By David Belau

dartslantsix

Mancini Racing is selling some interesting Mopar history. According to their website, they are liquidating assets from a Chrysler outside engineering facility. It’s worth a look because there’s a lot of neat history there. Prototypes from the 2.2/2.5L turbo era, SRT4 engines, Hemis, Slant Sixes… Check out the sale here.

How about this: a Shelby prototype DOHC turbo engine?

Continue reading "Mopar History For Sale" »

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Set in the beautiful country lanes of Princes Risborough, the Kop Hill Hillclimb is one of the oldest hill climbs in England. During the early 1900s it was one of the largest motorsport events in the UK. The hill itself is a pretty straight road, but it’s over 1000 metres long to the summit and rises to 100 metres high. Big crowds would line the edges of the road to watch drivers and motorcyclists try to achieve the fastest times and speeds up the hill. Unfortunately, as the speeds got faster, so did the risks, and on the 28th of March 1925 an accident involving a spectator led to the end of the original Kop Hill event and led to the RAC banning all motorsports on public roads.

On the 26th and 27th of September, organisers decided to do a Kop Hill Commemorative Run to bring the sounds and sights and even smells (mmm, Castrol R) back to Kop Hill again. Over 250 cars and bikes were there, ranging in age from the 1900s right up to 1980s and even some very special modern cars (which no doubt require the owners to compare car insurance carefully). Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

By Rob Krider

Racerboy

Remember the movie Cannonball Run (back when Burt Reynolds had a full head of hair)? It was bad ass cars and madmen drivers on an all out road race across America’s highway system. Well, Beetleball has the same concept, only the bad ass cars have been replaced with air cooled Volkswagens. Good news for the drivers, it’s hard to get a Volkswagen to go fast enough to get thrown in jail. The Beetleball Long Beach to Las Vegas Endurance Rally was run October 3, 2009. Nobody was imprisoned but a few VW motors died trying. You can read coverage (now on Memorex) at Jalopnik.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

For those of you who can’t get enough of the FT86, there are some great detail pics over at ft86club.com. Thanks for the tip, Cameron!

By David Wallens

Grassroots Motorsports

After a few days in the Florida sun, our annual Challenge is complete. We want to thank all of the competitors for coming out to play and for bringing another batch of great cars. Final results are posted to the $2009 Challenge page, and this year’s winning team had a dominant performance overall. Congratulations to Team Gutty on their performance.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures I found online featuring two cars that we’ve been working with Microsoft on for Forza 3. These two cars also happened to be in Forza 2. Microsoft came to visit me to take about 7 hours worth of pictures and measurements of the S15 Silvia at our Los Angeles warehouse. They are meticulous with their data they collect, I was shocked actually with how precise they are. I hope the game play is good, with that sort of precision I think it will be. Thanks MSFT for the exposure!

Pics I found online:

Continue reading "Forza 3" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Why is that old man in the lead photo smiling? Because he’ll be rowing a twin-stick transmission out on the road all day, that’s why! Talk about an art form. Twin-stick transmissions used to end many trucking careers before they started. The video will show you why. Using one is no easy feat!

Technology has rendered the multi-stick transmission obsolete in today’s world, but for collectors of old big rigs, they are very much alive and well. The video below shows these drivers in action, and they certainly are busy. Note that the video begins with a guy in a pickup truck. That truck has a Detroit Diesel in it and a multi-stick manual trans. Pretty cool if you ask us!

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

I’m sure that most people who live in and around Germany don’t necessary think of the Autobahn as a Temple of Speed. It’s just a highway system that interconnects German cities. But for people who live further afield, a chance to drive flat out on the world’s only unrestricted freeways sounds like an impossible fantasy. And having recently spent a day driving on these famous roads, I thought I’d commit a few of these experiences to paper (as it were) before the experience completely fades from memory.

For our day of driving, we met up with Germany-based photographer Alok Paleri and local drifter Patrick Ritzman. Alok was going to help us shoot the driving sequences as Dino and I had our hands full piloting our two BMW press cars. For Patrick and Alok, driving along in a tuned up Mini with your speedometer pegged past the 240 kph marking is just another day on the road. For the rest of us it sounds like a slice of heaven! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Rod Chong

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Try as we might, none of us here can ever get enough of the Concorso Italiano. It’ s a tremendous cultural happening focused around cars from Italy, and surprisingly, elsewhere, surrounded by some of the prettiest terrain and foliage that central California can offer. Let’s revisit it with a run through the digital folder, led by this image of the Lancia award presentation. When was the last time you saw a Beta Montecarlo, the heir to the Fiat X 1/9, anywhere? Continue reading at Hemmings

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Watching this video just reminds me how lucky I am to have survived my high school years…