Posts from ‘Motorsports’
Review Flashback! 2006 Ford GT
2006 Ford GT
If you were looking for a solid investment back in 2006, you should have bought Ford. Not Ford stock, mind you, which is worth about the same $8.50 today as it was 13 years ago, but the Ford GT.
1986: Year of Corvette Acronyms
The Corvette did very well in SCCA endurance racing in 1985, a fact that was shared in the car’s 1986 ad campaign.
Maybe it was just the prevailing atmosphere of the Eighties, but when the Chevrolet Corvette was redesigned for 1984, it was no longer a muscle-bound sports car. Instead, it was marketed as a high-tech marvel.
1910 Buick 60 Special “Bug” Racecar
by Jack Stewart
Note: The following story was excerpted from the February 2016 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Don’t cross Buick. The manufacturer was eager to win some races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 27, 1910, but its Model 30 racecars were disqualified the morning of the race. Buick management was mad and resolved to get even. In a time before “the Brickyard” had settled on a yearly 500-mile race, Buick planned to come back for the track’s next meet on July 1 with revolutionary cars to extract its revenge.
The author’s daughter queued up for an emergency-lane-change exercise at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL.
Like most parents, my wife and I are always looking for ways to give our daughter a leg up in life. We closely monitor and support her scholastic, athletic, and volunteer endeavors, we’re openly concerned about her general health and welfare, and we make a point of finding time to chat with the kid about life in general. My daughter would tell you that we’re pests, but she knows our hearts are in the right place.
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon
After a months-long social-media campaign of teaser videos and cryptic clues, Dodge finally pulled the wraps all the way off its new king-of-the-hill muscle car at a special event in conjunction with the 2017 New York Auto show. The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is a factory hot-rodded muscle car that is more relentlessly focused on straight-line, drag-race-style acceleration than any regular production vehicle in history.
Note the slanted engine cover on Chevy’s IndyCar …
… While Honda’s has a more horizontal cover.
Last month’s Indianapolis 500 marked the 100th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” which originated at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1911. (The math doesn’t work out for the intervening year span because the race wasn’t run during World War I and World War II.)
While the early races featured many cars that were essentially stripped-down production models – with wildly different specifications – it quickly became a contest between specially built racing machines. And in recent years, those machines have been primarily differentiated by what engine was powering them.
The green flag drops on Toyota’s “R-Tuned” Sienna minivan at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois.
Two Toyota minivans. A 3500-mile whirlwind racing tour across 12 states that includes road-course racing, autocrossing, drag racing, and skidpad competition. Hard to imagine that these, uh, twain should ever meet, but this year they did. Toyota recently fielded a pair of Sienna minivans—a mostly stock “SE+ Concept” and a more seriously race-modified “R-Tuned” van—in the 2016 One Lap of America competition.
Running a slalom course … in the snow … in a Miata … with the top down was just one of the enlightening experiences of the first Mazda Ice Academy.
“We encourage you to go over the limit.”
That opening (and potentially career-ending) comment was delivered by Mazda product specialist Ramana Lagemann, and–trust me–it was a phrase none of the assembled auto journalists had ever before heard at a press preview. In fact, most manufacturers spend a great deal of (entirely justified) time imploring us NOT to go over the limit, as things quickly get expensive when we do. Just ask any prematurely grey PR rep.
Particularly from the windshield forward, the new Ford Shelby GT350 is far removed from its Mustang origins. Not only is the front-end sheetmetal actually aluminum, but styling is revised and the engine is modified to produce substantially more power than the one used in the Mustang GT. Shown is the race-focused GT350R version, which can be identified by its red (rather than grey) grille badge and taller rear spoiler. This is one serious track car that still manages to be street legal.
Most people will likely look at the Ford Shelby GT350 and think “Mustang,” but those in the know will recognize it as something far more special than that.
