HPDE 101, Passat fails tech, gets replaced with Ariel Atom

Some may remember the original article where I had purchased a 1991 VW Passat, a.k.a. Pissant, for $400. It ran great, and even came with a trunk full of parts. The interior was trashed, but I figured that the interior was just weight on the track. My plan was to strip the interior, sort out the loose strut and a bad CV joint, brake job, and head out to my first National Auto Sport Association (NASA) High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) event in May of 2011.

I had zero spare time through the winter, and there I was, sitting on April with hardly anything done on the car. I spent a few nights a week on it, after the kids hit the sack, and met most of my objectives. Got the struts figured out and string-line aligned the car. Changed out the CV half shafts, rebuilt the brake calipers, and changed all the fluids. The motorized seat belts were broken, but I found some four-point harnesses that were advertized as bolt-in on a random web page. … Continue Reading

2011 Grand Prix of Canada: the awesomely miserable weekend

2011 Grand Prix of Canada: thirty-four passes, six safety car deployments, two lead changes, two-hour suspension, longest F1 race ever, won by a man who had two accidents, a penalty, six pit-stops, and managed to come from last place to take the lead in the final lap. I had room in downtown Montreal Hilton, fantastic Grand Stand 32 seat and… I missed it all.

Months in planning, this was supposed to be a fun three-day weekend with my wife and daughter. They were going to wonder around the city while I was at the track for the practice, qualifying, and the race. We were going to spend the mornings and evenings together, and all that pretty much happened but it almost did not. … Continue Reading

TopFuel Dragster vs. $11,000 Camera

Mark Rebilas is a Phoenix-based professional photographer. Always wanting to get the perfect shot, Mark sets up remote cameras in places that are too dangerous to stand in. This has the added benefit of obtaining pictures from multiple angles.

Mark tells a story of how his remote Nikon D700 with a 400mm f2.8 lens (roughly $10,000+) met a 200MPH TopFuel dragster at the California Hot Rod Reunion Nostalgia Drag Race in Bakersfield, CA. The pictures, story, and the video give a cool insight into how photographers generate these amazing pictures.

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Review: 2010 Hyundai Tucson GLS

The year was 1986 when my parents decided that the old Buick should be replaced by a new, reliable, fuel-efficient, Japanese car. At the time however, a new Asian company came onto the market in United States. The cars seemed similarly made and of similar quality but at a much lower price. My parents ended up with a loaded four-door hatchback Hyundai Excel GLS. The S must have stood for sunroof, which was the only thing that was electrically powered. No air-conditioning, no power-steering, and a five-speed manual made the best use of the 68-horsepower dished out by the furious 1.5-liter four.

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Red, White, and Flashing Blues

Due to an isolated case of the lead-foot, and a not-so-isolated case of the speed trap, I had the misfortune of being “lasered” by a motorcycle cop hiding under a tree on a side street of this road:

In fact the road is called a “parkway.”  It has four lanes: two in each direction and is straight for at least three quarters of a mile.  Common sense suggests a reasonable and prudent speed limit would be in the range of 35-40 mph.  Well common sense, in this case, would be wrong.

25 Miles-Per-Hour.

That is the limit.  A speed easily surpassed by most bicyclists and invasive growing lawn weeds. … Continue Reading

A Boxster Tale, Part 2

Part two of The Boxster Tale.

I told my wife about the car and the story that her father, Michael, told me. She really wanted him to get the car and instructed me to convince him of that. I told her that he may have some reservations regarding the price. While the car is priced well, dumping almost twenty large out of savings for something you don’t entirely need ain’t exactly fun. … Continue Reading

A Boxster Tale

My phone rang on an early Saturday morning interrupting my oatmeal consumption. It was my father-in-law, Michael, and therefore I promptly ignored it. It rang again two minutes later, same number, and sensing urgency I answered. In a very excided way Michael begun describing that this mechanic in town which he goes to twice per year has this great Porsche for sale. I listened while desperately trying to prevent my eyes from rolling into the back of my head: “it’s a 2001, and it only has 14,000 miles on it, it’s a two-seater, it’s in great condition and he is asking $20,000 for it”. Despite my obvious efforts not to entertain this, Michael was insistent that I drive there and look at it. Fine. … Continue Reading

Local Hero Goes For Rally Gold

What do you want to be when you grow up?  The question all men are asked early in their childhoods. The answer is never a cubicle-bound paper-pusher.  At an early age all boys aspire to be someone great, someone heroic, someone inspirational such as a firefighter or a race-car driver. Sadly, most of us end up spending our days replying to email chains or sitting in meetings discussing the next fiscal budget.

Meet Bill Bacon, rally race-car driver for Bacon Motorsport Team and a professional firefighter from Chemsford, Massachusetts. In case his resume does not sound impressive enough add president, and the only employee, of a small garage door installation company. Just for good measure throw in race-car builder, fabricator, mechanic and the guy who sweeps the floor at the end of the day.

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The Most Original E30 You Will Ever See!

My friend Steve is shopping for a new car. Saturday morning he drags me out and makes me go look at some E39 M5. We get to Concord Motorsport somewhere in New Hampshire; a place that not only sales used cars but is also a maintenance and performance shop, as well as an authorized Dinan dealer.

We’re checking out the place and the two E39 M5′s they had in stock. I started chatting with the owner, Mike, about what an cool collection of cars they have for sale, including two E30 M3′s in very good condition, and how the market for E30s has been picking up and how difficult it is to find a non-rusted one. Mike says that he has a nice E30 in the garage and a 2002 race car that I maybe interested in. … Continue Reading

Rally Racing, part 1: Building the Car

This is the first of three articles on Rally Racing. I intend to cover car set-ups, driver training, different classes, and whatever else I may come upon. This part will show a built of an Open Class rally car, which is essentially a race car based on a production car, but with the least restrictions placed on it. For instance, the engine has to use the original block, but otherwise is only limited by a 34mmx3mm restrictor plate.

Helping me write these series of articles is Bacon Motorsport. Bacon Motorsport is a privateer family race team from Chemsford MA. Team drivers are William Bacon Jr and Peter Watt. Bill has more than ten years of racing experience and  Peter was the Canadian rally champion in 2004. The team has recently finished in third place at the Sno*Drift Rally in Michigan. … Continue Reading

Entered Bob Lutz’s CTS-V Challenge!

UPDATE – WE WERE SELECTED  TO GO AGAINST BOB LUTZ IN THE CTS-V.

Recently, GM started a new marketing campaign titled “May The Best Car Win”. As part of this campaign, General’s top CarGuy, Bob Lutz challenged the automotive journalists “to find a stock production sedan on the planet that could outperform the CTS-V on the track”. This challenge has been accepted by Jalopnik’s Wes Siler who will be driving a Jaguar XFR. The challenge was further opened to other participants and guess what? For the heck of it, my friend Mike and I have entered the contest to take on this challenge in a 2008 BMW M5! … Continue Reading

Of Fords and Ferraris – Working on the Ford GT Program

My good friend Bob Knox is a serious car guy, but not the kind who can recite articles from Motor Trend of why the F-150 is a better truck than the Tundra. No, Bob is a purist, he is the kind of man who can explain design and engineering choices that a manufacturer has to make in order to put a product on the market. For Bob function and purpose triumph form and design. He finds beauty in physical properties and is able to adequately explain their attributes. Below is a short story written by Bob telling of his experiences working on the Ford GT program. Enjoy.

Of Fords and Ferraris

My destiny solidified back at the eighth grade science fair.  I made a wind tunnel with clear polycarbonate tubing, my mother’s vacuum cleaner, and a Group C Sauber C9 Matchbox car. My report about how aerodynamics were going to change the world of car design, and how we would all be driving door stop wedges with a coefficient of drag around 0.05 won me first place.  That was back in 1986.  I guess that didn’t work out quite to plan, then again, no one is flying around with a jetpack either.  Now, having spend more than twelve years as a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry, and having been friends with few generous enthusiasts, I’ve been able to work on and drive some pretty impressive cars. … Continue Reading

How “iPod Your BMW” Turned Into a Major iPain

The fall of 2004 was an exciting time in my life—I was a Bostonian living in Manhattan, and the Red Sox were about to win their first World Series in 86 years. I was a Sox fan, transplanted into the middle of Yankeeville, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the Red Sox pull off their stunning comeback against the Yankees.  I was lucky enough to attend one playoff game that fall at Yankee stadium, but the rest were watched from my studio apartment in Murray Hill. It was also in the fall of 2004 that BMW and Apple launched their huge “iPod your BMW” marketing campaign. … Continue Reading

BMW M Driving Experience (Driving School)

When you spend around six figures on a car these days, manufacturers tend to do something nice for you, for instance: flowers, shirts, watches, chocolate, new transmission, ipods, umbrellas, key chains, etc. It varies by the price of the car, how much of a pain you were to deal with, and how much you’ve actually over-paid for the car itself. However, when you buy or lease a new BMW M5 or M6, you get something very different… … Continue Reading

My Favorite Cars (updated)

Let me start by saying that I really appreciate most cars. With each car I drive, I try to put all prejudices aside and enjoy it for what it is. I am not the Dalai Lama of cars, but you get the idea.

And now, like a complete hypocrite to the above, I say this: … Continue Reading