February 24, 2007
Hungry for foreign racing cars? Brace yourselves, seat back and hold your grip, as the South African vehicle invades the racing industry in the US. And to achieve such, it would be bringing the speedier Noble M12 GTO-3R in on the racing industry.
Almost all skidders and racing car fans know that the Noble super car is actually one of South Africa’s finer exports. And now, the Ohio-based 1g racing vehicle has did all their best efforts to sell the Noble M12 GTO-3R and M400 in the U.S.
The body of the vehicle will be built in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. You will be receiving the chassis only - it will be shipped without the engine or the transmission as a component albeit an assembled, painted, and upholstered one with brakes, suspension, and wheels would be coming soon enough.
The car has been already fitted with the powerful powertrain parts and the Duratec V-6 engine that found is in the Mazda6 might be a good fit. The exterior parts are more like the ones used in the Cincinnati, and you can have it viewed at the official website which is www.1gracing.com.
Now, do you think the American racing car enthusiasts will not get excited about this? I am not that involved in car racing but upon knowing about its specs, I guess the new Noble M12 GTO-3R will offer more good things in the US racing industry.
February 10, 2007
Are you ready for the latest racing car from Porsche? Bob Carlson, Porsche’s Manager of Automotive & Motorsport Press, together with Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport, reveals the freshest new 2007 RS Spyder in Chicago Auto Show today.
Although the presentation wasn’t that impressive, Porsche was able to unleash the new 2007 RS Spyder which was fresh from the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The new car promises to have an expertly handled airflow after its 2006 successful debut. Now, the new version of the sports endurance racer sports evenly refined bodywork. Kristen says, “The car is basically the same in all the areas you can’t see, and completely new in what you CAN see.” New Porsche parts are installed on the new car.
Kristen also mentioned that the secret of Porsche’s success in racing is because the cars are made accessible to the costumers. The racer cars can be used as street cars. And with that in mind, the P1 would be too much of a jump for most customers so Porsche will hold off for the foreseeable future.
After the release of RS Spyder, Porsche did not announced to unveil new model soon. However, its new Panamera is expected to account for as much as 40% of overall sales and the 911 was able to reclaimed Porsche’s sales crown last year.
February 7, 2007
Driven by my fascination and love for the movie The Fast and The Furious, I have certainly been looking for all other facts about that film. Sure, the movie does show off tons of vehicles (which are also my favorite!) but knowing more about the other stories within the story itself gives me a different thrill. I can describe it to be more of like finding the right window regulators and motors for my vehicle after a long search.
Anyhow, I did find these pieces of trivia about the movie from Wiki and I’d like to share them with you:
After the credits are done, the scene shifts to Baja, Mexico where a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS is tearing through the desert and inside it is Dom Toretto who talks about how he lives his life a quarter of a mile at a time.
The Jetta driven by the character Jesse is owned by Frankie Muniz, who said in an interview that it is the first car he has ever owned.
During the first night race, Director Rob Cohen makes a cameo appearance as a Pizza Hut delivery driver.
The title "The Fast and the Furious" was taken from the 1954 film with the same name, although the plots are not related.
During the "Race Wars" scene when Johnny Tran is about to race Jesse, Johnny Tran pulls up to the starting line with a black shirt on. After he glances over to Jesse, he is now wearing a black tank top.
Also during the Race Wars when Dom gets in the fight with Tran, as the security guard is pulling him off, Vin Diesel accidentally elbowed him in the face breaking his nose.
During the shoot out scene between the Supra and the dirt bikes, as the drivers are shooting, they are hitting the cars that are parked on the side of the road. When the bullets hit the windows on the cars, you can see the windows shattering outwards.
During the final race we see Dom shifting gears in the Dodge; however, when he is shifting after both drivers know the train is coming, we see the pedals are set up for an automatic car. Dom’s hand movement on the shifter suggests he shifts up and over into 5th gear, which no aftermarket automatic transmission has a setup for. (this is because he does have an automatic! he’s shifting from Drive into Overdrive.)
While the credits are rolling we see the main actors names flash across the screen with a sketchy drawing of a car behind them. The car behind each name is the car that the actors character drove in the movie. The easiest way to tell is when Paul Walker and Ja-Rules’ names flash across the screen and we can clearly make out the Eclipse and Integra.
In the beginning when Brian (Paul Walker) is test driving the Eclipse at the parking lot, there are a total of seven gear shifts that are noticeable. At least six are shown and the seventh comes during a camera angle outside the car, but we can hear the RPMs drop as the driver makes a shift.
Paul Walker’s character’s name is Brian O’Connor. Brian Earl Spillner is an alias used to get into Dom’s gang. In the second movie during the run to be a driver for the Drug lord, the undercover agent is checking ID’s and Brian’s name comes up "Brian Earl Spillner".
During the first night race when Dom (Vin Diesel) puts his rx-7 in first gear and drops the clutch it shows three rotors spinning inside of the engine. This is due to the fact that an rx-7 is a rotary engined car and doesn’t have pistons. However, the 13B engine that would normally power the car only contains 2 rotors… this would imply that Dom’s car is powered by a 20B-series motor only found in the Japanese Domestic Market Euenos Cosmo. A twin rotor engine would have been more accurate.
During the beginning of the movie when you first see the tractor trailer, there are a total of three different trucks used. You can tell by looking at the roof clearance lights. Some of the bulbs are dead in the different trucks.
The first quarter-mile in the movie takes about 1 minute and 30 seconds real-time, and the second one at the railroad crossing takes about one minute.
Some of the cars in the movie attain speeds of up to 160 mp/h, or about 250 km/h, which is unheard of in runs going over 10 seconds. Lower class top-fuel drag racers clock in at 280-350 km/h at the finish, with a total time of 6.5 to 7.5 seconds.
I bet you didn’t know that.
By the way, if you do know some other pieces of trivia, give me a shout. Can’t you tell I’m really interested?
