John spent a day on Bullrun riding from Park City to Vegas with Rachel, a former model from Switzerland. Her daily driver is an SLR McLaren, but she bought a Gallardo specifically for the rally, just two days before the start. Read the blog John wrote about that day, then check out the CarDomainTV episode below, which includes a bunch of footage from his day in the Lambo.

Remember how Mike Musto practically killed himself getting his Daytona ready for Bullrun? Do you remember how the matte black Mopar was sidelined by a major wheel failure? And remember how he rented a Ford Fusion so he could continue the rally? Well, here’s the story of the Fusion, on CarDomainTV.

Ok, so for the past week now people have been asking me for a description and/or some insight into what went wrong with our 1969 Dodge Daytona replica on this years Bullrun from Calgary to Phoenix. Well, let me start by saying A LOT went wrong. We had planned to have a grand ole’ time on this years Bullrun, and we did–we just hit a few snags along way.

If you haven’t already, read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here. And now for the final installment:

Thursday, June 26th
We bolted from the hotel and went to our first stop at West Coast Customs. From there we proceeded to the checkpoint in Tucson. While at West Coast Customs the guys the were kind enough to sticker up the S550 in typical Bullrun fashion. Let me tell ya’ll this. The big Benz may just be the world’s best rally car. 450 mile range, unparalleled comfort, speed and handling and a pimp factor that is just off the charts. This is yet ANOTHER car on my list of must haves for the MR. ANGRY Garage.

Friday, June 27th. – the Last Day
…and what a day it was. Picture 25 super cars going down a 22 mile stretch of dirt road down the side of a mountain. Think I’m kidding? Just look at the pic below. That’s Andre’s Audi R8 in front of us with an RS4 running behind. The supercars seemed to be having a hell of a time with the dirt, but not us. We simply hit a button on the dash, raised the air suspension, put the A/C on high and soaked up every bump the Apache Trail threw at us. Then later on that day we ran hot laps with it at Firebird Raceway–with 4 people in the car LOL! Amazing… simply amazing. Then came the icing on the cake for TEAM ANGRY. You see we all left Firebird Raceway and beelined it to the finish line in Scottsdale, AZ. The good part… no, make that the great part… was the finishing order for the day: TEAM ANGRY took 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th… Ladies and gentleman, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Bullrun 2008 Recap: the Final Installment" »

Ok, so for the past week now people have been asking me for a description and/or some insight into what went wrong with our 1969 Dodge Daytona replica on this years Bullrun from Calgary to Phoenix. Well, let me start by saying A LOT went wrong. We had planned to have a grand ole’ time on this years Bullrun, and we did–we just hit a few snags along way.

If you haven’t already, read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 here. And now for Part 4:

Sunday, June 22nd
With Fusion now rolling with the pack we left Big Sky and headed through Yellowstone National Park on our way to Aspen, Colorado. Yellowstone was beautiful, but cruising at 30 mph was simply killing us. All we wanted to do was cruise. Pete had now ditched the Fusion for the comfort of CLS 55 AMG, so cruising now was John Coyle and Gabe Rinaldi. Gabe is one hell of a navigator and John is one hell of a photographer and writer. This was the time for the Fusion to shine. We were now in Wyoming. There were no cops, no trees, no humans of any kind so we decided to wring out the little Ford. For 47 minutes straight the Fusion was pinned at 111 mph with the A/C on getting 25mpg. John, Gabe and I all sat there astonished. We made one fuel stop, saw no other Bullrunners and came in… are you ready… 6th place for the day! IN A RENTED FORD FUSION!! CAN I GET A BOOYA!!!

Ford people, if you are reading this contact me immediately because I don’t think you know how good this little car is. Seriously, we should talk about perhaps producing some Ford Fusion "MR. ANGRY" editions. I LOVE THIS CAR!

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Bullrun 2008 Recap: Part 4" »

Ok, so for the past week now people have been asking me for a description and/or some insight into what went wrong with our 1969 Dodge Daytona replica on this years Bullrun from Calgary to Phoenix. Well, let me start by saying A LOT went wrong. We had planned to have a grand ole’ time on this years Bullrun, and we did–we just hit a few snags along way.

If you haven’t already, read Part 1 and Part 2 here. And now for Part 3:

Starting Line June 21st
Bullrun this year was a bit disappointing due to the fact that we only had 30 cars participating. The starting grid was somewhat subdued and the turnout was less than spectacular. However, we made it there and we were determined to have a blast even if it killed us… and it almost did. The flag dropped and all of Team Angry took off. Andre in the R8 talked us into purchasing these AMAZING 2 way radios before the start of Bullrun and it was probably the best thing we did. With Team Angry in full contact with each other we cruised out in search of check point #1. That was until….

Problem #4
All of us were cooking right along when all of a sudden the Daytona up and died again. A screw had come loose in the carb and caused us to be roadside once more. We told the rest of Team Angry to go on ahead and once Pete had sorted out the carb, we were back on the road again. At this point the Daytona was running beautifully–up until the point were I crested a hill and saw a motorcycle mounty staring back at us with a radar gun. SH*T… I was clocked at 154 km/h or 95 mph. At least the car was running good though.

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Bullrun 2008 Recap: Part 3" »

Ok, so for the past week now people have been asking me for a description and/or some insight into what went wrong with our 1969 Dodge Daytona replica on this years Bullrun from Calgary to Phoenix. Well, let me start by saying A LOT went wrong. We had planned to have a grand ole’ time on this years Bullrun, and we did–we just hit a few snags along way.

If you haven’t already, read Part 1. And now for Part 2:

Kalispell, MT and the gathering of "TEAM ANGRY": June 18th, 2008
MONTANA!! The land of red meat, frontiersman and a great friend name Tim MacGowan. We arrived in Kalispell, MT the afternoon Thurs., June 19th and proceeded to the Red Lion Inn where we were scheduled to pick-up the cars and stay for one night. The next day we’d drive up to Calagary, AB to rendezvous with the other Bullrunnners. This was the first time that all the members of TEAM ANGRY were finally together and due to this fact I don’t think Kalispell will ever be the same again. In the beginning TEAM ANGRY started off with 10 members but by the end we’d almost doubled that number. I have to say that these men and woman are possibly the nicest most generous individuals I’ve ever had the good fortune of befriending and I consider them all family. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Bullrun 2008 Recap: Part 2" »

Ok, so for the past week now people have been asking me for a description and/or some insight into what went wrong with our 1969 Dodge Daytona replica on this years Bullrun from Calgary to Phoenix. Well, let me start by saying A LOT went wrong. We had planned to have a grand ole’ time on this years Bullrun, and we did–we just hit a few snags along way.

Here’s how it went down:

Snag 1: The Daytona: July 2007 – June 2008
As most everyone knows last year we ran my 1968 Dodge Charger on Bullrun, from Montreal to Key West and the bugger ran perfectly. Seriously, we didn’t even burn a drop of oil. So at the end of last years rally we decided to up the ante a bit and build a new car. What car? How bout’ a matte black 1969 Dodge Daytona. I had some professional renderings done by David Stahl of the beast and then production began. We started with a clean 1969 Dodge Charger SE as the donor car. The engine and tranny were stout but the body was tired and needed to be redone so I had no qualms about cutting up this car.  The whole process began in July of last year and we finished on June 13th at 6 am–just three hours before the car left for Montana for the start of the Bullrun. We had a total of 68 miles on the car. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Bullrun 2008 Recap: Part 1" »

Bullrun is insane, and four days after arriving home, I’m still exhausted. But there’s no rest for the wicked, so without further ado, here’s how the awards ceremony went down. Mr. Angry and co-driver Pete earned a special mention for persevering in the face of a very reluctant Daytona, while Richard Rawlings and co-driver Airin received similar accolades for attempting to tame their fuel pump-eating Caprice. Rachel was awarded a Bullrun Order of Merit for completing her rookie run with a final tally of 12 traffic stops, eight tickets, and three mandatory court appearances, and a moment of silence was held for all the cars that didn’t make it across the finish line. Of course, the question on everyone’s mind was which teams were the winners overall. Third place went to Team Hummer, who recovered quite nicely from their oil-loss issue a few days previous, and second place went to Claus Ettensberger and his wicked Porsche GT Street. But neither of those strong competitors could beat Wiji, who emerged from his day one confrontation with the cops emboldened, and drove his Audi R8 to first place. Congrats to everyone! See you next year!

After 3,714 miles and seven days of near-constant driving, I have crossed the finish line in Scottsdale. The Bullrun 2008 is over, and I don’t really know how to feel. I know I’m more tired than I’ve been in my entire life, but I also know that there’s no way I could sleep now. It doesn’t seem possible that tomorrow afternoon, I’ll wake up, go the airport, and fly home, but that’s definitely what’s happening, and it feels strange. I’ll have coverage of the the awards ceremony and a full full recap of the rally posted sometime next week, but right now, I’m going to go have a beer and soak up as much of this circus as I can. Bullrun!

If you’ve never been to Arizona, let me tell you one thing about the Grand Canyon State: In June, it is hot as hell—all the time. When I was standing around on the track at Firebird International Raceway, it felt like my brain was being poached inside my skull, and I couldn’t drink enough water to keep hydrated. But  weathering the heat did have some rewards, as I managed to talk my way into a couple of cars—and they couldn’t have been more different. First, I rode with Michael of Team Texas in his Z06. We hit about 140 on the straight, and it felt like we were almost drifting through corners—it was brutal American power at its best. In comparison, Michael Schwab’s Ferrari 430 felt like a razor blade as he sliced through the s-turns. From my perspective, it seemed inconceivable that the car could lose traction. Of course, I might have just been a little star struck, as I’d never even sat in a Ferrari before. I have great video of both laps, and I’ll get them posted ASAP. Stay tuned!