For those of you that haven’t been reading my Cars N’ Games series, I have been talking about my visit to the Quakecon convention in Dallas, Texas. So far we’ve covered the cars of Quakecon, a Blue Corvette, and a nice one-sided discussion on the world of racing games, but in all, I must say that the best part of Quakecon has to be the geeks people.
Pure Chaos...
Alex Pfeiffer is one of the judges for Formula D, the biggest professional drifting competition in the US. He has recently decided to relinquish his judging position in favor of competing again. Pfeiffer, an experienced driver has been out for a bit but we will see if he can still strut his stuff. It is a little odd that a judge has decided to leave mid season and compete and I think it could maybe cause baises in the judging of the remaining judges but the winner of a formula D event is usually obvious. Hit the jump for more details and the official press release.
New information about the upcoming Dodge Viper ACR has been released recently in Autoweek. This new package will feature new “sidewinder” wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires, new adjustable coilover racing dampers from KW Suspensions, two piece slotted rotors from Stoptech, a new front stabilizer bar, an adjustable carbon fiber wing, and a two tone paint job. There is another option available for even more hardcore drivers that deletes dampening material from the hood, sound insulation from the interior, the carpet, and the entire audio system. Supposedly this option will delete another 80 pounds. Dodge claims that this version of the Viper will have over 1000 pounds of downforce at 150 MPH.
The Viper ACR was recently pitted against the regular viper, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, a Porsche 911 Carerra S, and a Porsche 911 GT3 in a track event with the “Evil Twins” theme. The Viper ACR mopped the floor with the rest of the cars and it’s runner up was the “Vanilla” Viper. It is nice to see Dodge coming out with an even faster version of the SRT10 which already has a reputation for being an extremely fast track car in the right hands.
Another version of the Viper that is not known quite as well is the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe which is priced at $140,000. It is a non-street legal Viper with a fully stripped and caged interior, a racing fuel cell, a single racing seat, Brembo brakes, and huge racing slicks. This car beats the ACR by far in the weight savings department, as the competition coupe is approximately 380 pounds lighter than the street going Viper. Unfortunately the average person with $140,000 cannot even purchase one of these Competition Coupes - the process is a lengthy journey that involves convincing Dodge that you are an experianced race car driver that will bring podium finishes.
At the FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers, Felipe Massa of Ferrari pulled off a victory over his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. But that’s not the really interesting (and controversial) event of the weekend. Rather, it was what could be construed as the ongoing persecution of McLaren at the hands of the FIA.
For those that don’t follow NHRA drag racing - Scott Kalitta was one of the most well known names in drag racing and had a career as a professional driver that spanned over twenty years. He first started racing in the 1980’s and made a name for himself as he started winning funny car competitions as well as setting a speed record at one point. Kalitta would go on to become the Top Fuel Season Champion for years 1994 and 1995.
His accident at Old Bridge Raceway was due to an explosion in the engine section of his funny car (it blows off the bodywork), as he was blasting down the drag strip at approximately 300 miles per hour. From the video it looks as if he deployed his parachute immediately after the fire starts but the parachute appeared to be damaged (it spins wildly out of control) from the explosion as it does not slow his car down nearly enough. His car then hits the barrier at the end of the dragstrip and shoots upwards resulting in another larger explosion.
Engine explosions like the one Kalitta’s car went through are not uncommon in this level of drag racing - the extreme levels of boost at high RPM combined with high performance fueling can be a volatile combination that results in the engine blowing a hole in its case and igniting the fuel or oil. NHRA Drivers always wear flame retardant suits and helmets and are able to slow the car down or slide it into the side wall almost every time this happens. The details of Kalitta’s incident are still unclear and are still under investigation, it is possible that he was knocked unconscious from the initial engine detonation and thus was unable to slow the car down.
The Audi Sport North America R10 TDI LMP1 #2 racecar, outfitted with Michelin rubber, won their 8th 24 Hours of Le Mans at La Sarthe in 9 tries - WebRidesTV.com interviewed the winning Michelin-shod teams at last year’s SEMA show. No other team has been as successful in endurance racing in recent times. Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish piloted the winning racecar, while last year’s champion #1 Audi came in 6th.
-months that is
As we posted when the story was new 17 year old Nick Hogan was in an accident involving him street racing with another passenger in the car(not wearing a seatbelt) in his dad’s supra under the influence of alcohol. Following the accident the passenger in the car has ceased higher brain function and will need to live with the aid of machines for the rest of his life. Nick will be serving 8 months in jail as well as a suspension of his license for the next 3 years time. Some may say this is a lot for the crime but I think this is nowhere near bad enough for him completely ruining his friends life as well as causing his friends family a lot of pain.
I hope it doesn’t hurt his racing career
Check out fox news for the full story
Sebastian Loeb is one of the best rally drivers in the world. Currently driving for Citroen in the WRC he performs at the top level race after race giving his team great victories. I guess with his great success the hire-ups in the sport of racing will always need something to pick at. The chairman of the Confederation of African Countries in Motorsports, Surinder Thatthi, and the president of the World Rally Championship, Morrie Chandler, were both up in arms at the ‘unkempt’ Loeb. The fact that he was not clean shaven and that his hair was not cut was enough for them to both release a statement regarding it saying that “Of course these persons are an insult to real males”
Check out the rest at Autosport
Ah joy, another Shoot Out under our belts and, yes, that’s a pun on our title fight theme, “Bout of the Middleweights.” We have and will always be huge Audi fans. A while back we took an RS4 out to a dry lake bed and had a BMW driver put it through its paces. The guy pushed the car so hard that he broke the clutch doing dust bunnies at close to 200 mph! I got to ride-along with him before the “malfunction” and nearly soiled my pants multiple times between overwhelming bouts of laughter and screaming. At the time, the RS4 was the true high-water mark for performance sedans. The new M3 sedan had not made it to our shores and the Lexus IS-F was still in-the-womb. A 4-door performance sedan from a luxury brand, whose commercials feature silver balls rolling around the perfect gaps of body panels, hard to imagine, right?
Well like most performance freaks, I was skeptical that Lexus had the huevos to build a performance sedan that would challenge my beloved RS4. So when the car arrived at WebRidesTV HQ, I was stoked to take it out for a quick spin and size it up. That was if I could get past the crowd that had gathered in the parking lot. All the guys were fighting over who got the honors of the first drive. I had to admit, the IS-F looked real good: nice aggressive stance and meaty low-profile rubber wrapped around sweet rims. Even the four fake exhaust pipes were forgivable. After a quick lap around the local office circuit, I thought, holy shit, those sly bastards had done it! The IS-F was a real contender and that exhaust note, at full throttle. It sounds like a panther climbed into the cockpit and ripped my ear off!
There was only one thing left to do… We had to pit the Lexus IS-F against the Audi RS4 in a no-holds-barred Shoot Out. Would the RS4 clean its clock or would the unproven IS-F give the Audi the shocker. Well my friends, it was a clear upset. Lexus does have the “silver balls” after all! We hope you enjoy the video and we want to share all the detailed stats from our data loggers because you car freaks love charts and graphs as much as much as hookers love cash.
As if Formula 1 couldn’t get more commercialized, it’s become a night time spectacle in selected countries in 2008. Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder to F1, decided it would be a great idea to turn on the lights and let the drivers duke it out in artificial lighting. Is this a good idea? In my opinion, no.
Racing, aside from endurance racing such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona and the like, belong in daylight. Formula 1 is the most empirical form of motorsports possible - machines and drivers focused on one thing: performance. Exorbitant budgets, expensive materials and sky-high drivers’ salaries are the norm. But it all translates into pure performance. So why would anyone want to put these machines and drivers into an artificially lit race course, with dangerous dark spots and glare from the gazillion-watt lights?
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