We recently found ourselves in the paddock at the Homestead Miami Speedway Speedjam, and like almost all racing events, there were plenty of high performance machines running laps on the track and there were some pretty high dollar exotics sitting in the infield. This particular quartet of super cars must have either been the property of a few of the Rolex Grand Am and IRL drivers or some other big ballers that were in attendance.
Yesterday, we talked about a group of scientists from Stanford’s Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory that have been working on an robotic Audi TTS and their ambitious attempt at running the fully automated vehicle at the Pikes Peak climb.
It turns out that the Audi TTS isn’t the only car these geniuses have been working on. In addition to the Audi TTS, the scientists also have a standard-looking VW Passat in tow, and while it looks unspectacular, to say the least, the Passat also comes with the some highly-advanced computer gear in the trunk that allows the car to park itself without any manual assistance.
Amazing as it sounds, the technology does have a few catches of its own. For the technology to show off its true worth, the car needs to have a layout of the area where it’s parking and, in addition to that, the computers inside the Passat have no means of detecting outside forces that may obstruct the car from parking on its own.
Nevertheless, a car that parks by itself is still something none of us have in our garages and it’s worth noting that in the event the technology goes mainstream in the future, you should know that the whole genius of an idea was made to fruition by these guys over a Stanford.
In the F1 world, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen is also known by a nickname that seems to suit his personality and driving style. Dubbed as the ‘Iceman’ by his peers, Raikkonen’s calculated and unflappable demeanor on and off the track
At this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Raikkonen gave new meaning to his nickname, after an overzealous Heiki Kovaleinen drove off his scheduled pitstop prematurely and taking part of the fuel rig with him along for the ride.
With gasoline pouring all over the pitlane, Raikkonen – which was behind Kovaleinen as they were exiting the pits – drove into the fuel and, for a split second, engulfing his Ferrari into a ball of fire. While other drivers would surely have panicked under similar circumstances, Raikkonen merely shrugged off the episode and, as soon as the flames disappeared, went about his merry way back on track.
If that doesn’t define Kimi as one cool customer, we don’t know what will.
Apparently, even celebrities – you know, those people who seem to have everything - can still wish for something and have them come true.
Ford’s ‘10 Unleashed’ promotion found itself with an unlikely individual wishing to get a chance to sit behind the wheel of a 2010 Ford Mustang GT: Queen Latifah.
The comedienne/musician used the 10 Unleashed promo to ask Ford if she could use the Mustang GT as part of her latest music video for her new song ‘Fast Car’. As we can imagine, the free advertisement the music video would give Ford was enough reason for the company to grant Queen Latifah’s wishes. The go-ahead from Ford even prompted her to take driving lessons from NASCAR driver Colin Braun on how to tame the thoroughbred engine sitting under the hood of the Mustang GT.
And now, we’ve finally gotten our hands on the ‘Fast Car’ music video where, as promised, the Mustang GT played a pretty prominent role. Check it out.
As expected, the Cadillac CTS-V dominated the challenge that bears its own name after seven of the top 12 fastest laps recorded came from the CTS-V.
Guess that means GM boss Bob Lutz will have to eat crow at another day.
The CTS-V’s dominance was apparent from start to finish. Six of the top seven cars were CTS-Vs, with the notable exception being a BMW M3 Sedan owned by one Michael Cooper, which placed fourth in the overall standings. Bagging the top spot was former GM Performance Division Executive, John Henricy after posting a lap time of 2m and 46.56s.
As for Bob Lutz, his lap time earned him a seventh place finish with a fastest lap time of 2m and 56.231 seconds, although it’s worth mentioning that out of all the CTVs that finished in the top 12, his finished second to last, beating the CTS-V driven by Chris Fairman (10th overall) with a fastest lap time of 3m 14.292s
Then again, BMW has been known to adhere to the mantra of ‘thinking outside the box’ and their latest campaign sure sounds like it came straight out of left field.
For this photo shoot, BMW decided to bring in model Sylvie van der Vaart for a photo shoot to see how her hairdo can stand up to the fierce winds generated by the wind tunnel. We told you the idea was out there.
In this behind the scenes video, van der Vaart – an absolute bombshell, if there was one - begins the shoot behind the wheel of a 1987 3 Series Convertible where – thanks to the powerful wind tunnel – her hair begins flying off everywhere. But later on, van der Vaart props into a 2009 3 Series Convertible and with the same wind blowing in their direction, her hair remains inexplicably intact.
Is it a product of a more powerful hairspray or just the fact that the aerodynamics and air turbulence difference between the ‘87 3-Series and its 2009 counterpart is beyond obvious? Judging from the fact that we know who BMW is, then we’re inclined to believe it’s the latter.
Even van der Vaart was impressed with the striking difference. "What a difference from the older model! I couldn’t feel the wind at all in the new model," she said. "I even had to check to see if they’d even turned it on."
We all remember John O’Quinn for two reasons. One, he was one of the most feared – and revered – lawyers in the land, having once successfully secured $17.3 billion in a tobacco settlement.
The other thing that we were fond about John was the fact that he was an avid car enthusiast. Actually, even ‘enthusiast’ sounds like an understatement. His list of cars ran long and among those that were prominent and high-profile included JFK’s Continental limos, Franklin Roosevelt’s Packard Limo, a Ford Escort that once belonged to Pope John Paul II, and of course, a Batmobile.
Sadly, the auto world lost a great man today after O’Quinn was killed as a result of crashing his Suburban yesterday. It was a life taken prematurely and the irony of it all was that he was killed by the very things he loved most in this world.
Well Bob Lutz laid down his V-Series Challenge and Cadillac seems to have retained their title of the world’s fastest sport sedan, with a little help from their friends of course. Owners of factory tuned fast four doors were invited to the Monticello Motor Club just outside of New York City and take on the CTS-V in a fast lap competition against the General Motors Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz, as well as a few seasoned racers and friends of GM like Brian Redman, Aaron Link and John Heinricy. Throwing a wrench into Cadillac’s plans was Skip Barber graduate Michael Cooper and his four door BMW M3, although the New York native is no professional, he did manage to finish right behind GM’s trio of road course ringers. Either way Cadillac did prove that the CTS-V can go fast, even with Bob Lutz behind the wheel, and everyone in attendance had more than they can seem to remember. In a time where consumers are more concerned with efficiency than outright lap times, it is nice to see that there are still automaker’s that are giving high performance driving enthusiasts exactly what they are asking for. Even more importantly, it shows that they still know how to have fun.
It looks like the folks responsible for the first video of the 9ff Porsche Panamera aren’t done teasing us on their fine-tuned beauty.
This second video once again shows off the Panamera’s gargantuan valve controlled sports exhaust system – as if we’re not drooling already. Turn up the volume and listen to that roar; it’s not hard to have goosebumps all over your body. The 9ff’s exhaust comes in a quiet and a loud setting, and by loud, we mean really loud. As an added treat to us, this time, the Panamera does get off the line and powers up its 550 horsepower engine by blasting off not once, but twice.
If these two videos have taught us anything about the 9ff Porsche Panamera, it’s that the car is more than just good looks, it’s got some serious rage going on under that hood.
One of the most-eagerly anticipated races today is one that doesn’t involve sponsorships, championship points, trophies – just bragging rights.
We’re talking about the Cadillac CTS-V Challenge, the brainchild of GM head honcho Bob Lutz. For this particular event, Lutz challenged a group of auto journalists and rivate owners to bring their production cars to go up against his Cadillac CTS-V at the Monticello Motor Club in New York.
Apart from the so-called ‘bragging rights’, we really don’t know what Lutz will get out of this, especially if his car – the CTS-V – loses out to rival vehicles.
Then again, it does make for a pretty interesting race. The rules are still murky but we’re hoping that bumping and grinding are perfectly legal.
In any case, GM gave us a quick tour of the Monticello track, the site of what promises to be a wildly entertaining race.
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