Dede Sophie

It is an engineering wonder of Kerala. It is the oldest motorable bridge in Kerala. I am talking about the 143 year old Punalur suspension bridge that stands tall amidst Punalur’s modern day traffic and continues to straddle the Kallada river as it did in its hey days. Only difference being, then it was a working bridge, while today it is a historical attraction and a protected monument under the Archaeological department of Kerala. Constructed in 1877 during the reign of the erstwhile Travancore king Ayilyam Thirunal Rama Varma and under the supervision of the British engineer Albert Henry, the Punalur Suspension bridge is a 400 feet long bridge that connected the town of Punalur with the forest area of old Kattupathanapuram. The idea behind having a suspension bridge was to promote trade with outsiders while preventing the animals of the jungle from entering the village at night. The shaky nature of the bridge used to scare off the animals. Built using iron, Kambakom wood and stone m

You’d be forgiven for not noticing that the car above is a Toyota Prius, writes Brian Byrne. But to motor racing fans in Japan it is the last of a what has been a hero series of Priuses for a decade. Its predecessor car made a debut win at the 2013 Fuji 500 in Japan’s Super GT Series, the top level of auto racing in that country. It was the first ever win for a hybrid-engined car in the series. While the hybrid part of the car’s powertrain was close to factory standard for the Prius of the time, the internal combustion part was not — it was a howling 3.4 V8. There were to be three generations of the Prius GT, the last with a 5.4 V8 and hybrid electrification. With many podium wins and places down the decade, Toyota pulled the plug on the car after the 2021 season. From now on, apr Racing who operated the Prius GT for the carmaker, will be running a new car based the Lexus LC 500h. But a decade of Prius GTs turned road Prius owners in Japan into very proud people, ready to welly the acc