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Las Vegas Motor Speedway might just be heaven on earth

March 30, 2012 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

When Bridgestone invited us to a new product launch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I was somewhat wistful as I thought about the passing of Dan Wheldon at the speedway at the final race of last year’s Indycar season. I knew it would be tough to visit the track without thinking of the popular driver. Still, I had never been to the Speedway (or Vegas for that matter) so I was excited to visit. All I can say is WOW!

Ferrari. Lamborghini. Andretti. Race cars. Fighter planes. Race tracks.

All in one place! LVMS is the kind of place that gearheads dream of.

Arriving on a shuttle, the first building one notices in a long strand of racing businesses is Shelby’s headquarters. As we drover further into the complex, I was blown away by the sheer size of the place. The only big speedway I have been to is Pocono, and LVMS is easily 3 times the size. There are race tracks all over the place. We saw 2 road courses, the big oval, a bullring, an off road truck course and there is the NHRA drag strip. Just massive.

Throughout the day, the background was filled with the sounds of the U.S. Airforce, as pilots performed training maneuvers. The day before, guests were treated to a real show as the Thunderbirds did some practice.

When a Shelby Cobra went by on a test drive, you knew it was the real deal.

To guide their tire industry attendees and us media types through the day, Bridgestone had assembled a star studded cast of drivers. Our instructors in the early morning included Pierre Kleinubing, Peter Cunningham and Burt Frissell. Later on, the big surprise came as we learned that Mario Andretti was also on hand and would be joining us for lunch.

Before lunch though, we had to flog a BMW 3 Series around a fast autocross course, before heading over to Exotics Racing, where we would get to play with a collection of Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s. I drove a Lamborghini Gallardo LP550 for the first time. For a machine with 550 or so horsepower, it was surprisingly manageable. Equally surprising was how high the limits of the car are. With just five laps, I was nowhere close to exploring the limits of the car. It would be fun to have a bit more seat time to actually get comfortable with the limits of the bull.

To get a taste of our day, head past the jump to check out our photo gallery.
[Read more…]

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Fat guys CAN drive formula cars!

July 24, 2010 by Gary Grant 4 Comments

As part of the lead up to the Honda Indy Toronto, Bridgestone organized a series of events for the media to experience their products in action. One of these events was a day at the Bridgestone Racing Academy on Mosport’s Driver Development Track. As formula cars aren’t designed to house Clydesdale’s we figured that it would be good to send Miss Shelby rather than yours truly. Unfortunately, the cut off age for the event was 18 years of age, so that nixed that idea. I had a look through the BRA website and found that the fitment guide says that drivers over 6’4″ and 275 lb might actually fit in the school cars. My heart skipped a beat and I headed up to the track for a test fitting. Sure enough, while it was a tight squeeze, I was able to shoehorn myself into the hot looking red and white rocket.

Yahoo…I’m gonna drive an open wheeler!

Rather than a full on racing school type of day, this was a corporate event day that the Academy has developed for corporations to use for team building. For some of the guests in our group, it was their first opportunity to drive a high performance vehicle while for others it was essentially a lapping day.
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Jean Todt’s Big Headache

January 19, 2010 by Leighton Irwin Leave a Comment


With all the anticipation and euphoria over the seeming new era in F1 with Jean Todt in charge there is a major potential disaster looming. Everyone is looking forward to this year with all the new teams and the new rules banning refueling. Lurking in the backgound for 2011 is the 1,000 pound problem. Although very little is being said in public the situation will be at the forefont in the FIA, FOTA and wee Bernie’s minds as well as all the teams.

This is the last year Bridgestone are supplying tires to F1. Now I have been around this crazy sport snce before Ben Hur was a gleam in his parent’s eyes and I am pretty sure the situation will be resolved. I expect all concerned have been in contact with worldwide tire companies and are working like mad to find a solution. The last rumour I heard was 3 different Korean companies are expressing some interest.
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Car Geek

December 20, 2007 by Jeff Bressler Leave a Comment

porsche_wheel_casemod.jpg

It’s rare that I delve into the higher echelons of geekdom, but my Neanderthal brain can surmise something that looks cool.

A case mod is the modification of a computer chassis or video game console chassis. . Modifying a computer case in any non-standard way is considered a case mod. Well a cool case mod created by some car loving braniac has hit the limelight.
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