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.

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.

Better yet, check out his passenger digging his nails into the arm wrests like he’s being electrocuted, the opposite behavior to Robby’s completely calm demeanor. Same demeanor as an 80-year old man clipping rose bushes in his back yard. Passing on a crest over a double yellow? “Hm. Interesting. Should I eat chicken tonight or fish? Well, there’s the mercury to worry about…” I also applaud him for throwing caution, laws and (probably) sponsorships to the wind in the name of adrenaline, fun and rallying. Robby, if you’re taking resumes for passengers, I can make a pretty mean bottle of water and I have an excellent palate for selecting gas station beef jerky.

- Zack K

“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:

When Rob from Super Speeders told me he wanted to buy a really cool car for the 2011 Bullrun Rally, I was excited. I mean, how much fun is it spending other people’s money? Answer: So fun. So I started browsing eBay and CraigsList, looking for the following requirements:

1) Car must be awesome.

2) Car must have a manual transmission.

3) Car must hold its resale value after 3,500 miles of rallying.

4) Car must be reliable.

I didn’t find anything that I wanted to spend a week in, so I was excited when Rob called and said he bought a 2000 Mustang Cobra R. Now this is a cool car. Only 300 Cobra R’s were built, all in red. They are track-focused vehicles, and made power the old fashioned way, by adding displacement. It’s 5.4L V8 made a quoted 385 hp and 385 lb/ft of torque, and its giant cowled hood was there for a reason: the engine is simply gigantic. And though I wasn’t a huge fan of the 99-04 body style, the Cobra R was the exception. The lightweight wheels, gigantic rear wing, heavy duty splitter and side exhaust simply screamed motorsport, and the deleted rear seat and Recaro-style buckets reminded you every second what this car was designed for.

Our Cobra R was number 160, and while my first thought was “excellent choice,” my second thought was “Shit. That thing doesn’t have air conditioning, does it?”

Rob weighs about 140 pounds, and therefore didn’t see a problem with this. But I am 250 lbs, and we’re driving across the southern United States in July. Plus, as the navigator, it was my obligation to do all the team’s drinking, and therefore planned on being quite hung over each morning. A hundred-degree cabin was not something I was interested in.

Being the resourceful stoner that I am, I immediately had an idea to get ourselves some liquid cooled clothing like NASCAR and LeMans drivers use. Enter CoolShirt. The guys over there loved our idea and said that their Club Sport 24 system would keep us cool for 4 full hours. They agreed to loan us the units, probably out of sympathy. They will not be getting them back.

I can’t even begin to describe how amazing these things are. The first time Rob and I plugged in, it was seriously orgasmic. Within 30 seconds, my body temperature had dropped about 10 degrees, and I was in heaven. The CoolShirts aren’t just adequate, they are incredible. The only way they could possibly be any better is if they came with full-time refrigeration units. As is, we had to refill the holding tanks every 4 hours, which was about how long a tank of gas lasted. The bad news is that in one week we managed to use 700 pounds of ice. Seriously. But it was worth it. Without the CoolShirts, we honestly would have passed out from heat exhaustion, crashed into something, and died. Because of them, we were able to stay cool and focused for the entire Bullrun Rally, and arrive energized and ready to party.

So, thank you CoolShirt for keeping us alive.

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.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

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?

This year I’ve teamed up with my old friend Rob from Super Speeders and Gotham Dream Cars. Because I’m severely injured (herniated disc, L4/L5, surgery in July), driving is incredibly painful for me right now. So, for the first time ever, I’m actually not driving on the rally, I’m navigating. Since Rob doesn’t drink, he’ll be in bed early every night and well-rested for driving, and I’ll be out late, completely shithammered and probably making a damn fool of myself. But once I set the nav in the morning, I’ll be able to nap in the passenger seat for a few hours. Or will I?

This brings me to our vehicle of choice. Rob wanted to buy a car specifically for the rally. Something reasonably priced, yet rare, cool, fast, and fun to drive. Here’s what he’s chosen: a 2000 Mustang Cobra R, number 160 out of 300 identically prepped and barely street legal race cars. These photos are of the actual car he bought. At first I was excited, since I’ve always liked the Cobra R and it’s rather bulletproof drivetrain, side exhaust, and racing car style. On the other hand, this is a cross-country drive, from Las Vegas to Miami. Across the southern United States. In July. And the Cobra doesn’t have air conditioning.

Oh, how I love smoking weed and coming up with great ideas. I rang up the boys at Cool Shirt Enterprises, makers of liquid-cooled clothing for racing drivers. In sports car racing, especially closed-cockpit GT cars, temperatures can reach 140 degrees during a race. A Cool Shirt system is an outfit covered in arteries, connected to an ice water-filled cooler and a pump. The system hooks up to the 12V electrical system in the car and keeps cold water circulating all over your body. We have two systems, one for me and one for Rob, and the lack of air conditioning won’t be a problem! In fact, I think we will be the envy of the rally with one of these setups.

Unfortunately, I’ll be missing day one of the rally, since it starts on the last day of the studio tapings for The Car Show, but I’ll be meeting up with the rally on day two through the finish in Miami 7 days later. And though we won’t be filming anything for this site, we will be making some videos for SuperSpeeders.com, so you may see some video. Plus, the whole rally this year is being filmed for MTV, so you may end up seeing tons and tons more about the rally than you ever thought possible.

Happy Rallying,

Matt

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.

With 510hp, a wheel base comparable to a school bus and the drag of a javelin it’s a Mopar cruise missile. After completing the project Mr. Angry entered the car in Hemmings Muscle Machines‘ “Muscle Machine of the Year” contest. The winner would be picked by the fans, not editors or historians. And they picked none other than Mr. Angry’s Daytona. If you ever thought that all hot rodders were into was candy paint and parking on grass, this should put that to rest. The people didn’t pick some rare Cutless that has had it’s cylinders wiped with q-tips, they picked the car that looks like  it would be driven by the devil when he’s collecting the souls he was promised.

The response on the car has been great. It’s not a 900hp dragster or a trailer queen, it’s a car you can drive. I’d have no qualms about driving this car 300 miles to Laguna Seca and heading straight onto the track. Winning the MMoTY award is more proof that the pro-touring movement is catching on. Who wants to park on the grass and listen to 50′s cover bands when you can build a car with the soul of a Detroit icon that doesn’t scrape the door handles in a corner? Not us. Congrats Mr. Angry, on your well-deserved win. Can’t wait to see what you build next.

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.”

And he’s damn right. The police take video of us every time we’re pulled over, for their own protection. These are public servants, doing their jobs in public places, and why should we not have the right to film them as well? Common sense tells us that if they are doing their jobs properly, they should have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Back in April, Anthony Graber was speeding down I-95 on his Honda CBR 1000RR motorcycle. A man forced him to the shoulder, and jumped out of the car, wearing jeans and a grey sweater, and waving a gun. He only later identified himself as a Maryland State Trooper. When the video hit YouTube, Graber’s home was raided, four computers confiscated, and he was arrested for illegally wiretapping the police, facing 16 years in prison.

The Judge’s ruling, which he compared to the Rodney King beating,

…took place on a public highway in full view of the public. Under such circumstances, I cannot, by any stretch, conclude that the troopers had any reasonable expectation of privacy in their conversation with the defendant which society would be prepared to recognize as reasonable.

Graber has since sold his motorcycle and called this day “one of the best days of my life,” before adding “I never want to have a motorcycle again.”

More importantly, it allows people like us to film police doing their jobs out in public for our own protection, such as being pulled over for doing 66 in a 65.

And of course, the fully-legal “Graber Tapes”

[Source: Jalopnik]

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.

Matt’s Totals:

New Jersey:

Reckless Driving – Dropped in Court

Improper Passing – Dropped in Court

100 in a 65 – Reduced to 94 in a 65 in Court, $200 fine, 1 point.

Ohio:

80 in a 65 – Plead Guilty and paid fine, $160, no points transfer to CA.

Nevada:

66 in a 65 – Reduced to a $180 parking ticket in court, no points.

Matt’s Total Cost: $540 in fines, $2500 Lawyer in NJ, 1 point on license.

Tom’s Totals:

Arizona:

Racing on a Highway – Dropped to basic speeding in court, $185 fine, no points transfer.

Iowa:

94 in a 65 – Status Pending

New Jersey:

No Seatbelt- Status Pending

Failure to Obey Turnpike Signage – Status Pending

Filming on the Turnpike – Status Pending

The point is, to quote my friend Rob Ferretti, speeding is not a crime, it’s a business. The point of writing tickets on the highway is not to keep people safe or enforce unreasonably low speed limits, it’s to raise revenue for state and local government. How do we know this? Because if you fight out tickets in court, you’re almost immediately offered some kind of zero-points plea bargain with a bigger fine. At no point during or after the rally was I worried that my license would be in danger, because simply by showing up to my court dates, I walked away from that whole thing with just 1 point on my license. There is almost no correlation in between someone who is a habitual speeder and someone who causes accidents, and I’m living proof of that, as I’ve been driving ridiculous speeds my whole life, and never been at fault for a single accident (though I have been the victim in 3 total accidents, the result of other drivers doing some incredibly stupid things).

Tom’s New Jersey tickets are non-moving violations, the cop was just being an asshole, so even he isn’t in danger of losing his license, even after a misdemeanor racing charge.

The bottom line is: show up in court and you’ll keep your license. And if you’re really worried about it or the tickets are big enough, get a good lawyer, because the fees you pay them will more than balance themselves out with savings in fines and insurance premiums.

Special thanks to Roy Macaluso of Fusco and Macaluso in New Jersey for taking good care of me.

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.

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.

Now that we’re back from Bullrun and things have calmed down a bit, we’re finally going through all the photos taken on the rally. This little gem right here was spotted cruising (repeatedly) around the Ritz Carlton, where our rally cars were parked, bumping some dirty south rap. There isn’t much I can say about this photo that will be funnier than the photo itself, so lets just say this guy’s Auto Zone rewards card must be paying off huge right now. I mean, did he literally walk into Auto Zone and just buy every single piece of cheap imitation chrome he could find, and slap it all on the car at once?

Sadly, the best part of the car isn’t shown in this photo, because I fell over laughing so hard when I saw it. As he pulled away, I noticed the Altezza tail lights. ALTEZZA LIGHTS! On a fucking DeLorean? This car is a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with car culture in the US.

If you own this car, and you’re reading this, get help immediately. Because you suck at life.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past week, The Smoking Tire just finished the Bullrun Rally as Team Black Magic. The Bullrun is a cross-country checkpoint-style navigational rally with 50 other cars, some exotics, some not, and full of great personalities. We shot, edited, and uploaded a video every day from the road, documenting all our adventures and the beautiful places we’ve seen. We put nearly 6,000 miles on our 2011 Shelby GT500 Convertible, and other than a few minor tire issues, the Shelby performed admirably. Hit the jump to watch all 7 of our videos from the road in once place, and be sure to check out my photos and written blog entries at Black Magic Shine.

[Photo Credit: Bullrun]

Who’s that sexy man? And that clean car! I can remember 7 days ago when all the Bullrun cars were nice and clean with our fresh stickers on them. It doesn’t look that way now, but here’s the Black Magic Celebrity Photo Gallery on Facebook so we can all reminisce about what our cars should look like….

Photos Here

The Bullrun Rally attracts all types of media attention, from online car shows like The Smoking Tire giving you full coverage of the event start to finish, to local newspapers and blogs. Some of them are fairly straightforward and boring, and others are absolutely comedy gold. For Instance:

This gem from online blog (if you can even call it that) TFLCar.com. This article, directed right at me, accuses me and all the Bullrunners of driving drunk (a flat-out lie) and the wording, spelling, lack of facts, and context of the article, lead me to believe this is a jealous kid who wants to do the rally but can’t. I have never met the person who wrote this article, and if I have, he didn’t dare say any of this shit to my face (no online shit-talker has ever said anything to my face). Read the article here and laugh with me. Especially read the comments at the bottom, where this kid’s readers clearly don’t agree with him.

TFLCar: Matt Farah and Bullrun Feel Free to Never Visit Boulder Again

The next article is absolutely hilarious, because our friend Rob Ferretti from Team Super Speeders completely made up a story in an interview with The Mountain Mail, about how our friend Shivam, who drove the black EVO X on the rally, has Leprosy and his arm is falling off, and we’re doing the rally to raise money for him. Well, they printed every word of it.

Bullrun Stops for Lunch In Salida

Best line of the article? “They used to have entire Leper colonies. He’s like a colony of one.”

Fucking classic.

Team Black Magic wakes up in the firey heat of Scottsdale to discover someone played a prank on their car…. We visit the Taser factory to watch Flag Girl Karen get shocked, we have a little run-in with the cops, and we have the most unique Bullrun finish of the year.

The 2010 Bullrun departs the beautiful resort town of Telluride, Colorado for Scottsdale, Arizona. On the way, we stop at Monument Valley for a little of that southwest Americana….

Day 5 begins with some high-speed kart racing at Bandimere Speedway just outside of Boulder, CO. Then the boys hit the road, snaking through the gorgeous Colorado mountains to the high-altitude paradise that is Telluride. On the way an unexpected TV crew interrupts the Ferrari’s fun, and the last car you would expect to get pulled over, does.

2010 Bullrun: Day 4 Omaha – Boulder

It’s day 4 of the Bullrun Rally. Tom takes the wheel first, hoping to continue the good fortune and success of the previous leg. The Maserati shows off it’s Bond-like gadgets, and an old friend surprises us by joining the Bullrun mid-way. You’ll understand when you see who it is.

The Bullrunners depart Chicago, in a mess of lost, for Omaha, Nebraska. There’s never a shortage of surprises on the Bullrun, and today doesn’t upset. We get lost and angry, drive the tires off our car, and finally figure out a good strategy.

The Smoking Tire hits the road as Team Black Magic for the 2010 Bullrun Live Rally from New York to Las Vegas. We’re uploading a video every day from the road, so be sure to check back every day to get the best Bullrun updates in near realtime. Also, friend me on Facebook, or Follow Team Black Magic on Twitter.

The winner of the “Your Design, Our Shine” contest, and the look of our Shelby GT500

We’re counting the days until the start of the 2010 Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas. As we’ve mentioned before, this year, we’ll be driving the 2011 Shelby GT500 Convertible, and sponsored by Black Magic. As we’ve also mentioned, we’ll be uploading a video every day from the rally, so you can watch us in near-realtime as we haul ass across the country.

But, we also want you to come see us in person! Are you driving distance from New York City? Got any plans for Saturday? If not, come on down to Pier 54 in Manhattan and check out some of the amazing machinery decked out in Bullrun Rally Livery. Check out our 2011 Shelby GT500 in person, meet the crazy personalities and celebrities of the rally, and show your love for The Smoking Tire! Oh, we’ll also be giving away tons of free Black Magic products.

The fun starts at 8am, be there!

Here’s a map of the exact location.

Last year, The Smoking Tire went on the Bullrun Live Rally from New York to Austin, Texas. We drove the first production Ford SVT Raptor right off the assembly line, 10 hours to New York city for the start, and made a video each day, which can be found on Black Magic’s YouTube Channel.

This year, you’ve got a chance to come party with us in New York City for the kickoff of the 2010 Bullrun, and design our Shelby GT500! Hit the jump to find out how.

Ford’s on a real roll with their 2011 Mustangs. The 412 HP Mustang GT is being compared to the M3, a car that costs nearly twice as much. Their V6 is the first car in history to come back from rental-car-dom. The new 2011 Shelby GT500 has been on a diet, dropping 120 pounds from the nose by switching to an aluminum engine block, and adding a few extra ponies as well, bringing the count to 550 hp.

As we’ve shown on The Smoking Tire, Ford is about more than straight-line performance; Mustangs need to go around corners. As this video shows, the new 2011 GT500 does that pretty well too. The Shelby’s weight trimmings and tweaks have helped shave 9 seconds per lap off what the 2010 GT500 ran at Virginia International’s “Grand Course” last year, surprising even Ford’s own people, who only expected a 3 second improvement.

The GT500′s 2:58.5 second lap time would place it 7th overall (according to Car and Driver, see chart below), behind such cars as the Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Viper ACR, but ahead of the BMW M3, Cadillac CTS-V, Audi R8, and, ahem, the Ford GT.

Here’s the best part: The Smoking Tire is going to be doing a 5,000-mile road test of the new GT500 in the 2010 Bullrun Rally from New York to Las Vegas this July. And you have a chance to win a trip to New York to come party with us for the kickoff party (and yes, test drive the car.) Go to Black Magic Shine to find out how.

Hit the jump to see the video and lap time spreadsheet.

[Source: YouTube via Jalopnik]

It seems like the 2010 Bullrun Rally is right around the corner, and you guys know we wouldn’t miss a party like that, right? Well of course not, and Black Magic is sending us back to the Bullrun, providing “almost live” content on the 7-day rally from New York to Las Vegas. But did you know that you could be in charge of designing what our car looks like on the rally?

That’s right, Black Magic is holding a contest to design our car. Goldberg will be judging all the designs, and the winner’s design ends up on our 2011 Shelby GT500 for the rally. Plus, Black Magic will fly you to New York to attend the Kick-off party with us!

Here’s how to enter:

Go to www.blackmagicshine.com, OR, www.yourdesignourshine.com, and follow the simple instructions to enter. All the images and tools are there, so you don’t have to be a professional artist or anything like that. You may submit as many designs as you like before June 9, 2010, as long as you’re over 18.

If you haven’t heard yet, The Smoking Tire will be participating once again in the Bullrun Live Rally, thanks to our friends at Black Magic, who believe enough in us to send us back, year after year. We’re driving the 2011 Shelby GT500 Convertible this year, with it’s all-new aluminum engine and 550 horsepower of raw, American muscle.

But that’s not it! We want YOU to come with us this year from New York to Las Vegas on the Bullrun Live Rally, the premier road rally in the United States, and we’ve got quite the incentive for you. FREE BOOZE! That’s right, everyone loves free booze, and if you sign up for the Bullrun Live Rally through us, we give you FREE BOTTLE SERVICE at the launch party in New York City, and at the finale party in Las Vegas! No extra cost to you, just sign up and get open bottle service courtesy of your friends at The Smoking Tire.

Some of you may have noticed that Tom and I were fully missing in action the entire month of September, 2009. Well there was damn good reason for that, it was because we were on the set of Bullrun, the reality game show loosely based on the Bullrun Live Rally, which we participate in every year (including this one!). Think of it as The Amazing Race, except you bring your own car. The Smoking Tire spent 4 weeks shooting exclusive, behind-the-scenes video with the producers, crew, and special effects guys, and now that the show is airing (Thursday nights @ 10 EST on SPEED), we are running a new video every week!

Not many people know this, but before I started doing Garage419, my first show, I worked at Gotham Dream Cars. Believe it or not, Rob from Super Speeders was my boss while I worked there, and we became friends and said eventually we’d work together. Now we have, on Super Speeders 5: Out of Control. Yes, it’s a DVD that you have to buy. But the trailer here is hilarious and if you use the promo code TST09, you can get free shipping on the DVD.

The Smoking Tire takes to the track in the baddest R8 yet, Project Raptor by Performance Outfitters and PES Tuning. Host Matt Farah puts the Raptor through its paces at New Jersey Motorsports Park to find out if a supercharger makes for a faster car than a couple of extra cylinders.