Going To A NASCAR Race?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

If you are, better get immunized:

Getting a hepatitis shot is standard procedure for travelers to parts of Africa and Asia, but some congressional aides were instructed to get immunized before going to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord and the racetrack in Talladega, Ala.

The House Homeland Security Committee planned a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings and decided to conduct the research at two of the nation’s most heavily attended sporting events, NASCAR’s Bank of America 500 event this weekend and the UAW-Ford 500 last weekend.

Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides to get a range of vaccines before attending—hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.

I completely agree with this astute assessment by the Committee. Having been to many a NASCAR race at California Speedway, I can say with absolute certainty that all races are a villainous hive of viral diseases. It is true.

Full story here.

Hammond Returns

Monday, January 29, 2007

I’ve posted many a clip or two from one of the best automobile shows in the world, Top Gear. Back in September 2006, one of the hosts, Richard Hammond, was doing a taping in which he was driving a jet-powered car capable of doing over 370mph. After several successful attempts (one in which he clocked in at 314 mph, breaking the world land-speed record), he went for a final run in the car, when a tire blew, causing the car to lose control.

Hammond suffered major brain injury, but made an amazing recovery within four months. However, as a consequence of this accident, the survival of Top Gear was brought to question. Many deemed the show too dangerous to continue, and it was feared that the show would be canceled. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, and the show was allowed to go on.

Season 9 finally premiered this Sunday on BBC, along with the return of Hammond. As expected, the crash footage was shown. Here it is:

Los Angeles Auto Show

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

There were/are two LA Auto Shows this year. One earlier in January, and now one in December. I don’t know why this is, but I’m sure theres a very good reason.

Several pretty cars were displayed at the show. I was looking forward to seeing this one the most:

This is the Mustang Giugiaro Concept by Italian car designer Fabrizio Giugiaro. It was pretty hot in every way but one: the seats had fur trim. WTF? I hadn’t noticed it until AK pointed it out to me. Unfortunately, I did not photograph the interior, but here’s an image I found via Google. I would buy this car without the fur trim, and instead go with an all black leather interior.

Here we have the $1.7 million Bugatti Veyron. Amazing car. Sadly, I was not able to sit in this fine piece of machinery because I didn’t know anyone working the Bugatti display. Actually, I didn’t know anyone working any of the exotic car displays, so I didn’t get to sit in any exotic cars. I would totally buy this car, but I think all 300 have sold out. Watch the Veyron in action.

Maybach Exelero (concept). Another awesome car, with a V12 generating 700hp. More information on the car here.

Other items of note:

• Mercedes Bens SLR McLaren: my goodness this car is nice
• Nissan Altima Coupe: basically an Infiniti G35 coupe
• Chrysler Imperial: where the Chrysler 300 is the poor man’s Bentley, the Imperial is the poor man’s Rolls Royce
• Kentia Hall: I’d rather go to SEMA to see after-market cars
• Redline: The Movie looks horrible, but features a ton of exotic cars, so I will see it

A few additional photos here.

Nice GT500

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I’m going with FAKE on this one… probably a marketing ploy by Ford, or some kids wanting their 15 minutes of Interweb fame:

Benzo Through the Streets of Paris

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Take a gutsy French filmmaker, Claude Lelouch, with access to a 6.9L Mercedes-Benz, put an anonymous Formula 1 driver in said car on the open streets of Paris in early morning, and you get 9 minutes of this from 1976:

Lelouch was arrested after showing this film to the public, but later released. Even so, I know what i’ll be doing when I visit Paris. More information on the film here and here.

Racing in Irwindale

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

For my birthday a few months back, AK got me a Super Ride at Performance Race Training Center at Irwindale Speedway. At this particular race training center, a Super Ride is a ride-along in a not-as-fast NASCAR-style stockcar, for about 5 laps.

The Super Ride was finally put to use this past Saturday, and man, it was quite the experience. As a huge NASCAR fan, and a racing fan in general, I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to be in a race car. And I was not disappointed. I was a bit wary at first while watching other drivers go around the race track. They seemed slow, and if this was how my ride was going to be, it would not be very pleasing. But silly me, I didn’t realize until after my ride was over that because they were student drivers, and most likely first time drivers, they would be taking it slow.

From the moment we pulled onto the track, I felt like holding on for dear life. Thankfully, I was strapped in tightly. The half-lap of warm-ups, constant acceleration and deceleration and turning, and the pseudo-short-track racing experience were all insane. It really gives you an understanding and respect for what professional race car drivers go through on the track, and the top physical condition they have to be in to do what they do in these cars. Its loud, its cramped, its hot, and the g-forces pushing against your body are tremendous.

I’ve heard many people mock auto-racing, saying it shouldn’t qualify as a sport, how lame it is, etc. I say unless you know what these dudes go through, you have no idea what its like. I turned to look at my driver a couple of times during the ride, and I could see the focus and concentration on his face, not to mention the beads of sweat rolling down.

I asked how fast we’d gone during the ride and was told about 95. I’m sure you all routinely do 95 on freeways, but in a race car its a different story. It is FAST.

The experience was short, but awesome, and I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. I’m glad AK gave me a chance to experience it. Next time I will get the racing package and actually drive one of these cars.

Some photos:

Before getting into the cars, all participants were given a chance to take photos. This is the #46 car. This car was not the ride-along car, but I didn’t know that when taking the photo. The fact that it only had a driver’s seat should have alerted me to that fact.

After taking the previous photo, AK pointed out that my pants had fallen down. I knew they were big, but I didn’t think they would fall down. Luckily, I had my other pants on underneath.

This is probably around lap 3. If you look closely, you can see me in my helmet, trying to pose for the camera. I saw AK taking photos and did my best to look in her direction.

I was still in recovery mode after the ride. You can’t see the sweat stains in this photo, but I assure you they were there.

Citroen C4

Sunday, June 04, 2006

I hope Michael Bay’s live action Transformers movie is this good:

Top Gear Banned?

Friday, May 26, 2006

Bloody hell! BBC’s Top Gear risks ban over ‘planning breach’…

The new series of the BBC motoring programme Top Gear is being filmed without planning permission for its activities close to a village where there is widespread opposition to “noise nuisance”.

The show, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and featuring high-performance cars being put through their paces on a test track, is “in breach of planning conditions and at risk of an enforcement order”, a local authority spokesman said.

Bollocks! Why are these bloody wankers complaining about a little noise generated by some of the fastest supercars in the world? Crikey! I’d be stoked if this track were in my back yard.

Top Gear is one of the best and most entertaining car shows, and its unfortunate that it doesn’t air in the US. I’m sure Jeremy Clarkson and company will do whatever it takes to get this matter resolved and resume filming.

In the meantime, watch an episode of Top Gear featuring the 1001hp Bugatti Veyron (forward to around 11:52). Why they would put on hundreds of miles driving across Europe on a $1.7 million+ car for entertainment purposes is beyond me. Perhaps it is a demonstration model Bugatti lends to various media outlets just for things like this. Whatever the case, the Veyron is a beautiful car, and quite fun to look at. I envy the bastards rich enough to own one of 300 models ever produced.

Enzo Split In Half

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Some dudes were racing down PCH in Malibu this morning. One of them lost control of a Ferrari Enzo (worth $1,000,000+) and crashed into a pole. This resulted in the Enzo splitting in half, but both driver and passengers in the Enzo were alive. Driver ran off into this hills, leaving the passenger in the car, and the passenger apparently turned out to be the owner.

Ok, first of all, anyone but a professional race car driver who races an Enzo on a public street is an idiot. The car is way too powerful for anyone but a professional. This doesn’t mean you can’t own or drive one, just don’t be an idiot and race it down a public street, especially PCH.

Second, don’t be even more of an idiot and run off after a crash. The cops will find this guy and when they do, he’ll be in even more trouble then if had remained at the scene.

I’m guessing the passenger/owner is pretty pissed right now. Enzo’s are hard to come by, and Ferrari only sells them to people after a fairly rigorous interview process. They only sell to quality car owners who understand Ferrari and what their cars are all about. I doubt he’ll be getting another one anytime soon.

Story and video here.

Carl Edwards To Appear on 24!

Monday, February 13, 2006

Excellent:

The Roush Racing driver, in California to help promote the Cup race at California Speedway on Feb. 26, took part this week in the filming of Fox’s hit show “24.” He even has one speaking line in the episode, which will air April 3."First I have to thank California Speedway for setting this up. This is a lot of fun,” said Edwards, who finished third in the 2005 Cup points. “I definitely think acting is something I’d like to do more of. I had such a blast being on the set of ‘24.’

“The best part was they gave me a line to read. The cameras started to roll and as I was walking over to shake the other character’s hand I realized my palms were a little sweaty, which doesn’t happen very often,” he said.

Perhaps terrorists are planning on releasing the stolen nerve gas through the exhaust pipes of all Nextel Cup cars, killing 150,000+ visitors at California Speedway. Jack Bauer will find the terrorists by hacking into NASCAR’s central mainframe with Chloe’s help, and shut down all the cars through their on-board computers, thwarting the terrorists’ plans.