What better way to promote your latest tuner package for the Corvette ZR1 than to get one of the fastest men (?) in America to drive it with commitment? And so John Hennessey coaxed the American Stig behind the wheel of HPE's ZR750 Corvette, which with a claimed 755 hp, a claimed 728 lb-ft of torque and enough Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber to handle all that, was quick enough to set a new lap record at the Top Gear USA test track.
An extended, higher-production-value cut of this hand-held footage is undoubtedly forthcoming when the new TG season starts back up on the History Channel next week.
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Categories: Celebrities,Chevrolet,Sports Cars,Tuners and Modifications
Ferrari F1 drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are the latest victims benefactors of the unholy profitable union of the Fiat and Chrysler empires. The Ferrari ambassadors were gifted the first two 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s in Europe and they aren't just off-the-line ones, no, these have been tweaked by SRT.
The normal 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 comes with 470 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque 00 so do these. Instead of giving these two obviously unqualified characters (Seriously, race suits fully zipped in a garage? Amateurs...) more power, they gave them more style. First comes a coat of Rosso Corsa paint, a matte black grille, an offset driver's side stripe with white accent, carbon-fiber mirror caps and the Italian flag painted on the bottom of the rear spoiler. The special edition SRT8s are dropped 1.5 inches to give them a better stance on the standard 20-inch wheels. Inside we've got -- shocker -- red leather with yellow dials on the IP.
European delivers start for real in the summer.
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Categories: Celebrities,Ferrari,Jeep,SUVs,Tuners and Modifications
Jeff Zwart is not quite the king of the mountain, because he’s never actually won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb overall, but he should be the prince at least, since he’s registered so many class wins, all in street-legal cars.
The wins also have been all in Porsches, since Zwart has been obsessed with them since he was a kid and used to ride his Stingray bicycle around Huntington Beach, California, with his pal Freeman Thomas (now the director of advanced design at Ford) just looking for the sports cars from Zuffenhausen. Though Zwart is now a well-known photographer and maker of commercial films (notably for Porsche), he still thinks his old Porsche 914 – the first car he ever bought with his own money (and not exactly from Zuffenhausen) – is cool.
So when we heard by chance through a friend that Zwart’s new street car happened to be at Circle Porsche in Long Beach, we drove over there to take a look.
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Categories: Celebrities,Motorsports,Porsche
Apparently it’s hell being a Formula 1 driver.
What with all that racing around the world, debriefing with engineers, dealing with stupid questions from journalists, glad-handing sponsors, helicoptering to parties where fancy women rub up against you for no reason at all, and kissing babies at supermarket openings, there’s no time for a man to drive his own damn car.
As evidence, we present this Porsche 911 that McLaren F1 driver and former F1 world champion Jenson Button has put up for sale. Want to buy it?
This isn’t just any Porsche 911, either. This is a 1973 Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS — the Ferrari 250 GTO of collectible Porsches, the 911 that every driver with the soul of an F1 driver wants to own. The Holy Grail.
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Categories: Celebrities,Classic Cars,Porsche
History Chanel is giving all of the guys a gift on Valentine's day. First, the new season of Top Gear USA premiers (It's not TGUK, but it's getting better every episode) and it's followed by a new season of Top Shot.
We see a McLaren, an old Corvette that could be a resto-mod and, of course Tanner, Foghorn and Adam. Oh, and a whole lot of Colby Donaldson yelling for no reason at all...because that's what he does.
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Categories: Celebrities,Videos
It's still early in 2012, but we've already got a frontrunner for our favorite feature of 2012, the Car Collection of WRC Legend Juha Kankkunen.It isn't simply that he has one of the most shockingly, jaw-droppingly awesome car collections we've ever heard about, but that this was the first time anyone was allowed to go inside with a camera. Epic doesn't begin to describe it.
That got us thinking about other Rally drivers and the cars they master on the roads which made us think of this video of Petter Solberg walking you through his garage. It's not a fantastic display garage and it isn't nearly as upsettingly perfect as Juha's, but it is a chance to see what Petter drives (you won't see his 911 GT3 RS -- it's in Monaco) and hear some stories about the cars and Petter's adventure. Camera work is...poor.
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Categories: Celebrities,Motorsports,Subaru
We've been following the Ford Focus ST-R since about the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show. Recently we got a walkaround of Ford's $98,995 turn-key racer by Ford Racing's Andy Vrenko.
Vrenko was a good host, but he's no Tanner Foust. You know who is Tanner Foust? Top Gear USA's Tanner Foust. (Think the SEO gods know Tanner Foust is in this video? I've said Tanner Foust frequently enough.) This video is mostly talk from the RallyCross champion, but we get some action and a good deal of insight on what it actually takes to field a racecar.
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Categories: Celebrities,Ford,Motorsports
We've seen a lot of footage of Ayrton Senna over the years and somehow we've missed this one that was just posted on Pro Italia's Facebook page. This is Mr. Senna arriving at the palace after winning the Monaco GP in '93. Instead of enjoying a limo or something comfortable after hours in an F1 car, Ayrton drove himself to dinner with the royals on his M900.
And because half of the internet is blacked out today, here's some more Senna...
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Categories: Celebrities,Miscellaneous,Motorcycles
The overwhelming response to Top Gear's India special was a resounding 'meh.' It was too scripted, too predictable, too safe. One of the joys of Top Gear was that it, despite having a script, watched like something that was free-flowing and off-the-cuff. Will season 18 be as predictable as it has been lately? (We already see one car crash into a caravan.) Or will they step it up and have some fun with cars again? (We already see the Hamster on an oval.)
Predictable or not, season 18 is on its way and this is the first look.
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Categories: Celebrities,Videos
I have very little idea what's going on here, but here's a photo of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and the Pep Boys.
Categories: Celebrities
The New Lotus directive is: All Celebrities All the Time. Or something very, very similar. Whenever they want to highlight something they drag out a bunch of celebrities and pretend that any of them would trade in their Prius or Mercedes for a small British racecar.
But who to get for the Exige S? The Exige S is the new supercharged, V6 version with some 346 horsepower. So it's got to be someone who can go fast and sideways. Hm, famous and can drive. Well, thankfully Lotus already has a race car driver with a very famous name on staff: Bruno Senna.
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Categories: Celebrities,Coupes,Lotus,Sports Cars,Videos
The ORIGINAL General Lee, Lee 1, is going up for Auction next month at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. A replica recently sold for $450,000, could this one crack a million?
Read more here.
Categories: Celebrities,Classic Cars,Dodge,Miscellaneous
Kim Jong-Il may have died last week, but his funeral took place in 1976.
After a lifetime of decadence and luxury at the expense of his people, North Korea's Dear Leader was carted to his final resting place in a mid-70's Lincoln. I can think of worse ways to be carried away.
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Categories: Celebrities,Classic Cars,Lincoln,Videos
The title pretty much sums this one up without any need for further explanation, but for those interested, we'll elaborate.
Earlier this month at the Profile's in History Auction, one of the 7 original DMC-12s specially prepped for the BTTF flicks rolled across the stage. It is one of only three remaining and the only one in private hands. When we learned of the auction back in October the car had an estimate of $400 - $600,000.
Now Hemmings News is reporting that the Time Machine sold for $541,200. Part of that amount will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the largest private funder of Parkinson's research.
(Hemmings)
Categories: Celebrities,Miscellaneous
The cost and the quality of GoPro cameras have radically changed the way you can shoot car stuff on the fly and nobody is as aware of this fact as Ken Block. Every time he's in a car there's a GoPro somewhere recording every drift, slide and crash and for every second of video you see, there are hours discarded.
The Monster World Rally Team has taken the time to stitch together some of the best GoPro scenes of 2011 into one 2:15 second Ken Block montage.
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Categories: Celebrities,Ford
Johnnie Walker is sponsoring a new program to prevent drunk driving called "Join the Pact." The Pact is a Facebook app that you digitally sign promising that you won't drink and drive. The Holiday Season is, of course, notorious for the number of drunk drivers screwing up everyone's drive.
Two notable signees are Mika Hakkinen and Jenson Button. But they didn't sign it electronically, or with a pen. Nope, they picked something with a bit more...power.
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Categories: Celebrities,Mercedes-Benz,Motorsports
It seems wild, but Top Gear has never done a giant feature in India. On Dec 28, that's going to change.
Not simply content with visiting the craziest place to drive in the world, the boys will be trekking to India to "boost the British economy by embarking on a trade mission to India."
No word yet on what the trade will consist off, but knowing Top Gear Christmas specials and Clarkson lately, it's likely that it will result in numerous calls for JC's removal from the public spotlight.
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Categories: Celebrities,Videos
Not that this is relevant in any way to the video after the jump, but a kickflip was the only trick I could ever manage on a skateboard. Period. I couldn't even ollie, but I could stick a kickflip every time.
In skateboarding, a kickflip is a trick where you ollie and flick the board so that it spins underneath you like a spiraling football. It goes around once (or like three times if you're really good) and you land on it. Easy enough. Too easy for someone like Rob Dyrdek. Having long ago perfected a normal kickflip, he's now taken it to the automotive sector and has attempted a kickflip in a Chevy Sonic
The stunt was done partially as promotion for the Sonic and partially for promotion of season 5 of his show Fantasy Factory. Two 50-foot ramps, a Chevy Sonic and a guy who does dumb, fun stuff for a living. What could go wrong?
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Categories: Celebrities,Chevrolet
This week a freelance photographer working in Malibu made rent for the month by snapping photos of a rumpled Richard Dean Anderson standing next to his dead Audi Allroad.
Anderson, known to children of the 1980s as TV's MacGyver, apparently made no attempt to dive under the hood and fix his Audi. And who can blame him entirely? Twenty-first century luxury cars have all sorts of built-in countermeasures to foil would-be MacGyvers and protect their manufacturers from litigation.
After the jump, a CBS clip of old-school MacGyver jimmying a fix for a busted brake line on an eastern-block police cruiser. It looks... quaint. Not that anyone will watch it because of the cloying 30-second Disney ad that precedes it.
(The Daily Mail)
Photo credit: AKM Images
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Categories: Audi,Celebrities,Wagons
I can't remember what the consensus was last time we posted a Ken Block video. He wins me over and then bores me. Reels me back in and then disappoints. Wows me and then makes some crummy commercial. It's maddening.
This latest video is a combination of everything you love and hate about Ken Block vids. There's killer driving and pointless advertising. (Well, it's not pointless for him or for us since we get to watch the videos thanks to it, but advertising SYNC while Ken Block is driving a racecar in Santa Monica isn't that strong of a pitch.) There are cool stunts and then obvious filler. It's great then it's not then it is and then he hits a ladder with a guy standing on top of it.
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Categories: Celebrities,Ford,Motorsports,Videos
