Top Speed previously reported that racing driver and television host Tiff Needell and popular English television star, John Barrowman had been involved in a car accident in a rally prepped Subaru while filming a slot for the English automotive program Fifth Gear. Before we only had a few still images to show you, but today, Fifth Gear revealed the video of the crash.
You may remember Ken Block’s crazy gymkhana Subaru or his latest remix rendition, but what would it be like if the BBC’s production staff had chance to film their own rendition of a Ken Block video? Watch and see as the DC Shoes owner and rally driver takes Top Gear’s James May out for a spin, literally, and do a little racing with dirt bike champion Ricky Carmichael.
Just last week, classic racers were screaming up the hill outside Lord March’s estate at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Have a look back at a previous year’s festival when the Pikes Peak champion Rod Millen brought his record setting Toyota Tacoma race truck to England.
Ford will be bringing the Fiesta Movement to the racetrack when a few of the European minded city cars are campaigned at X Games 15 at the end of this month. However the compact rally racer is slated to make its North American motor sport debut at the upcoming Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. The vehicle’s run up the hill is guaranteed to be more than just a shakedown run.
The Swedish Olsbergs Motor Sport Evolution (MSE) team has decided to prepare a pair of three door Ford Fiesta’s for the event that will be televised around the globe here in the U.S. on ABC and ESPN. It is fitting that they have chosen someone who speaks their language to get behind the wheel, Swedish driver Kenny Brack. The other driver has not yet been announced. All three Fiestas will compete in the Rally America Open Class. That should be no problem for the 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner who will be making his X Games debut. Brack retired from motor sports in 2006, but has decided to come back in a Ford Fiesta. Could we see the 17 year old rally phenom, Markus Eriksson sitting in the other car?
One thing that Tiff left out of the instructions was how to handle a jump. The driver of this Subaru Impreza looked like a pro flying through the air at over 100 MPH. It’s a shame that the Japanese automaker withdrew from WRC competition; they definitely established themselves as a serious automotive competitor through the all terrain racing series. Hopefully through their partnership with Toyota, the upcoming rear wheel drive sport compact will add a little more of that bad boy attitude back into their lineup.
Certain automotive enthusiasts have a particular lust for certain makes and models that can lead them to do crazy things. Some spend ridiculous amounts of money, some dedicate a little too much elbow grease and other do both. Their quest to obtain the vehicle of their dreams often ends with half built cars, clutter garages and broken marriages; but for some reason they strive on. Fortunately there are a few instances where all of the benefits can be had with none of the nasty drawbacks. One suck lucky car builder is Coen Donkers from Holland. Donkers was a fan of a particular Audi race car, but being that the real thing is over twenty years old and in limited supply, Coen decided to build himself an Audi Sport Quattro.
When Donkers picked up the car that would eventually become what you see before you, it was a wrecked shell of its current self, but luckily for Coen, he runs an Audi parts shop in Veghel, Holland. So he already had garage space for the project and a team of mechanics that could work on it in their down time. Coen decided to keep things simple, replacing the bent bodywork and work out pieces with all new OEM parts. Despite the Audi Sport Quattro replica’s wild appearance, the exterior is stock, it is just covered in graphics inspired by the rally car from the 1980s that make it look so radical.
Ken Block is back with an all new Subaru and plenty of BFGs in the highly anticipated sequel to the original Gymkhana video starring the DC Shoes owner behind the wheel. This time Ken is sliding around in a rally inspired2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI built by Crawford performance. In order to top the Segway circling antics of the first Gymkhana video, Ken had to call in few friends to help out. Like MTV’s Rob Dyrdek and satelite radio’s Jason Ellis; the crew at Mad Media also brought along a big bag of props to take Gymkhana 2: The infomercial to the next level.
Here to help you get through the beginning of the work week and just in time for a lunch break, we here at Top Speed bring you the award winning short film, Climb Dance. The video features rally legend Ari Vatanen in the Peugeot 405 T16 climbing Pikes Peak in a way that you have never seen before. Enjoy!
Even if the Ford Fiesta hasn’t been properly introduced to the American market, the blue oval brand is planning on sending a few of its rally based machines to compete in the classic American test of man and machine, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Taking place in Colorado on July 19th, completing the Race to the Clouds is just as much of an accomplishment as setting a record around the Nurburgring, and just as difficult.
In order to reach the summit, drivers must negotiate 12.42 miles of winding mountain road, there is imminent danger awaiting just around each one of the course’s 156 turns and while rising the 4,721 feet to the peak, drivers will have to adapt to everything from paved highways surrounded by pines to loose gravel surrounded by nothing more than wide open blue Colorado skies.
The vehicles will be heavily modified rally cars based on the Fiesta hatchback, and will be powered by 2.0 Liter Duratec Ford four cylinder engines, capable of putting out over 800 HP each. Ford will bring Swedish Rally Champion Andreas Eriksson and World Rally legend Marcus Grönholm to try and conquer the mountain.
Yesterday we were pretty bummed out to report that the Focus RS was definitely not coming to the U.S. However, after seeing this video from Ford showing the rally version of their new Fiesta in action, things are going a little better. The rally inspired Fiesta is called the R2. Although there are no turbos under the hood of this sporty little subcompact, the naturally aspired, 2.0 Liter engine looks like more than enough to make a party out of the Fiesta.
Let’s just hope that Ford doesn’t decide to make it another one of those Europe only deals.
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