There are few teams that can put together a race car and have a winner straight out of the box, but it looks like Pat Richard and Rocket Rally Racing would seem to have done just that. In fact, Richard beat out some pretty impressive competition, with the likes of Andrew Comrie-Picard, Antoine L’Estage, and Warren Currie in the field. The first gravel event of the season is known for throwing all sorts of stuff at competitors and 2008 was no different, with heavy rain and equally heavy mud.
Top Ten results after the break, along with a surprise video Continue reading →
I’ve finally had a chance to slide my fat behind into the driver’s seat of Mitsubishi’s much awaited Evo X. Unfortunately, time only allowed a very short blast through mid day Toronto traffic, but it was enough to make a bit of a comparison with the Subaru STi following a similar short trip in that monster machine.
Our ride today was a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR, with the 5 speed manual. The car is a pre production model that is destined for the mandatory crushing that PT units receive after they’ve been flogged repeatedly by anyone who has the opportunity. This particular car has seen media road tests, track days and heavy road use. The clutch is releasing fairly high in the travel due to many, many drivers launching it hard. Still, the drivetrain hooks up and leaves no question as to the potential of the beast. Continue reading →
Once again, the crew at Flat Over Crest have managed to put together some absolutely stunning rally coverage. This time, it was the 2008 Olympus Rally, where speeds reached 130 mph on gravel, with some corners having 100 mph exit speeds. I don’t care who you are, that is fast on a loose surface!
Remember when we showed you Ken Block’s day of ripping up and down a snowboard park? Yes? Well, so did Warren Currie. The Captain of The Easyrider set out to make it happen and ended up with 3 hours on Rabbit Hill, with the Flat Over Crest team in tow. The result is an incredibly fun vid with lots of air time.
It has been a while since we’ve checked in with Matt and the boys at Garage 419 and their twice weekly brand of hard core car video. In today’s edition, Dirty Gene Sanchez shoots “>Matt Farah while Matt gets up close and personal with the newest versions of Subaru and Mitsubishi’s modern pony car warriors.
Friends of The Garage Travis Allison and Andrew Harvey recently spent a day at the edge of a snowy while a handful of rally teams tested their machines for the upcoming season. The resulting combination of photography and video is very cool. The sequence photos are so smooth they look like video.
Ever wondered what it is like on the inside of a full on rally car on a winter stage? Take a ride with Ken Block at maximum attack on Stage 2 of the 2008 100 Acre Wood rally in the Monster Energy Subaru. At times this ride is so fast that co-driver Alex Gelsomino invokes the name of The Father, and of The Son. Perfect for Good Friday!
The boys over at Flat Over Crest have put together a great video of BMX legend debut in his rally debut. It’s pretty cool that Mirra’s first event was the historic Rally of The Tall Pines here in Ontario. Visit FOC to see the video.
As I mentioned on the weekend, the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi has finally arrived in stores. I know that many folks are iffy about the switch to a hatchback format, but I think the car looks great. The only complaint I have is the front fenders end too abruptly, looking more like a homebuilt GT-3 car rather than a world class rally car.
So now that Winter is here and the family insist we take them to the Lake Tahoe for the weekend where I have to sit at the bottom of some damn hill and watch them go snow boarding. For those of us who frequent such familiar road courses such as Laguna Seca, Infineon, Firebird, Sebring and others we are left with no place to go and nothing to do except to sit in our cars with anticipation. But wait… It seems there is something for all concerned!
