The Ford World Rally Team released this preview video for the upcoming France Rally this weekend. It’s a pretty cool inside look into the team’s shakedown process. Petter Solberg talks about his driving style and Jari-Matti Latvala brings up some interesting points about “blacktop” asphalt patches and how they affect grip.
As part of the homologation requirements for Group B rally, the manufacturers had to produce 200 road going versions of the cars they used to compete with. The rule was kind of ridiculous given how extreme the race cars were, but it does increase the chance that regular people get to experience what they were like. Chris Harris got to test the RS200 from Ford and the Audi Sport Quattro. He does his usual excellent job of describing what the nature of the cars are like and what made them historically significant.
Ali over Network A sent me the latest episode of Monster Drift covering Vaughn Gittin Jr’s third place finish at Round 6 of this year’s Formula D Championship. They’ve been doing a great job documenting Vaughn’s season.
The guys at Hot Rod Magazine get their hands on the Shelby GT500 and Camaro ZL1 press cars after they’ve made their rounds getting formal reviews by British guys here and here. Instead of doing the same thing again, they just have fun with the cars testing their burnout abilities, exhaust notes, cup holders vs. bang shifting and drag racing.
My friend Adam showed me this video of the Downshift Studios shop rig. It’s a beautiful 1928 Ford Model A Roadster.