Crazily Fast and Furious

I mean why would anyone be happy if his team has already taken three wins in seven races but still trails by a considerable number of points? Ferrari’s president, Luca di Montezemolo, of course, should be unhappy. First of all, after a hat trick at the first race of the season, Ferrari’s Finnish Kimi Raikkonen has suddenly gone cold. So cold in fact that at the last four races of current season, the Finn failed to achieve a podium finish.

With a lackluster performance from the highest paid Formula One driver should cause Montezemolo to be “unhappy”. Even with a car that could outrun a sports car equipped with an Iceman cold air intake or an Injen cold air intake for that matter, the Finn seems to have lost his momentum after his win at the Australian Grand Prix.

Another disappointment for Ferrari is the disqualification met by Felipe Massa at the Canadian Grand Prix. After a back-to-back win at the Bahrain and Spanish Grands Prix, the Brazilian only finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix. After his disqualification at the Canadian Grand Prix, he only finished third at the United States Grand Prix.

But it seems that Montezemolo is unhappy with the rules in Formula One. “They need to change the rules on overtaking; I don’t like the rules on the safety car that seemed to play roulette in Monte Carlo,” said the Ferrari president.

Despite being behind by 35 points in the constructors’ championship standing, Ferrari still believed that they have a car that can put up a fight against the McLaren cars. Of course, they would have to contend with the consistency of the rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton. The young newcomer has taken seven podium finishes in his budding Formula One career. At the first race of the season he finished behind Raikkonen and teammate Alonso. From the second through the fifth race of the season, Hamilton finished second. And at the sixth and seventh races, the young British driver took back-to-back wins.

Montezemolo has this to say about the gap between them and McLaren: “We are talking about two or three fractions of a second. We have to improve on these milliseconds here and there in order to be competitive. Now we have to recover the competitiveness that we have lost in the last two months. We have two strong drivers and we have very good competitors and we must not forget in the first four races we were strong.”

Jenson Button, Honda Racing F1 racer, raced on the 212th spot in the United States Grand Prix today. Rubens Barrichello, Button’s fellow racer, didn’t have the chance to continue the battle when he was caught in an accident as he tried to avoid Ralf Schumacher when he slashed into cars. Too bad, Ruben needs to have a broken wishbone and a push rod to get out of the game.

Jenson Button said, "It was a fun race today but ultimately another disappointing afternoon for us. At the start I was on the outside and I was hit by Rubens, which damaged the front of my car along with the bodywork. That forced me across the grass and left me almost at the back of the field which was disappointing. Still it was a fun race with some good overtaking until my pit stop, when we had a problem with the fuel rig which cost me time and then I had about 15kg too much fuel in the car which compromised the rest of the race. We were just off the pace again and we now have a lot of work to do next week in Jerez to move our performance on."

Rubens Barrichello also added, "I think it was just an unlucky first corner racing incident today. I tried to avoid a spinning Ralf and unfortunately hit two cars, one of which was Jenson. The contact broke my front suspension and that was it for me today. Sadly Jenson’s car was damaged as well. We have an important test next week in Jerez, so the team just has to look forward now and focus on improving our performance for the rest of the season."

Engineering Director, Jacky Eeckelaert, said, "Rubens got a good start which allowed him to overtake Rosberg and get on equal terms with Ralf Schumacher. Unfortunately he was involved in a first corner incident which ended his race as the damage to his suspension was beyond repair. Jenson also lost five places in the same incident and sustained damage to the right hand side bodywork which compromised the aerodynamic performance of his car."

"Despite this he was able to make up six places before his pitstop. At the stop we had a pressure release valve failure on the fuel rig and switching to the second rig lost Jenson precious seconds in the pitlane. The midfield was very close so this lost Jenson three places. Both rigs delivered fuel at the stop so he was also running too heavy in the second stint which compromised his pace during the rest of the race," he concluded.

Only one Ferrari driver finished at the top 10 in the recent Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, Canada. The rookie and the first black grand prix driver from McLaren, Lewis Hamilton, notched the top spot thus marking his first ever victorious GP. Kimi Raikkonen of the Ferrari F1 team was 13.007 seconds behind and finished fifth over-all while his teammate Felipe Massa did not finish the race. It was a pretty tough race for the Ferrari F1 team as each lap went with bad luck on their tails and some unwanted malfunctions on their auto performance parts.

Jean Todt says, “We expected a tough race, but given the outcome, that was just a euphemism. The only really positive news of the day is that Kubica, who had a really serious looking accident, is reasonably alright, given the impact he sustained. In a race that was confusing and chaotic thanks to the numerous safety cars periods, we come away with just four points for Kimi, whose car was damaged in a collision at the first corner after the start and then after Kubica’s accident. As for Felipe, he was disqualified for driving out of pit lane when the light was still red. Of course this is not a happy moment for us. Now we have to study everything about this weekend, to understand how to move on. It is not the first time we have been in a situation like this and we have always shown that we can extricate ourselves from these difficulties."

Kimi Raikkonen believes, “It was a very difficult race for me, right from the beginning. I did not have much grip at the start, being on the dirty side of the track and immediately after, I hit Felipe’s car with my front wing. Then, there were so many safety car periods that it caused chaos. On top of that, after Kubica’s accident, a piece of debris got stuck in my front wing and I had so much understeer and some difficulties with the brakes. All these problems put together made this a really complicated race. At the end of the day, I picked up some points: it could have been better but it could also have been worse."

Felipe Massa, also did say, “What happened at the pit stop is a real shame. Even if the safety car didn’t help me I was having a good race and I could have brought home some important points for the championship. Unfortunately, when I left the pits, I did not even look at the lights, partly because there were so many cars in pit lane behind me. It’s true that today the McLaren was very strong, but this was not the result we should have had, we should have been able to finish on the podium. The season is long and still very open. We must work to improve our performance. I am happy that Kubica, who is a friend of mine, was not seriously injured in his accident: it is almost a miracle."

What makes up a good show? That would be stars and racing wheels, I guess. Well, just before you ask for it, let me now inform you that Fast Cars & Superstars will be on tonight and it would be talking about such a topic. Yes, the much awaited reality TV show will premiere tonight. And just as we all expect it to be, the primetime telecast of the Fast Cars & Superstars will be filled with hot wheels and stars.

John Cena, Serena Williams, Tony Hawk, Jewel, Gabrielle Reece and John Salley are just few among the celebrities you will see on the show. They will go on races with their fellow superstars on the newest reality TV show that will surely bring all the possible racing thrills you can have in the world. The Fast Cars & Superstars - Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race is a seven-episode series that will start tonight, June 7, at 8:00-8:31 p.m. Thursday at ABC. The six most talented and famous Gillette Young Guns will be paired to the twelve celebrity drivers going on race to the finish line. They will also learn more skills to get it through the race track.

Imagine movie stars, celebrities, sportsmen music lover and entertainers paired with these hot young men race car drivers to pursue the drama and the competition on the race track. These young Gillette Young Guns drivers - namely Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray - will coach these stars to compete against each others on the time and tension-filled race.

Kenny Mayne, an ESPN anchor, will host the show and he will be co-hosted by Brad Daugherty, a ESPN NASCAR and a former Cleveland Cavaliers center analyst.

Celebrity drivers that will attend the premiere of Fast Cars & Superstars tonight:

• Jewel (singer)
• William Shatner (actor)
• Tony Hawk (skateboarding legend)
• Krista Allen (actress)
• Ty Murray (seven-time World All-Around Rodeo Champion)
• John Salley (former NBA Champion)
• John Elway (former NFL Super Bowl Champion)
• John Cena (former NFL Super Bowl Champion)
• Serena Williams (tennis star)
• Gabrielle Reece (volleyball great and model)
• Laird Hamilton (legendary surfer)
• Bill Cowher (former NFL Super Bowl-winning Head Coach)
• Jimmie Johnson (Gillette Young Guns)
• Ryan Newman (Gillette Young Guns)
• Carl Edwards (Gillette Young Guns)
• Kasey Kahne(Gillette Young Guns)
• Kurt Busch (Gillette Young Guns)
• Jamie McMurray (Gillette Young Guns)

Now tell me that’s not star studded.

BBDO and Gillette co-created the "Fast Cars & Superstars - Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race" along with Radical Media which is the producer with Embassy Row Sports. Will they be experts not only racing but also on the small stuff like Chevy brake pads and the Honda clutch? Well, I guess we all have to watch the premiere and find out.

While the famous car makers like Ferrari and other huge racing car teams are spending thousands of dollars over building racing cars for F1, the Indian car market has the newest technology that can line up with these expensive racing cars but the difference is that that from India costs less.

Bangalore students of the RV College of Engineering in India are so hooked up with the new invention. All eyes are set to the Ashwa RZ 06 which is built with a 600 cc engine usually found on a motorbike. This is the second time that the India students made a racing car after four years.

These students are hoping that this car would not only serve as an experiment but also as a production car with a low cost that can compete with in the market which seems to be filled with famous racing cars. Of course, it may not be as gorgeous as those racing cars but the new invention is also oozing with uniqueness in its very own way.

And mind you, the racing car will be setting and joining a race at the Formula Society of Automative Engineers in Germany. The makers of the new racing car are hoping to get an end higher ranking than its 18th place rank that they got the last time they joined the international car racing competition.

The car manufacturer first discloses the RZ 05, but they say that the new RZ 06 is even more powerful than it. The RZ 05 was the very first design. The RZ 06 is given more power and even safer that the previous models. This was produced for only Rs 4 lakhsl.

Anyway, the car is not actually a car you can use for the Formula One Racing Car competition. The new low cost car is only handling an accelerator brake clutch system that is only suited for weekend racers.

Mudit Khanna, a student member of the Ashwa Project, says, "Formula One racers can manage any racing car. A weekend racer on the other hand needs an easily adaptable system. As a result we also have to concentrate a lot more on the saftey measures.”

The project of these Bangalore students begun in 2002 and only few teams made it to the Ashwa racing. Even though they are young, they are very capable of making a racing vehicle like this. Impressive, huh?

Anyway, the BMW control arm, BMW CV boot and BMW CV joint are just few among the car parts widely available online. If you need one, you can visit one of the sites that sell quality and durable auto body parts.