Last night I attended the premiere of the new film “Raptor - Born in Baja” which is a joint production between Ford Motor Company and Brentwood Communications. The premiere was held at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and it came complete with a few celebrities and a red carpet that covered a makeshift dirt entrance. The movie was certainly intriguing; telling the story of the Raptor team and their quest to build and race the truck in the Baja 1000. However the truck itself was the most interesting part of the night.

  Continue reading Ford SVT Raptor - Born in Baja Premiere

Photographs by Jack Baruth

It would be poetic to say that the return of the Great American Sedan was announced as the speedometer of the 2010 Taurus SHO swept past the one-hundred-and-twenty-mile-per-hour mark with the insouciant prowess of a young Mark McGwire taking practice swings in the batter’s box. And it would be more than delightful to describe the way this big sedan trail-braked into an off-camber hairpin, smoking in sideways and providing my dry-heaving fellow member of The Press As A Whole the most panoramic view possible of the Great Smoky Mountains above the spectacular dashboard and sculpted bonnet while the steering spoke to me with crystalline clarity and the transmission snapped off two flawless downshifts. Or I could describe how, on a hill so steep walking it would be a challenge, the twin-turbo SHO squeaked its front tires for a nearly imperceptible moment before swapping drive to the back wheels and rocketing us up the slope with the force of a small-block Chevy.

The truth of the matter, however, is that I knew everything I needed to know about the 2010 Taurus when I was handed a floppy-looking interior door skin.

Continue reading 2010 Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO — The return of the great American sedan.

In a recent column, I detailed my experience driving the Switzer P800 Nissan GT-R. This outrageously powerful vehicle was as fast as any reasonable person could possibly want… but there was something missing. What was it? Perhaps it was the frisson of complete and utter terror. If that little chill is what you seek, Switzer is now ready to provide it in their “P800″ conversion for the Porsche GT2.

Continue reading If 800 Horsepower Was Fun Before, Imagine It In A Car That Wants To Kill You!

Carl Modesette: The thought hit me somewhere along the lazy, post-rush-hour, 12-mile drive home from picking up the 2009 Challenger SRT-8: “This may be the last fun car Dodge, as we know it, ever makes.”  It’s not exactly the kind of thought that cheers you up, but, as Barney Stinson so wisely admonishes on How I Met Your Mother: “When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead.”  And how to be awesome instead in a 425 horsepower car?  Drop 3 gears and flatten the accelerator, of course.

Continue reading Speed Read: Challenger is Challenging

Everyone knows what the term midlife crisis means and the type of car that often accompanies it. I am not at this stage in my life (yet), but I have happened upon a term/concept which I find quite amusing - the quarterlife crisis. Many folks under forty are finding themselves in an area of life when you no longer need just a point A-point B commuter car, it can be something more exciting. However, the true quarterlife crisis person cannot afford fancy German marquees or luxury American cars with three-letter names. This calls for something with plenty of push under the hood mixed with hints of econobox-styling inside to keep the price lower. Say hello to the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR and welcome to the jungle, this car is fun and games.

Continue reading Road Tested: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR

Not to be outdone by Microsoft’s Xbox360 and Turn 10 with Forza Motorsport III, Sony offered up some teaser footage of Gran Turismo 5 today during their Playstation3 press conference at the 2009 E3 Expo. Unlike Microsoft though, Sony still hasn’t given us any indication of when Gran Turismo 5 will actually ship.

Given that Polyphony Digital seems to have acquired official licensing from the WRC and NASCAR, I will probably be in a retirement home before this game actually reaches store shelves. Still, the teaser trailer is highly impressive and gives those of us who love racers (regardless of what platform they are on) a little something to smile about.

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The 2009 E3 Expo kicked off today, and along with it the announcement that Audi will be collaborating with Microsoft and Turn 10 with Forza Motorsport III.  Reading through the press release, there aren’t a whole lot of details about the game itself but it does state that Turn 10 has worked with Audi engineers on the development of the 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI model that will be featured in the game.  Audi is celebrating this collaboration by hosting the AXF-24 Audi-Forza Challenge which will be held at the Audi Forum in New York City while the 24 Hours of Le Mans is being run in France.   

The only bit of information probably worth caring about in this press release is that Forza Motorsport III will be available this October and will feature 400 manufacturers!    

Check out more information on Forza III and the newly released demo video @ http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/game/default.htm (Which features music from one of my favorite groups, Pendulum)

Box art and worthless press release after the jump.

[View with PicLens]

 

Continue reading 2009 E3 Expo: Audi Joins Forces with XBox 360 in Forza Motorsport 3

Blame management, the unions, asymmetrical trade regulations or tough competition — because the blasé love to blame. But no matter where your armchair analysis pins responsibility, the fact is that America’s once-proud R&D and manufacturing powerhouse has been reduced to bankruptcy — a fate that almost no other government has allowed to befall their automakers.

The President is priming the country for a bankruptcy that will affect assembly workers, suppliers, dealerships, and an already economically battered Midwest. We’ll liveblog his comments after the jump.

Continue reading Liveblog: Obama primes a post-industrial America.

Please welcome a new writer to the Speed:Sport:Life, Rob Krider.  Rob was the staff writer for NASA NorCal last year, and has been published in AutoWeek and MotoRacing Magazine.  Rob currently is a columnist for the Santa Maria Sun but wants to share his adventures and knowledge with a great group of car guys such as the readers of Speed:Sport:Life.  His column, Racer Boy, will be running bi-weekly and will cover every type of racing that us normal guys can possibly get involved in…from Pinewood Derby to the Demolition Derby.  This week Rob covers Solo 2 Autocross.  Please welcome Rob to the S:S:L team! — Zerin

One of the easiest/cheapest/safest ways to get into some type of motorsports is Autocrossing, otherwise known as Solo 2. Autocrossing is a timed event where an individual car maneuvers around a coned off twisty racecourse which is usually located in a large parking lot or abandoned air field. Each entrant gets three to five shots at going around the course as fast as possible and the fastest time wins. Motorsports glory is yours to be had.

Continue reading Racer Boy: Autocrossing 101, or How to Kill Cones