November 2009

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yas marina circuit Racetracks Around The World – Abu Dhabi: Yas Marina

To carry on the Racetracks Around The World bit I recently started when I talked about Barcelona’s Circuit De Catalunya, l thought I would do a post about the newest track around at the moment Yas Marina.

Built very recently to host the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which is the new closing circuit of the f1 calender, it worried people checking up on its progress over fears that the track wouldn’t be finished in time but luckily a week before F1 was due to arrive the track opened officially with a GP2 race.

Apparently designed as an Arabian version of Monaco the track has a city streets feel to it and has some the 21 corners are very, very tight. The 3.45 mile track  has an excellent little feature where the pit exit actually runs under the normal track through a tunnel, can you imagine the sounds? Nothing is more glorious than giving it absolute death through a tunnel!

yas marina abu dhabi grand prix circuit corner guide Racetracks Around The World – Abu Dhabi: Yas Marina

The £800 million cost seemed worth it after the end of the F1 this year with most drivers saying they loved the track and Nico Rosberg said he liked how each corner was so unique, Giancarlo Fisichella didn’t agree with the majority though complaining that the pit exit was dangerous.

This rather excellent video shows the first ever F1 car doing a lap on the brand new circuit being piloted by Ayrton Senna’s cousin Bruno Senna.

Top Gear Go Eco?

top gears eco electric car geoff 519x346 Top Gear Go Eco?

The new Series Of Top Gear continued on Sunday with its second episode of series 14 and the trio’s ‘task’ this week was to create an electric ‘eco car‘. Now we all know that Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson especially, never really take climate change and ‘those eco mentalists’ very seriously, so it was a pleasant surprise that amongst the messing around James May actually came up with a quite novel idea of using a generator to keep the battery’s charged. I was quite pleased that they managed to stay away from green bashing for the most part and got most of the laughs from their own short comings.

top gears eco electric car geoff rear 519x346 Top Gear Go Eco?

If you missed it you can watch the episode here on BBC iPlayer and you can also watch the online review that AutoCar did of Top Gears electric car effort here

The Audi R8 looked pretty nice as well, not as nice as the Audi e-tron though…

Yes please!

scalloped bare metal led sled side on 519x389 Scallops With Your Chips Sir?scalloped bare metal led sled 519x389 Scallops With Your Chips Sir?

Either Side Of A Crop

I love this kind of shot and I thought these two completely different cars and photographers end up working really well together.

red retro car by horatziu1977 519x692 Either Side Of A Crop

pink cadillac andrew hefter Either Side Of A Crop

[Horatziu1977 on DeviantART]

[Andrew Hefter]

New Issue Of Retro Ford

I just got the latest issue of Retro Ford magazine mainly because of the appearance of a lovely looking Taunus Transit and a Prefect on the front cover.

December issue of Retro Ford New Issue Of Retro Ford

I will have a Prefect or Pop at some point in my life!

Electric Scooters have been available for some time now but I recently came across a new Electric bike called the Elmoto HR-2 after reading about the EICMA motorbike show recently held in Milan. By now if you are a regular reader you know I have a love for climate change friendly vehicles of all kinds, I love the technology, the thinking outside the box and the styles as much as I love the fact they are good for the environment.

This bike just ticks all the correct boxes for me because until now most electric scooters I have seen have just been normal scooters with a big battery but the Elmoto is not a normal scooter and it prides itself on that fact. Looking more like a normal motorbike than a scooter the little ripper can do 30 mph and run for 45 miles before it needs a 2 -4 hour recharge. I have always liked the idea of a little electric bike for commuting but scooters are just so incredibly uncool that I could never bring myself to sitting on one let alone riding through town however this is one damn cool looking machine!

elmoto hr 2 electric bike 519x377 Elmoto HR 2 Electric Motorbike

elmoto hr 2 electric bike in black 519x332 Elmoto HR 2 Electric Motorbike

elmoto hr 2 electric bike rear swingarm 519x377 Elmoto HR 2 Electric Motorbike

elmoto hr 2 electric bike speedo 519x385 Elmoto HR 2 Electric Motorbike

circuit de catalunya barcelona track and circuit diagram 519x415 Racetracks Around The World   Barcelona: Circuit De Catalunya

I thought I would start doing posts about Racetracks from around the world and I debated starting with the obvious ones, Silverstone, Nürburgring, Laguna Seca, etc, and instead decided to start with one of my personal favourites – The Circuit De Catalunya in Barcelona.

Building for the Barcelona circuit started in 1989 and finished just days before the F1 championship rolled into town in september 1991, The whole of F1 was impressed by the track and Barcelona and Catalunya have become the home of F1 in Barcelona ever since. That 1991 Race will always hold a special place in British fans hearts because Nigel Mansell managed to come in first place on a brand new track.

circuit de catalunya barcelona 519x389 Racetracks Around The World   Barcelona: Circuit De Catalunya

The F1 race has 66 laps and covers 307 km (190 ish miles in normal speak) and has 16 amazingly well laid out corners. I just love the track and whenever i’m on a racing game that has it on my PS3 I always head straight for it to have a go. I’m not the only one who thinks like that though because it is used lots for testing within F1 so they must think it is an ideal track to really put the cars through there paces.

It also gave us some amazing footage of two legends, Senna and Mansell, having an epic wheel to wheel battle at 190mph!

Porsche 365 Hot Rod

This was recently put up on a VW Forum I check out quite a lot by a guy called Warnzee and unfortunately he found the pictures on an old computer and doesn’t remember any of the spec or mods. So basically does anyone know anything about this amazing piece of automotive porn? A video of it would be amazing if anyone could find one, it would be more amazing than that Kylie lingerie advert.

Anyway just look at it…. Hmmm…..

roof chopped porsche 365 hot rod above 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod side 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod side window and vent 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod rear side 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod rear above 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod rear 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod front side 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rodroof chopped porsche 365 hot rod front 519x389 Porsche 365 Hot Rod

UPDATE!

I have found a site with info and amazingly a price for the car! The Ultimate Car Collection has a price of $135,000 for it. Bargain! Haha!

It says the car was based on a 914-6 chassis and has a 3 litre 911 engine mid mounted in it. It was originally built in 1992 in Australia using a 356 body that had the roof chopped by several inches.

pixel Porsche 365 Hot Rod

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