Month: January 2009

If the Chevrolet Corvette is an American icon, then the Porsche 911 is the import icon ruling U.S. highways.

Chevrolet dealer and noted collector Bob McDorman has brought nearly a dozen of his Corvettes to the Mecum auction in Kissimmee, Florida this weekend to sell.

While some engines focus on just horsepower or fuel economy, Warda TMs says these 10 are recognized for balancing all the elements that make up a great powerplant.

Ron Musing is now the proud owner of a 1971 Corvette, nick-named “Captain America”.

Before Musing, the car’s previous owner, Red Johnson, had installed a LS7 454 engine into the ‘Vette. Now if you didn’t know, there were only 20 LS7 engines ever produced, and they were never intended to be put into vehicles, but instead, boats. This LS7 engine allowed the vehicle to produce 460 horsepower. However, Johnson never saw his machine roar because he simply never drove it. He would leave it within the confinements of his garage and rev it up every so often just to hear her purr.

When Musing purchased the 1971 Corvette from Johnson, he paid a grand whopping total of $6,000!! The special installed LS7 engine was only accepting of octane-106 gas, which forced Musing to travel to the only one distant service station to fill up the tank.

Now after 25 years of driving the beast, Musing has decided to take her to the next level, changing her look and making her a more reliable, fuel-efficient drive. Coating the Corvette in a new color of red brought her back to life. And having installed beneath her hood a 502-inch GMPP crate motor, allows her now to reach 500 horsepower!

Quite an upgrade, we’d say.

[ VetteWeb.com ]

The NASCAR season is quickly approaching and several drivers will be hitting the track next month in a new ride. One of those drivers—Ryan Newman— took part in a teleconference Jan. 13.
Several reporters, including yours truly, participated and had a chance to talk with Newman about the upcoming season in …

He was later indicted on conspiracy to possess stolen motor vehicles, possession of stolen vehicles, altered identification numbers and bank fraud.

The latest cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers will pack the Charleston Civic Center Friday through Sunday for the 2009 West Virginia International Auto Show.

Within Nürburg, Germany lies an infamous racetrack originally built in the 1920s called the Nürburgring. The track is considered the most dangerous racecourse because of all its blind corners and uneven asphalt surfaces. The entirety of the Nürburgring consists of four separate tracks: Gesamtstrecke, Südschleife, Nordschleife, and Zielschleife. These courses all vary in length, some only 4 miles long while others span to over 15 miles in length.

Numerous areas on the track itself are deemed too dangerous for just the average driver. With prior experience behind the wheel and pure precision, it is imperative for racers to map out the Nürburgring’s default areas in order to avoid deadly accidents.

To give you a little background insight of the track, I’m going to explain three areas, which are most dangerous to even the experienced seasoned race car driver.

• Quite a large jump lies at the road spot, Quiddelbacher-Hohe to Aremberg. For instance, a Corvette ZR1 entering this jump can be at prior speeds of up to 145mph. So in order to land correctly, braking precision before the big leap is imperative.
   
• Another spot, Metzgesfeld to Wehseifen, consists of a set of multiple complicated turns. Some drivers demand speeds of less than 50mph in order to take these turns properly, not ending up off the beaten path.
   
• And close to the public road lies Brunnchen to Eiskerve, a popular spot for spectators and video newscasters to view the race. This area, however, consists of quite a tight turn and can be very dangerous, especially with bystanders standing just feet away from these racing machines.

Now in order to get the full effect of the track for yourself, jump into the passenger seat of a Corvette ZR1 as it takes on the Nürburgring track at a record-setting 7:26.4!  Watch the video after the jump.

[ Jalopnik ]

Within Nürburg, Germany lies an infamous racetrack originally built in the 1920s called the Nürburgring. The track is considered the most dangerous racecourse because of all its blind corners and uneven asphalt surfaces. The entirety of the Nürburgring consists of four separate tracks: Gesamtstrecke, Südschleife, Nordschleife, and Zielschleife. These courses all vary in length, some only 4 miles long while others span to over 15 miles in length.

Numerous areas on the track itself are deemed too dangerous for just the average driver. With prior experience behind the wheel and pure precision, it is imperative for racers to map out the Nürburgring’s default areas in order to avoid deadly accidents.

To give you a little background insight of the track, I’m going to explain three areas, which are most dangerous to even the experienced seasoned race car driver.

• Quite a large jump lies at the road spot, Quiddelbacher-Hohe to Aremberg. For instance, a Corvette ZR1 entering this jump can be at prior speeds of up to 145mph. So in order to land correctly, braking precision before the big leap is imperative.
   
• Another spot, Metzgesfeld to Wehseifen, consists of a set of multiple complicated turns. Some drivers demand speeds of less than 50mph in order to take these turns properly, not ending up off the beaten path.
   
• And close to the public road lies Brunnchen to Eiskerve, a popular spot for spectators and video newscasters to view the race. This area, however, consists of quite a tight turn and can be very dangerous, especially with bystanders standing just feet away from these racing machines.

Now in order to get the full effect of the track for yourself, jump into the passenger seat of a Corvette ZR1 as it takes on the Nürburgring track at a record-setting 7:26.4!  Watch the video after the jump.

[ Jalopnik ]

It’s funny how a few comments on an article can turn into an idea to go ahead and write an article, but this one came from just that.

While responding to a question on who would get Montoya’s spot in the Budweiser Shootout next month, I got aggravated thinking of the …