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

Video: Bullrun – Cops, Cars, and Superstars Premieres January 26th!

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

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.

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Robby Gordon is Crazy. (Video)

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

 

You may or may not me familiar with my attitude towards NASCAR. Short version: don’t care for it. My disdain for the sport automatically envelopes everyone around it. You could be a 5 year old and I will stubbornly hate you with the maturity of a Bloods and Crips knife fight. Or as applies here, a driver. I don’t hate the drivers personally, just their sport. But after watching this video, Robby Gordon is the man. I’ve watched him do the Baja 1000, and he warmed my heart a bit. After seeing him in this video driving on Bullrun in his 2011 Jeep Cherokee SRT8, I am a fan. Passing a 700WHP GTR is no problem for him. This guy just likes to drive fast. Make the jump for the 12 minute video of Robby absolutely hauling ass.

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Cool Shirts Saved Our Lives on the Bullrun Rally

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

“OMG Avert your eyes it’s Matt in spandex!”

That’s probably what you’re saying to yourself right about now. But that’s not spandex we’re wearing. It’s the 2Cool Shirt from CoolShirt.net. And it saved our lives. Let me explain:

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Bullrun 2011 – There is Video After All! (UPDATED)

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Hey everyone! We know it’s been a little quiet here around The Smoking Tire for the last ten days, and there is a good reason for it. While Zack has been working behind the scenes at The Car Show (Wednesdays at 10ET/7PT), Matt was off on the Bullrun Rally with Rob from SuperSpeeders, and Tom was part of the MTV film crew that was filming the whole event. Now, for those of you who follow Matt on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll know that we weren’t filming the rally this year like other years, because Matt wanted to just be on vacation, and to be honest, Black Magic wasn’t exactly jumping to throw money at us after our 12 tickets last year.

But that doesn’t mean Rob wasn’t filming this year. And although the coverage isn’t as complete as when we filmed in 2010, and it doesn’t have all those awesome Black Magic commercials not-so-stealthily integrated into the video, we’re pretty sure that you will get the idea of how this year’s rally went. Hit the jump to ride along with Team Super Speeders, Matt and Rob, in the 2000 Mustang Cobra R!

** Matt wasn’t in the “Day 1″ video because he was finishing up taping The Car Show and shows up at the beginning of day 2. But watch day 1 anyway to learn a fun fact about Rob!

UPDATED: Now with Day 7 video.

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Confirmed: Matt’s Going on Bullrun, and Driving This

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

It’s that time of year again, Bullrun time! I wasn’t sure if I was going to actually do the rally this year, for several reasons, the biggest of which is that no one is offering to pay me to do the rally, which is kind of a bummer. But let’s look at the bright side of things: I have a good-paying TV job now, I won’t have to be on camera so much, so I can get as drunk as I want every night, and I won’t have to hawk any products to cops who have pulled me over. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

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Project Angrier Wins Muscle Machine of the Year

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

A few weeks ago Matt went out to NY to drive Mr. Angry’s intimidating 1969 Dodge Daytona. Mr. Angry loves road rallies, and he also loves muscle cars. Usually these two things mix as well as Glen Beck and Bonaroo. Often the suspension is soft, the engine has rough spots (we call that “charm”) and without air conditioning the romance of driving a classic car across the country gets old as soon as you see the sign for Death Valley. But he showed us with the right plan and parts, you can build a hot rod that’s just as good on a road trip as anything out of Stuttgart.

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Victory! Judge Sides With Trooper-Taping Motorcyclist

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

A Maryland judge threw out four charges against Anthony Graber, the motorcyclist who recorded a traffic stop and then posted the videos on YouTube, yesterday, ruling that public officials should “not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny.”

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Update: The Cost of Doing Bullrun (Tickets and Fines)

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Many, many people have been asking us about the total amount of tickets, fines, points, etc. that we accrued on this year’s Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas. While it’s very difficult to total up the number of fines and points before all the actual fines have been issued, here’s an update on our ongoing battle with the Highway Patrol.

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Video: Best of the 2010 Bullrun Rally! – All the Good Stuff

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

As most of you know, we recently competed in the 2010 Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas. We drove a brand new 2011 Shelby GT500 Convertible, and we shot way more video than we had available air time. There was so much great footage that we just couldn’t use, that we’ve decided to make just one more video, with all the best pull-overs, personalities, and driving footage from the 2010 Bullrun Rally. (more…)

The Smoking Tire Featured on G4′s Attack of the Show!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Tonight, I appeared on G4 TV’s Attack of the Show, which, if you haven’t heard of it, is essentially a show about cool tech gadgets, video games, and the best of the web. I spoke about the Camaro SS, Ferrari 458 Italia, some of our experiences on Bullrun including the ticket tally, and spill some secrets about what’s coming up on the show. I’m even moderately funny.