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

Bloodmasters NJ: Hooning at It’s Finest (video)

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

by Zack K

These guys’ lack of shit-giving would decapitate that stupid honey badger. The picture above should give you an idea of how serious and awesome this video is. Not very and a very damn much. Formula D champ Chris Forsberg and a bunch of his crazy buddies got together and took over a racetrack with their mildly ratty but completely fun-as-shit drift cars. There’s no artsy shots, no game faces, no quick detail spray. What there is is 8 cars drifting around the entire compound (buildings, stands, the ticket booth) inches from each other. Animals were probably harmed in the making of this film. I love drifting, but I haven’t seen a video this fun and reckless in a while. This is what we would do if we had full access to a track (and real drifting talent) and just said “fuck it.”

 

It’s only the first part of the movie and they’ll probably space them out like an IV drip, keeping us happy through the winter. BloodMasters, if you’re listening, the TST crew approves and would love to have you at our next BBQ. We share your passion for automotive anarchism. Now enjoy the video below. Someone get me a denim vest.

 

Source: BloodMastersNJ

I’m Calling Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle the Best Vid of 2012

Friday, January 13th, 2012

by Zack K

I’m nominating this video for best video ad of 2012. I know, it’s early. Hollywood does this when they roll out a piece of shit on January 2nd (“The best romantic comedy of the year!”) but when they do it, it’s because that movie will sink to last place in a matter of days and remain there for the rest of time. But this video, sponsored by ICON, GoPro and a littany of other performance companies, just fucking kills it. It’s the sequel to the original, spank-bank-worthy “Motorcycle vs Car Drift Battle” video that came out exactly one year ago. It featured Nick “APEX” Brocha sliding a stretched ZX10 around while an LS-powered RX-7 slid after him. I had never seen someone corner a bike like that, and it’s view count of over 4 million means neither had any of you.

 

This new video takes it up many notches. Nick is back, with his buddy Ernie Vigil. They take some Triumphs off the racetrack, into the hills of Washington. They’re riding is ridiculous, balancing a slippery rear wheel from turn to turn. But this time, there’s an addition, a “Smokey” played by drifter Dan Brockett. He chases down the 2-wheeled ruffians in the baddest cop car to date (Sorry, Gallardo), a Ford Mustang SVT Cobra. The combination of location, aerial shots, editing, driving, riding and execution is something fellow video nerds and non-blind people will unanimously love. It’s just sick. This is the best commercial since the Gymkhana series. Suck it, GEICO newt.  Ok, I can’t think anymore, I have to go watch it again. Make the jump, raise the resolution and grab a doughnut. Enjoy.

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Video Highlights from WRC 2011

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

 

World Rally Championship is one of the most exciting and difficult motorsports in the known universe, it’s been that way since it began. Despite Subaru pulling out and leaving a dead spot in my heart, there was plenty of clinical insanity to be watched. Ken Block flipping his car a dozen times, high-speed drifts through snow, Loeb, Raikkonen, Solberg and all the rest. ESPN put together a highlights reel for us, and it’s definitely worth the 8 minute attention span. I’m sure next year will be more of the same. The same being the best damn racing ever. Jump to watch it.

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Video: Formula D Newcomer Corey Hosford Teaches Matt How to Drift!

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Drifting is one of those things that, like golf, bull riding, and porn, professionals make look very easy. It’s also something that many drivers claim to do well, when in fact, they do not. Since Matt is not a professional racing driver, he is more than willing to admit that he doesn’t have the first clue how to drift a car properly. But he’s also the first to admit that when you don’t know something, you get a professional to teach you, and you simply listen and try to be a good student.

The kind folks at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Arizona offered The Smoking Tire the use of their facility and vehicles for a day of private drifting lessons from instructor Corey Hosford, who will be starting his Formula Drift career this coming April at Long Beach in his K-Sport Nissan 350Z. Can Matt start from nothing and become a drifter in just one day? Hit the jump to find out.

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TST Dream Garage: Vaugh Gittin Jr.’s Mustang RTR-X (video)

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

 

This is the newest car to be added to the TST Dream Garage. For those of you new to the game, we’re slowly compiling a list of all the cars we’d buy if we had money.  I mean so much money you’d buy one of those stupid, giant yachts that Paul Allen used to substitute his penis. If it’s a vehicle, we can put it on the wish list for the day we all simultaneously win every lottery in the US at once. And being added to that ever-expanding garage in the sky (Skycake made daily) is Vaughn Gittin Jr’s own, 1969 Need For Speed Mustang RTR-X. I ****ing love this car.

 

This car came out long ago, and it’s been on a tour since it debuted at SEMA in 2010. So you’ve probably seen it, heard of it or read about it. Nothing new. I’d read about it when it came out and thought it was awesome. But that didn’t prepare me for what I’d think when I saw it at Formula D this year at Irwindale. I rounded the corner  and stopped. (Earmuffs kids.) “Hoooo shit.” Make the jump to read my love story, and watch Gittin destroy some tires.

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Jeremy Clarkson Drifts His-and our- COTY (Video)

Monday, November 21st, 2011

 

God Bless the Internet. Without it, I wouldn’t have access to hours of car news, be able to rapidly calculate torque figures, price conversions and I would still be wondering if anyone had ever thought of  having a superhero orgy, set at the Taj Mahal (someone did). And I also wouldn’t be able to see every single thing Jeremy Clarkson has ever written, starred in or hosted. “Illegal” Internet downloading convinced the BBC there just might be a small population of people in the USA that want to watch Top Gear (You’re welcome). And now it brings us a great clip from Clarkson’s newest holiday DVD, Powered Up. Make the jump to watch. (more…)

Finn Builds Bonkers Mercedes W123 Diesel Wagon Drift Car (With Video!)

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Oddball cars are the spice of life, well, at least my life anyway. I’m so flooded with car information most of the time, that a great portion of it just goes in one ear and out the other, because, honestly, I’ve seen it all before. Not this time. While most drift drivers are busy cranking up the boost on their 240′s, or converting econoboxes to rear-wheel-drive with NASCAR engines, Finnish drifter Teemu Peltola has gone a different direction: He built a 1981 Mercedes 300D Wagon into a drifter.

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Video: Tanner Foust Slaughters The Competition at New Jersey Rallycross

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

By now, we all know that Tanner Foust has some skills behind the wheel. From drifting public roads to winning two gold medals at X-Games Rally and Super Rally, Tanner is the kind of driver we like to get behind, and a damn good friend to The Smoking Tire. Tanner has been competing in the European Rallycross series this year, and for the first time, rallycross has come to America, at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Competing against some of his biggest X-Games rivals, including Dave Mirra, Travis Pastrana, and Andrew Comrie-Picard (ACP), Tanner positively wiped the floor track with them all, and got himself a well-deserved first place. Video after the jump.

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Samuel Hubinette and Andrew Comrie-Picard Practice For X-Games Rally

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

With the X-Games coming up this weekend, drivers are practicing all over Southern California in preparation. Unlike a skateboard, cars need to be thoroughly run-in before competition, and sometimes things break at the last minute. So, thorough practice sessions are necessary, and I just happen to be one of the lucky few  that BF Goodrich invited to Irwindale Speedway (I mean a rock quarry down the street from Irwindale Speedway) to check out Samuel Hubinette and Andrew Comrie-Picard giving their matching Mitsubishi Evo’s a real thrashing. Formula Drift Champion Hubinette, in the newer Evo X, was extremely excited about this weekend’s competition, saying, “Driving a rally car, even though it’s new for me, feels very natural. Coming from drifting, ice racing in Sweden, and stunt driving, Rally is a natural extension of my abilities, and it’s just really, really fun. The jump they are building will be the biggest I’ve ever done by far, but as long as you keep your speed right, it’s one of the easier parts of the course.”

Comrie-Picard, known simply as ACP by, well, pretty much everyone, was looking great, hustling his Evo IX around the short course and scaring the crap out of any journalist willing to hop in the passenger seat.

Mega-Rally-Gallery after the jump!

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Video: Crazy Arab Drivers Take Over Dubai Road

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

We’ve seen some crazy Arab driving before. Whether it’s Carrera GT’s and BMW M5′s drifting through downtown Dubai, or Shiekhs running Formula One cars on closed sections of desert highway, Arabs clearly know how to have fun in a car. (I should know, I’m half Arab – MF).

Here’s another good one. A bunch of guys in Lexus LX570 trucks block off traffic while some guys in shitbox Daihatsu’s and Toyota pickup trucks start doing donuts and drifting. Then the Daihatsu goes up on two wheels, and proceeds to cruise down Shiekh Zayed Road, the main road through Dubai, for several minutes, weaving through traffic.

I wish we were brave enough to try something like this on the 405 Freeway in LA, but we’re quite certain it wouldn’t end well.

Thanks, Vinny for the tip!