by Zack Klapman
It’s the triumphant return of Jeff Glucker; fighter against tyranny and founder of Hooniverse.com. Along with the regular crew, we talk about a bunch of stuff: Paganis, cops, GT500 versus GTR, super wagons, and driving to a Mayan temple to die. Make the jump and download.
by Zack K
Stripteases are nice. They’re meant to tantalize and entice; showing you just a glimpse of what’s to come. This marketing tactic has been used for cars for a while; The new Viper has been flashing people at bus stations, and the Lexus LF-C concept had small pictures “leaked”, keeping us Googling for its debut. I don’t like being teased, but the small tastes leading up to a big auto show can be a cool treat tossed from the masters of manufacturing. But not everyone, or everything, can be a stripper. (more…)
By Zack K
A few days ago we posted a story about the Delta Wing, an experimental vehicle built by Dan Gurney’s company-All American Racers-and funded powered by a Nissan power-plant. Nissan is trying to lead the charge in efficiency, and they think that along with hybrid drive trains and small engines, light weight is an important step. Really light. Barely over 1,000 pounds light. Enter: Delta Wing. It looks the head of a spear and (theoretically) uses half the gas and tires of other race cars without being any slower. The real test is at the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Nissan had the public driving debut this week at the 12 Hours of Sebring. And there’s video. Enjoy. (more…)
by Zack K
I know it’s not the Batmobile, but this is one of the coolest, most radical vehicles I’ve seen in a long time. It’s an ultra-light experimental vehicle, powered by a 1.6L turbo-charged Nissan engine. It’s so light and slippery that Nissan says they can race it at Le Mans and only use half the fuel of their competitors. They also plan to use what they learn on future road cars. So if you always wanted to drive an SR-71 Blackbird to a drive-thru, you might have the chance. Jump for more info, a gallery and 2 videos about the DeltaWing. (more…)
by Zack K
Last week on TUNED, we took you to a runway shootout packed with crazy cars possessing 400-1000HP. The fastest car that day was a Nissan GTR, packing Switzer‘s 950HP E85 burning “E900 Package” under the hood. (Sorry for all the numbers. Use your TST decoder ring if you need help.) After Matt saw it win, he wanted to drive it, and the owner was more than happy to oblige. So this week on tuned, Matt grabbed a few jugs of E85, headed to the canyons and got behind the wheel of a 950HP GTR. Is it fast? Sweet mother, yes, it’s fast. Because YouTube embed codes and WordPress are having a an apparent marital dispute, you have to click here to watch.
by Zack K
I should have known this video was better than your average event coverage when its title says “(please watch in full HD)“. The people that made it, Track Hos, demand fair judgement of their work, and their work is absolutely good enough to wait that extra 28 seconds for it to buffer. What they filmed was an runway speed event full of exotic cars for charity, with the tropical Philippine landscape as the backdrop. Not too shabby. Jump to watch. (more…)
by Zack K
On this week’s episode of TUNED we go to the Trona, CA airport to attend the Shift S3ctor Airstrip Attack Runway Tuner Shootout. 80 ridiculously fast cars battled it out in a head-to-head half mile drag race. There were only 2 classes: under 700HP, and over 700HP.
Some of the best tuners around were represented; BBi Autosport, AE Performance, Switzer, HG Motorsports, COBB Tuning, Cunningham Motorsports, ESS Tuning, VF Engineering, and more. People brought GTRs, Porsches, Corvettes, Vipers, BMWs, an angry little SRT-4 (which made a few people cry) and everything in between. They were all there to find out one simple thing: who had the fastest car. Matt even raced a Prius. It’s the simple things in life…
Jump to watch.
On our new show Tuned on the /DRIVE Network, we test completely re-worked vehicles, because on that show, stock just won’t do. And there are two kinds of tuner cars we love: crazy, over the top ones designed by madmen, and balanced packages that highlight a vehicle’s good characteristics while simultaneously improving upon the factory’s shortcomings. In this episode of Tuned, we focus on the latter. Steve Millen is a veteran racer-turned-tuner, and the team at STILLEN (AKA Steve Millen Sportparts) worked their magic on the already fun Nissan 370Z. They added 170 extra horsepower, courtesy of a Vortech centrifugal supercharger, improved the suspension, brakes, wheels, tires, and cooling system to produce an incredibly well balanced sports car that performs admirably in traffic, in the canyons, or at the track. We have been waiting a long time to drive this car, ever since seeing it being developed at STILLEN’s factory, and now we know why it was worth the wait. Hit the jump for the video.
by Zack K
This is a YouTube video called, “Motorsport-Love for Life.” It’s a short film, by Antti Kalhola. It uses a compilation of racing footage – drivers, cars, rally, F1 teams, wins, losses, crashes, etc – but not simply strung together as eye candy. Paired with slow music and a voice over it starts with the question, “Why do we love?” to explain viewer why people race cars. Through images of broken cars, daunting elements, injured drivers or just the pain of defeat written on faces, this short film is about why we voluntarily put ourselves into a situation where we could lose-even die-yet we go back again the next day.
I think this video encapsulates the bigger passion of cars. It’s this kind of strange love that gets us up at 5AM for a show, or up all night wrenching, or working two jobs to buy parts and staying up late reading about suspension engineering or the latest crossover comparison. It’s why driving to us isn’t a chore or a simple means. We don’t know why we love, but we do. And to love is to live, and fo people like us, that means having cars in our life. This 4 minute film explains that, and all through the gorgeous imagery of incredibly fast cars doing what they do. Make the jump to watch.
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…)
One of the sickest 458 Italias in existence!!
YouTube / Facebook / Jason Thorgalsen Photography