It’s but the Great Britain is finally ready to introduce laws to make driving while impaired by illegal and legal drugs against the law. While Britain’s Home Office waitied for approval of a mobile drug-testing unit – currently drug testing is done at the police station – ministers have been working on the details of the law to fall under the Crime, Communications and Court Bill.
The drugalyzers are expected to be ready by the end of the year and will be able to detect up to 13 drugs from cocaine and crack to certain prescription medications in a driver’s saliva. An advisory panel is devising penalties for operators found to be impaired and considering the idea of differing penalties for different drugs various, but a one-year ban, jail time and a four-figure fine are looking like front runners.
The run-of-show would be that if a policeman pulls you over and suspects impairment, he’ll test for alcohol first. If, in the policeman’s eyes, that doesn’t explain your horrid driving, he’ll test for drugs. If you fail the drug test you’ll be taken to the station and tested again on their fixed machine, to verify the findings. And if you decline to be tested at all, it’ll be considered the same as declining a breathalyzer.
By and large, the machines created for the SEMA show in Las Vegas are built for lounging around under convention center lights and not much else. All those go-fast parts we see bolted on do little more than collect lustful stares from from the crowd. But Creations n’ Chrome set out to discover just what their bolt on additions to its were good for. Under the outrageous 3dCarbon bodykit sits a Vortech supercharged 5.0-liter V8 good for around 580 horsepower at 8 psi of boost on stock internals. KW served up a set of Variant 3 coilovers, and Hotchkis took care of front and rear sway bars.
The crew rolled the blown Mustang out the to the Mojave Mile for a top speed run. The machine racked up a final velocity of 182.4 mph, though the final seconds of the run looked anything but stable (we hear there was a 20 mph crosswind). Still, we’re impressed at the machine’s performance. For perspective, the Boss 302 is only good for 155 mph. Check out the video for yourself .
Mark Heidaker’s is back to work snagging records. Sean Kennedy once again took to the wheel of the machine at the Houston Half Mile Shootout, and just as before, the duo didn’t disappoint. Kennedy was able to pilot the wicked GT to an astonishing 212.9 miles per hour in a mere half mile, successfully snagging the world record in the process. Not too shabby.
As you may recall, this same team walked away with the standing mile world record back in March. At that time, Kennedy shot the GT to 257.7 mph in the allotted distance. We have to wonder what these guys have up their sleeves for the next stunt. Click to check out the understandably quick half mile video for yourself.
Few marques get auto collectors riled up quite like , and of classic Ferraris, few are as highly sought-after as the legendary Testa Rossa. We’re talking, of course, about the 50s-era roadster (as opposed to the 80s-era cheesegrater supercar), and the originals continue to fetch top dollar (or euro) whenever and wherever their fortunate owners are willing to part with them.
That when and where came this past weekend in Monte Carlo during the Historical Grand Prix of Monaco where RM Auctions sold some highly desirable classic metal. Topping the list was the rare 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Spider you see here, one of only two built, which sold for a whopping €5,040,000 – equivalent to over $6.4 million at today’s exchange rates. That’s considerably more than the that RM auctioned last year, but substantially less than the record in 2009.
Of course the Testa Rossa wasn’t the only car sold at the event, which brought in an astonishing €33.5 million (~$43m) in sales on 87 percent of all lots sold. In fact it wasn’t even the only Ferrari represented there, though it was the most expensive by a wide margin. A 1966 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder and a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ‘Tuboscocca’ (one of only 12 Vignale Spyders produced) each fetched €2.5 million ($3.2m), a rare factory Daytona Spyder brought in over €1 million ($1.3m), the car which Michael Schumacher drove to the 2000 Formula One World Championship and that each brought in over €800k (about a million greenbacks).
Other notable racing machinery sold at the auction included a Peugeot 908 LMP (which won several Le Mans Series races), a LP600 GT3 (raced by Blancpain CEO Mark Hayek in the Super Trofeo series), a Ferrari FXX Evoluzione and a pair of Ducati Desmosedici MotoGP racing bikes. Follow the jump for all the juicy details and scope out the headline Testa Rossa in the high-res image gallery above.
Those of you foolish enough to follow the Autoblog Podcast know I have a soft spot for . There’s just something amazing about a beaten old car secreting flawless mechanicals down below. The guys at Big Muscle have managed to track down what may very well be the queen of all sleeperdom in Dru Diesner’s 1972 Nova The machine wears its original faded green paint, plenty of dents and dings and a very dated interior, but there’s something special under the aged skin. Built with a twin-supercharged LS2, the Bowtie dumps 1,160 horsepower on its ultra-wide rear tires.
That’s my kind of magical. Mike Musto takes the machine out for a quick sprint around the back streets of Chicago and eventually talks Diesner into using the car to do what it does best: vaporizing its rear tires. to check out the clip for yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have Chevrolet Novas to salivate over.
Vilner has taken the time to give the F800R a once over to create the Predator. Built for a wealthy Russian businessman, the machine received a complete aesthetic redesign with plenty of components hewn from .
What isn’t stitched from composite is coated in chrome, and the company’s engineers set about shortening the bike by almost 10 inches. Vilner also ditched the dual saddle for a single seat variant and remade the headlight array. Red LEDs have replaced the standard bulbs, and a set of repurposed turning indicators are now part of the action.
The Predator remains largely unchanged mechanically, though Vilner threw in a new, hand-built exhaust system. That means this machine still yields around 87 horsepower from its 800cc engine. to check out the quick press release as well as a video of the bike.
The crew from Mission Motors took the time to stop by Jay Leno’s Garage to give the comedian a peek at the Mission-R electric motorcycle. The machine uses 14-kWh lithium-ion batteries paired with a 120-kilowatt motor, which means there’s around 161 horsepower on hand. Mission says the combination can get rider and machine to 60 miles per hour in around three seconds while scooting to a top speed of 160 mph. Not too shabby. The whole package weighs in at around 550 pounds and gives riders a range of 80-100 miles depending on how frisky they are with the throttle.
Mission says the company wanted to pursue a race bike because of the challenges the platform presents. Namely, the machine has to serve up impressive performance while remaining fairly lightweight, meaning there’s little space for massive battery packs. Leno is no stranger to electric bikes or motorcycles. The guy has a stable of two-wheel machines, both internal-combustion and EV. to check out the video for yourself.
Actor Patrick Dempsey is no stranger to racing. After his wife sent him to a three-day Skip Barber driving school, the actor fell in love with road racing has gone on to compete in Grand-Am for the last several years. McDreamy even got the chance to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009, finishing in 9th in the GT2 class behind the wheel of a Ferrari F430 GT.
After getting a taste of Le Mans, Dempsey now has aspirations to return to the legendary endurance race, but this time with his own team and his own car. At the 12 Hours of Sebring earlier this year, Dempsey Racing announced that they would be fielding a car in the P2 class for part of the 2012 ALMS season with the eventual goal of competing at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Dempsey and his team took the first steps towards their Le Mans goal this past weekend by debuting their new V8-powered Lola B12/87 race car in the P2 class at the . This was Dempsey’s first time driving a modern prototype race car, and he admitted there would be a steep learning curve.
“It feels familiar but so much more intense – the braking, the acceleration, cornering and power, it is all on a much more dynamic level than the GT cars I have driven,” Dempsey said after a practice session with the car. “It’s an amazing machine and it is incredible to even have the opportunity to race in a car like this at this level, and what better track to start with than Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.”
Dempsey and his team eventually finished 30th overall and fourth in class – not bad for a brand new team with a rookie driver. They plan to compete in several more races this year and will be running the full ALMS season in 2013.
You can see photos of the Dempsey Racing Lola B12/87 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the gallery above.
After eight days, 3,300 miles, nine tracks and untold bloody knuckles and zip ties, the song remains the same: Leh Keen and the No. 3 TopSpeed Motorsports emerged victorious at the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America on Sunday. Keen, his co-drivers Doug Wilks and Lawrence Richard, and their 2010 GT-R put on a clinic, remaining atop or near the top of the leaderboard of every event, from road courses to ovals to drag races and autocrosses.
If Keen’s name sounds familiar, it’s either because you follow racing – the Georgia native is a multiple Grand Am Rolex GT series champion, currently campaigning a 911 GT3 with Brumos Racing – or because you follow One Lap (this is the third victory in a row for Keen and his second victory in a row at the wheel of the black and green GT-R). In fact, the top three spots this year were all occupied by Nissan’s heavyweight, with the No. 4 2009 GT-R of Todd Treffert and Tyson Timperley and the No. 7 2012 GT-R of Hugh Bate and Craig Kahle rounding out the podium. A total of seven GT-Rs entered this year’s One Lap, though none were officially sanctioned efforts.
Of course, for most competitors and fans, Brock Yates’ One Lap isn’t actually about winning – there’s no prize money doled out and trophies are modest. The event is more about the camaraderie among driving enthusiasts that inevitably results from one of the most unique and challenging tests in motorsports – a week-long pressure-cooker test of man and machine. For more results, photos, videos and tall tales, check out One Lap of America or .
We see some fairly radical machinery come up for sale on occasion, but few creations manage to raise our eyebrows so high as Project Sea Lion. Created to nab amphibious land speed record, the machine uses a 13b rotary engine for propulsion, and its creator says the drivetrain is good enough to launch the vehicle to 180 miles per hour if there’s enough roadway. Given that the current record sits at 125 mph, the Sea Lion should have no problem nabbing that title.
Top speed on the water may be a bit more cumbersome, however. The quickest amphibious vehicle can get to 60 mph right now, and Sea Lion’s builder says the creation will need more horsepower to make that happen.
He suggests a Renesis conversion. We tend to agree.
Made from tig-welded aluminum and a variety of CNC-machined components, the car comes only with a bill of sale. That means we can forget all about driving/floating this thing to work. If you like what you see and what to give the amphibious land speed record a go for yourself, Project Sea Lion is for sale over at Fantasy Junction for the low price of $259,500. for a quick video and be sure to check out for more details and photos.
Our friends at Car and Driver recently spent some time poking and prodding around headquarters in Woking, England, and they have confirmed plans for a convertible MP4-12C. This isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, having been and even , but it does suggest the program is on track for a public reveal this year. The MP4-12C Spyder is expected to be mechanically identical to its hard top cousin, which means buyers can look forward to finding twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 with 593 horsepower kicked out through the rear wheels.
The report says McLaren designed that engine along with its partner, Ricardo, to serve as the beating heart behind more than just one model. In addition to the lidless MP4-12C, McLaren is hard at work on a to the F1. That machine will feature more conventional side-by-side seating and a dual-clutch gearbox bolted to a higher-output version of the same 3.8-liter engine. McLaren also has its heart set on creating a full product line. What does that mean, exactly? Car and Driver says we can forget purist-affronting models like an SUV or a sedan, but the odds are fairly high that the stable will swell beyond the three models mentioned here. Color us excited.
Yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix was an enormous cause for celebration for Williams. The Formula One team that was once at the very top of its game hadn’t won a race since 2004, but it broke that losing streak when Pastor Maldonado claimed the checkered flag for the team against Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen and against all odds. But the celebrations in the team’s garage were cut short when a massive fire broke out just after the race.
The fire erupted an hour and a half after the grand prix’s conclusion as team members were toasting their victory in the garage on pit lane, sending smoke billowing out over the track. Members of other teams – Force India and Caterham chief among them – quickly sprung into action to help their comrades put out the fire. A total of 31 people were subsequently sent to the emergency medical center on site, with all but one treated and released. The remaining Williams team member is being treated for burns suffered in the incident and is expected to be sent back to the UK for further treatment in the coming days.
Officials are still looking into the cause of the fire, which reportedly emanated from the racecar that Bruno Senna drove until it was disabled in a collision with Michael Schumacher that took both cars out of the race. Suspicions center around a malfunction in the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. The incident is not the first time a Williams facility suffered from a fire, the factory back in Grove having a few years ago. to watch video of the incident in Barcelona this weekend.
It’s darn near impossible to overemphasize the impact that has had on the automotive world as we know it today. Born in 1923, Shelby took part in his very first race, a quarter-mile drag, in 1952. Later that year, he’d go on to win his first road race in an MG-TC. By 1956, Shelby had garnered enough race wins to earn the title “Driver of the Year” from Sports Illustrated. He would win that award again in 1957.
Carroll Shelby was nothing if not a keen businessman. In early 1957, Shelby opened his first car dealership in Dallas, Texas. Bolstered by his success behind the wheel – Carroll won the 24 Hours of in 1969, driving an – Shelby went on to build the iconic using a chassis built by in England and powered by a V8 engine. Officially homologated in 1962, the Cobra Roadster won its first race in January of 1963.
Driven by legendary drivers like Phil Hill, A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney, the Shelby Cobra and its aerodynamic Daytona Coupe sibling won the Sports Car Club of America’s A-production title and the United States Road Racing Championship in ‘63. The following year brought with it the big-block 427 Cobra, and the machine went on to deal serious blows to , the dominant sports car manufacturer of the time.
Shelby began his long-running relationship with the Ford factory in 1965, as the Shelby GT350 hit both the street and the race track. That year, Shelby secured the FIA World Championship of GT cars. In 1966, a Shelby-backed Ford team finished in first, second and third place at Le Mans; this was the first time an American team claimed victory in the historic race, but it would not be the last – Shelby’s team would go on to win Le Mans again in 1967. The Ford GT40 ended up in first place four straight years from 1966-1969.
The Shelby GT350 claimed the Trans Am racing title in 1967, and in that year, the very last 427 Shelby Cobra was built. In 1970, Ford ended its partnership with Shelby, and the man would remain mostly quiet in the automotive industry until the 1980s, when approached Carroll about building high-performance versions of products. The Omni and would Go Like Hell for several years, embarrassing V8-powered Mustangs and Camaros along the way.
Carroll Shelby received a heart transplant in 1990 and would go on to reintroduce Cobra 427 S/C continuation cars and 4000-series cars throughout the 1990s. Shelby was also involved heavily with both the and programs. No wonder why Carroll Shelby was inducted into the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
Today, the name Shelby may be most often tied to the latest and greatest models from Ford, but it’s clear that the man has impacted the performance world for decades. While he may no longer be alive, there can be little doubt that Carroll Shelby’s influence will be felt by enthusiasts for as long as cars move us from one place to another.
We’ve collected a couple of videos that we thought were a fitting tribute to Shelby’s unending legacy. Join us in watching them by .
The crew from Cool Hunting finally got around to stopping by the Icon headquarters for a little chat with founder Jonathan Ward. The man has made a name for himself by crafting some of the most detail-oriented interpretations of classic cars on the planet.
The Icon Bronco features all of the vintage style of a late ’60s SUV with a hand-built frame, modern running gear and electronics underneath. We are, needless to say, smitten with the creation. Ward gave Cool Hunting the complete tour, including showing off a number of Icon Bronco models in various stages of completion.
Ward brings up an interesting point about modern vehicles about halfway through the clip. He says that with manufacturers continuing to pile on unnecessary technology, today’s machines are almost guaranteed to be obsolete in five years or so. In contrast, Ward says he builds each Icon to be durable enough to last decades without needing serious revision. We like his style. to watch the video.
plans to show off a new concept version of the Q3 at the Worthersee Tour in Austria next week. The Q3 Red Track boasts the same 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine found under the hood of the Audi TT RS, and thus, there’s a galloping 340 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque on hand. A seven-speed S Tronic gearbox handles shifting duties and drops the available grunt to all four tires via the company’s Quattro all-wheel-drive system. In addition to the extra power, the Red Track wears unique Energy Red paint flecked with gold, while accents like the fender flares and lower fascia are coated in matte gray.
Likewise, the headlight arrays wear body-color accents, and massive 20-inch five-spoke wheels help set the crossover apart from its production kin. Audi also stretched the track by by 1.5 inches and lifted the machine by 1.2 inches for a beefier stance. The Red Track will be on display at the Worthersee Tour starting on May 16. for the full press release.
CAR magazine reports is hard at work on crafting the next-generation . When it bows, the machine is expected to carry with it an all-new nomenclature, doing away with the 1 badge in favor of a new 2 Series emblem. This we’ve heard of BMW filling in its model line with both 2 and 4 Series models, nor the first hint that the 1 Series Convertible will be reborn as the 2 Series. CAR does supply a few more details however, stating that the 1 and 2 will be separated largely by a few sheetmetal tweaks. That means we can expect to see more or less the same engine options behind the headlights.
Why bother changing the naming structure at all? According to CAR, BMW is attempting to get its fleet more inline with those of and , which use a hierarchical structure to differentiate less premium models from pricier hardware. The report suggests buyers can expect to see the new 2 starting in 2014, complete with a six-speed manual transmission or an optional eight-speed automatic gearbox.
Go back a decade or so – before Koenigsegg, SSC and the were on the scene – and the idea of a million-dollar, thousand-horsepowersupercar that could break the three-second barrier to sixty would seem out of this world. Posting those kinds of figures with an electric car? No way.
Way. That’s what the Rimac Concept_One is all about. It chews up and spits them back out into the Silicon Valley from whence they came. The electric motors mounted at each wheel give the electric supercar 1,088 horsepower of thrust and a 2.8-second sprint to 100 km/h (62 mph). Range comes in at a claimed 372-miles. All yours (if you’re one of the first 88 customers to call) for the low, low price of $980,000.
We could hardly believe it when we saw the show car in last year, and neither could the show-goers in Monte Carlo where it made its production debut. So to show the public that it was for real, Rimac put out this short video clip showing its Croatian creation laying down patches of its Giugiaro-designed Vredestein rubber on the tarmac. It’s brief, but it’s worth a watch. to check it out.
Sportsmen – whether you’d classify them all as athletes or not – are some of the wealthiest people in the world. And every year, The Sunday Times puts out a list of the richest among them. The list takes all their assets into account – including salaries past and present, endorsements and other investments – and ranks them by their net worth. So who comes out on top?
Golfers, if you can believe it. Tiger Woods tops the Top 20 list worldwide at £538 million (~$870M), joined by Arnold Palmer at No. 4 with £230M ($370M), Greg Norman at No. 9 with £174M ($280M) and Jack Niclaus at No. 11 with £158M ($255M). But just behind them are the racing drivers.
Michael Schumacher just trails Tiger with £510 million ($824M), making him the second richest sportsman in the world, by far the wealthiest racer, and within reach of becoming the first billionaire driver in the world. Little wonder, as he’s the most decorated driver the world has ever known.
Also on the list are Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, who tie for eighteenth place (together with baseball’s CC Sabathia) at £100 million ($160M) apiece. But in between these Formula One drivers sits one Dale Earnhardt, arguably the biggest name in NASCAR, who ties basketball star Kobe Bryant at sixth place with £185 million ($300M) in assets.
Now if only someone paid us that much to drive around in circles, well…we’d still probably be blogging about cars, only we’d be doing it from onboard our own mega-yachts somewhere a lot more glamorous.
German car magazine Auto Bild is planning build a sedan that will slot below the and compete directly with the . Citing no sources (so a grain of salt is recommended), the magazine claims the four-door, codenamed Pajun, will cost no less than $84,000 and be ready for production no later than 2017.
In September 2011, the Pajun could spawn coupe, convertible and even a shooting brake variant. Back then, rumors swirled about powertrain options that included a 550-horsepower V6, 600-hp V8, plug-inhybrid and an -sourced diesel.
Hopefully, Porsche is also working expeditiously to find a better name than Pajun, which in Korea is a , in Finnish it means willow, and, according to , in Welsh it means – wait for it – Cajun. That’s the name Porsche was using to refer to its smaller-than-Cayenne SUV before to Macan in February. Clever coincidence.
has rolled out a new video for its vicious . The 510-horsepower machine spends a little time frolicking through an industrial complex before taking to an open stretch of track for a little more fun. The entire clip is appropriately shot in black and white and set to the riotous tones of the hefty 6.2-liter V8 banging off the limiter. Not a bad way to blow two minutes of your day.
As you may recall, Chris Harris recently lined the C63 AMG Black Series up against bruisers like Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the BMW M3 GTS for a little . Harris found the C63 to be a willing dance partner with appropriate levels of presence on the street, but still found the machine out gunned by the track-bred Porsche. to check out the Black Series video for yourself.
shows off the dark side of the C63 AMG Black Series coupe
