From YouTube – Danica Patrick was involved in a crash on her NASCAR debut. Luckily, this isnt the last we will see of her. She still has two more NASCAR races where she is planned to race. If Danica doesn’t win at all in NASCAR, will she be compared to Anna Kournikova again?
From TheHollywoodReporter – The History Channel has an interest in Top Gear in the US. Can you believe it has been almost two years since NBC chose not to pursue with Top Gear US? Although no hosts have been confirmed yet, I wonder what the History Channel plans to do with the show that it may live up to the UK’s version. Good Luck!
From NY Times – The US Formula One team is currently going through many problems, as expected from any new Formula One team. They dont have a race car that can be crash tested, and the money is running out. There are many rumors going around the world about the US Formula One team, like that the founder of YouTube is no longer supporting the team financially, or that USF1 may join up with Campos Meta1. I anxiously await for there to be an official announcement from the USF1 team, that the 2010 season is a go. Will you be rooting for the US in 2010?
From Variety- From the people who brought you The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, and Fast and Furious comes Fast Five! Seriously? Fast, Five? Who comes up with these movie titles? Is that the best that they could come up with? Looking back at their box office revenues, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift did the worst. Maybe they are afraid that having a long title will make less people want to see the movie.
From Toyota- Toyota has finally released information on the fix for the recalled Toyotas with the accelerator pedal issue. While Toyota now tries to reassure everyone that their cars are not deadly weapons, you can now purchase a piece of history by ordering some “TiRD” merchandise from DonkeyStop.
From LA Times- The residents of Brentwood are very upset with Holger Schubert. Holger Schubert has created a 10-foot bridge that goes from his living-room to Tigertail Road, so that he can park his Ferrari 512 BBi Boxer in his living room. The problem, his construction project created safety hazards to the neighborhoods in that city. Apparently, there is only one car enthusiast in the city of Brentwood, CA.
From YouTube- Audi shows us how we can make sure that the Green Police doesn’t take you or your loved ones off to jail.
From BBC – Robert Kubica signs with Renault to race in Formula One Racing for 2010. Kubica originally raced for BMW Sauber since 2006, and has had only one victory (2008 Canadian Grand Prix). It will be interesting to see how well Kubica will race next year against top competitors Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonzo, and Michael Shumacher.
From Cobra.com – Cobra just announced the launch of their new full color touch screen radar detector. The touch screen provides a graphic interface that makes it easier to set up the radar detector. Does touch screen really make radar detetors that easy to set up? Most radar detectors that I’ve seen only have one button. The touch screen radar detector is Cobra’s first radar detector that costs under $200.
From OCRegister.com – On January 15th and 16th, Orange County Race-Craft, a high perofmrance driving school, will allow supercar owners to learn how to learn the capabilities and limitations of their vehicles. This event came about after the many supercar accidents that have been occuring in Orange County over the past year. Owners can sign up at ocracecraft.com.
From Ford – As consumers demand more gadgets equipped as standard in their car, Ford has taken a step in an unexpected direction by partnering with Best Buy for technical support of their vehicles equipped with SYNC. I hesitate to say a step in the right direction, because this basically means that Best Buy’s Geek Squad will now support & troubleshoot the electronic gadgets in your future Ford vehicle. Now, I’m sure there are some pretty sharp Geek Squad technicians out there but I think you may have a better chance to win the lottery than to get one of them to service your vehicle.
From EGrandPrix – Tree huggers rejoice! In June 2010, Paris will hold the worlds first all electric car and motorcycle races. Outrageous (in a good sense) mileage figures aside, what about the various chemicals and toxins put into the atmosphere when an electric vehicle hits the scrap heap? What about the fact that more toxicity is produced from “retiring” an electric vehicle than a gas-powered vehicle? All excitement aside, I think I’ll stick to Formula 1.
From Aston Martin – This week, Aston Martin released pictures of its latest vehicle, the Cygnet. Described as a “luxury commuter,” it looks like the illegitimate lovechild between an Aston and Toyota Yaris. The price tag of this James-Bonded Toyota iQ will be around $32k. How many shaken martinis will James Bond need before getting in one of these?
From Audi – It looks like Audi set the bar a little higher by incorporating Google Earth into the 2011 Audi A8. Aside from terrain-mapping, it also allows you to do an Internet search on the map via a UMTS modem for data transfers. Could this be the end for updating navigation DVDs for our cars? We will just have to wait and see.
From BBC – The Silverstone Circuit has signed a 17-year deal (17 years??!! – Ed.) with Formula One to host the British Grand Prix. Silverstone was the host of the first Grand Prix championship in 1950, and since 1987, hosted every British Grand Prix in Formula One. Donington Park was supposed to be the new venue for the British Grand Prix this year beginning next year, but their finances fell through the floor.
From LA Times – OMG! Danica Patrick is in NASCAR. On Tuesday, Danica Patrick announced that she would drive in a “limited number” of races in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series. Danica’s IndyCar resume consists of 1 win, 3 poles, and 81 starts. Her first season was in 2005, and she finished 5th (best career finish) in 2009. Not bad for a 27 year old, but in my personal opinion, it’s better to be great at one thing, than so-so in many things.
From Reuters – Volkswagen is buying a 20% stake in Suzuki for $2.5 billion. This is not too long after Volkswagen just bought a 49.9% stake in Porsche AG. After this transaction, VW will have stake in 11 different car brands. VW’s goal is to become the world’s number one automaker by 2018. Toyota, we await for your rebuttal.
From Daimler – This week, Brawn GP was purchased by Mercedes-Benz, to compete in Formula One in 2010. The Principal for the team is still Ross Brawn. Brawn GP won the constructor’s title in Formula One in 2009. Will Mercedes-Benz be able to keep up with Ferrari in Formula One next season? I guess only time will tell. In other F1 news, Kimi Raikkonen “semi”-retires from F1 to race in WRC, and Jenson Button signed with McLaren. All of this F1 news show for a crazy and unpredictable 2010 season!
From CNBC.com – After Toyota announced a major recall on the majority of thier late model passenger cars due to an issue with floor mats sliding around, and pressing the accelerator pedal down, they decided to put a “band-aid” over the wound, and use zip-ties to secure the floor mats to the floor of the car. Now there are reports that Toyota has decided on a permanent fix – make shorter gas pedals. Is this the best that Toyota can conjure up? Personally, I expected a better solution. Toyota, perhaps you should take this time to go back to the drawing board.
From BMW – BMW now offers a tie for its fanboys. Just in time for the holidays. Are BMW drivers turning into Ferrari drivers? Always sporting their car manufacturer’s logo on the clothes that they wear. I guess a lot of BMW salesmen would order this. (~$93 USD)
Adds a special note to any business meeting and to the entire M Collection: the BMW M Tie, finished to the highest standard and made of pure silk. With anthracite interior finish and woven coloured BMW M logo on the front and back. Material: 100% Italian silk
From New York Times – New York has decided that to help them through these tough times, they will charge their drivers a mandatory $25 fee in order to replace their license plates for the new one pictured above. This fee will give the state $260 million dollars, as well as create over 100 jobs. By the way, those 100 jobs, they are for maximum security prison inmates. Good job, New York….yeah right.
From Las Vegas Sun – A strip club on wheels? Yep, Las Vegas has taken it to the next level with this Stripper-mobile! You don’t even have to tip! LOL
