Dope. #43

Photo courtesy of Bastien Bochmann.

What to watch this weekend (Mar 31th - April 3rd)

• Inside West Coast Customs. Spy. Thursday @ 8pm - 9pm (Discovery's HD Theater)
• Speedmakers. A look into today's electric cars; Tesla, Volt & C-X75. Thursday @ 9pm - 10pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD) replay at 9am Friday
• Chasing Classic Cars. Friday @ 9pm - 11pm (Discovery's HD Theater) 2nd season replays
• Why We Race - Episode 1; The Mustang Challenge. Amateurs and semi-pros travel to Utah to pick up their identically prepped cars. Saturday @ 12pm - 1pm (Discovery's HD Theater) replay
• WRC - Rally Sweden; Preview and Days 1, 2 & 3. Sunday @ 10:30am - 1pm (Discovery's High Def Theater) (Replay/Highlights Sunday @ 10pm) season premier, no replay
• Australian V8 Supercars. The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, South Australia. Sunday @ 3pm - 5pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD)

Another great weekend of motorsport for everyone out there. While Discovery's airing of the World Rally Championship 2011 season is both delayed (3 races behind) and condensed, it's still great to see how all the best drivers in the world are fairing with in-car footage and solid commentary. As long as you don't look up the current standings and ruin the fantasy, you're in pretty good shape! Also making an appearance this weekend is the second race of the 2011 Australian V8 Supercars touring car season, airing on Speed this Sunday. If you haven't had a chance to see a V8 Supercars race before, Aussie touring car racing is chock-full of close quarter, high speed, pit-stop laden, four door tappin' action. And because they race on road-courses with plenty of curves, it makes for quality viewing of driver skill.


Photo hosted courtesy of AP/nimg.sulekha.com

Quick Vid: Bugatti Veyron SS #2

Autocar's recent roadtest of the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport hypercar.

Quick Vid: BMW Unscripted. Juergen Greil.

A short film on the lead designer of the BMW Vision Concept. Outstanding.


Video courtesy of BMW.

For the love of Rally: Group B - Too Fast To Race

With the 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC) season in full swing, it's hard not to get nostalgic. There have been many legendary drivers and cars that made names for themselves in rally racing, over the past 50+ years, but the most notoriety is tied to when rally racing seemed to have no rules at all...besides going as fast as technically possible; this was the age of Group B.

In the 1982 there were two major rule regulation classes within FIA Rally racing; Group A and Group B. Group A was a privateer targeting class using near-factory production cars, requiring 4 seats and public production of 5000+ cars a year. Group B, on the other hand, was a class targeting manufacturers to showcase technical superiority much like Formula 1; manufacturers could enter prototype cars, with extremely limited homologation, meaning less production cars had to be made for public consumption by rule (200+ cars a year). This fact directly lead to freedom of technological experimentation. Lightweight materials, high-output engine technology and aggressive design were highlights of Group B. And Group B's trump card? No limit on boost. Turbo technology development ran rampant through motorsports in the 80's; from Formula 1, IMSA GT to international 24hr endurance racing. Rally racing was no different in this regard and with no limit on the boost levels for turbo motors in Group B, what was already one of the most challenging and dangerous forms of motorsport in the world became leagues hairier.

As to be expected, with the wild international crowds that frequented FIA sanctioned rally events and the 700+ hp racecars being flicked around corners by fearless pilots, things got deadly. This documentary is the story of the drivers, manufacturers and legendary cars of this short era of motorsport history.


Video hosting courtesy of OffCambered.

Dope. #42

author: unknown

What to watch this weekend (Mar 24th - Mar 27th)

• Car Warriors. Teams of builders take on the 86' El Camino. Friday @ 9pm - 10pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD)
• Chasing Classic Cars. Friday @ 9pm - 11pm (Discovery's HD Theater) 2nd season replays
• Formula 1 - Australian Grand Prix; from Melbourne/Albert Park Circuit. Qualifying. Saturday @ 2am - 3:30pm (SPEED/SPEEDHD) replay Sunday at 12am
• Formula 1 - Australian Grand Prix; from Melbourne/Albert Park Circuit. Race. Sunday @ 1:30am - 4am (SPEED/SPEEDHD) replay Monday at 12pm
• Indycar Series - Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, FL. Sunday @ 12:30pm - 3pm (ABC/ABCHD)

This weekend is what I've been looking forward to for quite some time; the beginning of the 2011 F1 and Indycar seasons. Like I said previously, I'm going to try following Indycar this season so I'm all 'learned up' on the major players before the Baltimore Grand Prix; hopefully Simona is one of them. What better way to start off with Indycar than a close quarters race at one of the best street tracks in the US; the (closed off) public roads of St. Petersburg, Florida. And in the red corner, we have Formula 1 action in Australia. We'll see what McLaren has done with their aero package to help Hamilton and Button match up better with Ferrari and Redbull in the corners. We'll also see if Vettel has what it takes to defend the championship belt with a target on his back. Is old 'Shuey' going to have the car he needs to be competitive this year? Only time will tell. In the words of Bart Scott, CAN'T WAIT.

Photo courtesy of f1fanatic.co.uk