by Zack K
I pride myself on being a very aware driver. I know what cars are around me at all times, I watch traffic far ahead and have systems on high-alert most of the time. For a long time I chalked it up to good training by my dad, but a news story (below) has me thinking that perhaps it’s thanks of that endangered species, the manual transmission. (more…)
Back in July, Matt participated in the Bullrun Rally for the fifth time, and the first as a co-driver. He ran with Rob Ferretti of Super Speeders in a 2000 Mustang Cobra R, and made a series of videos which can be found here.
But the Bullrun was also filmed for a TV show, which premieres on MTV2 This Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 11:30 PM PST. We personally can’t wait to see more of Matt’s exploits on TV, especially since the promo video uses the word “race” several times (we thought we weren’t supposed to do that?). Hit the jump for the trailer, and leave your thoughts in the comments.
by Zack K
The Juke R was released into the wild recently, starring as the pace vehicle for the Dunlop 24 Hour race. Everyone and their mom saw the awesome video of it sliding around a small course, being chased by a Gallardo, SLS AMG and some other pretty cars. At that event, every magazine and blog (except this one!) were invited to stop by and drive this midget power-lifter around the course. And what a surprise, it’s really fun and really fast. Shocking. The results of putting a Nissan GTR drive-train into a shorter, lighter car are as risky and predictable as replacing the cheap Hershey’s syrup on your Sunday with a fancy chocolate flown in from Sweden. Gee, I wonder if that will taste good? (more…)
If you haven’t been following our new series Tuned on the /DRIVE Network, you’ve been missing out. We started by romping on BBi Autosport’s Porsche Turbo S, then moved on to crusing Grant’s Pass, Oregon in the amazing Decoliner RV by Blastolene. This week, we made it to the Dirtfish Rally School in Snoqualmie, WA, where we learned about rally car building and preparation, while Matt got to race six-time X-Games Gold Medalist Bucky Lasek.
Bucky, much more well known for skateboarding than for cars, isn’t exactly an easy takedown. He spends his weekends at the track club racing his modified Porsche 996 Turbo. He has raced Porsche cup cars at Sebring, Daytona, and all over southern California. And his skateboarding background means he’s used to pushing the limit. But when it comes to rally cars, he has the same 2 days of experience that Matt does. The race is closer than you’d think, but who will win? Hit the jump to find out.
by Zack K
By now you’ve heard about the big arrest of the Megaupload founder, Kim Schmitz, in New Zealand. No? You don’t read any websites other than this one and Mama’s Knitting Blog? Jesus. The short version is Kim Schmitz was a Gumball driver and hacker. He lived life with the character and humility Scarfaces’ secret 16 year old millionaire son would have. He started Megaupload-a file sharing site-and made a shitload of money selling ads and memberships to people seeking pirated content. And now the money, cars, house and *cough* “party girls” are going away. He’s like a nerdy James Bond villain. Make the jump for the details and videos of his high-speed Gumball rallies, and the recent arrest.
by Zack K
We all make engine noises with our mouths. Admit it. You’ve either been describing a car, a race, trying to explain to your friends what your new exhaust sounds like (because surely MY skilled mouth can perfectly mimic the pitch differences between an Invidia exhaust and a Crawford one.) or you’re playing with your die-cast models. Either way, we do it, it’s fun and we don’t care how infantile it is or how many girls it confuses and horrifies.
F1 drivers are no different. Someone put them in front of a video camera and asked them to imitate their own cars. It’s pretty funny. And if you’re wondering “Do I sound that silly?” the answer is yes, yes you do.
This little post was found on reddit, the funnel through which much of the strange and crazy auto content flows. Commenting on the picture above, his page simply says “Found this trench two weeks ago, and it got the better of me.” I assumed he was trying to drive down it and got twisted up. But the picture below showed me he had a different idea of what it means to “conquer” it. (more…)
When we posted the first-ever The Smoking Tire podcast, the response was overwhelmingly positive and it seems like something we’re going to make a weekly thing over here. As of the first 2 days, the podcast has been downloaded over 3,000 times, which is pretty damn good for a first try, especially considering it was only available on iTunes, much to the chagrin of some commenters. Well here at The Smoking Tire, we believe in giving the audience what they want, and we have uploaded the raw MP3 file for those listeners who do not want to use iTunes.
Full transparency: It’s better for us if people do use iTunes, but we do want to let everyone listen to the podcast, so here’s what we’re going to do. Going forward, the podcast will be uploaded to iTunes on Thursdays and the raw MP3 will be posted two days later. If you do use iTunes, please remember to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss a thing!
Download the Podcast on iTunes here.
Download the Podcast on MP3 here.
Subscribe to the MP3 RSS Feed here
Image Source: Chronicles of the Nerds
(this picture of Matt drifting an R8 on ice has to do with absolutely nothing)
Back in New York, I had the coolest gig. Once a week, myself, Mike Spinelli, and Mike Musto would head down to the Sirius studios and do an hour of live radio for Maxim 108. The show was called “RPM,” and I loved it. So we’ve decided to get back into the live radio spirit and try a podcast, like Adam Carolla’s ridiculously successful one.
So we did what any normal person would do: get a friend to get some awesome audio gear, a whole bunch of micro-brew beers, and talk cars and life for an hour.
Gentlemen and lady (if there are more than one of you leave a comment), welcome to the first-ever podcast from The Smoking Tire. Have a listen, hopefully subscribe, and leave your feedback in the comments. If you like it, we’ll do it again.
We don’t have full size, but a larger version of the above image here by request.
The 24 Hours of Lemons is the fastest growing racing series in America, and for good reason: It’s cheap, at least by normal racing standards. Cars must not be worth more than $500, and poor driving is punished with hilarious penalties, dished out by Matt and the Lemons Supreme Court, comprised of Motor Trend’s Jonny Lieberman and The Truth About Cars’s Phil Greden (aka Murilee Martin). As a bonus, Matt is invited to pilot the safety car before the race, so we built our own replica of Formula One’s Safety Cars out of a brand-new C63 AMG coupe. Hit the jump for the video.
LP670-SV. Raw. Pure. Perfection.
YouTube / Facebook / Jason Thorgalsen Photography
