The sport of Drifting is catching on like wildfire the world over, and that’s not exactly surprising considering it carries the most entertainment value of any motorsport out there. Even F1 has become mundane with cars lapping continuously in a “follow the leader” fashion for two hours. There isn’t much in the form of action, except when spectacular crashes happen, sending carbon fiber shrapnel everywhere. Not exactly safe, but it’s action nonetheless. Yes, aerodynamics make it difficult to overtake blah blah blah.
Drifting brings together the most exciting aspects of our favorite forms of racing in an exciting showcase. What could be better than watching massive horsepower cars going sideways, door to door with each other at breakneck speeds with smoke bellowing out their arches? Okay, well, participating would be better, but not all of us have the type of skill and precision needed to pull off some of these stunts. Of course, some may, so learning a bit about the best vehicles to take out onto the track is important.
The recipe for a great drift car is a generic affair with the following characteristics at the fore: RWD (Duh!), good chassis balance, engine tuneabilty, a limited slip differential, and obviously accessible tuning parts to make the aforementioned a reality. In the list below, you will find a short description on what unique attributes each of the cars bring to drifting, and hopefully will give you a better understanding of the sport and what building a good drift car requires.
Hopefully this will get you swatting bugs with your side windows in no time. Proceed with caution though, as this is a highly addictive adrenalin rush waiting to happen.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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Nothing grips us at TopSpeed more than a seriously dangerous car chase scene while munching on popcorn and sipping on a cold one. Be it special effects or balls to the wall stunt driving, the action entertainment factor is undeniable and just another reason to love the movie industry. They get to do things we mere mortals only dream of doing with cars we only dream of woning. Every new blockbuster brings faster, harder, and more dangerous antics than before, keeping us glued and wanting more.
This collection spans more than thirty odd years proving that older movies with real stunts and no CGI still get our blood pumping, especially when you consider the dangers faced by stuntmen all those years ago. There are hot women, exotic metal, loads of tire screeching, crashes, and huge jumps to reminisce about. Here then, is our tribute to the best individual car stunt scenes Hollywood has to offer.
Hit the jump for the list.
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This is the ultimate bar room and barbecue debate that has been raging on for years and will no doubt persist for years to come. What makes a car cool? Is it cutting edge technology, timeless and sexy good looks, or ultra high performance?
We think it’s all of those features and then some. In addition to a combination of those factors, we’d like to think that a cool car can be defined as something that has influenced our attitude and thinking towards how we perceive what a car is and stands for. Some of them have an intangible quality that has captivated our hearts and minds.
Here then is our Top 50 coolest cars of all time. This is obviously a very subjective and contentious topic so feel free to leave your comments, criticisms, and additions at the bottom of the page.
Hit the jump for the hallowed list.
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There are certain items out there that are marketed to automotive lovers, such as shirts, caps, lighters, wallets, and books. While we don’t recommend wearing a Ferrari polo shirt when you don’t have a Ferrari in your garage, you get the idea.
One of our favorite automotive themed items are pieces of jewelry that you wear on your wrist; watches. We are huge watch fans here and we have had our share of expensive Swiss timepieces and are always happy to share our knowledge with our readers, especially if those readers are big petrol heads like us.
There are many different watch companies that have partnered with automakers, which in return, have created gorgeous masterpieces, some that can cost as much as a new car or even a house. Below we have listed our ten favorite automotive themed watches from Rolex, Breitling, and Panerai.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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During our drive of the new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, we overheard many shoppers commenting about a need for four-wheel drive in their vehicles. Now, let’s be honest for a moment. Most of these moms and dads will never use the abilities of a four-wheel drive machine. The parking lot at the local grocery store doesn’t have rocks that you need to scale in order to get into the parking lot or deep lakes in front of the door.
Yet, there are those who do use these machines the way they are supposed to be used. A real four-wheel drive machine can do so much in the rough stuff that it’s hard to be stopped. Crossovers and luxury SUVs – besides the Range Rover – would be left for dead.
When looking at the top ten vehicles that have wonderful off-road abilities we first need to find ten of them. It was actually quite a task to find ten vehicles like this. It seems the days of the big off-road SUV are in the past. When we managed to locate them, we looked at build quality, off-road ability, on-road ability, style, comfort, and power.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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Some people are willing to pay a pretty penny for luxury. Just look at the price of a first growth French Bordeaux or a tin of Beluga Caviar. These objects are for the rich, the very rich, and to go along with their high-end eats they need high-end vehicles.
We all know that the Bugatti Veyron is the most expensive car in the world, along with its many different variations, so we aren’t just going to do a list of the Bugatti’s, even though it sure would be easy.
Most of these machines are extremely high performance and they aren’t the sort of machines you will see hanging around the local Wal-Mart. In fact, many won’t see BMW’s around Wal-Mart, but that’s beside the point.
Years ago, we reported the top ten most expensive cars in the world as created by Forbes Auto. Well that list detailed how expensive these cars are to own, but we have always held the notion that if you afford these sorts of machines, you can afford to service them and if not, you need an accountant.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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As useless as they might seem to some people, the luxury full size vehicle segment is one that is a fairly large seller in the United States. The ability to travel off the road – in most cases -, haul a family and cargo, and ride around in the lap of luxury is the quintessential American dream.
That might have been a lie, as America’s offerings in the luxury SUV market aren’t all that good compared to the rest of the world. That doesn’t mean that the U.S is lagging behind though. It might not be great, but the Cadillac Escalade is the king of bling and one of the most recognizable vehicles on the road.
So, what sort of characteristics do we look for in these monsters of the road? Obviously, they need to look good because, after all, that’s what matters most with these things. The motors need to be strong and fuel efficient, the interiors need to be built and laid out well, and they need to be able to travel in the rough stuff. There is no price cap for these vehicles.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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Have some cash to blow, but the wife, and/or husband, won’t let you buy a Porsche? Well, as bad as that might be, mid-range crossovers won’t solve that pain. Instead, they’ll provide a luxury driving experience with the fun factor of getting stabbed.
Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad. As much as we don’t like crossovers, we do think they’re better than massive SUVs. Some can even be fun to drive now and again. For these tests we will be looking at style, image, standard equipment, interior space, and driving dynamics. Price will also be considered, but not as much as the other areas.
We will have to get a price cap to keep things in the mid-level, so we’ll set it at $45,000. That should be more than enough to get the lower end luxury models from Cadillac plus the German and Japanese car companies.
Hit the jump to see the list.
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Ranking the best cars is fun, but ranking the worst is like frolicking on a perfect beach, it just never gets old. Taking into consideration that the year is almost complete, we wanted to rank the worst vehicles of the decade and seeing as how there were so many, ten just wasn’t enough.
Some weren’t very hard to think of, stuff like the Chevrolet Aveo and the Smart ForTwo were obviously going to be on the list, but there were a few that will shock you. If one sentence can sum up our thought process during this evaluation it would be this, ’high sales don’t mean anything’.
Look at the Chevrolet Impala and the Jeep Wrangler. Both sell fairly well, but both are awful. The Impala is fat and drives like a boat and the Wrangler is an off-road machine that most won’t take in their yard, leaving it hard and uncompromising on the road. Despite these two perfect examples of automotive incompetence, both didn’t make the list.
Find out what did by hitting the jump.
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Despite our lack of love for these machines, they are cars that people love to buy, so we felt we had to rank our favorites, despite not really having a favorite. It’s more like a list from the vehicles we can’t stand to the machines we could tolerate.
In order to rank these crossovers we had to look at them in a few ways. The reason for buying one of these is practicality, safety, style, and comfort. That’s what the public is looking at. We, on other hand, will incorporate those with our own interests, such as speed, driving dynamics, and coolness level. All of these machines will cost under $30,000.
There are plenty to choose from, with options from Ford, General Motors, Honda, and Toyota. Not to mention the smaller companies like Hyundai and Kia who are creating better machines on a monthly basis. So, do these new boys have what it takes to take down the old veterans?
Hit the jump to find out.
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