Fast Cars

Milka Duno is a Venezuelan race car driver best known for holding the record of highest finish for a female driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona which she did in January.

The F1 world should start waking up sometime during the next couple of days. The summer break has been a welcome relief from the non-stop controversy of the 2007 season, but before we jump on the treadmill again I thought it’d be worth looking into the Electronic Control Unit contention bubbling under the surface.

So there it is. I’ve decided to buy a race car. But there is a catch.

The Bugatti Veyron’s reign as fastest accelerating supercar seems to have met its fate. The soon-to-be world’s fastest accelerating car has broken cover during the final stages of test and development. The Caparo T1 is a high performance two-seater sports car with highly resolved aerodynamics, which has been designed with the looks and performance of a Formula One race car.

Coming soon from Greyscale Racing is the MRCG, a pan chassis aimed at open-class racers who need a lower CG, more responsive handling, and more tuning options than a standard Mini-Z. Based on the Mini-Z MR02, the car features a mid motor layout and narrow battery configuration for more responsive handling as well as dual flex plate suspension, similar to that seen in the Mini-Z F1 cars. This is a true race car, with the ability to adjust the weight bias by adjusting the placement of the cells, while the front end of the car allows adjustment of the ride height, independant of the spring preload.

Of course you are probably wondering who Jack Odell is… he’s the creator of the venerable Matchbox toy. For $20 you can get an entire garage full of these indestructible toys, and regardless of how old you are you can still have fun with them

The 4th round of the French 1/10th 200mm Nationals was held on the weekend on the very nice Longvic racing facility run by the Mini Racing Car Longvicien club. Qualifying for the Elite class saw the pole position taken by Mugen racer Renaud Monin with, round 3 winner, B-A Arnaldi close behind in 2nd and Xray racer Basile Concialdi in 3rd.

Anyway, the main reason for bloggage today was to mention Jay’s new found love, inititiated by my purchase of F1 magazine. There was a teeny-tiny reference to a a new TV series coming out in the UK, created by the fine creators of Bob the Builder and narrated by Stirling Moss…yes, narrated by Stirling Moss. The show is called Roary the Racing Car and features a single open wheel race car, Roary, as the main character.

Some of the most famous AM race cars are also featured as well as detailed history of AM company ownership through the years, which we thought was fitting on the eve of Aston Martins announcement that they’ve been acquired by a consortium led by David Richards of Prodrive. This video is just over an hour long.

Christie’s has estimated the value of the 1939 Auto Union D-Type, one of just two remaining examples of this legendary Grand Prix racing car, at between £5.78-7.88 million, which would set a new record. Formed in the Thirties through the amalgamation of four German automotive marques, Auto Union was a precursor to the modern day Audi brand, and its memory is kept alive by the German prestige manufacturer’s heritage division, Audi Tradition.

Remember when we were younger, when we used to talk about and imagine what we would become when we grew up? I wanted to be a policeman and my friends wanted to be fireman and race car drivers. We believed anything was possible and we could become whatever we wanted, never doubting the possibilities. As children, we dreamed big.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about Richard Hammond’s crash in a race car while filming a gearhead show in the UK. They’re calling it a ‘tragedy’. Honestly I find the attention is somewhat tasteless. I mean, he did something dangerous, knowing full well it was dangerous and got hurt. That same day hundreds of people were in car accidents and many of those were acting in a perfectly safe manner and were hurt because of someone else’s negligence. But he’s a celebrity so he’s getting attention.

For those of you who follow Formula One (F1) motor racing, you know that it is a sport that has traditionally been dominated by White Europeans. There have been numerous Asian drivers in the series before, most from Japan and one from Malaysia. Before the 2005 season, F1 added its first ever driver from India. Now comes word that f1 is about to have its first Black driver, Lewis Hamilton from Britain, whose grandparents came from the West Indies:

The Women's Sports Foundation, founded by tennis phenomenon Billie Jean King, announced yesterday that NHRA Top Fuel driver Melanie Troxel was selected as Sportswoman of the Year, the first honoree from the world of motorsports.

If seems like every few days you can read about a new "world's fastest this" or a "world's fastest that" but if you are into that kind of thing this Hemi 'Cuda sounds and looks quite impressive. The 1971 Plymouth -- or at least what's left of it -- was built by Alan Johnson at Johnson's Hot Rod Shop. From the looks of things there does not appear to be much of the original car left, which is pretty much par for the course on these high-tech high-dollar builds.

Today, after a horrific car accident on the race track at Mt Panorama (the accident I think was yesterday), racing car driver Mark Porter died. I haven’t seen footage of the accident (which is probably a good thing) but the way the article I read described it is still locked vividly in my mind. He lost control of his car coming around a tight corner, slid and stalled, and wound up sideways across the track, driver’s side facing the oncoming cars who were approaching at over 180 KM per hour but could not see him there around the bend. There he sat helpless; helpless too the drivers who crashed into him, powerless to stop their cars before impact.

Well, it’s been an interesting first week back, and I havn’t really done much work to be honest. I have been sorting out other things as I am getting involved with Formula Student (designing and building a race car) and also with the uni poker soceity. It’s going to be a brilliant year I feel!

Ricky Bobby movie gets an 8. Great comedy, good acting and race cars… you can’t go wrong.

I want to take a minute and explain what Napier Motorsports is all about. My Father David L. Napier started Napier Motorsports about 20 years ago. Napier Motorsports has sponsored Stocker race cars, Modified race cars, and Late Model race cars over the years. Most noteworthy has been Roger Avants in the 27 car at Erie Raceway outside of Denver Colorado. David (my father) with his partner Gary Young of Pro Vans USA, several supporting sponsors, a great team, and Roger Avants went on in 2002 to win the National Late Model Stock Car Championship.

As I checked out the contestants in the parking lot and staging lanes, I decided to speak first with the families who had come to see their kids race dragsters. The first trailer that caught my eye belonged to "Blue Angel Racing;" Tonya "TJ" MacLeod and her Top Alcohol Jr. Dragster from Fort White, Florida. It was obvious that Dad raced as well, because "Go Daddy" had been painted on his nearby racecar.

One of my favorite cars at the Carlisle 2006 show was the gorgeous yellow Ferrari P4 kit car made by RCR (Race Car Replicas). I wasn’t sure if I’d fit, but I watch a pretty heavy-set guy get in (admittedly he had trouble figuring out how, but fit once he was there), and one of the people working for them was at least my height… and surprisingly the car was very comfortable and roomy!

We had a blast yesterday at the Streets of Tomorrow. Even though we had a little mix up signing in, it was a lot of fun with the little ones and wife. My son was in heaven, as was I. Instead of seeing race cars on TV, he got to sit in an Audi LMP1 R8. He was way shy at first but not towards people but I think in awe that a race car was right before him.

When Bobby Labonte gets behind the wheel of the #43 Petty Racing Dodge Charger this weekend, he'll see an STP logo through his windshield. To help promote its new oil stabilizer product, STP is the car's primary sponsor for this weekend's Aarons 499 Nextel Cup race at the Talladega Superspeedway. This marks the first time in six years that the 43 car will wear the classic STP/Petty red, white and blue livery.

Louise Smith, the first woman to be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, died Saturday April 15, at the age of 89. Smith was known for her fearless style, she won 38 Modified events and gave as good as she got.

Of course, as usual, most of that will be filler and crap. The bits worth watching (ie: when the proper race cars are on, as opposed to stupid and boring stuff like V8 taxi racing and skanks singing the national anthem) are:

All of this can be yours for $106,000. Not a bad price for a racing car you can drive to and from work in air conditioned comfort. Yes, you can have the best of both worlds.

Today, however, the cars weren’t the usual cars you find at drag racing, because they were all vintage road and race cars. There were a few modern cars there, but really not many at all. Lots of sports and race cars from the 40’s through to the 70’s, with a few street cars thrown in.

I took part of Friday off to hang out with Erica, who's visiting for the weekend. Saturday, we went to a BMW CCA private viewing of local car collections. Some amazing cars to see up close. Lots of old Ferarri race cars, a 'complete set' of current-model Ferraris (F40, F50 and Enzo), a collection of '30s and '40s Fords and many other classics.

On a more positive note Scuderia Toro Rosso’s first car, the STR01, will be debut on track in Jerez tomorrow. This is a completely brand spanking new car and is not connected to any previous Minardi’s or last years Red Bull Racing car.

Here is a video of a professional race car driver reviewing the E60 M5. Its fairly good.

Check out my new 2006 Mini Cooper S we recently ordered on January 21, 2006. I have also started a page on the Mini Challenge Club Sport Race Cars from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) with the full John Cooper Works in-house race treatment.

On the same day, Toyota, which is threatening to overtake General Motors Corporation as the world's largest automaker, confirms what has been clearly coming for several years - race cars that look vaguely like the Japanese firm's top selling family sedan will be in the starting lineup at the 2007 Daytona 500 and will be a regular competitor thereafter in America's most popular form of motorsports.

I just responded to a Freecycle ad for the first time ever. If it works out, it would be the perfect thing. There’s a local guy offering a toddler race car bed, and he will deliver! P is ready to move out of his crib (something we’ve been holding off as long as possible to keep him IN his bed, but…) and he just love, love, loves cars, so it would be really cool if it works out. Stay tuned…

My cake… my cake was great. It was a figure-8 with some ramps and bridges on it. Why ramps and bridges? It was a race car track! Complete with tiny race cars and road signs. However, Amanda did take the initiative and see fit to include a ‘crashed’ car that they had smashed with a hammer and stuck onto the cake, complete with road cones and such to divert traffic around it. Supposedly this was me (I tend to be a little spirited in my driving, much to the chagrin of my friends). :-P

In short, he’s building a ultra-light AWD race car of his own design from scratch — think 4/3 scale shifter cart or D Sports Racing car if you follow those. More importantly, he’s documenting his project along the way, including sketches, plans, decision making process, the cost of parts and so on. I’m impressed when someone tries something very difficult and documents it along the way, showing their thinking, their mistakes, their fixes and how they got to the end result.

I have always loved race cars, but even as a kid my favorite winter spectator sport was bobsleding. It was the best part of the Olympics from my prespective. One thing I always noticed was that the USA teams were not really in the hunt for the win. But former Daytona 500 Champion and successful NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine has changed that by putting his NASCAR experience into the design, development and promotion of the US Bobsled team.

4) Driving a Race Car: Something about doing top speed on a track without having to worry about traffic from the opposite side

Thats it. I’m off to get drunk and race cars (on my computer. I’m not stupid enough to drink and then get behind the wheel in a real car).

This new GT racing car, which is based on the latest Aston Martin production sports car, DB9, is being prepared by Aston Martin Racing’s partners, Prodrive, based at Banbury, UK. Prodrive is responsible for the design, development and management of the DBR9 racing programme.

The season has once again been primarily about Jeff Ward. Despite a slow start to the season by the time everyone headed to the final round it was Ward that held a commanding 31 point lead. Back in June, when the season first got started at Road America, Wardy was still trying to race cars. The distraction of going cage racing meant he wasn’t training and that showed with a pair of fourth place finishes. He followed those up with an equally uncharacteristic 6/4 showing at Shawano. It was at Copper Mountain here in Colorado that the Team Troy Lee Designs rider really hit his stride winning all four of the races held during the Suzuki Cycle Fest weekend. That quad set of victories propelled him into the points lead in the championship and he backed that up with a second and another victory at the Nashville round. When the riders showed up in Reno for the Red Bull Superrmoto A-Go-Go all the money was on Ward to sew up his second Supermoto championship. I even predicted as much in my race preview last Friday.

Nice little article from the Portland Tribune about OMRRA. Bunch of my friends race in OMRRA, so the link is just a tad obligatory.

Every summer the Puget Sound BMW E30 owners and enthusiasts are gathering together on a picnic organized by BMW CCA Puget Sound. Last year I was in market for an E30 and I went to take a look at some of the cars. The event was a success, over 100 cars showed up and that was the point where I was 100% sure that I want one. I saw all types of E30s: 325, 318, M3, race cars, rally cars, strange cars and even an M1. I posted some pictures on my site. Read more about this event here and here.

Now, a little while ago, I wrote up on here that I was entertaining the idea of going to the Toyota Rally here in SA at the Mt Crawford forest. Well, I’m going.

I felt several years ago that I had nitrous in my veins, it just seemed natural to want to go the race track on weekends and spend the night racing. Lately with the fam that has vanished, but the want to have a high performing car has not escaped me. I grew up watching my dad work on cars, building race cars, owning hot rood camaro’s and I tell you I just cant do it. This last Focus has probably been one of the most fun cars I’ve owned. I love its handling (after the suspension kit I installed) and I love the looks (except for it being egg yolk yellow). It’s time to move on though, the two doors are just a modern form of a torture device.

And on the seventh day, He created an event so amazing and yet so odd that it could only be named...NASCAR. Before Sunday, I was a car racing virgin. I'd been to the horseracing track a couple of times, but nothing with engines, or bikini tops, or barefooted attendees.

At one point he didn’t notice that traffic ahead was backed up and a loud gasp from a women in the seat next to us got his attention. He slammed on the breaks and everyone got a nice taste of the seat in front of them. The guy was a maniac. He did get us home in four hours. I understand the average time is about 5 hours. If I were a race car team, I ‘d start scouting the bus lines for new talent.

This weekend at Road America in beautiful Elkhart Lake WI, the Brian Redmond International Challenge or BRIC is held. If you haven’t been to Road America before, you need to go. Imagine a beautiful 4 mile road course with plenty of elevation changes, that someone dropped into a lovely state park, and you are getting the idea. Not only is the track great, with it’s clean facilities, ample camping areas, and pleasant staff, but it’s only a couple miles from downtown Elkhart Lake. This weekend the town will be rockin! Friday night the local authorites open the public highways for the racecars to come on down and gather in the center of town. The streets will be filled with exotic and awsome racing machines from the past. Cobras, Ferraris, Can Am cars, even a Cheetah has been known to show up.

Developed alongside the Corvette C6.R race car, the Corvette Z06 uses advanced lightweight materials typically found only in the most exotic supercars. Use of weight-saving materials such as carbon fiber, aluminum, titanium and magnesium give the 3,132-pound car a highly competitive weight-to-power ratio of 6.2 pounds per horsepower.

Well, for one thing, Michael Shumaker and others reportedly use it for training themselves on various tracks without actually getting inside a racing car. Now we are showing it off on British racing tracks. !

Jesse James was there for the figure 8 race at the end of the night. You know, a bunch of fairly rough race cars that appear to be held together with decals running on a track that is the shape of an ‘8′. The object is to finish or get t-boned. The only crash was a roll over, and Jesse tried really hard. Man, he is crazy. He would get a car in his sights and punch the go pedal. Crazy to watch the other drivers actually try to get out of his way.

So, leaving Karen behind in Indianapolis, I flew to Los Angeles via Chicago. Tomorrow, I wil drive to Corona – there is a lot of driving, and I hope watching the quick race cars hasn’t gotten on my mind!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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...

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...

Unrelenting stress harms our bodies. We all know that, yet we let it continue day after day after day. Many times the only time we get margin in our lives is when the heart attack almost happens or does happen or the blood pressure skyrockets. Why do we wait until our health plummets before we make this decision? Why not realize that we need to build some margin into our lives now? The truth is, your body needs downtime in order to heal. Race cars make pit stops occasionally in order to get repaired. You can’t fix anything going 200 miles an hour....

Well, JT, Kenny, Wesley, Tiffany, and me hit the road yesterday to see the sights at The Southern Drag-way. Yes, its a drag strip way down in the bowels of southern Georgia. Did I say southern? How Southern is it? If you want a Dixie flag, or a thong for your woman with a Dixie flag or Harley Davidson emblem, then this is the place to be. Hotdogs for a buck and a half, slaw dogs for two dollars, and the saltiest french fries I have ever eaten for 75 cents. Ruth, do you know what a slaw dog is? I doubt they have them in New Zealand. The slaw dogs were tasty. Anyway, the kids loved the race cars, the noise, the wheelies, etc. We had a great time. JT and I always have a great time together, no matter what.

I am back to work after taking a day off yesterday. I went to Sears Point with my parentals to see IRL (Indy Racing League) practice. It’s been forever since we were last at the track as a family, probably close to seven or eight years when we used to race cars. That was even before Kayla and I moved to Santa Barbara! The day was quite cold, and while we didn’t take in any wine tasting in near by Napa, we did have a GREAT time! So, I have a new “girlfriend” (sorry Kimmi, but you are going to have to up your game) named Danica Patrick; [danica-patrick.com]. She’s not only smokin’, but she also knows how to drive fast. LOL! Anyway, I have tons of “not so fun” stuff to do, so I’m outta here.

I was exposed to supercars at a very impressionable age, in my teens to be exact. I had previously, in my youth, had no interest in cars whatsoever, preferring to concentrate my energies on scale models of aircraft and ships. When I reached my mid teens I was forced to seek employment, and my dad helped me out by getting me a job at the workshop where he sent his car for repairs.

I wish we had a Formula One grand prix near by.

Looks like we have some good weather for racing tonight. I live on a road that many race cars take to the local track and watching the haulers go by is getting me excited for my first D.I.R.T.-style modified race of the year.I’m looking forward to the New Egypt season opener tonight and then I’m heading to Thompson CT in the morning to watch the NASCAR Modified series race.

It's Friday, so here's a game for hungover people and other shirkers to play (Thursdays are the new brown, or something).

Instructions: You race a car over jumps, using only two keys (left and right arrows) to accelerate or brake. It's that easy. You can invite friends to play you in a league and there's a world ranking too, so see how well you do.

It was 1973. I had a '56 Belair 2dr. w/a 265/170 with a Powerglide and a 3:55 gear that my dad had bought new. I bracket raced the well worn Chevy at the local dragstrip. With recurved distributor, 18.70's were the best it would do. It was common practice to bring along a portable 1 gallon water sprayer to cool the intake & radiator between rounds. At one Saturday race, a highschool acquaintance was behind me in line behind me in line with new Cuda 340. He borrowed my sprayer and used all the water .It just so happened we got paired up together at the starting line. With the handicap, I had about a 4 sec. head start. My lights came down and the '56 was off and running .When his came down the Cuda sputtered, backfired and barely moved. He evidently had sprayed his ignition. Anyway ,I was told the crowd cheered wildly as the rusty old Chevy half-tracked the new 'Cuda.

Well, what Marcus Gronholm really wants is a win at the Propecia Rally of New Zealand April 8-10, but he would like to focus on getting a podium finish. Two crashes in the first two rallies and an admitted conservative run that assured him a second in Mexico has cost the double world champion many driver’s points. Gronholm is comfortable with the New Zealand course, but maybe not so assured about the 307’s new suspension adjustments.

Vintage racing is one of the fastest-growing forms of motorsports competition out there, thanks in part to its unique ability to present classic cars in motion on the race track, just as they might have been 20, 30 or more years ago.

There is one small difference, however: it's now some decades later, and these cars are, well, old. That changes the game a bit. If you're are going to head out and start mixing it up in a 30-year-old sports car, first you need to make sure that it's safe and up to modern safety standards.

For illustrative purposes, we'll be preparing our 1957 Triumph TR3 for vintage racing. While this car was raced in SCCA competition back in the '50s and '60s, nearly all of the safety equipment needs to be brought up to modern standards.

Formula One fast cars are LOUD!

The noise about Speedway sound had me wondering how loud is Formula One?

There is nothing like the sound of a pack of F1 cars at full throttle. Its one aspect that TV can not convey even if you have the best home theatre. Engines spinning at 18-19,000 rpm don't sound much like normal cars, even race cars, but more like the sound of metal being shredded. That is probably whats happening!

I found an article about Jordan (below) that states Formula One engines create levels of about 130 decibels or 10,000 times normal conversation. Makes those 91 decibel speedway cars seem tame!