Izod/Phillips-Van Heusen-IZOD was celebrating the INDYcar Series Championship Week at The W hotel in South Beach on Saturday October 03, 2009.
The whole day was planned with the Indy Racing League and APEX-Brazil starting with a volleyball competition between the Miami Lifeguard and the INDYcar series drivers, in the evening a cocktail party was thrown in honor of the drivers with Miami celebrities and athletes in the Provencal garden of the W Hotel followed by a Brazilian Fashion Show with special guests N.E.R.D and Pharell.
The day was hot with happy Brazilian drivers and models celebrating Brazil a day after the announcement of the International Olympic Committee decision to attribute the 2016 Olympic games to Rio de Janeiro.
Vintage cars marking a century of American racing were displayed at the front doors of the W Hotel South Beach to welcome guests along with Izod car and motorcycle.
Interview with Michael Kelly, Executive Vice President of Marketing for Phillips-Van Heusen-IZOD Corporation after the jump.
Considering Bob Lutz’s recent challenge to take on any and all four door sports car competitors with a Cadillac CTS-V, it got us thinking about what four wheeled machine would be the perfect choice to bring to the Monticello Motor Club on October 29. At first we figured that a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution with its Audi R8 super car like handling might be able to keep up with the supercharged Cadillac sedan, but whereas the EVO X is only packing about 300 HP, the CTS-V is putting down a total of 556 HP. The next obvious choice would be a twin turbocharged V8 powered Porsche Panamera, however those aren’t scheduled to arrive until next year.
That is when it hit us, what would be better than a 1000 HP all wheel drive Bugatti super car to take on the bad boy from Cadillac. While this rendering displays a GT spec Galiber ready for the grid at Le Mans with its oversized rear wing and quad turbocharged 16 cylinder engine poking through the openings in the hood, the standard Bugatti super sedan will make use of the same 8.0 Liter W16 that powers its big brother the Veyron. Although it might be harder to get your hands on a Galiber than Naomi Campbell’s backside, it just might be the perfect street legal four door to take on GM’s Vice Chairman, that is as long as the straightaways are long enough.
After many years of similarly shaped economy cars tearing up the high banked ovals of the NASCAR circuit, there will now be a real sports car on track to lead the pack. Ford’s in house high performance division, Ford Racing, and the NASCAR specialists at Roush Fenway Racing have just unveiled the new 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Mustang. The 21st century thoroughbred will have no problem catching up with the competition when the new car makes its racing debut next July. This will not only add a bit of enthusiasm into the NASCAR circuit but it should undoubtedly help the blue oval move a few more units. Despite contemporary automaker’s reluctance to spend money on competitive racing programs, the old adage “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” still holds true today.
The Ford Mustang has a storied history in motor sports contests and can claim more than 2,000 professional race wins ranging from Trans Am to Funny Car and even D1 professional drifting titles. Jack Roush should know, not only has his aftermarket parts company been tuning Mustangs since 1995 and racing since the 1960s. Roush Racing fields no less than 10 racing vehicles in all three forms of NASCAR competition including the Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and the Craftsman Truck Series as well. Since turning a wheel in NASCAR competition, Roush has earned over 250 wins which all look good for this car of tomorrow spec Mustang.
Speaking of ambitious car building efforts, when a team decides to go racing there is almost nothing that can sand in their way, not even having to build a complete race car from scratch. When Patrón Highcroft racing driver Scott Sharp totaled his Acura ARX-02a LMP1 car heading into turn 3 during a practice session for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the fun loving tequila drinking team was faced with that very task. After making sure that Sharp was still on point and stripping the wrecked Acura for whatever was still race worthy, all that the Acura racing team could do was wait.
The brand new carbon fiber tub arrived directly from Honda’s Performance Development center in California at the racetrack in Atlanta, Georgia at 9:30 AM on Friday morning and after 15 and a half hours of non stop wrenching, the ARX-02a’s 4.0 Liter V8 was fired at around 1:00 AM the next day. About six hours later the Acura took the shape of an LMP car and was on the track and race ready by 9:45 AM Saturday morning. It might have been a tall order, but remember what we said about how nothing can keep a racing team from competing.
The NASCAR circus went short track racing this weekend at the Dover International Speedway in Delaware. The one thing that every driver was commenting on leading up to the race is that in order to be competitive at the Monster Mile you must commit 110% into every corner on the concrete racing surface. Being one of the shorter tracks on the NASCAR calendar, this all out commitment can be challenging, because when things go wrong, as they usually do in racing, this leaves the drivers with very little escape room, and tremendous multi car pile ups are almost certain to be on the bill for the day.
Unfortunately for the young driver, Joey Logano, his race ended just 32 short laps after it began; but that is when the ride began. After being bumped from behind by Tony Stewart going flat out, the number 20 Home Depot car slid across the flat part of the track before getting back onto the banking in turn 3 taking out three other cup cars along the way. Then Joey hit the inside wall and began to flip side over side seven and a half times before coming to rest with all four wheels on the ground after teetering on its side for an extremely long moment. Thanks to NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow, Joey Logano and the rest of the drivers involved in the racecar mangling spectacle at the Monster Mile this past Sunday.
High-powered BMWs racing down an open airfield is a joy to watch, although it would’ve been a tad better if the two cars were racing on an even playing field.
That’s where this video takes us after two BMWs – one is a standard M3 V8 while the other is a tricked-out M-Division S85 M3 V10 – decide that it would make for great viewing to see the S85 lay complete waste to the – by comparison – pedestrian M3 V8.
And that’s exactly what happens here. The monster V10 engine clearly overpowered its competitor, blazing off into the distance while the poor M3 was left to eat its dust. It’s all in good fun, though and we bet the video was created solely for the purpose of pimping up the power of the V10 engine.
Suffice to say, the message was heard loud and clear.
The Austrian based two wheeled off road racing specialists at KTM are making a play to become more competitive on the track with all four wheels gripping the tarmac when it unleashes the open air lightweight X-BOW GT4 race car into the category for the 2010 racing season. The new X-BOW GT4 has just finished its first round of on track action where the test session turned into an all out competition this past weekend at the 2009 British GT championship with driver Reinhard Kofler behind the wheel.
After sweeping the first three places in the final round of the GT4 European Cup at Nogaro, the sports car builder decided to upgrade the KTM X-BOW so that it could step out of the restricted Super Sport category and begin competing with the big boys, something that was shown when Mr. Kofler qualified just .45 seconds behind the larger and more powerful MTECH GT3 spec Ferrari F430 Scuderia. The X-BOW GT4 is powered by a 2.0 Liter TFSI four cylinder Audi engine and features a few improved aerodynamic pieces as well as a new cooling system to go along with the new chassis.
KTM’s U.K. manager, Jeff Lau said that
"While we have enjoyed success in the Supersport class, it’s not been as popular as the British or European organizers had anticipated. KTM in Austria therefore took the decision to develop a full GT4-specification X-BOW for the 2010 season. The objective for KTM is to position X-Bow as the leading contender in British and European GT4 racing next year, while also being cost-effective," targeting entry level GT racing teams for next season.
Like almost all Lotus built vehicles, the new Evora is going racing. From their initial design stages, the lightweight English automaker intended for the Evora to be competitive on the track as well as a road going super car, so when Lotus released the Evora 124 endurance race car it was only the next logical step for Colin Chapman’s car company. The Endurance racing Evora maintains the same lines and body panels as the road car with the addition of a ground effects kit that gets the Evora to stick to the racing surface.
In order to make the Evora even more competitive, the mid mounted Toyota V6 has been upgraded from the standard 280 HP to a tire shredding 400 HP in unrestricted trim, while the meticulous design team has managed to shed another 400 pounds from the already lightweight sports car. Lotus has also found room for a six speed sequential gearbox for lightning fast shifts, a full roll cage for safety as well as the obligatory fuel cell and fire extinguisher system. Of course what race car would be complete with a GT spec rear wing made from carbon fiber to compliment the ground effects kit made up of the rear diffuser and front splitter.
Keeping the car on track is a set of 18 inch rims wrapped in Pirelli racing slicks and a set of AP Racing 6 piston calipers underneath, while the suspension has been redesigned for increased adjustability. According to Luke Bennett, Director of Lotus Cars Limited, “Motorsport has been in our blood ever since our founder, Colin Chapman, built the first Lotus back in 1948. We are proud of our motorsport history, which includes victories in Formula One, Le Mans, saloon car, rally car and sportscar racing around the world; more recently, we won the British GT3 Championship in 2006 with the Lotus Exige. The Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racecar is from the same unique stable and we expect it to be a competitive racecar when we enter various endurance races next year.” You can expect to see the new Lotus Evora 124 competing at 24 hour endurance races at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Silverstone and even in Dubai.
With all the talk of the driver lineup changing in Maranello, it appears that Formula One veteran Giancarlo Fisichella’s stellar performance, coming a close second behind Ferrari’s championship hopeful at Spa just over a week ago, has landed the Italian a spot on the team that he has always dreamed of racing for. Giancarlo was happy to be driving for the Force India team this season, but he always said if the Scuderia ever approached him with an offer, it wouldn’t take much for him to jump ship. Thanks to the prancing horse’s test driver, Luca Badoer’s less than stellar performance in the absence of the recovering Felipe Massa, Fisichella has been given the opportunity of a lifetime.
Giancarlo began racing with the big boys in 1996 when he had a one year stint with Minardi and since then has accumulated 224 Formula One starts, 4 poles, 3 grand prix wins, 19 podiums and a total of 275 carrer points since he began competing in the top tier of motor sport. Not only will he pilot the #3 Ferrari F60 for the remaining five races of the 2009 season, but he has also been contracted to remain in Maranello to test in 2010. However with a little luck and a good showing, Giancarlo Fisichella might just find himself sitting inside of a red monocoque every grand prix weekend next year.
With all of the hype being pumped into the Need For Speed franchise by video game developers Electronic Arts, it would seem that the highly anticipated release of the latest Real Driving Simulator is falling by the wayside. That won’t be the case if the marketing department at Gran Turismo 5’s creators Polyphony Digital has anything to say about it. These screenshots of the game’s menu screen show off the designers ability to blend intricately designed sports cars with highly detailed backgrounds and ever evolving humans.
The vehicle on display is a GT500 Nissan GT-R from Japan’s Super GT racing series. If this were an SAT question we could ask "V8 Super cars is to Austrialia as Super GT is to (blank)", and you ought to know that the four door race cars from down under are bigger than NASCAR is here in the U.S. In what looks like over a billion polygons of GT-R you can see the extensive detail that the game’s designers went to as evident by the countless louvers and intricate head lamps. The surroundings look to be a plaza somewhere in western Europe because of all the German tourists and the Foto hut, but the best part about the people is that they have gained an extra dimension, just another display of the extent that the team at Polyphony go to.
From what we can tell from the images, Gran Turismo 5 will offer the classic Arcade mode, online gameplay, something that looks like the best birthday present ever, the tedious driver tests, some sort of a manage everything garage, a multimedia center, and the usual tools for adjusting the game settings and a place to save your progress. From previous experience we aren’t going to bother predicting when GT5 will be available, but one thing is for certain, no matter how many delays each new version of Gran Turismo endures, they are always well worth the wait.
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