Oh Group B, how awesome you were, till the FIA had to totally go an F**k you too. With the demise of Group B, came the demise of the greatest rally team ever: Lancia. This italian car-manufacturer carried 10 Championships in rallying, 6 of those were consecutive.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Hugo Chavez buys an F1 team
Yes, you read that correctly. After Williams F1 signed Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado, the team followed up with a long-term sponsorship deal with Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA.
The Venezuelan company has pledged to give millions and millions of dollars to the cash-strapped F1 great, this giving the South-American dictator something to be proud of.
Williams was left in a sticky situation after the Royal Bank of Scotland decided to pull the plug on the team. After that, Williams looked to the worlds fifth largest oil exporter for help. PDVSA has been rumored to inject somewhere around $14 million dollars.
Source: ESPN F1
Cadillac CTS-V coupe really does look at home on the track
After the new Cadillac CTS-V coupe racer debuted at the Detroit Auto show, I was left stunned, then GM had to drop these purely pornographic picture on my face.
Just this last week the Cadillac's CTS-V Coupe SCCA World Challenge GT racecar was spotted as it was being given a good shaking by drivers Johnny O'Connell and Andy Pilgrim at Sebring International Raceway.
more pics after the break.
Whats this? A new Ferrari? and finally a new post too?!?
Detail, pics and video after the break.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
time for contemplation
There are very few drivers who deserve the respect and honor more then Ayrton Senna. If you're not familiar with who he is, you're missing out.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
P4/5 Competizione is art in motion: a study in carbon fiber
Finally after much anticipation, the ProTo built Glickenhaus P4/5 Competizione got a chance to stretch its legs on a go-kart track in Torino yesterday. Personally I think the car is more of a study in art with its "form before function" design but I'm not complaining. Watching the build pics of this thing was like looking at porn. Never have I seen carbon fiber in such a beautiful setting.
The modified F430 is built by Jim Glickenhaus, a man with his own history of building his personal recreations of historical cars; obviously this car pulls its inspiration from the great Ferrari 330 P4.
It's set to run in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans under an American Flag, but as I said earlier, I feel a little skeptical because if you look at the roll-cage design, that's not exactly going to allow for speedy driver changes.
More pics after the break.
Oh Hai!
Behold, the wonderful backside of the Toyota 7. This turbo'd behemoth was designed to compete under the FIA Group 7, more specifically the 1968 Japanese Grand Prix. With a 3.0 liter V8 and two turbo's the size of the forest moon of Endor, the Toyota 578A, as it was more properly known, was a mind-numbing 800HP beast.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Formula One report shows at least half the teams are struggling to stay afloat. Is the sport living on borrowed time?
According to an analysis by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, only four out of the 12 teams on the Formula one grid have secure, stable budgets.
These four teams; Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are secure from a financial point of view while the remaining teams are fighting for survival.
The German motorsports news page cited HRT as the team at the bottom of the pecking order with a budget of EUR 40 million and 120 employees. On the other end, Red Bull Racing has spent 330 Million annually. Other back-marker teams are barely scraping by as well with Virgin at 60M, Lotus 70M and William, Toro Rosso, and Force India each going on 80M a year.
Former Italian driver, Artuto Merzario thinks the sport is running on borrowed time before it collapses in on itself. "It will go back to being a sport for only a few car manufacturers" is what the driver told La Repubblica in an interview.
With HRT's split from FOTA, and Red Bull allegedly overspending, it makes me wonder if what Merzario says may have some merit to it.
But we all know how I feel about Formula One's economic standings.
Source: SpeedTV
Derek Gardner; designer and innovator
Excuse my tardiness.
Derek Gardner, the man best known for designing the innovative 6-wheeled Tyrell P34 Formula One car passed away January 7, 2011 at the age of 79 in Lutterworth, England.
From his beginnings as a transmission specialist, Gardner proved to be quite the innovator in the field; developing such radical ideas as 4-wheel drive Formula One cars like the Ferguson P99 in 1961. Eventually, Gardner was recruited by Ken Tyrell. From there, his first car he developed was the Tyrell 001 which he built in his home garage. The 001 debuted in the 1970 Canadian Grand Prix grabbing pole position with the great Jackie Steward behind the wheel. Eventually, Gardner's Tyrell 003 and 006 powered Jackie Stewart's world championships in 1971 and 1973.
In 1975, Gardner developed his most daring idea yet; the Tyrell P34. Noticing a loophole in the regulations, Gardner took advantage and designed a car with 6 wheels, 2 drive wheels and 4 steering wheels in the front. The front wheels were smaller to reduce frontal area while increasing the contact patch thereby increasing mechanical grip. The car took the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix by storm with Jody Scheckter taking the wheel.
In 1977, Gardner left Formula One, taking a position as director of Borg-Warner's R&D division.
Now as a tribute, soak in the madness of 6 wheeled performance.
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Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Red Bull Formula One might be in it deep for possible overspending.
So apparently there is some kind drama happening in Formula One, a rare occurrence as we all know.. not. FOTA is suspicious of Christian Horner and his fellows of exceeding the agreed 2010 spending cap.
The so called "Resource restriction agreement". was a mutually agreed upon spending ceiling of 100 Million Euro on external contracts, salaries and infrastructure for the 2010 season. Italy's Gazzetta Dello Sport is claiming Red Bull spent some 160 Million Euro in their pursuit of the 2010 double championship.
With all that, you're probably wondering the punishment for overspending, one could only assume it would be a $30 bazillion fine. Nah, for once FOTA actually thought about this and the punishment , any overspending from one season needs to be subtracted from the following season's agreed upon budget, Red Bull would need to limit itself to 40 Million in 2011.... you know that's not happening.