The Team Principal Christian Horner, Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber sit down to reflect on the history of the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. The story begins in 2005 when Red Bull took over the Jaguar program. 4 years later Sebastian Vettel was in the hunt for his first World Championship which eventually comes at the last race of the 2010 season. Red Bull’s success continued to grow as they dominated the 2011 season and then squeezed out the championship at the last race again this year after a hard-fought season. The guys reminisce about all the high and low points of their careers with the team.
Motor Trend’s Carlos Lago gets to take a crack at the all-new 2013 SRT Viper GTS. The results are no huge surprise as the latest car “doesn’t betray what made Viper iconic and legendary.” That’s another way of saying it’s still a ridiculous and scary superhero caricature of a car. SRT has given the Viper more power and a lighter weight but at the same time have made an effort to improve the chassis balance so that you can at least entertain the thought of approaching the car’s limits. Watch the video to see all the details of the new car including a lap around Laguna Seca in race mode with Randy Pobst. After that, check out the article on Motor Trend’s website comparing the new Viper with the Corvette ZR-1 to see who makes the best American performance car that costs over $100,000.
GM’s Vice-President of Design, Ed Welburn, drops by Jay Leno’s garage with four vintage Corvettes from the General Motors Heritage Center. They start with the first Corvette ever made, the 1953 with the Blue Flame inline 6. Next they move to the chairman of GM’s personal hardtop 1958 Corvette with the dual four-barrel carburetor 283 cubic inch V8. The third car they look at is the rarest Corvette in existence, the 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer. It’s a tube-frame race car that raced here in America winning some national championships. Welburn had the car restored when he became the VP of design but kept the interior original since it had a lot of history including a drive by Elvis. The last car they look at is a fully loaded split window 1963 Corvette Stingray loaded with fuel injection and knock-off wheels. The episode is a very cool look into some very special Corvettes that could only be brought to you by Jay Leno’s special relationship with GM.
I’ve been curious about the Honda CR-Z since it debuted a couple of years ago. Honda touted it as a sport hybrid which they backed up with a 6-speed manual transmission and aggressive CRX-inspired styling. The CR-Z’s front MacPherson struts and rear torsion beam suspension is also based on the Honda Fit’s which has set the standard in fun, tossable sub-compact cars for several years. The drivetrain department is where things get a bit interesting. The CR-Z’s combined power output is listed at 130 hp and 140 ft-lbs of torque. The Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) permanent magnet electric motor sandwiched between the engine and transmission is responsible for 23 of those horsepowers and a whopping 78 ft-lbs of torque. As with all electric motors, the torque is available starting at 0 rpm which makes a noticeable difference as the Everyday Driver guys note.
The fact that the engine and motor are linked to a manual transmission brings up a couple of interesting points. The first is that the EPA has rated the 6-speed CR-Z as less efficient than the CVT version because most people clutch in when coming to a stop which robs the electric motor of any chance to do any regenerative braking. This can be solved with some heel-toe downshifting and relying more on engine/motor braking. The three pedal configuration also opens the option of tuning the CR-Z as shown by the HKS Green Monster Project. Traditional hybrid vehicle architecture involves a controller that balances the power inputs of the gas engine and electric motor. Adding a turbocharger to a car like the Toyota Prius won’t actually make it any faster without reprogramming the supervisory controller since it’s designed to request the stock amount of power from the engine. Not so with the CR-Z. You can definitely add power to the drivetrain with the trade-off being that you manually have to engage regenerative braking which is something an enthusiast probably does anyway. I think a CR-Z will make for a fairly interesting project one day when they get cheap enough. Too bad they’re not selling really well since there doesn’t seem to be many people in the market for sporty hybrids, yet.
Luke Huxham of Maiham Media brings us the story of a very special Group C Porsche 962 in Japan. It was the second ever Porsche 962 built as a proof of concept and one of only a handful world wide registered for legal street use. The Group C endurance cars have a carbon monocoque frame and are actually reasonably comfortable on public roads according to the owner.
