It is a lap still talked about with reverence. In 2003, in the Top 10 qualifying shootout for the Bathurst 1000, Kiwi, Greg Murphy, put down a lap that was not bettered until Friday practice in 2010 by Craig Lownes. In a series where the difference in Top 10 qualifying, even on a long track like Mount Panarama is measured in tenths and thousandths Greg Murphy blew the place up!
Murphy was an astonishing 1.0962 seconds quicker than second place qualifier John Bowe, himself, a legend of “The Mountain”. For those not familiar with V8 Supercar racing, the context of this may be a bit difficult, but just listen to Matty White and Neil Crompton call the lap, and that should be all you need to understand just how significant this lap was.
Austrailia’s great race, the Bathurst 1000 takes place this weekend. While many outside of Australia are not familar with the race, for that countries motorsports fans and athletes it is the pinicle of racing for them. Just as the Indy 500 or Daytona 500 are for American’s, the Monaco Grand Prix or the 24 Hours of Le Mans are for Sports Car fans, that is what Bathurst meens to Australians.
The Bathurst track at Mount Panarama is a “street course” but think of it more as a mountain road turned into a racetrack rather than the typical image that comes to mind when you think street course. We will be showing videos throughout the week of the track, laps of the track, and exciting moments for years past.
To kick things off today we are going to talk about Cam Waters. Cam, who is 16 years old, just won the chance to co-drive a car at this years Bathurst in the Shannons Supercar Showdown reality show run by the Kelly Brothers Racing and shown on Channel 7 in Australia.
It was a typical reality show format, “x” number come in, every week there are challenge and at the end of the show, someone goes home. The show was OK, but it was clear there were two or three contestents that were above and beyond everyone else, and Cam was one of them. The final contest was Cam against Andy and each had two laps to put in a qualifying time in a V8 Supercar, the winner would be the one with the quickest lap time. In the end, Cam won going a tenth and a half quicker than Andy.
Did we mention that Cam doesn’t even have a full license to drive on the road? However he Cam is in contention to win the Australian Formula Ford championship, so it’s not like he doesn’t have credentials!
So, here is a quick video put together to introduce eveyone to Cam Waters from the Shannons Supercar Showdown reality show. Good luck to Cam, the youngest person to drive a V8 Supercar in competition, and everyone else racing up at “The Mountain” this weekend.
First up is a video to remind you that all those videos you shoot with your camrea phone, Flip camera or actual video camera aren’t good! No seriously, this video of a 70’s Yamaha done up in Cafe Racer style shows how well done video of motorcycles can be high art.
Take some time to really look at how everything is shot, the music, the angles, etc, this person who put this together has some real skills!
The second video is also very beautiful, just in a different way. Michelin put together this production from last weekends 24 Hours of Le Mans motorcycle race. What I really impressed with is not just the the film, but that Michelin shows and highlights the winners who were not on Michelin rubber! Little things like that are to be noted and praised in an era where every bit of PR has to be spun to show you in the best light. Enjoy this one as well!
For many people who have bought the BOSS 302 Mustang, they have been wondering when they would receive their TracKey. It is the magic red key, that changes 200 parameters in the cars systems to provide maximum performance. It is “For Off Road Purposes Only”, but yet CARB, the California Air Resources Board, has not signed off on it. Ford can not guarentee that the TracKey does not affect emissions, the engine’s durability or mess with on-board computer diagnostics.
Given how well California’s government works, it may never happen, and once again, the People’s Republic of Kaliforna fowls it up for the rest of us. In a responce someone made this brilliant video which plays on the meme of changing the subtitles to a particular scene in the movie “Downfall“
Have a look and be prepared to be in tears with laughter!
This week the topic is wood. Sorta kinda. Actually, we’ll be touching on the very special wood that went into the new Cadillac Ciel concept, and we’ll be talking with none other than Clay Dean, the Director of North America Advanced Design for GM. We’ll be asking him where the future of Cadillac and other GM design is going in the next few years, and we’ll see if we can talk him into letting us test drive Cadillac’s new über-sedan — but somehow we doubt it. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo the Autoextremist and Scott Burgess from The Detroit News.
For the Ducatista among you, you have your moles, your informants, you know everything there is to know about the new Superbike coming from Ducati. For everyone else, well the wait is almost over! We’ve known for some time that the bike will be an 1199cc V-Twin, it is a completely new design for the engine, no more remenants of the current V-Twin which can trace it’s lineage back to the 1970’s. How does 195bhp and 395lbs (wet) grab you?
We also know that the bike will be much more expensive than the current 1198. In recent years the price difference between the Ducati and it’s Japanese rivals has shrunk, but now expect the entry level 1199 to come it at $20,000 U.S. with higher spec version coming in at $25K and close to $30K.
The bike will also have a name. Where every Ducati Superbike up to this point has been known by it’s engine size, 900SS, 851, 888, 916, 955, 998, 999, 1098 and 1198, this one will be known as the 1199 Panigale, as a nod to Ducati’s home.
Below you can check out a promo video from Ducati, where you can see Troy Bayliss ripping it up around the Mugello Circuit.
This week the Autoextremist hijacks the Autoline airwaves while John is in Frankfurt for the big auto show. Speaking of the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, we’ll be getting into a Frankfurt post-mortem including the invasion of tiny slo-mo EVs from VW, Opel and Audi and the Jeep Grand Cherokee-based Maserati Kubang. We’ll also discuss the NADA’s lobbying effort against upcoming fuel regulations, and we’ll talk about whether we’ll see watered down rules if Obama loses the White House. Also, Coda’s EV will be the first (almost) Chinese vehicle to enter the American market. And, Chevrolet will be aiming the next-generation Corvette at younger buyers — will it work? To discuss this and more, Peter De Lorenzo is joined in studio by Sharon Terlep of the Wall Street Journal and Gary Vasilash from Automotive Design and Production.
John McElroy is LIVE Tuesday from the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung, better known as the Frankfurt Motor Show, bringing you coverage direct from the floor of the show! Strap in and get a driver’s-seat tour of one of the world’s largest auto shows and participate in the interactive chat. Join us Tuesday morning to experience some of newest product being revealed and the people who are making it happen with representatives from Audi, Ford, Continental, BMW and more. So, get ready to see Frankfurt with an All-Access Pass courtesy of Autoline!
We were out at Greenfield Village over the weekend for their annual Old Car Festival. You get to see some really neat stuff from the beginning of the 20th Century and some years into it. This year though they had a 1770 Fardier de Cugnot which was pretty amaizing to see and watch. Thier were also replicas of the first Daimler car and motorcycle along with Henry Ford’s famous 999 car that he set world speed records in on a frozen lake.
We shot a ton of pictures and we have then for you in a slide show below, enjoy!
This week we’re coming in with our shoes shined and ready for inspection because we’ve invited the man in charge of quality for Volkswagen, Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi. Marc Trahan is the Executive Vice President, Group Quality, VW of America and if you want to know how the company is going to maintain its commitment to quality while growing to become the largest automaker in the world, this is the man to ask. To discuss this and more, John McElroy is joined in studio by Peter De Lorenzo of Autoextremist.com and Todd Lassa from Motor Trend.
