The Garage Blog

The Garage: Your daily dose of automotive news, reviews and motorsports coverage

Archives for December 2010

NASCAR – K&N Pro West Series is Bringing up Some Talent Too

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Images provided courtesy of Terry Thomson of Gone Racin' Photography

It’s rare that we out here on the Eastern side of North America hear much about the racing on the west coast.  Unless it is a Top Tier race from Fontana, or Vegas, or even Phoenix.  So it took me a little bit of research to figure out who would be me choices of who to look at from over on the left side of the map.  Just as we have the NASCAR K&N Pro East series for our grass root racing experience, the K&N Pro West is bringing up some of their local talent into the ranks of NASCAR’s top tiers.  This week I will be focusing on the top 2 racers in the standings.  They proved to be the most consistent throughout the 2010 season and help on to the top 2 slots.  Eric Holmes and David Mayhew are the focus of this weeks ramblings as I continue to look for who the next big name may be. [Read more…]

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PINKS visits Toronto Motorsports Park

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I set out on a warm summer day to visit Cayuga Ontario, approximately 2 hours West of Toronto. This would be my first trip to Toronto Motosports Park and it was a very good one. The confusingly named facility owned and developed by former successful Canadian road-racer Uli Bieri. I had a meeting on some other promotional ideas and took my camera just to snap some shots for reference. It was Friday and to my great surprise this weekend was the inaugural visit to Canada of Rich Christenson’s PINKS elimination drag racing event.

After my meeting with Uli and my tour of his impressive multi-faceted racing complex I went out and spent a couple of hours mingling with the drag racing crowd. This being my fist time at a real drag strip, my head was spinning with the noise, colour and variety of vehicles collected for this event. I would highly recommend a trip to Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga Ontario Canada.

Here are a few sights and sounds from the day.
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Default ThumbnailCanadian Sport Compact Series draws to a close

Memories of Summer at the Mosport DDT

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While Mosport looks lovely under a blanket of snow and driving events on ice are fine and dandy, most of us here in The Garage are already yearning for higher levels of grip and the heat of the summer sun.

We may have to wait a few months for some heat at our fave track, but our good friend Duncan Johnson has just sent out this video which is sure to warm the soul on a cold Winter evening. Shot at Mosport’s Driver Development Track by Eshel Zweig, Johnson and friends have some fun flogging an M3, a Porsche and a rather evil sounding Vette.
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Review: Mercedes-Benz ML550 4Matic

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It may seem hard to believe, but the M-Class has now entered its thirteenth model year. The first ML350 was introduced as a 1998, and was the first SUV Mercedes sold in North America. Sales were brisk, as the M-Class stood alone. It would be another year until the BMW X5 went on sale. While the demand for a premium, German-engineered SUV (M-Classes are built in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) was certainly present, there were some problems. Critics complained that for an SUV, it had a minivan look to it. Worse, the M-Class debuted at a time where many felt Mercedes had lowered its standards of quality, particularly with the interior.

The second generation M-Class was introduced as a 2006 model, and was refreshed in 2009. While the M-Class is well into its life cycle, this is The Garage’s first chance to spend some quality time with the Mercedes SUV that started it all in North America. But there are lingering questions-have the problems that dogged the first M-Class been addressed? Four years into its life cycle, is the current M-Class still competitive? Click continue to find out!

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The Garage Blog Winter Driving Academy proves value of tires and training

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Juliana Chiovitti shows proper hand placement

Now that the turkey coma has subsided and the Boxing Day madness has passed by, I can tell you all about our first ever Winter Driving Academy!

Just a few days before Christmas, we gathered at Mosport with a flock of young drivers (and one not so young driver) who were enjoying their holiday break from school. They were about to add a twist that they will never forget to the break.

With the legendary Grand Prix track buried in new snow, the day began with breakfast and a classroom session where chief instructors Gerry Lowe and John Mahler taught students the basics of car control and a bit of the physics behind the techniques they would learn.

One can only learn so much about driving in a classroom, so after the lessons, the group moved over to the west end of the property, where a water truck was busy turning that fresh snow into an icy surface on the skidpad. The fun was about to begin!

Gerry and John were joined by Canadian racers Kyle Marcelli and Juliana Chiovitti as they put the drivers through a series of exercises designed to allow them to feel how a car reacts in extreme conditions and then progressively learn how to control the situation.
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NASCAR – Canadian Entries Showing Promise in NASCAR’s Top Tiers

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Pictures from JDTImages.ca

J.R Fitzpatrick and Andrew Ranger are 2 of the hottest drivers I have ever had the pleasure of watching on the track, and watching them race each other is like putting a match to gasoline.  Both have outstanding ability behind the wheel and both have an on track temper and off track personality that will shine when given the opportunity.   Watching these 2 race each other at Mosport in 2007 was something I still tell stories about.  Although Fitzpatrick was out front all day, Ranger, who had started from the pole, was dealing with issue after issue and still climbing towards the front.  In an incident that only the 2 of them really know what happened in the back stretch of the Mario Andretti Straightaway, Ranger took the lead on the final lap and took his first win in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in a season where he proved to be a champion right out of the gate. [Read more…]

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How Tech Can Save a Life: Blind Spot Monitoring

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I like technology, and if it makes for safer driving, I’m all for it. While I applaud the efforts automakers make to keep us protected in our cars, I confess to being skeptical of how useful some of that technology actually is. Case in point? Blind spot monitoring. My first experience with this safety feature was in a Mazda6 and I was not impressed.  The system was so sensitive on the highway I opted to deactivate it because it would not stop going off. I dismissed the option as a waste of money and useless.

Maybe it was a kink. But when technology is done properly, it works. Case in point. I have a 2011 Acura MDX for the week. I drove my wife and son to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to have an early Christmas last weekend. The MDX was perfect for the trip. Our test car was equipped with the Advance Package, which happened to include blind spot monitoring. I thought nothing of it at first, but after some time behind the wheel, I found the Acura’s system to be much more effective. Read on to see how this technology can actually save your life.

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Ken Block topping WRC popularity charts so far. Will Pastrana do the same in NASCAR?

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Earlier this morning, the good folks at WRC posted a new poll on their site to determine which driver was the most popular personality. Here in The Garage, it comes as no surprise that Ken Block is not only on the list, but as of this writing he is sitting with 61% of the votes!
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NASCAR – Lets Have a Look at Who is Waiting in the Wings

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Image Courtesy of Sloan Henderson Motorsports.

We spend so much time reading and writing about who is at the front of the field and who is striving for the top 35 that we often overlook who is coming up in the scene and who the next “Star” may just be.  There are not a lot of articles to be found about Jimmie Johnson as he rose through the ranks in racing dirt bikes, his short stint in Nationwide or anything really from before 2006 when he started winning big in the Sprint Cup series.  So I have taken it upon myself to find some new faces, some new blood, and have a look at who is coming up in the lower tiers, and who is coming up ready to be the next wave as we change the guard in NASCAR.  They may not make the series next season but mark my words, the series of articles to follow will extol the virtues and the on track skill of those who wish to rise to fame in NASCAR’s  biggest series.  So lets have a look at the first in a 5 week series of who we should be keeping our eyes on in the seasons to come. [Read more…]

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