Welcome to The Smoking Tire. Kick ass automotive videos and more.

WRC Champ Drifting Ferrari in the Snow = Yes

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

by Zack K

 

Sliding a car in the snow is to me what a line of butter-stick-shaped sex toys is to Paula Dean. I saw this video of 1978 WRC Champ Markku Alen and thought, “that’s the most perfect moment the world could offer.” Drifting snowy corners while giggling out loud, “I’m driving a ************** Ferrari right now!” would be incredible.

 

But I think it would also make me a little nervous. Sliding a $35k Subaru around is fun, and the consequences of failure aren’t TOO bad. But a miscalculation in a car costing over $300,000 would leave me a sobbing, self-hating mess. There’s a great feeling you get from not giving a fuck; it removes the limiter on the fun meter. I wouldn’t turn down this opportunity and I’m not saying I wouldn’t put the memory in the spank bank, but I’d be nervous as hell of that front lip clipping a snow bank. Ah well, 84,323 posts and I’ll have that spoiler paid for. Make the jump to watch Alen do it proper.

(more…)

Smoking Tire Podcast Ep. 3 Available for Download (iTunes & mp3)

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

What’s up people, here is episode 3 of The Smoking Tire Podcast. On this episode our good friend JF Musial stopped by. He was the producer of Fast Lane Daily and Garage419, and now he’s overseeing the DRIVE network. He’s been all over the world, and has plenty of stories.  Also sitting around the table are the usual arsonists, Matt, Chris Hayes, Thaddeus Brown and Zack Klapman. We talk Florida, speeding tickets and analyze Hagerty’s list of future collector cars. Put it in your ears, and then put it in someone else’s.

F1 Driver Shwag Includes Jeep SRT8 and Many Italians

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

by Zack K

There’s nothing an F1 driver needs more than a free car. These guys make a peasant’s wage*, and finding reliable transportation has been an ailment of Formula 1 drivers since the 1960s. While some of us are lucky enough to get our first car from our parents, the rest we have to pay for. Of course, asking an F1 driver to buy a car would be ludicrous; they’re broke! They’re still wearing one-piece ski suits from the 1980s for god’s sake! Luckily, some kind souls have stepped up to the plate. In fact, they’ve really gone above and beyond. A few companies went to the Italian Goodwill and dropped off some cars (a  Ferrari 458 Italia, Fiat 695 Tributo (super speedy 500) and a Maserati Gran Carbio) , instructing the dull-eyed clerk they are for one Felipe Massa and one Fernando Alonso. Over the years these cars have been delivered to their sad excuses for domiciles. They may share a studio apartment, but at least they have reliable transportation, a requirement for any profession.

 

BUT, these cars are straight up dangerous in bad weather. Asking them to drive these cars on a snowy day? Why don’t you just give an Alaskan orphan a new pair of crocs in December and tell him to play outside. As usual, it’s the Team America, World Police to the rescue. Jeep rode in like a white knight, and delivered a pair of Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s to the Fiorano test track. I can imagine that brought some joy to their coal-miner-like jobs. Judging by the picture above it just in the nick of time. Without even a proper winter hat, these poor souls were sure to freeze to death. No more. With the gift of AWD and 6.4-Liter Hemis, we can sleep easy knowing these two borderline-homeless foreigners will navigate the winter months safely.

 

Or it’s good for business to have a race driver in your car. Potato, potahto.

 

*This term has been updated in the 21st century to mean “shit-load of money.”

** If you wrote an angry comment below, or posted their salary, click here.

Bob Lutz is Pissed and Rightfully So

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Rarrrr! Keep talking and I'll rip your face off!

by Zack K

 

By now everyone has heard of the Chevy Volt fire, and what a complete non-issue it is. ONE car caught fire, 3 weeks after the accident. If you crash your car and want to wait 3 weeks before you get out of it, the world really doesn’t need your genes in its pool. But the news grabbed the story, because they’re bored and terrible at their jobs. So they turned it into a big hullabaloo, hurting a recovering manufacturer all in the name of ratings. CNN-for example- has been in the shitter for years, so thinking this would be their big break is retarded. But another news organization has also been shouting “fire” all to stick a thorn in the Obama administration for funding the Volt with the auto bailouts. And that’s what has Bob Lutz so pissed off. This man doesn’t like a twisting of the facts. (more…)

Shayton Equilibrium: Another Super Car from an Unknown

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

 

Another month, another niche supercar builder. This is the Shayton Equilibrium, made by  the luxury brand Provoco State of Passion, a company from Slovenia who makes clothes. And when I want a hyper car, I know my first stop is GAP. So they decided to build a car, and give it a name that sounds like an annoying 13 year old born in Orange County (“Shayton! Don’t talk that way to your sister. Her sex tape will make us famous!) Like the Zenvo ST1 it will have a limited production run, 20 units in this case. The car will be made out of titanium and carbon fiber, with a curb weight goal of 2,646lbs. A 1,100HP V-12 engine will sit in the middle, theoretically sending it to 60MPH in 2.9s and on to 250MPH. It’s also quite good looking. But.. (more…)

Co-driver Can’t Keep Up

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

"Crest.." "Uh, we're already in the air. Can you talk faster?"

by Zack K

This video from The Daily Hoon is pretty funny. It’s a WRC special stage rally with an unknown driver. The driver is hauling ass through this twisty tarmac stage, and the co-driver just can’t keep up. The guy urges her to speed up several times. He’s practically driving the course without notes, and that makes his crazy speed even more impressive. 4km in, their coms stop working, so she has to shout the notes and she sounds exactly like Rachel Dratch doing that weird, Eastern European accent. You could turn this into a drinking game: how many times does she call out the corner and he’s already in it? Grab a bottle and hit the jump. (more…)

TUNED: Roadtrip to Art Morrison Enterprises

Monday, January 30th, 2012

 

What makes a vehicle amazing is its chassis. You can bolt on all the after-market suspension, sway bars, strut bars or roll cages you want but their performance is limited, ultimately, by the chassis. You can sprint and lift all you want, but if you’re 5’5″ and 135 lbs your skeleton will keep you out of the NFL. But thanks to Art Morrison, you can take the body off your hot-rod, ditch the weak, flexy, obsolete frame it came with and bolt to a chassis whose abilities probably exceed yours.

 

One of our favorite episodes of TST was the Art Morrison 1960 Corvette 3G. The episode was fun to make and looked amazing but the star of it was the car. It accelerated, turned, and stopped better than many modern Corvettes. Then there was the 1955 Chevy Bel Air, the car that changed Matt’s perception of what a hot rod can be. Art’s chassis are also used as the back-bone of the incredible one-off off-roaders made by ICON. There’s nothing he can’t improve. That’s why we drove up to Washington to film this episode for “TUNED.” We went to see his shop and find out how he -along with his son, Craig- are able to make old cars so damn good. Unfortunately the rain kept us from driving their latest project, but we had fun learning what it is that makes these cars so good. Jump for the video.  (more…)

The Only 8c I Hate

Monday, January 30th, 2012

 by Zack K

Sacrilege! What the hell was this person thinking?! This is like forcibly giving Katy Perry the Mike Tyson face tattoo. If this is some rich guy’s $250,000 joke, I’m going to kick him in his faberge eggs. Despite its physical handicaps on the road, the Alfa 8c is in my top 5 favorite cars of all time. I love it. I think it’s the best-looking car built in decades;better looking than any woman I will ever marry. It also sounds perfect, has an amazing interior and it’s fast enough in a straight line to keep me entertained. To quote the great poet Seth McFarlane, “I hope you fornicate yourself with an iron stick.” More shouting after the jump.  (more…)

TST Podcast Ep. 2 Available for Download (iTunes and MP3)

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

 

Hey everyone, here’s episode 2 of the podcast. I apologize for the delay. We had 6 microphones this time, and some had volume issues. So Chris had to go through the entire thing adjusting each moment Thad talked. It took a while but next week we’ll have new gear so this shouldn’t happen again.

 

Last we checked, over 5,000 people had downloaded the first episode and the response online was pretty damn good. This week, we had a guest stop in; our friend and touring comic, Micah “Bam Bam” White. He’s hilarious,  fresh off a tour in Hawaii and he’ll be at the Hollywood Improv tonight. We want to thank you guys for tuning in, we all have a great time doing it and plan to continue each week. If you like it and want to help us out, just spread the word. Share our podcast, and videos or articles you like. Help spread the gospel of TST.

 

Download it on iTunes: Here
Download the raw MP3: Here
Subsrcibe to the RSS feed: Here

Turner Motorsport – 24 Hours of Daytona Episode 1 – Testing

Friday, January 27th, 2012

 

The Smoking Tire heads to Daytona Beach, FL to follow Turner Motosports as they enter the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. It’s the 50th year of the legendary race and they’ve brought 2 nasty E92 BMW M3 GTs to compete. (Turn your volume up for the in-car footage; they sound incredible.)  In part 1 we meet the team and watch the drivers take the cars out for final  testing, addressing issues like tire wear, over-steer and night-time fatigue. Watch for newcomer, Michael Marsal, ripping past an Audi R8 GT on the outside of the oval. Video after the click.

(more…)