Youtube driving stars

     Now, if you are a car fan and have seen any forms of driving videos, chances are that at least one of those has been by either Bj Baldwin or Ken Block.  These are two off road racing drivers by trade, but in their free time they compete on the internet for the best videos out there.  Bj can be found tearing up Mexico and the streets of California when he is not out winning world championships in his Baja Trophy Truck.  Ken on the other hand has taken his rally car and made six videos of him tearing up different cities and making absolutely incredible feats of driving in his race cars.  He then found a way to up the ante even more and build a car specifically for the Gymkhana 7 video.  It is a 1965 ford mustang with the same drive train in it as his rally cars, but with a massive V8 engine under the hood instead.

      What this allows these drivers to besides get an insane number of you tube views, but it also showcases the sport and gives the drivers something to hone their skills at.  I mean, what else are you going to use to validate to the police as to why they should close off entire highway sections for the filming of the videos.  Well and also to avoid the fact that people could get in the way and... squash... no more videos.

      These men are pioneers in a new and growing world that had begun to flourish with the emergence of more durable cameras like the Go Pro.  In the 7th installment of Gymkhana, there is no shot or camera angle that is the same, as the car is littered with dozens of these cameras.  Another thing that helps get some of the amazing camera angles that they achieve it by helicopter.  There is just something about the overhead views that can make or break an otherwise pretty good video.  This is why these videos and shows like top gear are so successful.  They are able to capture the big picture.

      I hope that you go find these and enjoy them and for those of you who think that americans cant drift, here is you proof that we can.

Distracted Driving

    I was on a bus ride hone yesterday after a school competition and a couple of the other guys and I were playing the game "never have I ever", and one of the questions that came up was "Never have I ever been in a car accident".  The weird thing was that apart from the person asking the question, three out of the nine people had not been in some kind of car accident after only driving for three years at the most.  Now, most people would say that it is just because of us not having enough experience behind the wheel, but i think that there is another reason for this statistic as well.  That cause is cell phones.  With teen drivers and all drivers for that matter becoming more and more connected and dependent upon out cell phones, they have caused us to lose priority of what is really important at that moment.  Whether it is getting on your phone while studying or at a social event, or looking at a text while driving, we are all too connected.

     We have this need or desire for instant gratification of knowing what was said exactly in the moment when it  will still be there when you get done driving.  If you really need to talk to someone while you or they are driving, just connect your phone to your car's Bluetooth call or your own earpiece, but don't be that guy who on his way into work checks a text on his phone and ends up clogging the entire freeway into the city because you plowed into the side of a semi that was changing lanes and you were camped out in his blind spot but didn't know it because you were texting.

      Don't be that guy. Put the phone down and drive.

     

   

Crazy cars

      We all have that one friend that wants to make everything go as fast as it can.  We all love this friend, but sometimes his obsession with making things that maybe shouldn't go fast, really fast can get a little scary.  Remember that time he built a drag racing school bus that did wheelies and ran a 13 second quarter mile? Yeah we do too.  He is also the same guy that somehow crammed a massive 574 Chevy big block into a car that weighs just over 2000 pounds. Yeah, talk about power to weight ratios.  This is the friend that we all want to look at their cars, but are a little less than enthusiastic about letting him drive you around town.

      How might you be able to know who this guy is out on the road? Well, here are some telltale signs of a monster power addict.  When you meet him, if he looks like he graduated from Stanford or MIT or somewhere like that, but also at the same time has a somewhat crazy look to him in his eyes, then this is your guy.  If you happen to see him in a parking lot, you can tell that his car is his by the massive hood cutout with a blower sticking out of the top of it.  If he is driving around, he will usually be in the front for obvious reasons (being he is the fastest guy in the group) and nobody wants to be in front of the guy with the lead foot.

      Why do we like this guy? We like this guy because he gives all the rest of us slower guys something to look up to for our own projects and that is pretty sweet. We all want something that we can aspire to and that is what this guy can provide.  The other fun thing that this guy can bring to the table is that insane amount of speed and awesomeness to the "crew".  He is usually a pretty awesome griller too.

Biggest baddest banned car

Now, there is a certain car that is sought after by all fans of the Fast and Furious movies.  That car is the Nissan GTR-R34 Skyline.  I even have a friend who is willing to move to Germany to be able to own one of these cars.  But there is good news for him and all of my other Skyline enthusiasts out there.  Once these cars become over 25 years old they could possibly be brought into the country, thus bypassing the reason that they weren't allowed into the country when they were new.  That reason had nothing to do with power numbers at all, they simply didn't pass emissions testing and were too expensive to be maid compliant without drastically ramping up the price of the car.  This loophole states that cars over 25 years old that are imported into the country do not have to comply to these emission standards due to the age of the car.  However, if this loophole is closed, there is still one more option. Buying a small house in Canada, establishing residence there, registering it up in Canada, and then driving down into the U.S. with it.  (But if you try this you didn't hear it from me.)

Domestic vs. Imports

      Now, one of the most common and controversial topics that there is to discuss in the whole car world is who makes the best cars?  Well I don't want to start an online war so i am going to take a little different spin on the subject. Instead of trying to crown an overall best car in the world. I am going to highlight what countries or regions are the best in a certain field.

Straight line performance
      Now, what I mean when i say straight line performance is who makes the best vehicle to get down a drag strip the fastest without turning a steering wheel at all.  The obvious choice would have to be the U.S. on this one.  There are thousands of purpose built cars all across the country designed for just drag racing.  The kings of these straight line monsters are the top-fuel dragsters, which as i highlighted in an earlier blog can reach speeds of over 330 miles per hour in less than 1000 feet. No other vehicle on the planet besides those powered by rockets or military jets being launched off of an aircraft carrier ever put the driver through the 5+ g's of acceleration that these dragsters can unleash upon the driver.  They are the undisputed kings of this realm.

Pro-stock road course racing
      The easiest choice for this category of taking super cars made for the elites and can be found driving of the roads belongs to Koenigsegg from .  With the production of their new One:1 car, they have created the most powerful pound for pound car in the world.  With one horsepower for every kilogram that it weighs (a feat once though to be impossible not too long ago) they have created the first car with a 1:1 power to weight ratio.  With this coupled with some of the most advanced and innovative racing designs ever, the One:1 simply outruns everything else out there.

Burnouts
      Quite possibly my favorite part about cars is watching a good burnout.  Although the new Dodge Hellcats present a strong case for the kings of burnouts, the crown must go to not a single car, but to a whole region.  That region in Australia.  These crazy bastards love their burnouts.  They will take cars that weigh about as much as a smart car, put a motor that costs more than a new Corolla into it, and do burnouts in front of massive crowds.  If you need any further convincing as to why they deserve the crown, check this out.  I promise that you wont be disappointed.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMkpizqclnY

Luxury performance cars
     This was a little harder to find the best at first.  But then I realized that I wasn't even thinking in the right ballpark.  The choice became clear.  My choice is the Rolls Royce Phantom extended wheelbase edition.  Starting at a cool $420,000, it is the epitome of luxury and craftsmanship.  All these cars are still 100% handmade and have no rivals for top dog in the luxury world.  These timeless classics are what all aspiring moguls dream of owning but few ever do.

Trucks
      There is no competition for the king of the world of trucks.  This company has outsold all competitors with the same product for over 39 years in a row.  If you have seen any of the commercials, you know that i am talking about the Ford F-series.  The combinations of plentiful options, fresh designing, new innovations, ruggedness and versatility are what has given this company the stranglehold on the market for so long.

Non-stock racing cars
      These vehicles include anything found only on the racetracks all across the world, wit the key difference between this category and the other track category is that these cars are not street legal. Throughout all of the different classes and racing circuits, there is one clear superior class of race cars.  That class is Formula One.  With the top dogs of the Formula One teams being Ferrari.  With more that 2 times the number of world titles as compared to the next best team, and well over 530 race podium appearances to their name, the are easily the best throughout time.

Carbon fiber

      Hey all, it is good to be back after a little break in the blogs.  Today i want to talk about something that almost all gear heads have at least heard of and if you haven't bu now, then  i think that you have been living under a rock my friend.  This thing is a new revolutionary material called carbon fiber and it has been taking the automotive world by storm.

      Carbon fiber begins it's existence as a strand of carbon string 1/10th the size of a human hair.  These strands are first weaved into a very intricate pattern, coated with a resin and then formed into a mold, heated and then when the resin has set, the material formed is insanely strong and also incredibly light.  These properties have a very high demand in the anorexic world of race cars and super cars where a material this light and 5 times stronger than steel is now found wherever it can replace heavier panels. For example, the entire passenger tub of the Ferrari La Ferrari is made of this stuff.  Also, cars like the Mustang GT350R have begun to mass produce wheels made of almost entirely carbon fiber.  

      There are also more than just automotive applications for this miracle material, and many people have seen visions on what they could make out of this stuff.  Everything from entire mountain bike frames to the smallest bottle opener is now found to have a carbon fiber variant somewhere on the market.  However, there is a catch like there always is.  The catch is that this stuff is damn expensive to produce and if you screw up on one single part of the mold, then the whole product is ruined.  There are many reasons as to why carbon fiber is so expensive.  (The low-grade stuff can be found for about $10 a pound if you look carefully enough).  These reasons begin at production, given that it is an oil-based material you know how that can add to the price tag really quick.  After the strands are made, the weaving process begins and this is where precision is critical.  If there is one section of the weave that is a different length or tension than the rest than the entire structure is compromised.

      There are efforts being made to increase the efficiency of production and to bring down the price of this amazing material, but there is still a long way to go before carbon fiber is totally available to the masses for a reasonable price and quality.