To thank their fans for watching cool videos on YouTube, Mercedes posted a video of the C63 AMG Coupe drifting the Corkscrew-- and later corners -- of Laguna Seca. We'll never complain about huge horsepower cars drifting epically complex corners, but this one was a little light on smoke and high on techno.
Mercedes got the message loud and clear and have now posted a follow-up that features more sliding, more smoke and, unfortunately, the same amount of bad music. Perhaps if we complain again they'll give us a version with ONLY engine sounds?
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Categories: Mercedes-Benz,Motorsports,Videos
Here's one of those things about 24 hour endurance races: They race at night. When it's dark. Even at the Nurburgring. Where there aren't things like lights.
Racing at night limits your field of view not just ahead, but your peripheral vision is reduced to nearly nothing and with the exception of headlights, your rear-view is shot. It's disorienting and requires your full confidence in both your knowledge of the track and skill as a driver. And that's assuming you're driving something slower than a Porsche GT3 Cup.
Niclas Kentenich is a machine. We're all doomed.
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Categories: Motorsports,Porsche
(Android fans should just turn around now; you're not going to like this one.)
Audi's first installment of Truth in 24 -- a documentary about the company's racing efforts at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans -- was an instant favorite for anyone who liked cars or racing. It was a personal look at one of the most challenging, competitive and technologically advanced races in the world. And now Audi has followed up on that with a documentary about their 2011 season titled "Truth in 24 II: Every Second Counts."
It first premiered on Speed but now, like the original, you can download the sequel on iTunes for free. Racing is a marketing effort, right? Load up on these for the long weekend.
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Categories: Audi,Motorsports
When we posted a video of a previous Ferrari 458 Italia crashing during a Ferrari Challenge race the general consensus was one of "Well, that sucks, but at least the celebrity driver was actually driving it!"
Ryan Ockey may not be a celebrity and thus this video is less likely to wind up on TMZ, but he did manage to flip a 458 at Laguna Seca. (I'm guessing 90% of you knew exactly what this corner was without reading a word of the post.) Thanks to racetrack/racecar safety procedures, everything went better than expected and nobody was injured in the spectacular crash. Brake failure is the rumored cause.
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Categories: Ferrari,Motorsports
When we hit 144 mph in our Long Term Buick Regal CXL, we didn't have an on-board video camera, only the still. When Buick sent one of their Regal GSs out on the Nevada Open Road Challenge, they thought ahead and set up a video to document the happenings.
The top speed is cool, but what's really interesting (we have a hard time with "cool" for this), is the precision and planing it takes to hit a specific time during a 40 minute event.
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Categories: Buick,Motorsports
Yesterday was a big day for NASCAR as two rear-wheel-drive, tube-frame, V8 racecars pretending to be even remotely like FWD, four-cylinder family sedans were finally revealed.
Like their production counterparts, the 2013 Ford Fusion and the 2013 Toyota Camry NASCAR racers do look pretty sharp -- especially the Ford -- but the stickers and subtle body cues are the only thing even remotely close.
Check the two newest NASCAR rides out in all of their "not nearly enough stickers to actually go racing" liveries after the jump.
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Categories: Ford,Motorsports,Toyota
At this point there's really nothing I can say to sell you on spending 5 minutes of your day watching an extended cut of Gymkhana Four. You either read the title and said, "Oh boy, bonus footage and deleted scenes of Ken Block and his Ford going Gymkhana-y stuff!" and skipped right to the video, or you said, "This guy's still around?" and aren't reading this anyway.
With that stirring introduction, I preset to you Gymkhana Four: Bonus Edit. There are new angles!
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Categories: Celebrities,Ford,Motorsports
Back in the early parts of 2011, Inside Line was the proud caretaker of a Buick Regal CXL Turbo. That car had 220 horsepower and during a trip to a very closed course with, literally, miles of open space, we managed to hit 144 mph. The Buick Regal GS has 270 horsepower and, according to GM back in September of 2011, is capable of 152 mph.
Now, on the open roads of Nevada, a stock-except-for-a-cage-and-5-point-belts Buick Regal GS has hit 162 mph in the Nevada Open Road Challenge.
"The Regal GS is an incredibly capable performance sedan. In addition to the strong acceleration from the engine, the chassis maintained its composure well while running across these closed public roads at high speeds. Likewise, the Brembo brakes were easy to trust coming hot into a corner," said Bill Rietow, team driver.
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Categories: Buick,Motorsports
In the six years that 26-year-old Casey Stoner has competed in the MotoGP championship, he managed to take the crown twice. Once for Ducati and once for Honda. He is one of the brightest stars on the grid with a brighter future ahead. Yet he announced this week that he's retiring at the conclusion of the 2012 season.
Full disclosure: I am not a Casey Stoner fan. The reasons are many, but I will also admit that I am envious. First and foremost, he's young and filthy rich and I am neither. He is arguably the best racer in MotoGP, the motorcycle equivalent of Formula One, while the closest I'll get to that is a media pass for the USGP.
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Categories: Motorcycles,Motorsports
Call me crazy, but as neat as this Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution is -- and with three motors it's kind of neat -- I think I'd prefer to watch the conventionally powered Lancer Evolution race pikes peak.
Like the Lancer Evolution, the road-going Mitsubishi i-MiEV has one motor. For racing duty, that number has been tripled and the car goes from rear-drive to all-wheel drive. Combined, the three motors produce 240 kW (322 horsepower) directly to the 245/40R18 tires. The standard i-MiEV rides on super skinny 145/65R15 tires up front and 175/60R15 out back and only produces 49 kW (66 hp).
Mitsubishi team manager Hiroshi Masuoka will drive the racecar while Beccy Gordon -- sister of Robby -- will "race" a production i-MiEV up the hill. Fingers crossed Mitsubishi posts the range before and after.
Categories: Electric Vehicles,Mitsubishi,Motorsports
Hyundai showed up at the Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta with the 2013 Hyundai Genesis Drift car, its 650-horsepower 4.1-liter V6, a will to win, and a whole mess of video cameras. (How programmed we already are to accept GoPros all over everything these days, huh?)
Hyundai eventually lost to Frederic Asabo in the Need for Speed Scion TC. They may have lost the competition, but the video they've put together -- featuring interviews with Rhys "Mad Skilz" Millen (fingers crossed that nickname dies) and slick suspension shots -- makes up for it. At least insofar as we're concerned.
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Categories: Coupes,Hyundai,Motorsports
The Ford Taurus SHO, per the last time we tested one, weighs 4,368 pounds. The $1,995 Performance Package now available for the SHO does virtually nothing to address that.
It does, however, attempt to minimize the impact of such road crushing mass: Ford has upgraded the brake pads (handy as during our test the brakes were smoking after acceleration testing), sportified the calibration on the electric power steering, added higher rate springs, new shocks, stiffer stabilizer bars, 3.16:1 final drive (2.77 was standard), heavy-duty and added a true off setting to the traction control. In our testing we found that the non-defeat stability control in the normal SHO was very prohibitive of any action that could be classified as fun...or fast. This new setting is a good thing. Performance summer tires are also standard with this package.
Ford did mention that they've replaced the spare tire with a sealant and inflator kit that is likely slightly lighter than the temporary spare the regular SHO comes with.
See it in action on the track (a rare thing indeed) after the jump.
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Categories: Ford,Motorsports,Videos
Toyota has just released their contenders for the 2012 24 Hours of the Nurburgring which takes place from May 17 - 20.
Toyota has enlisted Gazoo Racing to field one Lexus LFA and two GT 86s in the famed endurance race. The GT 86s will compete in SP3 while the LFA is in SP8. The team is made of Gazoo employees as well as Toyota technicians and drivers looking to "hone their skills and craftsmanship, gaining experience that will feed back directly into the work developing future vehicles."
Manufacturer technicians and developers actually driving cars. What a thought.
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Categories: Motorsports,Sports Cars,Toyota
"...I burried the throttle, closed my eyes, bounced off a few trees and came up in the road..."
-Subaru Rally Team driver David Higgins.
Why more people don't watch rally I'll never know. Check the video after the jump for more rally action from Subaru's win at the 2012 Oregon Trail Rally.
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Categories: Motorsports,Subaru,Videos
The great question of our time has finally been answered: Food Network star and hair-bleach enthusiast Guy Fieri will pilot the pace car at the 2012 Indy 500.
In case you forgot, this year's pace car is a pretty rad 2013 Chevy Corvette ZR1 with a Bowtie on the roof, special Indy Pacecar graphics and the car's normal 6.2-liter Supercharged, 638-horsepower 6.2-liter V8.
Fieri is a known Chevy fan (Check the video after the jump. He loves Chevy. He's not that good an actor.) who drives a '68 Camaro on his show Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives, and also owns the above Chevy Camaro SS Convertible. A gift from GM.
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Categories: Celebrities,Chevrolet,Motorsports
You read the title; you're either into this video or you're not.
If you are into loud, smokey, ridiculously painted supercars going unreasonably fast, here's your daily dose of rear-mounted-camera dizziness for the day!
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Categories: Coupes,Ford,Motorsports,Sports Cars
That there is 3/4 of the #40 racing SRT Viper Cup being piloted by David Pintaric. The incident was "completely driver error" according to David Pintaric. Watch him narrate his own life-threatening crash and thank the Dodge / SRT Engineers who made the Viper so safe in the video after the jump.
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Categories: Coupes,Dodge,Motorsports,Videos
Jeff Zwart sent out a video this morning teasing the 2013 Cadillac ATS' soon-to-be appearance on the circuit at Monaco. "Gonna get to do these laps. Derek Hill is driving for me. When they give us the green light we're going to go out and hammer around this circuit and see what the ATS will do."
And, unfortunately, that's it. We don't see the ATS hit it yet, but Zwart was the man behind the videos of the ATS on the Nurburgring and at Milford so expect much of the same whenever this one hits.
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Categories: Cadillac,Motorsports,Videos
I'm not sure why videos like this need to have a premise; they don't. This video would be just as good if Porsche said, "Here's Patrick Long- the only American Porsche factory driver -- ripping around a damp Barber Motorsports Park in a Porsche GT3 RS 4.0."
Instead there's something about running errands and delivering coffee. The Porsche GT3 RS 4.0 being driven by Long makes up for the flimsy plot.
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Categories: Celebrities,Motorsports,Porsche,Sports Cars
When the 96th Indianapolis 500 gets underway on Sunday, May 27th, a 638-horsepower 2013 Chevy Corvette ZR1-- the most powerful pace car ever-- will be leading the pace laps. This marks the 23rd time a Chevy will pace the Indy 500. It is the Corvette's 11th trip.
"Corvette embodies pure performance, so the ZR1 is a perfect car to pace the most prestigious auto race in the world," said Jeff Belskus, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation president and CEO. "Chevy is a great partner of the Speedway, and we share in the excitement of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the iconic Corvette brand. It's even more meaningful to see a Chevrolet pacing the field at Indy since Chevy has returned as an engine supplier for the IZOD IndyCar Series for the first time since 2005," he finished.
The 2013 Corvette will be the last of the C6 generation and is finishing out its run with a 427 Convertible Collector Edition. Can an "Indy Pace Car" edition be far behind?
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Categories: Chevrolet,Motorsports,Sports Cars
