just wrapped up competition at Miller Motorsports Park as part of the Pirelli World Challenge. Before the race kicked off, the crew spent a few hard laps getting the Race Cars sorted and was kind enough to strap a few cameras to the machines while they were on track. If you’re looking for a professional view at what it’s like to take a lap while behind the wheel of the fire-breathing Caddy, look no further than the clip .
Drivers Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O’Connell both take the time to talk us through the apexes, brake points and subtle nuances of the track surface at race speed. Very cool.
O’Connell walked away with a second-place finish just behind Patrick Long in his Porsche 911 GT3, while Pilgrim was nudged off the podium by Mike Skeen in third place with his . to check out the video for yourself.
gives guided tour of Miller Motorsports Park in CTS-V Race Car
Having a ruff day on the road? Don’t take it out on other drivers, do what dogs do when they’re out for a ride. Director Keith Hopkin takes to California’s highways and byways and films eight dogs “doing what they love to do,” he says on his .
The video captures that pure enjoyment of a dog’s nose in the wind, the sun on his fur and not having a care in the world. There’s even a slow motion montage where each dog closes his eyes, smiles and dreams of bacon.
Perhaps one of the best moments is at 1:04 when Beans the dog rides past a Bugatti Veyron and checks it out. Dogs may not know cars, but they do know a good breeze.
Of course, it doesn’t appear any of the dogs are strapped in to their seats, which is illegal in California. The Golden State requires pets be buckled up on in a cage when riding in a car. Then again, the unharnessed pooches won’t get a ticket, their owners will. to watch the video, and for the creator’s Facebook page if you want to become a fan.
Sometimes it seems that the rest of the country takes some sort of not-so-secret delight from Detroit’s slow but steady decay. The truth is, the sprawling municipality faces a swath of unique challenges that are only compounded by a dearth of resources.
Look no further than the city’s transportation infrastructure to see what we mean. Built as the ultimate temple for the car, Detroit’s planners could hardly conceive of a time when residents would prefer to take public transportation. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to get from the city center to the outlying suburbs without a vehicle.
But that may change sometime soon. The attitude has shifted in The D, and urban planners and business leaders are working together with a grassroots surge to get help people get where they need to go in a safe, timely and economical manner.
From light-rail proposals to efforts like the private , Detroit is on the verge of re-imagining its public transportation infrastructure. Translogic took the time to get a feel for where Detroit is now and where it’s headed in the near future. Watch the video to check it out for yourself.
Long before Jay Leno became an international celebrity, he was spinning wrenches at a local car dealership. While there, he crossed paths with Paul Annunziata, a brilliant mechanic with a penchant for Mopar muscle. While Leno was busy doing stand-up comedy and working his way toward network television, Annunziata was doing something really interesting: building a street-legal pro-stock drag car out of a 1975 Duster. After winning $10,000 in the lottery, he started with a body-in-white chassis before snapping up a 426 Hemi V8 from a Super Bee. Not satisfied with wedging an impossibly huge engine into the confines of the Duster’s engine bay, Annunziata bolted on a massive Roots blower.
The rear of the body had to be tubbed to keep the tires under the factory sheetmetal, and the Duster also underwent extensive engine bay modification to house its new powerplant. Even so, everything on the machine is fully functional as it would have been from the factory.
Unfortunately, Annunziata was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Rather than sell his pride and joy, he offered it to Leno for free under the stipulation that he never sell the machine. Leno agreed, but only if he could actually pay Annunziata for his creation. The two compromised by setting up a scholarship for those who are interested in pursuing a four-year degree in auto mechanics or restoration. We call that a win on every front. to see Leno take the 1,000 horsepower Duster out for a run.
A Small-Scripted S Delivers Power, Performance And Pomposity
offers its to North American buyers in no fewer than eight models with six different engine choices, including a hybrid. There’s even an oil-burning available across the Pond. At one end of the spectrum is the with a very capable 300-horsepower V6. At the other end, and at the top of the pecking order, is the , boasting a 550-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8. Not only is it the most powerful street-legal Porsche on offer, but it is the world’s quickest four-door sedan. Err… hatchback.
So others are aware of the Panamera’s potential, Porsche reserves its coveted ‘Turbo’ script only for its most capable vehicles. It is indeed a badge of honor. However, the ante is upped even further when a small scripted ‘S’ is adhered as a suffix. Its addition indicates to all others that the overall performance has been boosted to flagship levels – it is a tiny yet bold badge of bravado.
To help us solve the riddle of whether or not the Panamera Turbo S is more than just an exercise in demonstrating masculine superiority within ones social circle, Porsche deposited a stunning Aqua Blue Metallic example in our driveway for a week. It was our job to put the $195,000, four-passenger neck-snapper to the test and somehow avoid filling its glovebox with citations in the process.
It’s a rare thing, but every now and then, our automotive wishes come true. has announced that it will produce the heinous Juke-R in very limited numbers after a warm reception in Dubai. The company has already received three orders so far, and Nissan says it will begin taking additional orders in the next four weeks.
Each model will be built to order using model year 2012 drivetrain components, meaning there’s a modest bump in power – 545 horsepower versus the original Juke-R’s 480. As you may recall, the first Juke-R used bits cannibalized from a . How much will the machine cost? Nissan isn’t saying, but we’d be willing to bet the Juke-R will carry an MSRP a bit higher than the GT-R.
With 545 horsepower crammed into the quirky lines of the Juke, the machine is unlike anything else on the road. Nissan has also worked up a quick video to commemorate the production announcement. The clip focuses on the showdown between the Juke-R and . to check it out alongside the full press release.
If you were one of the world’s richest human beings, what kind of car would you own? The richest man in the world, (worth about $69 billion), drives himself to work in a . MSRP: $300K.
On the other hand, if you were , founder of Ikea, you’d drive something more humble like a 1993 240. We wonder if he had to put it together himself.
Then there’s Bill Gates. Another of the world’s wealthiest people, Mr. Gates showed a at the 2008 CES keynote of him driving away from his last day at work at Microsoft in a While that may or may not be his daily driver, one of his cars has been well documented.
In 1999, President Clinton signed into law the “” rule that exempted certain collectible cars from government emission and crash worthiness rules. Bill Gates and several other very rich motor nuts were instrumental in getting the law passed. The exemption allowed Gates to break his Porsche 959 free from the customs impound lot after more than a decade.
Check out the other 11 gajillionaires and their rides .
Ever wonder why the is so darn big? We’re not exactly experts on the ins and outs of officially recognized feats, but we’d have to say it’s because the organization will put its stamp of approval on just about anything imaginable. Like, for instance, the top speed of a toilet.
That’s right, folks. There’s a new World’s Fastest Toilet, and it hails from Australia. Piloted by Jolene Van Vugt, this motorized porcelain throne managed a two-way average of 46.6 miles per hour. Don’t worry – this record may have been claimed, but the World’s Fastest Kitchen Sink has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
If you think setting a world record on a toilet is crazy, perhaps you’re not familiar with Van Vugt. She’s a professional motocross rider, was the first woman to backflip a dirtbike and is one of the stars of the Nitro Circus television and live-action show.
Naturally, we have video of Jolene on the toilet , along with an image gallery of the self-proclaimed porcelain princess in the act before, during and after the flush.
We’ve been desperately trying to put our finger on what makes the idea of a supermoto so attractive, and we may have finally figured it out. The bikes are perfect all-purpose machines, equally at home dismantling stretches of mountain tarmac as they are bashing through the woods.
Wildly controllable, lightweight and even fuel-efficient, the bikes are the perfect two-wheeled mode of transportation for the impending apocalypse. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the quick video after the jump. The clip features plenty of supermoto goodness, all shot at 120 and 300 frames per second.
That means we get to watch the bikes kick sideways in beautiful slow motion, both on dry pavement and wet mud. The video is four and a half minutes of two-wheeled goodness, and a welcome break for the middle of the week. to enjoy the show for yourself.
Jim Nabors wasn’t born or raised in Indiana, and he doesn’t live there. Yet that hasn’t prevented him from becoming one of the state’s favorite sons. Singing “Back Home Again In Indiana” before the vast majority of Indianapolis 500 races over the past 40 years will do that for a guy.
But this year, the 81-year-old actor and singer won’t be able to make the trip from his home in Hawaii to Indy, due to a scheduled heart surgery, according to USA Today. Apparently the tradition is important enough to the folks that run Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that instead of calling John Mellencamp, they have dispatched a video crew to our 50th state to record Nabors singing the song.
According to the report, Nabors has performed the song before every Indy 500 since 1987 except for the 2007 race, which he also missed for health reasons. Nabors also sang before the 1972-1978 races and two additional times in the 1980s, according to WTHR.
to watch video footage of Nabors singing before the 2010 Indy 500.
is taking its on U.S. tour for a few months. One of the stops between Toronto Tuck World and the Volvo Ocean Race in Miami was Wendover, Utah, to attempt a couple of record-breaking speed runs.
Mean Green uses a 16-cylinder engine that puts out 1,900-horsepower, tied to an electric motor that adds 200 hp and 885 pound-feet. With that package, the Swedish Viking Speed Records Team and pilot Boije Overbrink were aiming for 165 miles per hour in the flying kilometer. They didn’t quite make that lofty goal, but they did well enough to break not one, but two world records. for the story of the day.
Facebook is a big deal, even if you’re an exotic car maker with one of the world’s most powerful brands. In this case we’re talking about , which recently hit eight million followers on the social networking site.
How does an automaker with such a rich history celebrate a 21st century milestone? to watch the good folks in Maranello, Italy throw down after gaining 8,000,000 followers. Hint: it involves a predictably red 458 Italia, plenty of open pavement and a knack for drifting and donuts. Of course, Ferrari would like us to believe that they wrote out “8,000,000″ in rubber, but we’re more interested in watching the 458 do its thing.
As much as we love games like Forza and Gran Turismo, these driving simulators are hobbled by one glaring omission: peripheral vision. Driving requires a view from more than just the windshield, and while Forza 4 and Gran Turismo 5 have made steps toward giving players a better a better look at the track around them, the nature of a flat screen is cursed with limitations. Of course, if you have the cash, Motion Simulation has a solution for you. The company’s new TL1 simulator was built in cooperation with none other than the minds at Ariel. You know, the folks responsible for the mighty Atom.
The system uses three high-definition projectors to give the view a complete view of the virtual track ahead. What’s more, the simulator is compatible with consoles like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the kit is prohibitively large and expensive. If you want one, you’ll have to fork over $18,600 at current conversion rates, along with a big portion of your living room. Considering that kind of cash will buy you a very nice used sports car, we’ll have to take a pass on this one.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a video of the actual Atom simulator available just yet, so for the moment, you’ll have to content yourself with footage of the company’s great-sounding Touring Car simulator. Check it out by .
We so wanted to lead this post with a Jim Belushi joke. Alas, the press release announcing the launch of its rear-drive flagship in Korea today specifically clarifies that the K9 will be renamed for other markets.
While Kia says the large sedan rides on “its own platform,” we know enough about the auto industry to posit that much of that platform is shared with the underpinnings of corporate cousin Hyundai’s and . Like the pair, Kia is clearly hoping the not-called-K9-here will help the brand move upmarket, positioning the car as a premium product designed, in the words of Kia’s head of design Peter Schreyer, “to compete head-to-head with the European luxury brands.”
The Kia sedan will split the difference between the Genesis and the Equus, matching the 120-inch wheelbase of the latter, but with an overall length of 200 inches that’s three inches shorter than Equus and almost four inches longer than the Genesis. The Kia sedan will have the same 0.27 coefficient of drag as both the Hyundai models.
Kia says its luxury sedan will be powered by two distinct versions of the corporate 3.8-liter , one making 286 horsepower and the direct-injection version rated at 329. The more powerful engine is said to be “joining the global engine line-up next year,” which we’d expect would coincide with the flagship sedan’s U.S. launch. Both engines will be mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Kia says the car will be available with a number of safety features including a lane-departure warning system and blind sport detection. A reclining rear seat with leg rest will also be available, just like in the Equus.
Today’s announcement raises an interesting possibility. While we wouldn’t expect Kia to send its flagship stateside with the less-powerful V6 – indeed, a V8 engine option is surely bound to accompany an official statement of the car’s U.S. sales plan – doing so would certainly allow Kia to bring the car to market at a more attractive entry-level price. Kia has a scant resume when it comes launching anything other than budget models here in the U.S., and the brand certainly has considerable work to do if it aims to catch up to Hyundai in pricier segments.
It will certainly be interesting to see where Kia tries to position its unnamed sedan – and whether its (*ahem*) dogged pursuit of the luxury dollar will succeed. Scroll down to read the full press release and check out our .
As far-fetched as it may seem, the owner of the Japanese Harley-Davidsonmotorcycle that has been found. Beachcombers sent photographs of the bike to Harley-Davidson, which managed to track the registration to Ikuo Yokoyama in Miyagi Prefecture. Yokoyama lost three family members and his home in the tsunami that struck Japan a little more than a year ago and assumed his bike was gone forever. But the beachcombers have extracted the bike from the remote shore, and at its own expense, Harley-Davidson reportedly plans to have the machine shipped back to Miyagi, where it will be restored and returned to its rightful owner. Yokoyama is still living in a temporary shelter.
The bike drifted some 3,100 miles across the Pacific ocean in the back of a cube van. Yokoyama was using the box as storage for the bike on his property. Harley-Davidson says that despite plenty of corrosion, the motorcycle is in surprisingly good shape given what the machine has endured.
Miyagi Prefecture was one of the hardest-hit areas of Japan, where the disaster left 11,000 people dead or missing. Click to watch a CBC report on the remarkable story.
It’s been fascinating to sample Audi’s new EA824 V8 in all of its various incarnations. Our first crack at the new TFSI powerplant was in Audi’s own 513-horsepower , and we then went on to try it out in the new . Most recently, we dipped into the 4.0-liter biturbo in the new before getting behind the wheel of the closely related S6 seen here.
Versus the previous S6 with its muy macho -derived 5.2-liter V10, everything is quicker, more efficient and lighter in weight. The new fourth-generation S6 Quattro with S-tronic seven-speed dual clutch comes in at a European curb weight of 4,178 pounds – about 30 pounds lighter than the previous V10-stuffed car with its automated six-speed. Yes, power is slightly lower now at 414 horses, but peak torque of 406 pound-feet is slightly higher and happens over a vastly wider range of 1,400 to 5,200 rpm. Audi’s 0-62 miles per hour sprint time is now listed at 4.6 seconds, a figure that compares favorably with the outgoing car’s official 5.2-second time.
For my test drive, Audi thoughtfully provided a couple of S6 four-door setups for me to sample: those with Dynamic Steering and the torque vectoring sport Quattro rear differential, and those without. You know which trim I went for already. So equipped, these S6 sedans were all painted Misano Red… an exterior color that Americans cannot get this time around. So, just visualize me thundering around Bavaria in a car painted shades of white, black, silver, gray, or blue, since those are the paint chips you’ll find on the order sheet at your local dealer.
As the man behind illicit video site MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom finds himself in a world of trouble. But before he was arrested by the New Zealand authorities and had his property seized, the controversial internet bajillionaire took a little trip to the Nürburgring. Only he wasn’t about to take a ride in the Ring Taxi and call it a day.
No, instead Dotcom shipped in not one, not two, but three CLK AMG DTMs from his private collection in New Zealand (with vanity plates reading “Good”, “And”, “Evil”), rented out the entire track and hired former Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen to drive alongside his business partner Finn Batato. And while he was at it, he hired a crew of over a hundred people, set up about 30 cameras and rented two helicopters and an airplane for the aerial shots.
The resulting video is nothing if not indulgent, and unfortunately, it has techno music drowning out the exhaust notes, but you can view it by . NSFW Warning: the music contains explicit language.
The world is a distracting place. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, there are any number of things designed specifically to draw your attention elsewhere. It’s true when you’re driving, too, which is why automakers like have crafted technologies like lane departure warning.
Of course, even if we can all admit to arriving at a destination without being able to remember a single salient detail about how we actually got there, or vibrating the car across a set of rumble strips every now and then, it takes a talented marketing department to get the message across in a manner we’ll actually understand.
for a video showing one man’s aimless head doing everything but driving. But beware, this one is a wee bit *warning-NSFW-warning* due to a brief scene at a clothing-optional beach. Sorry, was that distracting?
The AMG division of has attracted two million views on YouTube. That’s as if every single person in Boston, Las Vegas, Long Beach and St. Louis stopped what they were doing and clicked the left mouse button to get a video fix on a three-pointed star and quad pipes.
To thank its fans, AMG put a at the top of the corkscrew at , then drifted it all the way down. Looks like fun. All you have to do is to watch the recognition.
celebrates 2M views by drifting C63 AMG around Laguna Seca
This past weekend, celebrated its return to DTM racing after a 20-year embargo of its home series. On the first practice day of the weekend at Hockenheim, Andy Priaulx was the , almost a second off the pace. By Saturday morning’s second free practice just before quallifying, BMW pilot Bruno Splengler, who was 20th on Friday, . In the end, it was Priaulx who was the top-finishing BMW, behind a spate of and racers. Not a win, but not a horrible start for being out of the series for 20 years.
In case you need to get more in the mood for the rest of the season’s racing action, BMW’s got one of those amuse-bouche teaser vids of the sinister in action. All you need to do is to check it out.
