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

Driver, out. Throttle, stuck. Holy, sh*t.

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

 

This is the scariest drag racing mishap I’ve seen in a while. Erik Peterson is at the Vegas drag strip, driving a 1969 Pontiac Firebird. Soon after he launches, he gets squirrel-y and hits the wall. This knocks Erik unconscious and breaks the brake master cylinder loose, and it falls, pulling the throttle cable with it. Having the throttle stick WOT in a very powerful car car would be terrifying. I had the throttle stick at WOT in my old ’65 Pontiac. Turns out topping out a Le Mans with a 40-year old 2-barrel carb is a bad idea. I know, I’m surprised too. Luckily the highway was empty, and there were no turns before I turned the ignition key. The car sputtered, died and coasted and I bought a new carb the next day. Not in this case. Click to see the luckiest, most amazing drag racing accident I’ve seen in a long time. (more…)

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…)

Best Motoring Goes out with a Pricey Bang

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Let’s cut the fluff shall we? Best Motoring is cancelled, and for their last race, their lineup was awesome: Lexus LF-A vs. Porsche GT2 RS vs. Corvette ZR-1 vs. Nissan GTR vs. Ferrari F430 GT3. There’s street cars, super-cars and might-as-well-be-a race-cars. The price is all over the board, as are the cylinders and countries of origin. Each of our favorite countries is represented in a cool, if not the best, way. Thanks Best Motoring, for all your hard *cough* work over the years. You’ve put together some of the coolest and most expensive super-cars in wheel to wheel races.

 

Make the jump to see who won. (more…)

The Raptor Diaries Part 3: The Truck Does Everything (w/ Video!)

Monday, September 27th, 2010

I bought my Raptor because I’m convinced that, everything I need a car to do well, the Raptor is capable of. And as we continue “The Raptor Diaries” series, we continue to learn firsthand exactly what the truck is capable of, not just in terms of driving fast on dirt, but for actual, utilitarian purposes. After three months with this truck, I’m honestly wondering how I’ve gone about my entire previous 28 years of life without a pickup truck of some kind, and I’m certain that, for more or less as long as I live, I will have at least 1 pickup truck in the stable.

Last weekend, I participated in the production of a new and so far untitled production of a web series out at Spring Mountain in Pahrump, NV. This is significant for 2 reasons: 1) I had to ACT. And I’m a terrible actor. and 2) The Raptor was the most useful piece of equipment on the whole shoot.

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Video: VF Engineering Supercharged E46 M3 Is the Ultimate Sleeper

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

We’ve tested all of VF Engineering’s cars at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, and their E46 M3 was perhaps the most surprising. It certainly doesn’t look like much, with no fancy wheels, stickers, or massive wide-body kit, but the 9 lbs of boost that are being forced through that engine produce a massive effect in performance, increasing wheel horsepower by over 200! Hit the jump for a video of the VF Engineering E46 in action.

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Video: VF Engineering’s Supercharged Audi RS4

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

The Audi RS4 is a wonderful car, powered by one of the best V8 engines ever built. Its Quattro system helps the RS4 get around corners as fast as humanly possible, regardless of the weather. But sadly, the RS4 is becoming outdated, having been out of production for two years now. But alas! VF Engineering has come to the rescue, with a twin-scroll supercharger package for Quattrophiles to tack on some horsepower: 550 of them. Hit the jump to see how this scary-fast car sounds and feels on the track.

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Video: VF Engineering Supercharged Spyker C8

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

The Spyker C8 is certainly a unique car, with exclusivity and build quality that dwarfs most other mainstream supercars. Pull up to a Starbucks anywhere in the world, or even Cars and Coffee, and odds are, you’ve got the only Spyker around. We love them. But you know what we love even more? A Spyker with an extra 120 horsepower. Hit the jump to see what this maniacal demon of a car sounds like when you add 5.5 lbs of boost to one of the best sounding engines in production!

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VF Engineering Supercharged Audi R8

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

VF Engineering knows power. By strapping superchargers on everything from Porsche 911′s to BMW M3′s, they know how to give an otherwise stock car a major power increase without compromising any other part of the car. We’ve sampled all their Supercharger packages at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, and we filmed mini-segments with each of them. This is the 560 horsepower, Supercharged Audi R8 4.2. Video below.

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2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Review

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

After we posted our 2011 Mustang GT review and the subsequent Mustang GT vs. Camaro SS Drag Race video, we got lots of comments that the race was unfair, or that we drove the wrong Camaro. You see, that particular Camaro was an automatic, which means that instead of the 426 horsepower LS3 engine underhood, it only had a 400 horsepower. This is neither our fault nor Ford’s, however in the interest of satisfying our viewers, we took a 2010 Camaro SS, this time with a stick, to the track. We ran some hot laps to find out if these Chevy fanboys are on to something, or if the Camaro is all style and no substance. Of course, we also ran some hot laps to see if the Camaro’s 226 horsepower advantage is enough to take our Time Attack crown from the current leader, the 2010 Volkswagen GTI. Video review after the jump.  (more…)

Skip Barber Offers Lifetime “Fast Pass” for $295,000

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Racing is expensive. Very, very expensive. Even at its most basic levels, racing can cost a driver/owner thousands upon thousands of dollars a year. The Truth About Cars columnist and racer Jack Baruth told us last year that for all the money he spends racing his 1996 Spec-Neon every weekend, he could have bought a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, which we absolutely believe.

Skip Barber Racing School wants to change that a little bit. We know $295,000 is a ton of money, more than enough to buy almost any brand new exotic on the market today, but for a lifetime of all-inclusive racing, it sounds like a bargain. With their new Fast Pass system, Skip Barber is offering a lifetime of lapping days, driving schools, and spec-racing events for one fixed price. With the Fast Pass, members can jump in any driving school, race, or lapping day, anywhere in the country, so long as the event isn’t totally filled up with cash customers (good idea if you ask us). Combine that with the use of their vehicles, instructors, variety of tracks, and not having to pay for gas or maintenance on cars, it actually sounds like a really good deal.

Depending on the response and demand for the program, spots may become limited, so if you’ve got the burning desire to go racing and $300k burning a hole in your pocket, head over to SkipBarber.com and sign on up. If you’re interested but don’t have quite that much to spend, lower level, more limited Fast Passes are available for $75k and $100k respectively.

[Source: Skip Barber]