As I’m on vacation this week, I’m taking things a bit easy here in The Garage. That’s right, no challenging posts, nothing that takes more than a few minutes. Photos are fun and every gearhead loves some cool pics.
For some reason, I’ve become drawn to helmets and the way they are just dropped around the pits. Sat on a nice shelf, plunked down on top of the car or tossed into the seat, they all look pretty cool. Not to mention the pros expensive lids offer up some cool ideas for us not so pros when it comes time to paint our own lids. These shots were taken around the pit lane at Lime Rock a few weeks ago.
It has been a while since I’ve visited Shannan Larratt at Price Of His Toys to check out the coolness that exists in the world of kit cars. I’m so glad I headed over today, or I wouldn’t have seen this incredible replica.
Way back in the 80’s I loved the Hardcastle & McCormick show. Not because the show was anything special, but because the real star of the show was a Manta Montage that had been tricked out and renamed the Cody Coyote. This replica was professionally built and is powered by a 3.3 GM V6. At only 1900 pounds, it likely flies.
The auction ends tomorrow, so if you are interested in ponying up 60 grand you can grab yourself an interesting bit of history (well, it looks like history anyway) that should actually be reliable on the road. You definitely won’t see another one passing you on the street.
Normally The Garage is about everything automotive, but really it’s about the cool stuff we’d all like to see in our garage. What gearhead wouldn’t love to have a submarine, a destroyer and a cruiser at their disposal? Ok, so they wouldn’t exactly fit in most people’s garages, but these hardcore naval machines have to be the ultimate mechanical playground.
We’ve been going to Buffalo, New York for years for kid stuff, but we had no clue that the waterfront held such incredible displays. The Buffalo Naval Park is home to the USS Little Rock, the sole surviving Cleveland Class Cruiser, USS The Sullivans, a Fletcher Class Destroyer and the USS Croaker, a WWII Gato Class submarine. Best of all, visitors pretty much have the run of all 3 ships so you can take as much or as little time as you want to explore the awesomeness. Continue reading →
Big Ron, truly one of Canada’s greatest driving talents, used his talents in the wet to take the win at yesterday’s rain shortened Nationwide Series race at Montreal’s famed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Running in 6th when the rain began on lap 21, Fellows stopped for rains which moved him way back to 26th on the track for the restart.
Driving Dale Jr’s GoDaddy.com car, Fellows showed his true talents when the green finally came back out when he quickly carved back through the field into the top 5. When then leader, fellow Canuck Jacques Villeneuve headed into the pits, Fellows took over the top spot and didn’t look back.
Yet another Canadian, series regular Patrick Carpentier, finished in the 2nd spot. Villeneuve was one of the unfortunate drivers whose team wasn’t prepared with a windshield wiper and JV managed to punt another driver he didn’t see under yellow. The resulting penalty put well back in the field.
In the super emotional victory lane video below, it is obvious why Ron Fellows has been a fan favorite for years and why Corvette racing built their program around him.
That’s right. I’ve gone and gotten a flat in on the Lexus IS-F and essentially buggered our weekend plans to shoot a road test video. I suppose it would hurt a little less if I had been hooning around in the car, but that wasn’t the case. Here in Ontario, the boys in blue have gone hog wild in their pursuit of speeders and that includes sending helicopters after conspicuous speeders on rural roads on long weekends. I dutifully drove home last night with the cruise set at a pedestrian pace, while I watched hundreds of other cars sail past me. Once I hit the secondary roads, I towed the line like a good little soldier.
As I crossed an intersection I drive through daily, there was a patch of gravel that has been there for a couple of weeks. I had driven over it the day before in a car with 55 series tires and there was no bump. This time, there was just enough bump at 50 kmh to snakebite the giant left front Michelin Pilot Sport. The low tire pressure warning came on almost immediately and the telltale whomp whomp of a flat tire made itself known. I pulled over to inspect the damage and prayed that a full size spare was part of the package. Sadly, I had no such luck as I pulled out the bright yellow mini spare that just screams: Hey, look at the dolt in the sports car with a flat tire!
The plan for today was to get together with Kevin “Crash” Corrigan and Lesley Wimbush and take some video of the blue beast on the road. Now it seems like it will be a more stationary shoot, with lots of Gary abuse at the hands of the wonderfully witty Mr. Corrigan. Unless of course I can hunt down a 255/35ZR 19 Pilot Sport somewhere in the next few hours!
Some time ago, Gary Faules took us on a tour of Infineon Raceway in Lucky, the GT350R. I just stumbled across this video that puts things into a completely different perspective. Vintage racer Gary Sheehan takes us for a few laps of the legendary Sears Point track in the McLaren M6B Can Am car originally driven by Jo Bonnier. While I get the feeling that Gary S is far from flying in the beast, this video gives a pretty good idea what the view was like from the cockpit of one of the Can Am monsters.
Oh yeah, you might want to crank the speakers for this one!
Way back in the early Nineties, Toyota made their first foray into the North American style of work trucks with the T100. Traditional truck buyers were less than enthused by the T100’s lack of V8 power and lesser capabilities and few buyers switched showrooms. Toyota followed up the T100 with the first generation Tundra, which was much better received. It was a true full size truck. This new truck was still down on power when compared to the traditional domestic work horses, but the driving experience was beyond the competition. With the latest redesign, Toyota has brought the Tundra to the forefront of truckdom with true 2 door work trucks and high end 4 doors for the boss and his family.
It seems that yours truly has been replaced as The Garage Blog’s official on track shooter. Scott Simmons is much more adept at following the machines at speed, as the shot above (and others in the gallery) shows. I think I should just stick to the fun paddock and pit shots where I belong.
The shot above is actor Patrick Dempsey (ok, so we’ll assume it’s him) in the #40 Mazda RX-8 during the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park. There is a huge gallery of on track action after the break. Continue reading →
Until recently, I’ve resisted the iPhenom. I absolutely refuse to spend a fortune on a phone that is a glorified mp3 player. Then again, I could enhance my techno experience by accenting my Sanyo Katana (which I love) with an iTouch so that I can carry my photos around with me. Now, the folks at Dynolicious have created a killer app that I just have to have. I mean, it’s a legit business expense to be used during road tests. Right? Continue reading →
