By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

I’ve been back for exactly four days after running the 2010 One Lap of America and already I am getting bombarded with questions as to if I’ll be running next year. Obviously the key to not only finishing the event but placing well is showing up with the right car. This year, instead of bringing a gun to a knife fight, we brought a sledge hammer and man was it a rough deal. Trying to sling that Charger around eight racetracks while competing against Porsches, Corvettes and all manner of imports proved to be an exercise in futility. I then started thinking about what would be the best car to come out of each price range and came up with the following price points: $25,000 or less, $50,000 or less, $75,000 or less, $100,000 or less and $100,000 or above.

We’ll be looking at things like fuel economy as well as performance and storage capacity. These are key elements to finishing not only this event, but any open road rallies that you may wish to participate in. Keep in mind that the One Lap of America has 12 classes you can run in–this is a lot. Over the next few days I am going to give you what I think are the best cars for the event based on price and performance. All the cars will be new, I’ll give you some manufacturer performance data as well as some real world thoughts about each model and why I think they’d make the cut. Some of you will agree with me, others will not. The key here is to give you guys some insight based on real world experience as to why I think these cars are good choices for not only the One Lap of America, but for any open road event you choose to participate in.

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By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

We’ve got less than a week to go before the start of the One Lap of America and to say I’m scrambling to get ready would be an understatement. The Charger is ready (for the most part) to take on another 4000 mile run and do battle with some of the meanest and fastest cars in the country. We’ll not only be hitting 9 different race tracks, but we’ll be driving some 15-18 hours per day. This is one hell of a haul ladies and gentleman and because of this we’re not going to waste the opportunity. We’ve teamed up with the VA Palo Alto Health Care System to help our wounded Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. My co-driver for this event will be international automotive importer Chris Smith. Also accompanying us and the team that spearheaded our Road Back Home Project, is Todd Ford, a West Coast Venture Capitalist and Dr. Peter Cassini, a Neurologist in Stanford, CA. They will be piloting a Ferrari F430. Both cars have been completely vinyl wrapped to reflect the spirit of what we are trying to accomplish and to help us raise awareness for our Veterans.

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By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

On Thursday morning Mike Musto picked me up at my hotel in New York City in a black Ferrari F430 he is helping to get ready for One Lap of America. We drove it across the 59th Street Bridge out to his place in Queens, then grabbed his Magnum SRT8 and drove back into Manhattan to attend the second media day at the New York Auto Show. Two mean black cars with burly V8s! More pics and video after the jump!

Continue reading "Driving a Ferrari F430 to Queens" »

It’s kind of unusual for us to post an event in two parts, but One Lap of America produced a lot of photos, so many that it kind of broke our Events section—that’s what eight days on the road will do, plus I’d also managed to borrow Steven Rankins’ super-badass big Nikon, so I got kind of carried away. Pics of the One Lap cars racing at Virginia International Raceway, BeaveRun, and the skid pad at Tire Rack can be found under Part 2. Browse Road America, Texas World Speedway, and more in Part 1!

Tony Swan of Car and Driver, who ran the Nissan GT-R in this year’s One Lap of America, has apparently gotten a lot of static about finishing "only" 11th in the overall standings and feels understandably prevailed upon to justify the much-hyped supercar’s performance. But oddly, the article that appears for this purpose on the Car and Driver website mostly just comes across as a load of whiny diapers. Though he blames everything from tires to computer technology, much of the apologia centers on the "fateful" autocross challenge at BeaveRun, where Tony got confused and went off course, resulting in a DNF and a minor tantrum by the driver, who reportedly stormed off in a huff, gunning the GT-R through a paddock populated by spectators. Probably not his proudest moment, but in the ensuing drama, it nonetheless became the spearhead for a movement to award a bunch of "bonus points" to those who failed to negotiate the autocross course successfully. Fortunately, common sense eventually prevailed, with the organizers confirming that a DNF is a DNF and that it wasn’t in the spirit of the event to compensate teams for poor performance. Seems perfectly reasonable, though Tony apparently has a different sense of how it all went down. It’s clear that he’s endeavoring to be candid and honest about what happened, but having a GT-R fall on its face in multiple events turns out to be not the easiest thing to explain away. Read Tony’s article here to decide for yourself if he gives a satisfactory defense of the GT-R’s finish.

One Lap of America pics are now live, and I better warn you, there’s a ton of them. Our Boxer4Racing Subaru team was on the road for eight straight days of hard racing action, and over the course of it, we snapped pics of just about every car. If you wanna get a feel for what it’d be like to ride along for the entirety of the tour, to every far-flung track the One Lappers raced at—hell, if you’re thinking of running a car in One Lap yourself next year—this’d be a good place to start. Watch for photos from VIR, BeaveRun, and the final Tire Rack stop to be posted separately tomorrow—there were too many to fit under a single entry in our Events section. Enjoy the pics!

On the One Lap of America tour, the Odyssey was one of those rides that always put a smile on everone’s face when it turned out at the track: a former test car from Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, it’s got a Garrett-turbocharged 3.5L V6 that sounds like a can full of angry hornets when the driver gets on it—the videos simply don’t do justice to how loud this thing is. Though it received first place in a class of one, it was great to see this mean grocery-getter take home a trophy. Congrats to Paul, Steve, and Bradley from Honda of Alabama!

Our Boxer4Racing STi, with a failing clutch and Steven Rankins at the wheel, pulled ahead in the final events of One Lap of America, which included a second autocross course at BeaveRun and a final skid pad trial at the Tire Rack headquarters. We finished first in our class and 10th overall, and we beat Car & Driver’s Skyline GTR by one position. Not bad!

Continue reading "One Lap of America: Boxer4Racing Subaru Scores Top-Ten Finish" »

The smart fortwo finished last in the majority of the One Lap events, but it’s still cool. Owner Stephen Noton had a great time with it, the smart looked hysterical out on the track, and there wasn’t any other car on the tour that was able to draw more identical cars out to the racetracks to greet it. Plus, when you get a bunch of smarts together, there seems to be no limit to the goofy, fun-with-cars antics that people are willing to get involved in. Ok, so we never actually lifted one off the ground�everyone was too worried that the panels would fall off�but we did establish that a standard parking spot will in fact hold four smarts. It was a stretch, and wheels were on the white line on both sides. But in a pinch, you could do it. More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "One Lap of America: Four smarts In One Parking Spot" »

Driving a Porsche 996TT, reigning champion Mark DaVia has won the 2008 One Lap of America for the fifth consecutive year. He recieved a big old trophy and this crazy inscribed tire from Tire Rack, stamped with the insignia of contributing tire sponsors. No mileage warranty on this one, as Brock Yates Jr. emphasized—I hope Mark knew that before he scorched the tires he was gonna drive home on. Congratulations, guys!