Automobile magazine did a feature on this event a while back. It’s the World Power Wheelstand Championship put on by the Byron Dragway in Byron Illinois. One of the people interviewed about the event in Automobile had this to say about it “This is one of those events where if your girlfriend says she’s having fun, you marry her.”
Hot Rod Magazine teamed up with Ligenfelter Engineering to break the 200 mph barrier in the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Ligenfelter put a new cam, CNC ported heads, cold air intake, fuel system and engine management into the factory supercharged Camaro to bump the power to 720 hp at 6500 rpm and 650 foot-pounds of torque at 4650 rpm. The car was the first ZL1 to run a 10 second quarter mile pass and they wanted to see if it could match the upcoming Shelby Mustang’s claimed 200 mph top speed
The American Le Mans Series released this video to promote the second round of the 2012 championship at Laguna Seca that took place this past weekend. They interview several of the drivers about Laguna Seca’s signature corner, the corkscrew. The left-right chicane drops 60 feet and is arguably the most difficult corner in all of road racing. It’s said to have been formed when the track was being built completely by accident. The story goes that the bulldozers were carving out the track when it came time for lunch. The bulldozer operator simply drove straight down the hill in the most direct path back to his lunch and the corkscrew was born.
There’s something to be said about taking a car and modifying it so that it excels in an area where it was never really intended to go. That’s why this video of autocrossing muscle cars is awesome. Autocross and road racing are starting to become pretty popular with the classic muscle car crowd. It could have to do with all of the modern muscle cars that are being released now that handle amazingly. It could also have to do with the fact that aftermarket suspension from folks like Hotchkiss and Art Morrison are better than ever. There’s no doubt that it looks like an absolute blast.
This is some footage of from the 2010 Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. They call the terrain there “slickrock”, but it actually has a sandpaper texture to it which gives plenty of traction. People go there because they can pull off some crazy crawls like this one.