectly priced as a gag gift, something I’m sure golfers can never get enough of.

[ Weed Whacking Golf Driver ] VIA [ Random Good Stuff ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It doesn’t do much more than your average flash based camcorder, but the V-Swing does have a few features aimed at golfers looking to hone their game. The most obvious is the War Of The Worlds-esque gooseneck-mounted camera that can be bent in all directions and rotated up to 270 degrees. That coupled with a 170 degree wide angle lens means you should have no trouble capturing your swing with this thing mounted to your golf cart or bag. It’s also claimed to have high speed frame rate capabilities allowing you to step through and analyze your swing in slow motion, but a closer look at the specs shows it maxes out around 50fps. So I’m going to assume it’s got a fast electronic shutter to keep blurring to a minimum.

The 60MB of built-in memory is essentially useless for doing any kind of video recording, so you’ll want to factor in the price of a large SDHC card if you intend to actually capture anything, but a 32GB card should hold up to 12 hours of 640×480 VGA video. The rechargeable lithium polymer battery is rated for 5+ hours, though I’m not sure if that’s with the 3.5-inch TFT LCD display turned on. However, it looks like Amazon is carrying it for $349.95, and at that price (and cheaper) you can pick up one of Casio’s EXILIM digital cameras that are capable of capturing up to 120fps at VGA resolutions, and even more if you don’t mind a drop in resolution.

[ V-Swing ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This isn’t the first GPS device we’ve brought you designed for golfers, but the fact that the Expresso can also be used in your car as your standard navigational unit makes it considerably more versatile and easier to justify. On the golf side of things the unit licenses the iGolf software providing users access to their database of over 32,500 courses worldwide, or you can map your own course if your local greens aren’t listed. The software also lets you keep track of the score and stats of each round, and since the unit is water resistant, you shouldn’t have to worry about a little rain dampening your fun.

On the automotive side of things, the Expresso once again goes the licensing route with Navigon’s software and NAVTEQ’s map database. So you get everything from 2D or 3D map views depending on your preference, ZAGAT rated points of interest, multiple destination routing, lane assistance so you know where to be when exiting or merging on highways, and pretty much everything else offered by the Navigon software.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. With its 480×320 resolution display and SD card slot, the Expresso also serves as a half-decent media player while on the road and even though supported file formats aren’t specified on their site, it’s safe to assume that it at least handles the all-important DIVX format. I’ll also point out that the Expresso has a clever articulated screen design as you can see in the product shots, so you can use it sitting on the dashboard or with a windshield suction cup mount. And when unfolded you can even place it in one of your vehicle’s (car or golf cart) cup holders since a pair of pop-out spring-loaded stability wings will ensure a proper fit no matter how large it is. The only thing that’s missing is pricing and availability info.

[ Expresso GPS ] VIA [ I4U News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A standard GPS device mounted to the windshield of your car will tell where on Earth you currently are, where you need to go, and if you’re lucky, where you’ve been. The Shadow Box provides similar functionality, minus the navigational aids though, that’s left up to you to be as creative as possible. You see the small box is designed to go along for the ride and record every bit of information so you can see just how ‘extreme’ your ride was. As a result it’s not really designed to just stick to a car’s windshield. Instead, it features adjustable ball-socket mounting feet with a super-adhesive grip allowing it to be stuck to snowboards, surfboards, bikes or pretty much anything.

Once you hit record the Shadow Box keeps track of everything an extreme athlete would want to know/brag about including the height, distance, hang time, speed, degrees of spins, rolls and flips, the launch angle and even the spin rate of any tricks. It also measures g-forces and the angle of your board at all times, and of course GPS positional data. When you stop recording you can immediately review a plot of your course on its OLED display (represented in 3D showing any and all jumps, flips etc.) upload the data to the Shadow Box Ridetracker software or even send it to Google Earth.

It definitely seems like a fantastic tool for reviewing a run, particularly for competitive athletes like surfers or snowboarders since it provides mountains of data you just can’t get from a video. But if you’re just an amateur and aren’t making money off of your sport, the $499 price tag is a bit steep, even for a device capable of measuring just how steep.

[ Shadow Box ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]