Italian Chase F1

Italy's Durango is said to be chasing a spot on the F1 circuit. They would become the 13th team for 2011.

Racing Your Car On the Weekends?

I've heard it before. People purchase a hot little number (Porsche, souped up Lancer Evo X, whatever else) and go hit a track during the weekend to burn off some steam/stress/ego/brake pads...

So how do you get to race at a track on the weekends? Well a cursory Google search produced an interesting and rather comprehensive-looking introductory wiki-how article titled How to Race Your Car.

I imagined that the maintenance costs would go up exponentially with this sort of hobby. The article goes into some general items you're more likely to look at replacing when racing as a hobby.

It's a little tricky getting onto the track to begin with, but apparently, a good way to start is by calling local race tracks and asking whether they have a driver's education event -- which is a run through of how to drive competitively and on a track.

I hope to learn more about local opportunities at neary tracks, though I doubt I'll ever take my car on there due to the repair and replacement costs involved with this sort of racing. I'd have to purchase something just for this purpose, and figure out where to store it!

What about you? Do you race at your local track? What tips can you share to those who want to get into this lifestyle?

Auto Toy Movies

Stop-motion automotive toy movie fun.


Via @Jalopnik


Via @Windscorpion

Nurburgring: Das Movie

Very nice trailer/teaser/whatever for a movie on Nurburgring (Titan by Stephane Benini) from the folks at Top Gear.

Awesome stuff to look out for:

• the soundtrack...and the soundtrack
  
• racing big names
• F1 cars
• a Bugatti Veyron pace car (!)
• Audi R8s, Aston Martins, Ferraris... all in their sponsor regalia...
  
• Vintage Mustang
• curve drifting
• OMG the list goes on

Racing News

Kimi Raikkonen is leaving F1 for the sunnier shores of rallying, in which he already had dipped his toe in August 2009.

McLaren goes British by geting Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

F1 Update

Well the world of F1 racing seems to be turning sideways, rightways, and upside down continuously lately. They're quite the restless bunch!

I think the following item I stole from Edmunds pretty much sums up the latest development:

Weeks of rancorous debate over the governance of Formula 1 climaxed with the bombshell announcement Thursday night that eight race team owners will quit the sport to form their own breakaway series in 2010.

I'd love to see whether they're able to pull these folks back into the F1 fold, or how these apparently two leagues are going to look and act.

Here's more on FOTA from Top Gear US.

F1

A bit of car mania in today's photo of the day.

I was reading a really informative blog entry on one of my favorite blogs, Wired Autopia. Said article focused on the winner at LeMans, and in the process of reading it, I learned all kinds of neat things about Peugeots under rainy conditions, and how hot Audis can be. *insert drool here*

NASCAR Weekend 2008

NASCAR Weekend 2008 was AWESOME, even though Linda the NASCAR buddy and I weren't able to find affordable tix for the Saturday race, we had pit passes and everything for Thursday and Friday. I got TONS of pix of Tony STewart, my favorite NASCAR heartthrob.

This totally trumped NASCAR Friday 2005 ;oD

See my PicasaWeb NASCAR 2008 album for all the evidence.