Mercedes-Benz Comes to Oaxaca to Show the SLS AMG GT3 and More

Posted on Dec 11, 2016 in Racing | Comments Off on Mercedes-Benz Comes to Oaxaca to Show the SLS AMG GT3 and More

The GT3 is not pretty; it’s all function. Mercedes and AMG have built a state-of-the-art machine that was unveiled in Mexico this week to a select crowd of journalists and, presumably, potential buyers. It was intended to be a shot heard round the sports-car world. M-B also brought other interesting cars to show—an actual 300SL Gullwing racer from the 1950s (to...

Building Your Own Bugatti: The Kellogg Type 57/59 Roadster Special

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 in Racing | 2 comments

I know a fellow named Budd Blume here in Oaxaca, and we had lunch a few days ago. Budd is an old-fashioned car nut who has built, owned, raced, and been otherwise involved with some of the world’s most interesting cars. I mentioned that I had just done a post on the new Bugatti Galibier sedan, and so he started talking Bugatti lore. Turns out a guy named Bob...

McLaren: New Company, New Car

Posted on Aug 17, 2016 in Racing | 1 comment

Where do they get all the money? I don’t know, but they do have the talent. McLaren has an enviable record in F1 racing, and they have developed truly great cars in the past. But their newest, announced today, aims to be better than the German and Italian competition, including the Ferrari 458 Italia. The MP4-12C claims to have advanced the state of the art in...

IndyCar Delta Wing Concept: Now Racing Has My Attention

Posted on Jul 26, 2016 in Racing | 4 comments

The next Indy car? I’ve never been a big fan of car racing. I love cars, I love power, and I love speed, so you might assume being a fan of auto racing would be a natural fit. But I don’t like it very much. I’m only remotely interested in looking at race cars if Danica Patrick is posing on one. Something from the Chicago Auto Show captured my attention, though....

Porsche, Lexus, Volkswagen, Kia, Ford, and Short Takes

Posted on May 17, 2016 in Racing | 1 comment

We know, we know, it still sounds crazy: the idea of an all-out racing hybrid. Yet the Porsche GT3 R makes weird sense, once you understand it. Designed for Le Mans-type endurance racing, this car has two electric motors powering the front wheels, and a 480-hp boxer six in the rear. Instead of batteries, there’s a flywheel in the passenger seat area that stores...

Steaming Ahead for the Land Speed Record

Posted on Apr 6, 2016 in Racing | 2 comments

Here’s a little change of pace from all the bungled PR and confusion from Toyota we’ve been reporting. Also (no offense, tgriffith), enough already with the Super Bowl and its ads (except for the Kia Sorento sock monkeys in Vegas). Here in Mexico, the game was carried by Fox Sports, and all commercials were locally oriented, for the most part very ordinary, and...

Florida, New York, Detroit, Stuttgart, and Pfaffenhausen

Posted on Jan 19, 2016 in Racing | 2 comments

The state of Florida came up with a good way to spend its DOE stimulus money ($500,000), but only one company (A123Systems) will be the beneficiary. The state is offering $5,000 rebates toToyota Prius owners to convert their plain-jane hybrids into plug-ins using that company’s Hymotion conversion kits. The rebate just about cuts in half the cost of the 5-kwh...

The World in Cars: Volvo, Yugo and Schumacher

Posted on Dec 13, 2015 in Racing | Comments Off on The World in Cars: Volvo, Yugo and Schumacher

Volvo C70I’m consistently struck by how globally oriented the auto industry has become. Reading the news this morning was a further education in that trend, with stories about: Ford and Geely coming to agreement on the sale of Volvo, Fiat taking over the old Yugo factory in Serbia, and of course Michael Schumachercoming out of retirement to race again (this one...

Lutz Loses Cadillac CTS Challenge, May Win Buyers

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 in Racing | 2 comments

In a shrewd marketing ploy, Maximum Bob Lutz, GM’s noisy vice chairman, challenged all comers (driving comparable four-door sedans) to beat him in a race at the Monticello track in the Catskills. The race was yesterday, and Lutz came in seventh, behind a bunch of other CTS-Vs (driven by GM engineers and a couple of professional drivers) and aBMW M3, driven by a...

Car People (and Others) Behaving Badly

Posted on Aug 6, 2015 in Racing | 1 comment

J.C. FranceSome of you are looking forward to a three-day weekend. Others deserve to be in jail, among them some well-known car people. Foremost of these is J.C. France, grandson of Bill France, founder of NASCAR. J.C. was allegedly racing with his half-brother Russell Van Richmond on the streets of Daytona Beach. The cops charged him with DUI and cocaine...

Should Suzuki Pack Up and Go Home?

Posted on Jun 25, 2015 in Racing | 1 comment

Something’s wrong over at Suzuki. The Japanese automaker is skidding hard, as its sales are down a staggering 78 percent from one year ago. That might not surprise many people. In fact, I’ll bet most folks can’t even recall the last Suzuki ad they saw or even tell me where their nearest dealer is. Another part of the problem is Suzuki’s American lineup, which...

Max Caves, Formula One Teams Win

Posted on Apr 2, 2015 in Racing | Comments Off on Max Caves, Formula One Teams Win

Well, sort of. In fact FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) and FIA, the sport’s governing body, do need each other, and the tradeoff the teams got was having Max Mosley, FIA president, agree not to run for reelection in October as Supreme Leader. That will be a result very much to the good of the sport and its fans. Edward Gorman of the Times Online put it...