The Gumball 3000 is just one of the stranger races held yearly around the world.
Every car enthusiast worth his or her salt wants to attend events like the Indy 500, 24 Hours of LeMans, and Monaco Grand Prix, or, for fans of classics, the Monterey Historics, Goodwood Revival, or Mille Miglia Storica. But these are generally expensive propositions even for spectators, and forget about participating if you're not an excellent race driver or millionaire, preferably both. Cars are about glamour and going fast, sure, but life is about getting there and enjoying the ride along the way. This collection celebrates some lesser-known automotive competitions for which humor and good old-fashioned fun are essential elements.
With one exception, you can actually enter these events for low-four-figure sums at most, and for some of them that includes the purchase (or construction) of the actual race car itself. So grab a helmet, build up a sleep reserve, and get ready to have some cheap fun with a bunch of like-minded lunatics. Owning a race team isn't just for Roger Penske anymore.
I finally made it out to the 52nd Annual International Auto Show at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco yesterday, and I'm sure glad that I made the trip. Today is the final day of the show that started over this last Thanksgiving weekend, and in case you can't or didn't make it out to the Moscone to see it all in person, here's an in depth highlight reel to show some of what you may have missed.
Yes, I know the soundtrack to this clip is kinda annoying, but this web video is quite comprehensive in covering many vehicles and manufacturers who participated in this year's show in San Francisco including the Porsche 911, Lamborghini Murcielago, Audi R8, BMW, a few Chryslers (for whatever that's worth), auto racing vehicles and more. This video includes a few of my faves from this year's event and it also leaves out several personal highlights that I will be spotlighting for the next few or more blogs, so get ready
So far, it seems like all the luck in the world has been on driver Jimmie Johnson's side throughout the 2009 Sprint Cup chase, and things have been so lopsided between Johnson and his Nascar competitors that some fans feel they should just throw him the trophy and call it a season. While Johnson remains the odds-on pick to win the whole shebang, he didn't fare so well this past Sunday at the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. And we got the footage right here...(and by the way, I have no clue what's up with the opera singer at the beginning of this clip).
Right away we cut to Lap 3 where Sam Hornish Jr. makes contact with Jimmie Johnson, sending his 48 car spinning into the wall and across the track again. The damage was significant, and this debacle eventually put Johnson over 100 laps behind and put a serious dent in his points standing.
With that crash out of the way, we pick up later into the race with Kyle Busch in the No. 2 car holding onto the lead. Kyle forgoes a stop for fuel so he can try to hang on to the lead, but eventually his car starts sputtering as it begins running out of gas, and right behind him is his brother and teammate Kurt Busch, who (probably reluctantly) capitalizes on Kyle's miscue to grab the lead.
A mere couple laps later, Kurt Busch gets the checkered flag and wins the Dickies 500.
My video blog yesterday featured the footage of Nascar driver Ryan Newman in a death-defying blow-over flip from Sunday's Sprint Cup chase race at Talladega Speedway. Well, the excitement didn't end there, as you'll see in today's video clip from the final moments of the 2009 AMP Energy 500 featuring a crazy multicar collision, flips, and even a car fire. Here's the evidence:
What appears to happen here is Kurt Busch's car gets nudged--he'd been testing other cars with a little bangin' and bumpin', and here he comes up on the short end of such a battle. Busch's vehicle is pushed sideways and backward across the track, and ends up catching several other drivers including Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, and Juan Pablo Montoya. Mark Martin's car suffers the worst fate, sent spinning and doing more flips than Shamu at Sea World and briefly catching fire as well. However, this clip ends on a pleasant note as Jamie McMurray gets the checkered flag and achieves his first victory in 85 Nascar events. Congratulations!
Yesterday Jamie McMurray pulled off a significant upset by winning NASCAR's AMP Energy 500 Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. Not that we here at The Car Tech blog would promote gambling, but if you had bet on McMurray, then you would have made out like a bandit with his reported 25 to 1 odds of winning at Talladega. As much as this victory is a feather in McMurray's logo-ridden cap, it doesn't matter much, as it appears that based on points alone Jimmie Johnson is gonna take yet another Sprint Cup championship. Yawn.
But what seems to be getting the most lip service on sports news shows and within the Nascar universe is about the nasty flips and crashes that took place yesterday at the AMP Energy 500. This clip here recaps the first of these accidents, and boy are we glad that no one was seriously injured.
This video begins with just five laps to go in the race, and it looks like Ryan Newman's 39 car gets nudged just enough to set his vehicle into a spin that eventually flips over the hood of Kevin Harvick's 29 car and continues its blowover flip onto its hood into the wall and finally off the track. Newman luckily managed to walk away from the wreck, but his car was mangled something fierce. As always, this Nascar.com clip shows how it happened from every angle imaginable, but perhaps the most horrifying view is the flip happening in real time at the 5:15 mark--it's breathtaking. I think I speak for everyone when I say we're all glad that Ryan escaped this accident with no major injury.
Over this past weekend, Denny Hamlin managed to upstage Nascar golden boy Jimmie Johnson at the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway as part of the current Nascar Sprint Cup chase series. Yeah, Hamlin's probably not going to win the championship this year (my prediction is Mr. Johnny Obvious aka Jimmie Johnson--look at the points advantage!), but still it's a career-highlight victory that stakes his claim as one of Nascar's stars. But while most drivers have their moments of brilliance, they usually also have at least a few moments in their career they'd rather forget and Denny Hamlin's just one of the many who've had a light brush with death. Today's video clip is just one of those scenarios.
This video is from a Nascar Nationwide race from earlier this year in Las Vegas. The clip cuts right to the chase and shows Denny Hamlin (in the No. 20 car) breaking a tire and getting entangled with Mike Bliss (cool name, eh?) and the car catches fire. Shortly the flames extinguish to only smoke, but still that's got to be a scary situation. The video follows up with the cleanup as well as multiple angles of the accident, and you can get the best look at the No. 20 car's combustion about the 2:15 mark.
Chances are if you're reading this, you're probably aware by now that Nascar driver Denny Hamlin won the Tums Fast Relief 500 "chase race" in Martinsville yesterday, where he led the race for over 200 laps. It's a big victory for Hamlin, not just because he guaranteed victory in Martinsville where he was squeezed out earlier this year by rival Jimmie Johnson, but also because it breaks Johnson's fall winning streak at this famous speedway. Hamlin's win on Sunday also broke Johnson's winning ways in this year's Chase as well.
But all everyone seems to be talking about is Jimmie Johnson, who came in second place at yesterday's event and how his advantageous points lead in the Sprint Cup Chase almost make him the winner as a foregone conclusion. ESPN even did a feature about this very concept, and here I am doing the exact same thing. It's really too bad, as this was one of the biggest victories of Denny Hamlin's career. Here's the final few laps that cemented Hamlin's win at Martinsville yesterday. However it's probably a bittersweet victory for Hamlin, who at one point declared himself the man to beat in the Sprint Cup Chase, as Jimmie Johnson still looms large as the seemingly sure bet to claim the Nascar championship once again this year.
The biggest change lies under the hood, err, under the rear hatch.
(Credit: Hyundai/Rhys Millen Racing)At the 2008 SEMA Show, Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) massaged one of the first available Hyundai Genesis Coupes into a wild, wide-bodied racer with a huge turbo and some crazy aero. For 2009, RMR plans to raise the bar with its RM460--a midengine, V-8-powered Genesis Coupe.
RMR started by yanking out the Coupe's stock 2.0T engine, as well as the rather useless back seats. After a good deal of bending, fabricating, and welding, the new engine bay (located just behind the driver's seat) was ready for the RM460's new ticker. Rather than reusing the stock I-4 or V-6 engines, RMR chose to use Hyundai's 4.6-liter Tau V-8, an engine that typically makes its home beneath the hood of Hyundai's other Genesis.
In stock form, the Tau V-8 produces 375-horsepower. RMR managed to coax about 125 more grin-inducing ponies out of the power plant, for a total of around 500 horsepower.
The Hyundai Genesis Coupe goes under the knife at RMR.
(Credit: Hyundai/Rhys Millen Racing)Torque still reaches the road through the rear wheels, but now it flows through a Mendeola five-speed sequential automatic transmission.
The mods don't stop at the power train. The rest of the chassis has been stiffened to accommodate the new engine configuration and the suspension, wheels, tires, and braking system have been buffed up to make sure the RM460 Genesis turns and stops as well as it accelerates.
If the custom carbon fiber and glass hatch and V-8 rumble don't tip you off that this is no ordinary Genesis, perhaps the RMR Signature bodykit, Sparco seats, and Alcantara interior trim will cause you to take notice.
We'll be bringing you live shots and more info on the RM460 as part of our coverage of the 2009 SEMA Show. So, stay tuned.
Test-drive six 2010 VW hatchbacks in Firemint's free Real Racing GTI.
Firemint's Real Racing is one of the top-rated and most popular racing games in the App Store, but at $6.99 it's also among the priciest.
Alas, there's no lite version you can test-drive before you buy, but Volkswagen just unveiled the next best thing: Real Racing GTI, a free, VW-oriented version of the game.
Specifically, you get all the same visually stunning championship-racing goodness, but with just three tracks and half a dozen 2010 GTI hatchbacks.
This slimmed-down Real Racing offers three game modes: Quick Race, Time Trial (which lets you post race replays on YouTube!), and career-oriented GTI Cup Championship. (The full game offers more cars, tracks, game modes, etc., including local multiplayer.)
As Jason Parker wrote in his review, near-perfect controls set this game apart from other iPhone racers: "The sensitive accelerometer steering in Real Racing somehow gets it just right. This is due, in no small part, to the autobraking feature that teaches you the best speed at which to enter turns."
Thanks to Real Racing GTI, now you can experience that for yourself. Interestingly, this isn't VW's first foray into branded iPhone apps: just last month the company partnered with Fish Labs for VW Scirocco 24H Challenge.
So, now that you've had a chance to test-drive it, how does Real Racing compare with other iPhone racers you've played? Are you more likely to buy the full game?
Let's face it, Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson is a winner. This guy is never far from the top of the points rankings and damn near always a top finisher in NASCAR events, especially in races that count the most such as those that take place at the end of the Nascar season, the Chase for the Sprint Cup series. Roughly a week ago, Johnson finished in first place and ranked first in the Pepsi 500 race in California, and this past Saturday, Jimmie continued his winning ways for the second week in a row by claiming yet another victory. So here it is--the final laps of the 2009 Nascar Banking 500
The Banking 500 took place at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and as (seemingly) always, Johnson positioned himself at the top of the racing pack basically from beginning to finale (despite a late rivalry with Jeff Gordon). Speaking of finishing, by the end of the race, Johnson had swept the poles by starting, finishing and ranking No. 1. This not only marks Jimmie's second first-place finish in a row, but it's also notable because he has now won three of the first five Chase races, and it looks like he is the front runner for yet another Nascar championship title.
