Piloting a heavily-modified 2010 Suzuki Kizashi, dubbed the Bonneville Special, editors for proper U.S. car magazine Road & Track drove it to a speed of 325.95 kph at this year’s Bonneville Speed Week at the U.S. Bonneville Salt Flats. Thanks to this publicity stunt, the barely-stock Bonneville Kizashi now hols the record for “Land Speed Record for the Blown Gas Coupe Category”, if that means anything. That’s Bonneville for you.
We honestly don’t have much of an interest in racing. Race cars rarely look like the cars we drive on the street. However, touring cars are always interesting, but usually consist of common European brands, so even that gets boring. However, the Italian Superstars series seems rather interesting, considering radical entrants such as the Chrysler 300C, the Maserati Quattroporte, the Cadillac CTS-V and the Chevrolet CSV CR8 do battle against the usual BMW M3, Audi RS4 and even BMW M5 teams.
Portugese driver Francisco Carvalho went off the track at a recent World Touring Car Championship event. Competing in the Seat Leon Euro Cup Race, he got nudged by another racer, which quickly made Carvalho’s car a shining example of what happens when you lose control at high speeds. However, unlike most “accidents” on public roads, no one was injured in this track incident thanks to a racing rollcage and vigilant marshals.
As part of some TV show, a professional drifter took a Ford Mustang, modified with skid plates under the car, and attempted to use it as a skateboard around a specially-built track. The clip is only a teaser, but it looks like they made it work somewhat.
Up until last year, the Cadillac CTS-V was officially the fastest four-door sedan around the German Nurburgring race track, running 7:59 on the benchmark piece of tarmac where every manufacturer seems to tune their cars on. At some point late in 2009, the Porsche Panamera Turbo claimed the title with 7:56, although its credentials as a sedan are dubious at best, while also being twice as expensive. Now Subaru indirectly claims to have shattered the record with a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI sedan, coughing up a time of 7:55, although their “production” car is dubious at best.
I hate street racing, and I hate wannabe street racers. I have never been in any street race on public roads, no matter what car I’ve driven, and I will never condone street racing. However, I occasionally push my own limits on the roads, and like the guy in this video, sometimes enjoy chasing down other speeding drivers who think they are heroes in their fancy cars, just to show them that they aren’t all that when the road starts turning. Done with enough distance, this is a safe way to explore your limits, and that’s just what the video shows.
The street-legal Lexus LFA never made it to the UAE, and its limited run is already sold out, despite being overpriced. So this final commercial is designed simply to boost brand perception, with the engine’s soundtrack as the main feature.
Popular American magazine Motor Trend did what everyone else was thinking, pitting their Nissan GT-R long-term tester with the all-new Lexus LFA in a drag race. The winner isn’t really clear-cut.
Toyota seemingly has a fix for the wayward stability control on the Lexus GX 460 and Toyota Prado VX that prompted a premature recall last week, as shown in this released video. It should simply involve uploading the reprogrammed Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) code onto every customer car soon, although anyone still expecting to drift their truck can likely turn off the VSC manually.
There is more than one way to transport a Renault Clio using a truck. This isn’t one of them. Although some suspect that this could just be an elaborate hoax to promote the ARCLID transport company. In a negative way.