Bradley Hasemeyer of Translogic got an interview in with Monster Tajima at this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb before and after he attacked the mountain in his new E-Runner electric car in an attempt to set the new overall record. Tajima was the defending champion and was hoping to put an EV on top of the podium for the first running of the fully paved course. Unfortunately it was not meant to due to a motor failure on race day after qualifying well all weekend.
Source: Translogic
Nissan Europe teamed up with the RML Group last year to build a custom Juke-R. It was basically a Nissan Juke body put on top of a shortened GT-R chassis and drivetrain. It’s kind of funny because Nissan Japan only found out about the car after it had been built and were a bit unhappy about having somebody crossbreed their flagship car with an economy crossover. The Juke-R was a big enough success that several people, whom I assume are Abu-Dhabi oil barons, have asked to buy Juke-R’s. Nissan Europe has decided to do a limited run of them at $590,000 a piece. Now that the cars are being sold, that means they have to go through a legitimate review with the press. This is the first one that I’ve found outside some random hooning videos. Jethro Bovingdon of Car and Drive Abroad puts the Juke-R up against a pretty high performance benchmark with the Porsche 911 GT2 RS.
The Ford World Rally Team released this recap of their results from Rally Germany that took place this past weekend. If you haven’t watched the SPEED channel coverage off of your DVR, then this will contain spoilers for you. The first tarmac rally of this season puts the Ford boys to the test chasing Sebastien Loeb.
This is a masterful compilation of highlights from the legendary drivers of the World Rally Championship.
The Quail show at Pebble Beach is probably one of the most exclusive car shows in the world. Tickets are $500 and the show takes place during Pebble Weekend before the RM Auctions. Harry Metcalfe of evo Magazine brought a camera along with him for this year’s show so we could see what it was all about. Highlights include what will probably be the only public appearance of the McLaren X-1, the factory built one-off custom based on the MP4-12C. Dodge brought out the new Viper and Lamborghini showed up with their new SUV concept and the Sesto Elemento (Italian for “6th Element” which is Carbon). A train of Shelby Cobras got a police escort from Laguna Seca where they were participating in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of describing all the cars that were there.