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2011 Kia Sportage gets boosted

September 10, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

A few months ago, our man on the East Coast, Tom Williams, reviewed the all new 2011 Kia Sportage. He summed it up pretty nicely by saying:
“In a sea of sameness, the Kia Sportage is a breath of fresh air, that has the quality and ability to back up its looks.”

For the enthusiasts among us though, there was one other line that caught my eye at the time:
“The Sportage offered peppy acceleration around town, but you wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t mistake it for a hotrod. Buyers wanting more power will have their needs met when a turbocharged Sportage debuts later this year.”

The Sportage you see above may look identical to the one Tom reviewed, but there is one rather distinct difference. This one flies! The only hints that there is a difference under the hood is the subtle T-GDI badge on the rear hatch, a pair of chrome exhaust tips and a massaged rear bumper. They’ve done such a great job making the non turbo model look and handle more sporty than the competition that any other styling cues might be overkill.
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Explorer in the woods

August 28, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

Click on the image to open the full size and then right click to save as your desktop background. Simple as that!

2011 Grand Prix of Mosport in pictures

July 26, 2011 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, then there is no need for me to do anything but show off a huge gallery of pics from Sunday’s American Le Mans race at the Grand Prix of Mosport.
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2011 Sundown Grand Prix 3 hour May 21 2011

May 17, 2011 by Media press release Leave a Comment

GT Sprints crest Corner 2 at start of the first race of 2011

CASC press release

CASC-OR and Mosport are pleased to announce the 2011 Sundown Grand Prix will take place on Saturday, May 21, 2011.

The event is planned with practice, qualifying, and race to take place on the same day.
The schedule (subject to change) is planned to be;
* 8:00 AM Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 8:30 AM PRACTICE
* 12:20pm – 12:50 AM QUALIFYING
* 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM SUNDOWN GRAND PRIX

Cars will be classed by the CASC-OR GT Sprints classification. Supplementary regulations will be published shortly, but the rules will follow 2011 CASC-OR Race Regulations Appendix “U” ENDURANCE RACE REGULATIONS.
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2011 Ford Explorer redefines the name

March 17, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

When it comes to product names, Ford has a few skeletons in its closet. Tempo and Topaz are a couple of notable ones. The Taurus moniker looked to be headed into the closet too, until the 500 name did little for sales and they resurrected the Taurus name. Having been called the Exploder, among other not so complimentary things, Ford could have been forgiven for wanting to nuke the Explorer nameplate. Fortunately, Ford execs learned their lesson from the 500/Taurus sales disaster and chose instead build the absolute best Explorer they could.

Starting with a clean slate for the 2011 model year, Ford sought to build a world class family hauler and it shows in several areas. Previous Explorer models were little more than big boxes on wheels. Not overly refined or appealing. Ford designers stepped up their game to create a shape that is distinctly Ford, but is as stylish as any of the high end competitors, without taking any undo risks for the sake of artfulness.
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Checking in at the 2011 Canadian International Auto Show

February 21, 2011 by Gary Grant 3 Comments

The Canadian International Auto Show is, for many car enthusiasts, the high point of the Canadian winter. A chance to spend a day or more poking about in new cars and seeing the newest concept cars. My first impression of the 2011 show is that I was a bit let down.

I suppose I should qualify that feeling, lest you think the show isn’t worth visiting, because it is. Over the 2 previous weeks, I had covered the new car launches at the Detroit and Chicago shows where there were several World or North American premieres. There were no World premieres in Toronto and several of the manufacturer’s booths lacked the extravagance of their counterparts south of the border. I hate to say it, but the first part of my day was a little boring.

After a while, that brought with it the somewhat embarrassing realization that perhaps I’m becoming a little bit jaded. Having been in the car industry for so long and now covering car shows as part of my job for close to a decade means that a show has to really shine to light me up. The truth about the Toronto show is that most, if not all, of the spectacular new models I saw at Detroit and Chicago are also at the Toronto show. There is some really cool stuff there that most show goers will have never seen. The 2012 Hyundai Accent wasn’t at either of the other shows, and is at Toronto. That is a pretty important model in our market and there was quite a buzz surrounding the great looking little car.
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Team Chinook still on the road at Dakar

January 4, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

In past years, I’ve been all over covering Dakar. This year though, I just haven’t been able to wrap my head around it. That is a shame, because Conor Malone and Tom Frank are attempting to become the first Canadian team to finish the Dakar on 4 wheels.

As of this writing, the Team Chinook Chevy is still on the road, having passed today’s waypoint 6 in 110th position out of 135 cars. This is despite an off yesterday that required some all night welding and a 40 minute delay caused by a misplaced nomex balaclava!
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2010 in retrospect

January 1, 2011 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

Matt Waldin at Mosport

2010 has been a year of ups and downs here in my corner of The Garage. Fortunately, on a professional level there were more ups than downs and those ups have helped open some doors that will be very important in the coming months.

It is hard to believe, but a year ago I was prepping for my first ever visit to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Having been involved in automotive media since 2001 and working in the auto industry for over 2 decades, you would think I would have made it there at some point. Last year, I went down as part of a social media project set up by the good folks at GM. I met some great people who I’ve previously only spoken to online. I’m looking forward to the same trip next week!

Returning from Detroit, I agreed to help out my friends at Porsche Canada by doing social media coverage of Canadian team, Bullet Racing at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. From my couch. For free. It has been something like 18 years since I was involved in a 24 hour race, so it was an honor to work with the team.

The Victoria Day weekend has traditionally been the first big road racing event of the season here in Ontario. I jumped at the chance to ride shotgun with Randy Pobst in the K-Pax Racing Volvo S60 for a couple of hot laps around Mosport. That beast is a machine I’ll never forget!

Thanks to Bridgestone, I had the opportunity to squeeze myself into a formula car for the first time. 900 lbs, 170 hp = the most intense driving experience EVER!

By far the biggest high of the year came from the discovery of photography, which happened as a result of my being prodded by Allan de la Plante. AdlP set me on a path that surprised the daylights out of me. I can actually take killer racing photos!

I’ve had the opportunity to work with teams racing with NASCAR, Indy Lights, Castrol Touring Cars, Playboy Mazda, World Challenge, ALMS and Trans Am. I became a member of the respected American Racing Press Association. This is the stuff dreams are made of and it is only going to get better in 2011 as I travel to more races outside of Ontario.

My photos have been published in 2 of Canada’s top national newspapers and several local papers around the GTA.
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2011 Ford Mustang launch montage

May 29, 2010 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

When Ford launched the completely revamped 2010 Mustang, there were many who decried the carryover of the old drivetrain which was less of a performer than the 2010 Camaro. The product folks at Ford promised that more juice was coming for the 2011 model in the form of a new V-6 and the return of the 5.0 name.

That new V-6 puts out 305 horsepower, almost as much as the previous V-8, while the 5.0 puts out a whopping 412 ponies. That means the aluminum block twin-cam churns out close to twice as much horsepower as the original 5.0. Oh yes, it also creates a whopping 390 ft/lb of torque. If those numbers are impressive, then get ready for the 5.4 in the GT500. 550 horsepower. 510 ft/lb of twist. This thing should have a PTO it makes so much power!

After driving all of the new Mustangs back to back with a couple of Camaro’s on the track and the acceleration and braking strip, it is pretty clear that the folks at Chevy have some tuning to do as Ford has raised the bar.

We’ll go into more detail about the different variations in another post, but for now we’ve got a gallery of images from the launch. We’ve also got a short video montage of the action at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
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2011 Mustang GT sounds

March 31, 2010 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

Our friend’s Justin Pritchard and Lesley Wimbush were at the recent launch of the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, that took them down the twisty Encinal Canyon road in California. Fortunately for us, Justin had his video camera along for the ride. This quick clip gives us an idea of what the ’11 5.0 V8 sounds like. The engineers have made sure none of the magic has been lost.

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