While we’ve been busy watching Lucky the GT350 cavorting in Mexico, Ford has been busy prepping the new FR500S for display at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. This is really some pretty impressive news, as the Mustang racer is Ford’s first factory ready race car. Destined for a new Mustang only spec series, the FR500S is powered by a sealed 4.6 liter, 3 valve V8 built by Roush. The program gives racers the opportunity to race a real live Trans Am style showroom stocker at the value price of $75,000.

Ford press release and series logo after the break
Continue reading →

Halloween is almost upon us and that means every rugrat in every town will be cruising the neighborhood tonight in search of a bag full of goodies. Excited kids will be running from house to house, wearing the latest, greatest costume, with a mask than ensures they can’t see that car that’s about to hit them.

If you are driving this evening, be sure to drive slower than usual through any neighborhoods. Keep your eyes peeled for little witches and maybe even Stewie that might run out in front of you. Remember that many will be wearing black and might be invisible in the dark.

Keep the kids safe!

New Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli is actively involved in the design of Chrysler vehicles…or at least he’s actively involved in questioning the design of Chrysler vehicles.

“I drive a different car to work everyday,” he said during a recent web cast. He said upon arrival at work in the company’s Auburn Hills, Mich. headquarters, he meets with the company’s chief engineer who addresses Nardelli’s questions about each vehicle. Nardelli concedes his chief engineer is very “patient.”

“I’m not a designer: I’m a consumer,” he said.
Continue reading →

Sunday’s stages at La Carrera promised to be the most difficult and have historically been the event’s most dangerous sections. Fortunately our guys are beginning to hit their groove and it is showing on the leader board. As of right now, Team CBR is sitting in 13th overall and 4th in class.

While visiting the new race track section, Gary kicked ass, including some La Carrera vets in some serious iron. The super dangerous Sunday stages seem to be where Gary found his calling. A super fast, super dangerous mountain road were just the combination for Lucky to shine. Well, maybe not quite so shiny after a bit of a hairy incident involving heavy oversteer and a concrete pole. No matter though, apparently the resulting rash looks pretty cool. It’s certainly better than the poor Vette that went over a drop off and burned.

You’ll have to visit Lucky’s blog for more killer images. I can’t wait to see the in car!

Now that images of the Nissan GT-R are almost becoming commonplace, Nissan has upped the ante a bit with a series of pictures of the GT-R prepped for the GT500 class in Japan’s Super GT series. The shakedown test took place yesterday and today at the famed Suzuka track under the watchful eyes of the NISMO team. At the wheel were NISMO regulars Satoshi Motoyama, Michael Krumm and Tsugio Matsuda. Apparently the test went off without a hitch, which is as expected given the experience of the team.

More images after the break
Continue reading →

Hyundai has just released a couple of sketches of the rumored rear wheel drive coupe that might be in the works. It’s called the Genesis and gives us an idea where Hyundai is going with their future styling. Could this be the next gen shark?
Continue reading →

Understandably, GM has called off the Ride & Drive event for the 2008 Chevy Malibu due to the recent fires in California. The event was to take place quite near one of the areas that was hardest hit, so it likely doesn’t make sense to hold this type of event. They have more important things to worry about at the moment, like getting people’s lives back on track.

I’m sure that other invitees are disappointed, as I am, but in the grand scheme of things this would seem a tad frivolous. Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by the fires.

This is a “how to” with a unique approach to getting exactly the deal and car you want, to not only avoid all the things we have grown to hate about visiting a car dealership, AND actually enjoy the process. What a concept!

As car buyers, here is just some of the negative junk that we have all experienced:

Rude and indifferent treatment by salesmen that are dressed like pimps (don’t you ever wonder what their house or car looks like?), being ripped off on trade-ins and new purchase, the tons of wasted time it takes to transact a deal, the agony of being handed off to a “closer”, and if you are a woman just coming onto the dealership premises by yourself, being asked, “is your husband with you?” as if you don’t have a brain in your head.
Continue reading →

Yesterday saw even more carnage than the previous day, with everything from a melted Corvette to spectator injuries. It sounds like some teams are having more than a rough go of things. For our guys aboard Lucky, things have been somewhat better. Well, except for the locked wheel! Following the scariest race conditions Gary has ever driven, a brake caliper bolt worked itself loose and caused a front brake caliper to lock up. With the help of a crowd locals, Lucky was lifted off the road. Unbelievably, they found the bolt on the road and reinstalled the caliper.

Nobody said vintage rallying was going to be easy!

After the break, check out a short in car video of Gary, Jon and Lucky.
Continue reading →

Welcome back to yet another Carnival of Wheels. Submissions were more than a bit slim this week, with only one submission. In other words, it’s going to be a really quick lap around the auto blogs. Most of our bloggers either spent the week in Tokyo or they are in Mexico cheering for Team California’s Best.

If we’re only going to visit one blog this week, it might as well be a quick topic. Over at Driving Enthusiast, Jeff Fisher is debating whether he should order his EvoX as a 5 speed manual or the new 6 speed SST. Given that the car will be used for some major lapping days, this is a pretty serious decision. So far, Jeff is worrying about top gear speeds. Personally, I’d be waiting to drive the SSt before I made the decision. As my day at Pocono showed, there are vast differences between autoshift systems and a system that doesn’t shift the way you like could make for a miserable track experience.
Continue reading →