Always dreamed of driving in a rally, but never had the car or the finances to do it?
Then check out the Rental Car Rally, a 36-hour race from NYC to Montreal that encourages you to rent a car, grab a friend, pay just $150 per team, and be on your way to automotive action and adventure.
All of the standard rally rules still apply (don’t speed, don’t kill pedestrians, etc.) but the financial burden is definitely lessened to let everyone get a shot at the action.
If you’re interested, check out the site for more information (and be sure to read the rules, since they were obviously written by someone with enough of a sense of humor to put on a rally made of rental cars).
When you think of rally racing and rally cars, you probably don’t think of Ferrari’s prancing horse, but Makela Auto Tuning sure does, since they were the creators of this fantastic 1977 Ferrari 308 GTB FIA Group 4 rally car.
The process involved stripping the entire car down to its bare frame and then building it from the ground up using all new parts, and the end result speaks for itself.
Be sure to check out their site for more than 250 pictures that document the entire process and every step along the way.
The Subaru WRI STI has always been on my list of ‘must eventually own’ cars, but with commercials like the following, it’s hard to see how anyone could not say the same:
Motive Magazine has put together a fantastic top ten list of YouTube rally crash videos that show why keeping your car rubber side down isn’t always a possibility when things start to get crazy.
The 2008 Twitter Color Wars has basically taken over the Twitter world recently, and is an interesting adaptation of a technology that, besides things like Color Wars and StrawPoll that people have created, serves no purpose. (Ok, so you can find out someone’s status, but really, where’s the fun in that?)
Twitter Color Wars is basically a popularity contest where the Twitterati rally around a single color and show their support by taking their profile picture in team colors.
Anyone can play. To join a team: log on to twitter, search for the team of your choice, then follow that team.
The War goes well beyond just a popularity contest though, as games are going to pit teams against each other to compete for total domination.
Game #1 is a round of Bad Ass RoShamBo.
To play, members took a picture of themselves in their team colors throwing their throw of choice, and then uploaded that picture to Flickr with the appropriate tags. Then, a bracket style RoShamBo tournament will be held tonight with a best of three RSB match determining the winner.
I love the fact that this game evolved out of nothing and turned into a something that everyone wants to be involved in. It’s a fun adaptation of a technology that people continue to find uses for, and there’s a lot of potential for additional games.
Which side are you on?
(And to talk a little smack on the other teams, check out SmackTalk.)
Edit: It looks like zefrank is behind it all. Check out the Colorwar story here.
The veteran of numerous rallies, races, and records, he recently drove from New York to Santa Monica in 31 hours and 4 minutes, beating the previous transcontinental record by over an hour. To give you an idea of the kind of speed it takes to break a record like that, think about this: Roy needed a sustained speed of almost 90 miles per hour.
For 31 hours!
So what kind of technology does it take to pilot a four-wheel rocket through 31,000 highly trained highway patrol?
Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer
Military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars
Bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera
Flush, bumper-mounted Blinder M40 laser jammers
Redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units
Preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners
Ceiling-mounted Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna
And last but not least, a Valentine One radar/laser detector
Since 1992, Valentine has been making a radar detector that refuses to loose. It’s a company that only makes radar detectors, only make ones model of radar detector (constantly upgraded with the latest technology), and only makes the best radar detector, so you know that they mean business.
On my recent trip to Las Vegas for the SEMA show, I had a chance to check out the capabilities of my newly purchased V1, and I must say, I was beyond impressed. Not only did it constantly keep me aware of what was going on around me (the patented arrows tell you with amazing accuracy if the radar is in front of, beside, or behind you), but it also saved me from at least one sure-fire ticket.
Coming down a hill with a clear lane and a tailwind, my car was more than happy to break the posted speed limit, and trusting in the powers of the V1, I was more than happy to oblige.
Suddenly, the V1 flashed Ka band, and maxed out the signal strength indicator, showing sure signs of a cop ahead. Heading the warning, I quickly brought the car down to posted speeds, and peered ahead for the awaiting cruiser. After about a mile of driving, I came upon the hidden cruiser, tucked neatly under an overpass with his radar gun pointed directly down the road that I had just traveled. Just past him though, there were three other cruisers parked and waiting to pick up what the radar gun picked off. It was a speed trap, and thanks to the V1, I had easily avoided it.
Chock one up in the V1 win column.
Though you can’t exactly call the Valentine One cheap, it’s a definite case of you get what you pay for. (And it’s also probably cheaper than getting a ticket.) Plus, if Alex Roy trusts it to drive across the country, shouldn’t you trust it to drive the kids to soccer? (Quickly.)
Also, having tested out a few other radar detectors over the years, I can confirm Valentine’s claims that the V1 is the easiest to use, most reliable, and gave the best warning time out of the bunch.
Your driving record will thank you.
(For more information about Alex Roy’s record run, check out his book, The Driver, and his documentary, 32 Hours 7 Minutes.)
After getting to jump his rally prepped Subaru WRX 171 feet for a new world record, he got to jump it over 70 feet in the snow for the cover of Snowboarder magazine.
The stunt was performed at New Zealand’s Snow Park Record, and used a specially prepared 55-foot ramp to put him alongside some very brave snowboarders during the jump.
I just hope Space Jam’s “I Believe I can Fly” played over his stereo the entire time.
On Saturday, I had the chance to go and see Formula D’s “The Finals” at Irwindale Speedway (yes, I did get stuck on Interstate 5 on the way down from San Francisco due to that massive accident), and I must say, if you’re at all a fan of the four wheeled machine, make sure you check out one of Formula Drift’s events at a track near you.
If you’re not familiar with the sport, think of drifting as two automotive ballerinas battling it out in a boxing match. It’s gracefully controlled mayhem, and in my opinion, it’s easily the best form of four-wheeled entertainment on the planet. Continue reading ‘…It’s Tuner Tuesday: Formula Drift?’
Because jumping motorcycles and rally racing isn’t enough, Travis Pastrana tries to find new ways to die in his latest video, called Thrillbillies.
In the photo above, you can see him 12,500 feet above the ground without a parachute. Instead, Travis jumped with sunglasses, board shorts, and a can of Red Bull.
What more could you need, right?
Oh yeah…A parachute.
During the dive, Travis’ three jumping partners attached their parachute to the harness that he was wearing underneath his shorts, and parachuted everyone safely to the ground.
The motorsports world lost an icon today, when rally legend Colin McRae was killed after a helicopter that he was piloting crashed, killing both Colin and his five year-old son.
