Kids today. Give them a new toy and before the sun goes down it's been taken apart, hacked, and maybe even improved. Jeff isn't exactly a kid and he picked up this toy some time last January but a Xebra isn't exactly an Playstation so it took a little time. The point is he wasn't totally satisfied with his ride and took it upon himself to bust out the power tools and make some changes. He also made an entertaining and somewhat instructional video of his Xebra hacking adventure which is definitely worth 7 minutes and 51 seconds of your time.

The finished product is faster, goes farther and is definitely better looking. Before the mods, his 3-wheeled truckette had white paint and a top speed of about 38 mph (in the presence of a strong tailwind) and lost lots of speed going up hills. After upgrading the wiring, adding a battery and increasing the voltage, it can go 45 mph and stay strong on the hills. The range seems improved as well. From the picture above you can see some of the cosmetic changes; black paint, l.e.d. lights, 2 inch drop and the bed is long gone. That's all the hacking this little ZAP Xebra is going to get for now. The plan for the future is just to see how many miles he can add to the existing 4,400. Check out all the all the madcap mayhem after the jump.

[Source: YouTube]

click screen grab to enlarge

The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. If you think this has nothing to do with green cars, you're mostly right. Today, though, it does, if only because someone (or a group of someones) has hacked into the news section of Porsche's Judicial Review website and posted a few messages in Turkish stating that the site has been hacked. I don't read Turkish, so I'm not certain what the hack says, exactly, but it doesn't seem to be the only time 1923Turk has struck. Right off the top of my head, I can't see any reason for pro-Turkey hackers to take aim at the ongoing dispute between Porsche and Transport for London's congestion charge (Forgot what this is about? Check out our previous posts here and here), but what do I know about haxors and their targets?

Speaking about the Porsche fight, the company announced today the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has applied to be an interested party in the judicial review against the £25 congestion charge. Read more after the break.