From Youtube – Hyundai released a new commercial in South Africa for their new Tucson. What makes this commercial awesome is that they make a spoof of Top Gear, called Top Deer. Obviously this commercial wouldnt be as appealing in the US, but for everywhere else, it works! Good job Hyundai!



From FunnyorDie – Last week, we mentioned MINI’s challenge to Porsche. After Porsche refused, MINI still decides to have fun with it, a la Rocky IV.

While Porsche thinks (or doesnt think) about that video, Hyundai has decided to come in from nowhere and challenge MINI! Kudos for Hyundai on doing this…this should become VERY interesting!






From Engadget – Oh no, Hello Kitty SYNTHETIC motor oil?!?! It sells in Japan for $33. What’s next, Barbie Blinker fluid?

From Facebook – MINI had publically challenged Porsche to a race (MINI Cooper S vs. Porsche 911 Carrera S) at Road Atlanta on June 21st. MINI has also given Porsche home court advantage because the race track is right down the road from Porsche’s corporate headquarters. MINI even put out a full page ad in the New York Times to make it official. This is going to be awesome!

*UPDATE*: Porsche’s rebuttle:

“Dear Jim,

Imagine our surprise to discover our former employee, now the head of Mini, has challenged us to a head-to-head race. As you surely know, Porsche has a long history of racing success, with more than 28,000 wins over the last 60 years. In our early days, we pitted ourselves against the giants, so we’ve been in your shoes.

But as you also know, Porsche doesn’t race for fame, stunts or publicity. We race to challenge ourselves; we race to push sports car technology; we race to translate every win on the track to our cars on the road. If you
need a reminder of our intent, please take a look at this short video:

While your challenge seems like a fun and lighthearted campaign, we’ll stick to racing the way we have over the decades. We welcome you at Sebring, Le Mans, Daytona or any other sanctioned race where there is more at stake than T-shirts and valet parking spaces. We also invite you to any of the thousands of tracks around the world where Porsche owners compete each weekend.

Good luck with your race at Road Atlanta on June 21; we hope you enjoy the day.

Sincerely,

Detlev Von Platen
President and CEO, Porsche Cars North America

Wow, GREAT response, but I still want the race.

From GM – OnStar and Google have joined forces to make car navigation simpler. By the end of this month, OnStar users will be able to send directions, that they look up on Google maps, directly to their car. I have to admit, that is pretty sweet! Hopefully this is just a small step for things to follow in the near future.

From KnoxNews – What’s the fine for parking in a handicap spot in Tennessee when you are not allowed to? How about being ran over! Devon Beal Kiss, 24, ran over Thomas Esposito after Esposito told Kiss, “None of your frickin’ business!”, when asked, “Why are you parking in a handicap spot?” Tennessee should give Esposito a handcap parking pass now.

From Publico.es – A picture that any Ferrari fan should save. Is there really anything else to say other than “wipe that drool off of your face!” (click picture for full size)

From Ford – Another one bites the dust. Ford has officially dropped Mercury. Who is Mercury you ask? Well, remember the Mercury Cougar? Yea, that’s probably the only Mercury you’d recognize. I am suprised that Mercury was dropped after Pontiac. There are alot more memorable Pontiacs than Mercurys.

Another great Kia commercial. Enjoy!

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.