Moose on the shores of a river in Alberta.Vince Crichton Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam. Here’s what you missed while you were away. A guide to hitting animals with your car to avoid injury Crash victim Michelle Higgins’ car is seen May 23, 2012, at the local bodyshop in Gander, Newfoundland, following a visit to the crash site where she hit a moose. Doctors told Higgins she went into shock, explaining why she continued to drive to work oblivious of the damage. Victoria Higgins / Supplied In Canada, motorists don’t just share the road with other drivers, but also often with wildlife. Obviously precaution is the best strategy here, but when a collision is inevitable, there are some things you can do to improve your chances of avoiding injury. Considering some 236 Canadians were killed following collisions with moose between 2000 and 2014, it’s probably worth taking the crash course, no pun intended. Tips include limiting speed, avoiding swerving and releasing the brakes at the last second. Can you be a distracted driver if your phone is dead? This week the Driving staff got into a heated but always civil debate over a recent conviction of a B.C. man who was booked for distracted driving because he had earphones in that were connected to a dead iPhone. Now, it’s not illegal to drive with two earphones in in B.C. like it is in the rest of Canada, but according to the justice deciding the case, the phone was “in a position in which it may be used.” A real puzzler, mainly because, as Lorraine Sommerfeld points out, “Why would anyone have two earbuds in to listen to nothing?” These are Canada’s new federal EV incentives An EV electric vehicle charging parking spot in a parking lot at UBC, Vancouver, February 20 2019. Gerry Kahrmann / Postmedia It’s no secret that the Canadian government wants people to think about the environment when choosing what car to buy. This week, the feds outlined the details of its EV perks plan, including a list of 27 models and trims that qualify for the $2,500 incentive for “shorter-range plug-in hybrid vehicles” or the $5,000 incentive for “battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell, or longer range plug-in hybrid vehicles.” The update comes as the federal government moves toward its goal of having 100 per cent of new vehicle sales to be zero-emission cars by 2040. Ontario’s licence plates get a new look A new look and a new catchphrase! “A Place to Grow.” That’s the slogan that will appear on the new Ontario license plates slated to arrive once existing stock runs out. The plates feature the line from the old Canadian tune written to celebrate Ontario at the ‘67 Expo, with flattened white lettering on a blue background, and the crown in the corner. Commercial vehicle plates will also be updated to read “Open for Business,” a phrase borrowed from the Ford government’s favourites. Why you need to be careful when fuelling up your classic A detailed view of the rear gas cap on a Austin Healey 100M during the 40th Antwerp Classic Salon on March 3, 2017 in Antwerpen, Belgium. Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images Owning and caring for a vintage vehicle is a big responsibility. Often special care is needed, sometimes even at the pump. Because as Jil McIntosh details, modern fuel can be hard on old vehicles. Potential issues include the presence of the corrosive, rubber-eating chemical ethanol in modern fuel, and the absence of lead, which helped raise octane levels and protected valve seats. Take a read and make sure you’re parking at the right pump next time you’re out with your classic. Chevrolet finally put a date on the mid-engined Corvette Chevrolet has announced that its much anticipated mid-engined C8 Corvette will debut on July 18th and will head for production later this year. We’re still learning more, but the engine that’s to sit in the middle of the new ‘Vette is expected to be a version of the outgoing model’s 6.2-litre V8, tweaked to the tune of about 500 horsepower. Chevy is expected to introduce it in Stingray format and then follow that up with a Z06, ZR1 and some 1,000-horsepower line-topping trim allegedly named Zora. Basically all good news except that there’s no option for a manual transmission. Keanu Reeves give GQ a tour of his bikes At 54 years old, Keanu Reeves is aging like a fine wine. He’s still rocking the same haircut and t-shirt-suit-jacket combo he had in the ’90s, but it somehow looks super-stylish and current on the John Wick-era Keanu, as it did the Bill and Ted-era Keanu. Speaking of stylish, the man owns some seriously sweet bikes, which he showed off to GQ in this recent YouTube video. There’s the Matrix Ducati special, a 1973 Norton Commando 850 MK2A (the second bike he ever owned) and a selection from his own company Arch Motorcycles. Keanu takes
Origin: News Roundup: The proper way to hit a moose, Keanu Reeve’s bike collection and more super Canadian news
Keanu
Watch Keanu Reeves show off his motorcycle collection
Is Keanu Reeves getting cooler? Is that even possible? Rocking a beard, shoulder-length hair parted in the middle and a blue blazer over a t-shirt, the heartthrob-cum-action-star recently got together with GQ magazine to showcase his affinity for motorcycles and remind the world that, yes, he’s still got it, just in case it had forgotten since the last John Wick instalment. In a 12-minute video published on the storied men’s magazine’s YouTube channel, the Toronto-raised actor speaks candidly about how he got into the bike scene; all the bikes he’s loved (and some he’s collected) over the years; and what’s going on at his shop, Arch Motorcycles. It’s always fun to hear about big international celebs’ Canadian connections. Reeves, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon but raised primarily in Toronto and holds a Canadian citizenship, traces his love for the two-wheeled machines back to his youth. “Where I grew up in Toronto, every summer motorcycle gangs would come into a place called Yorkville,” he says. “Those bikes, those people, those pirates, I think touched that 10-year-old kid in a way.” It wasn’t until he was working in the film industry that he would get onto a bike himself, learning on an enduro in Europe and returning to L.A. and buying his first bike in the mid-late ’80s. He still owns the second bike he bought, a 1973 Norton Commando 850 MK2A. “It’s got a nice sound. It smells good when it heats up, the oil. And I got a lot of miles on that motorcycle.” He would go on to use his knowledge of the British-made bike when a role in the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho had him climbing aboard another Norton product. When the trainer came out to explain how to operate the machine, Reeves remembers laughing and saying “I got it.” Today, as co-founder of Arch Motorcycle Company, a Hawthorne, California-based bike shop, he’s involved in the conceptualization and “dream” of the company, but leaves the building to the pros. “I can’t assemble a motorcycle and you don’t want me to fix it,” he says. “I can test ride it and I can tell you what’s wrong we kind of work with that.” In the video, he tours a few of the bikes on the Arch premises, including the 2004 Ducati 998 Matrix Reloaded Edition that Carrie-Anne Moss rode in The Matrix Reloaded; the 2019 Arch KRGT-1, a “performance cruiser”; the 2019 Arch1S “performance cruiser sport,” with a lower riding position and sportier bodywork; and the new Arch prototype product, the Method 143, a futuristic cruiser with sleek, overlaid materials like aluminum and carbon fibre. The video concludes with the 54-year-old star’s advice to those looking to get onto a motorcycle for the first time. “Be comfortable on it, don’t get too much power that can overwhelm you too quickly, and, uh, have fun.” Yup, still cool.
Origin: Watch Keanu Reeves show off his motorcycle collection
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