Fast Cars

Patrick would be for racing what Tiger Woods did for golf. Woods changed the sponsors and viewership for the PGA Tour. He made golf more popular and more accessible than it ever was before. Patrick would do that, she would move the viewership to the suburbs and shed the idea that auto racing is just for hillbillies and red necks. Once they had the audience they could keep it by promoting all the rivalries, and technology they supposedly have.

Jaguar has decided to release the XK Victory Edition with a supercharged V8. The “normal” XK cars sport 294 bhp with their stout V8s, but the Victory Edition Coupe and Convertible will put out an estimated 390 BHP…you need that . The Victory Edition cars will also come equipped with custom leather Recaro ‘race style’ seats and Bluetooth phone controls built into the steering wheel. Jaguar has seen the light and realized that Bluetooth functionality is something that their cars should come with. Nice work Jaguar, the XK Victory Edition is one sweet ride. And, the carbon fiber interior trim is, niiiiice.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that Disney was releasing a new Herbie the Love Bug movie. But it wasn't until today, while watching the Coca-Cola 600, that I realized that NASCAR racing is central to the plot of Herbie: Fully Loaded. And, to further solidify the impression that NASCAR and its drivers are all about the benjamins, series stars Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Matt Kenseth, and Rusty Wallace all appear in the movie.

I went to the races tonight. Woo! It rocked. Sorta. Not as many pile ups as I’d have liked though. I really dont like big racing.. like Nascar or anything. In fact, I really cant stand nascar. But this is just a small semi-local race thing on a tiny track. Its something to do on Friday nights. The only person I ever called my cousin (in the US, at least. and not even by blood) is supposed to be racing the Super Stock. But he wasnt....

I have been a racing fan for most of my life, and unlike most these days that love NASCAR, my fandom has always involved open wheel cars. And though my interest has waned over the years, and it is harder and harder to get up and watch the Forumla One races on Sunday morning during the 5 year reign of Michael Schumacher, I still make a point of watching the Indianapolis 500. This year the race was won by British sensation Dan Wheldon. This was his fourth win of the season that is only five races old.

When you look at the Paris Hilton Burger Video, you'll think that she's trying to sell a car. Not just any car. It's a Bentley. A beautiful luxury car. The way Paris' gorgeous body wraps around the automobile makes you want to own one, too.

Renault's Fernando Alonso won the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring after long-time leader Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren crashed on the last lap.

Raikkonen's car was crippled in the closing laps with a badly damaged right front tyre, which was sending strong vibrations through the suspension.

Raikkonen was just ahead of Alonso at the start of the last lap, only for the suspension to fail at the first corner.

Yesterday I spent all day enjoying the weather. Today I am going to sit on a butt and watch wall-to-wall car racing. Indy 500 starts at 11:30am and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 starts almost immediately after the Indy 500 finishes.

Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick’s is lighter on the race track.

One hundred eighty channels of data will be transmitted from the sensory systems over a Wi-Fi network set up throughout the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race cars will feed big chunks of data back to the server, including engine health, vehicle dynamics, and aerodynamics.

Pop-pop had ‘connections,’ as the stories go, so we got to see the new Chevrolets that year before they were ‘officially’ announced. All these years later, I can still picture the brand new, gleaming white '67 Impala SS 427 peering ominously from the back of the dealer’s shop. Man, I wanted her to get that one. Turned out she got a screaming red, 327 4-barrel fastback model, with the mandatory black vinyl top. Pretty car. Quick. But not the 427. Ah, the disappointments of life.

But beyond the pretty girls, I like Maxim because I get a lot of pop culture from it. They review the latest CD's (all genre's), the latest movies (the new "Batman" should rock), talk about new sports cars, sports, etc. A couple of months ago they interviewed a journalist who had been kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq. That was a fascinating story. But Maxim does all this in the language and style that I use with my friends. They just tell it how it is.

Basilio argues that the sport is so busy trying to make itself acceptable to the masses that it is losing it’s core and heart. Though I am by no means a big NASCAR fan, I have never been to a race and I do not own any NASCAR stuff, I have to agree with the points that Basilio makes and I do think long term his forecast will come true. The day’s of rough and tough racing with drivers that carried more about winning and making a living then ad campaign’s and marketing are gone. The question is will NASCAR find it’s way back onto the right track before it hits the outside wall (safer barrier or not) and messes up a bunch of good equipment.

The Indian car scene is a mixed bag, since there is so much focus on the small car segment. Cars such as the Camry, Accord, Corolla, which generally come in the most affordable segment world-over are sold as high-end luxury cars in India. For example. Hyundai Sonata is one of the cheapest cars in the United States but it is one of the most expensive cars in India, even though its a Korean car not even a Japanese.

Today the FIA announced it has changed the Formula One qualifying. At the next race on May 29th at the Nurburgring there will be only one qualifying session. All teams agreed in Monaco to the changed format.

The scariest city I've driven in is Chicago. People dart in and out of traffic like they're racing towards a NASCAR finish line.

My brother lived in Chicago for a few years, and he never adjusted his driving habits. Riding with him is like being on one of those simulator rides at Disney -- except that there are a lot more Hail Marys spoken from the passenger seat of my brother's Volvo than from the seats of any amusement park ride. That he's never had an accident should be of comfort to me.

What do you think about the sport of Formula One. Tell the FIA in “The FIA/AMD Formula One Survey 2005”

The site is very busy so may require a few attempts to get in. There are about 25 questions in toal then you can enter the prize draw.

Just finished watching the Monaco Grand Prix. Traditionally, this is a race where it's almost impossible to overtake, because the streets are so narrow. Not this year - just ask Villeneuve, Alonso, Heidfeld, Webber, Schumacher.... Congratulations Raikkonen and McLaren.

Okay, I've closed on the house, all the parts I need to finish and build my race cars are either arrived or on order, and I've everything I need exept for time. The most frustrating thing about the whole thing is that I've stuff that I KNOW has to be done, I intend to do it, I know I NEED to do it, but yet something always seems to be popping up. For example, the weekend before my first race I'd planned on working on finishing up the car I've got and have it race ready. Somehow I've ended up having to attend a Veterans Luncheon in honor of me which I very well can't blow off, a friend of mine wants me to come to her sons birthday party, and I've an appointment for my pooch at the vet.

With vehicles traveling at more than 200 miles per hour and only inches apart, auto racing is a natural application for event-data recorders. However, it was not until after the death in 2001 of stock-car legend Dale Earnhardt that NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Racing) began collecting real-time crash data with a black-box device from Independent Witness. NASCAR officials install the self-contained Witness unit, which has a two-year battery, next to the driver's seat (Figure 4). The device monitors vehicle motion and, in the event of impact, records the date, time, direction, impact severity, and a 3-D acceleration profile. The vendor also offers similar devices for reducing fraud in fleet accidents by correlating the forces in a crash with subjective injury complaints.

Is this the most badass, Batmobile-like car you've ever seen or what? The Maybach high-performance show car 'Exelero' was unveiled a couple of days ago to a bunch of sweaty-palmed Germans. The 700hp, two-seater with a V-12 biturbo engine, is a unique custom model produced for Fulda Reifenwerke, which is using the Maybach Exelero as a reference vehicle for a newly developed generation of wide tyres.Is this the most badass, Batmobile-like car you've ever seen or what? The Maybach high-performance show car 'Exelero' was unveiled a couple of days ago to a bunch of sweaty-palmed Germans. The 700hp, two-seater with a V-12 biturbo engine, is a unique custom model produced for Fulda Reifenwerke, which is using the Maybach Exelero as a reference vehicle for a newly developed generation of wide tyres.

A movie and screenshots of the upcoming Formula 1 game for the PlayStation 3 — looks absolutely fantastic!

Anyway, the Florida legislature was mulling over giving $90 million to the Orlando and Daytona Beach area in order for a new stadium to be build and also for a NASCAR Hall of Fame to be developed. This all became mute though as the legislature ignored this provision before ending its recent session.

The driving experience was rather good, the new focus is probably better than most of it’s peers, it has excellent brakes (even the 1.6L models have discs at the rear), the steering is precise and the whole car feels very nimble. I saw more body roll than I wanted when I slammed it into corners, and this one had some really annoying traction control thing which would *muzzle* the engine when I was trying to drive it really hard. Every time I’d downshift and floor it through a corner, I’d get around 0.5s of joyful torquesteering...

This is city is a visual feast. Plasma-screen billboards, jacaranda trees in full lavender bloom, high-end sports cars, birds 'o paradise, ocean waves crashing against the glass of your restaurant window, dusty mustard-flowered mountains, bums with towering, pungent shopping carts, outdoor farmers markets with piles of produce in perfect rainbow symmetry, museum flags flapping on light poles with David's Bonaparte rearing up on a battle steed against the smoggy sky, film crews, drag queens, Dan Ackroyd at the corner vegan bakery, a basin of lights,...

Saab engineers say that six-cylinder engines make up just 20 per cent of the European market for medium-size luxury cars like the 9-3. In the US, however, the "entry luxury" market is dominated by the demand for six-cylinder engines. And with the transatlantic market so important, a big motor is vital.

Sponsored by GM, AutoShow in Motion allows you to test drive (with absolutely zero sales pressure) over 150 vehicles on courses set up in the stadium parking lot. There are multiple courses, with separate courses for passenger cars, luxury cars, small SUVs, large SUVs, and trucks. There is also a special course for the Hummer H2 (which you can only drive if you’ve previously driven a vehicle on the SUV or truck courses) and a performance course for the Corvette C6 and Cadillac XLR (which you can only drive if you’ve previously driven...

A reader (yay, you! thanks for reading) queried in relation to my recent tale of the aggressive Hummer whether I would have felt the same way if a Subaru had harassed me. Good question. The fact is, I have only ever been the two-wheeled recipient of dangerous driving or shouted remarks from large vehicles. I can't begin to speculate about potential reasons for this. Perhaps there's something in the character of people who choose to buy large vehicles? Or perhaps drivers of larger cars feel that there's not as much room on the road when they drive (there isn't!) and that coercing a cyclist to get out of their way, by mortal injury or insult, will result in a better driving experience for them. Smaller cars just have more room to maneuver. But the fact is, drivers of smaller cars can be just as aggressive. They just haven’t done it to this individual cyclist.

After a few years of paying $1800 for every 6 months of car insurance, the five tickets have finally dropped off my record. I am now happily paying only $581 for every 6 months. Thank god. Now I can buy a house.

I told you so! What did i say? Well how about lap one? KURT BUSCH spins out on lap ONE! How is this saving money when we tear up $250,000 race cars? Everything that goes on at nascar or the mention of the nascar name has to do with the god almighty dollar! If there are fines and penalties handed out its so they can improve television ratings! some fans on XM satellite radio's nascar channel complain that all the sudden nascar is handing out penalties ranging from $1500 to $25,000! Well i have news for you,,You ready?

Well, our anniversary is coming up soon, as well as my birthday. Our anniversary, as most of you should know, is May 16th. It will be our second year of wedded bliss… And on a less exciting note, I will be a quarter of a century old this May 22nd. The good news: car insurance goes down. Bad news: I’m closer to the “over the hill mark” of the big 3-0. =)

Formula One star Rubens Barrichello and 2004 IRL champion Tony Kanaan led their team to victory Sunday in the Granja Viana 500 kart race. They beat an all-star field that included F1’s Juan Pablo Montoya, retired two-time CART champion Gil de Ferran and current IRL star Helio Castroneves. More than 70 teams competed in the event, which began Saturday night and finished Sunday.

I got two new race cars for my NR2003 game. One is a Busch car that I will run offline, and the other is my League car that I will run at all of the night races in my league. Enjoy.

There have been plenty of accidents on the track this season. Dale Jr ran into Brian Vickers and later owned up by saying “It was a big mistake on my part” and apologized to Vickers. Bobby Hamilton Jr caused a multi-car accident in Bristol and took responsibility for it when he said, “Leave it to me to do something stupid and tear up a bunch of race cars, I’m sure I’m a pretty good SOB right now.” Even Jeff Gordon apologized about getting into Kurt Busch at the Martinsville race. Jeff said after the race, “I...

Tony Danza got quite a scare when he and NASCAR star Rusty Wallace were racing go-karts Monday morning for a segment on the nationally syndicated talk show “The Tony Danza Show.”

Jay Leno loves this car. So do Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Buster Rymes and Coca-Cola.

It is an amazing reaction for a car that was created from one man's vision in Melbourne, is yet to get its final coat of paint and was not even started until this week.

But the Redback Spyder is special . . . it is Australian.

Today was the second time this year a Formula One race was shown on national television. Yes, you read correctly, not another NASCAR race, but a race where drivers must also know how to turn right… and use the brakes.

Which is better TV entertainment: Formula One racing or Moto GP? (hint there is a correct answer).

So, Aaron and I caught the last 50 laps of the Nextel Cup Darlington Night Race… and a thought popped into my head.

NASCAR changed sponsorship of the Winston Series from Winston to Nextel because they wanted to be able to reach and advertise the sport to a wider audience.

But they left the Busch Series alone.

So… Cigarette’s have to go, but beer’s okay?

Monster trucks? NASCAR races? Where does he get this stuff? Sigh. It’s at times like these that my eyes go up to the ceiling and I internally wonder why I didn’t have a girl. I like race cars but to watch 30 cars go 200 laps in an elliptical circle is just a bit too much for me to watch. I like his toy trucks, but the thought of sitting there and watching a truck with huge tires crush junk cars…well, its just not exciting to me. But I love him, so…. I’ll look into it and I’ll pray that none of the dates are good for us.

The truly maddening thing is that we have been here before. The oil crisis of the 1970s had exactly the same effect. US auto makers made and pushed low mileage gas hogs. Toyota and Datsun (now Nissan) stepped in an cleaned up with smaller, higher mileage (reasonably priced) quality vehicles. The headlines were full of the "death of the US auto industry." Well here we are again, and high gas prices do moderate status pitches of big trucks, big, vans, big SUV's, big luxury cars, and gas eating sports cars. Perhaps there is some hope for the sensibility...

Jenson Button has admitted his BAR team's two-race ban has dashed any remaining hopes he had of winning the Formula One drivers' title.

MotorSport Ranch is the brain child of Jack Farr. Jack built a country club where instead of playing golf or tennis the members race everything from suped up Miatas to million dollar Ferraris. What I found compelling about the Ranch was not the challenging race course, nor the 200+ garages, not even the Skip Barber racing school - instead I was impressed by the diversity of the 400+ members. I met teenagers driving open wheel formula race cars, middle age women with muscle cars, millionaires with Porsches and every other kind of person you could...

Ok, neither side of this dispute has been especially forthcoming about the precise details of this infringement. BAR claims that the regulations did not require them to drain this second tank; the FIA is claiming that because they were not open and transparent about the whole thing it is proof that they knew they were in violation of one rule or another. The fact of the matter is that the FIA regulations are as clear as mud, and the tradition of having local stewards judge the car’s fitness to said regulations leads to these misinterpretations.

And another thing. People who will jump up and start hating Johnson because the God Dale JR said he was an idiot are just as lame and MORONIC as you are!

I’d be happy to dumb all the cars down to their basic elements, with a creature comfort or two here and there (air conditioning and heat are nice), and invest in those elements that make a good driving experience. Drivetrain, suspension, steering, and other fun things…

Gran Turismo 4 is just the latest installment of the hugely popular Gran Turismo series of the racing/driving genre for the Playstation and Playstation 2 consoles. The Gran Turismo series started in 1998 and has been considered to be the genre defining game due to its true-to-life depictions of cars and courses. It has broken the mold of all the previous racing/driving games and has quickly become the benchmark for all other racing games since to follow. The GT series and especially GT4 has set the bar incredibly high in terms of offering the...

DaimlerChrysler is unique in the automotive industry: the product portfolio ranges from small cars to sports cars and luxury sedans; and from versatile vans to heavy duty trucks or comfortable coaches. DaimlerChryslers’ passenger car brands include Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge and smart. Commercial vehicle brands include Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star, Setra and Mitsubishi Fuso. It offers financial and other automotive services through DaimlerChrysler Services.

I was walking down the street today and heard this:

Dude. Why hasn't Ferrari or Lamborgini made an SUV? That would be the best selling SUV ever!