Once again, Nobuhiro Tajima has come out on to on the race up Pikes Peak. This year, he screamed up the mountain at a record pace of 10 minutes, 1.408 seconds in his 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 otherwise known as Escudo. To put things into perspective, the course is 12.42 miles of climb, with no less than 156 turns! Youtube user lozo78 has posted the following video, I’m sure there will be many more to follow.
Close the office door, crank up the speakers and hold onto your hat! Continue reading →
I had heard from one of the drivers in the historic sedan (I think) class at the VARAC Festival that there was a bit of a disaster in corner 1 at the start. I didn’t see it, as I was trackside at the bottom of the hill in 2. Today I happened across some in car footage of that incident, courtesy of Youtube user celovskya.
It seems we’ve hit a popular topic with the combination of Manfred Winklehock and the BMW M1. West Coast contributor, Gary Faules spent some time poking around Youtube last night and came up with a few choice vids of the man and one of his steeds in action.
First up, we have the super scary crash where Manfred’s Formula 2 car takes flight off a rise at the old Nurburgring. Remember that once the car begins to roll, it’s going through fencing. To give you an idea of how close this could have been, watch the visor on his helmet as he exits the car. He obviously caught the fence in his face.
David’s post over at Hemmings yesterday got me thinking about car movies and I went looking for one of the greatest street racing B-Movies of all time. Ok, so street racing is bad. Forgive me while I regress to my youth for a moment and think about one of my fave flicks, King of the mountain. Featuring names like Harry Hamlin, Dan Haggarty and Dennis Hopper and cars like a scraggly old Vette and a Porsche Speedster replica, how could the producers lose? Well, the movie was a bit of a flop, but the racing scenes on Mulholland fueled my teenage fantasy of what California was all about.
Haggarty played an old racer who owned a Porsche race shop, while Hopper’s character was the drunk old tech who lives in the shop and was King of the mountain, once upon a time. Hamlin plays the current King, but otherwise his character didn’t leave too much of a mark in my brain. His speedster did though!
Thanks to the joys of Youtube the trailer is after the break Continue reading →
Digital technology and gaming have taken race car simulations to incredible new heights over the last couple of years and designers keep raising the bar. Now, thanks to Youtube user helsingPL, we have a digital recreation of the wild ride Robert Kubica took during this year’s Canadian Grand Prix. Interesting to note how the developer has highlighted each safety feature throughout the event. Kubica definitely owes a huge debt to the designers. Oh yes, also to his lucky stars!
Bullitt or Vanishing point? Charger or Challenger? For my non existent budget, I’ll go with Kowalski’s choice, but for Top Gear’s Richard Hammond…well, he’s British! In this episode of Top Gear, Hammond spends some quality, non destructive time in a Dodge Charger R/T powered by a 440. Oddly, he says the 440 is the car. Apparently he’s never heard of a Hemi car, but I suppose we need to cut him some slack. The head injury must have affected his judgement.
Those kind folks at the GTR Owner’s Club in the UK not only provided the world with photos of Nissan’s upcoming supercar, but now they’ve posted video! As the test driver mentions, Porsche is going to be worried!
It’s going to be a big day here in The Garage, as we head down the the Champ Car race so I thought it would be appropriate to post a video from Mosport. Youtube user FetishHose (nice handle) has posted the following video of qualifying taken from the front straight. While the video quality isn’t great, the sound is great. Turn up the speakers and fill your office with the sounds of a dozen Cosworth DFV powered F1 cars. Continue reading →
Yes, you read that right. The point of impact during Robert Kubica’s 180 mph crash during the Canadian Grand Prix registered a whopping 75 G’s. This with only a slight concussion and a sprained ankle.
Not only is modern car design a marvel, but Kubica owes a serious debt to the gods of luck!
If you’ve ever heard some of Bill Shatner’s singing efforts, you know that there isn’t much funnier than Captain Kirk stoned off his ass singing Lucy in the sky with diamonds. Until now that is. Shot for the new ABC series Fast Cars & Superstars, this in car footage of Willi Shat is an instant classic.
