I found some vintage Monster Truck competition footage that made my jaw drop. From what I can gather, the US Hot Rod Association was the sanctioning body in a monster truck racing series in the late 80’s. Two trucks would race head to head around identical course that included sharp turns and cars to crush. The craziest part was that there were a plethora of tracked vehicles that competed with the 4 wheeled traditional trucks. Here’s a compilation of some of the more famous ones:
Road & Track put together this video that takes a closer look at the hybrid cars competing in this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans, the Audi E-Tron Ultra and Toyota TS030. They talk about how each car has different engines, energy storage and even electric motor power delivery.
My friend J showed me this story. It’s an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage that’s somewhat different from what you’re probably expecting. The car featured is a 1000 horsepower supercharged Plymouth Duster. The car is awesome, but the real story comes from how it came to be. The Duster was built by a man named Paul Annunziata. The project started when Paul won $10,000 from a scratch off lottery ticket. He bought a body in white from Plymouth and then shoehorned a massive 426 Hemi under the hood in order to make a street version of some pro drag cars he saw as kid. Several years later, Annunziata donated the car to Jay Leno when he was diagnosed with lung cancer after making Leno promise that he would never sell it. Instead of paying for the Duster, Jay donated money to the McPherson College in Kansas because it’s the only college left in America with a four year degree program in automotive restoration. Unfortunately Paul has since passed away, but he was able to build this award winning Duster and ensure that the next generation would also have the opportunity to build project cars like his. That’s a legacy that any of us could be proud of.
Achilles Tires posted this video of their Formula D Drivers Robbie Nishida and Daigo Saito. They talk a little bit about how they got into drifting and then there’s footage from the competition. Daigo Saito takes his first win for Achilles Tires in Formula D.
Here’s another point in the discussion of making green cars fun vs. making fun cars green. Best Motoring put together this track battle around a rain-soaked Tsukuba circuit after Honda released the CR-Z in Japan. The two main cars to pay attention to are the Tec-Arts Eco AE86 and the Modulo Sports CR-Z. The Tec-Arts Eco AE86 has been modified to improve its gas mileage. The alternator and the starter were updated to modern units and the power steering was converted from hydraulic to electric assist all in the name of reducing parasitic drag on the engine. Reflective window tint was also installed to reduce the need of the air conditioning. The Modulo Sports CR-Z is a factory trim package that was available only in Japan. It comes with sport springs, dampers, brake pads and Advan Neova AD08 tires. Watch the video to see how they did. The race starts at 3:30 after the introduction of the cars.
