As Ford Racing just announced, they will be supplying 43 Fiestas to the Team O’Neil Rally School in New Hampshire in order to create the Fiesta Rally School. The O’Neil Rally School will outfit each Fiesta with a roll bar, rally suspension, and off-road tires so that aspiring rally drivers can safely learn the Scandinavian flick and other sideways rally driving techniques.

This partnership further solidifies Ford‘s commitment to using the new Fiesta as their global rally car in 2011 and beyond, where it’ll be seen running in the FIA World Rally Championship and in Rally America with highly skilled hoonage provided by the likes of DC Shoes headman and rallying driver extraordinaire Ken Block.

The 43 donor Fiestas are being repurposed from the 100 European-spec versions that arrived in North America for the Fiesta Movement. The Ford Racing Fiesta Rally Experience will be the only rally experience offered by a manufacturer in North America, which combined with the Ford Racing School of High Performance Driving at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah gives the blue oval an impressive motorsports presence on both sides of the country.

“Ford Racing Fiesta Rally Experience will provide consumers with the opportunity to experience Fiesta in a true rally environment,” said John Felice, general manager, Ford and Lincoln Marketing. “From learning how to drive high-performance Mustangs on the track at Miller Motorsports to driving a Fiesta on a rally road course at Team O’Neil, these driving schools allow consumers to experience our products in unique and different environments.”

“The opportunity to find a second life for nearly half of the cars from the Fiesta Movement is a way to keep alive the legacy these cars have brought to the Fiesta launch in North America,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “Fiesta’s nimble driving dynamics and precise handling attributes make it a perfect fit to serve as a rally school car at Team ONeil.”

“Our philosophy at Team O’Neil is to teach drivers how to master front-wheel drive in order to keep speed in the corners, accelerate through the corners, and use the brake to make a turn,” said Tim O’Neil, five-time U.S. and North America rally racing champion. “Fiesta is a strong, light, front-wheel-drive car. The addition of Ford Racing-developed performance parts including an rally suspension, underbody protection and roll bar gives us a great future with these cars.”

For more information on Ford Racing Fiesta Rally Experience and to register, go to www.teamoneil.com

For any automotive photographer out there who’s shot feature cars for magazines or websites, this video will seem eerily familiar. You might even say it’s a classic case of art imitating life. And for you non-photographers, we’re pretty confident you’ll still get a good chuckle out of this animated short. Just be warned, there are a few naughty words thrown about including the occasional F-bomb, so save this one for home or throw on your headphones if you’re at work.

Not much more we can say about it, other than thank you to the creators for sharing the plight of the auto photographer with the rest of the world. Working for a car magazine or website isn’t all high-speed blasts down scenic mountain roads in exotic Italian sports cars, that’s for sure.

Video after the jump:

Continue Reading…

BFGoodrich Tires, a company well known for its innovative and action-packed TV commercials, has drawn inspiration from the animal kingdom for its latest “Bolt On” ad campaign.  As you’ll see in the video (after the jump), in the first installment it’s the grip of a tree frog that’s used to illustrate BFG’s point about bolting on grip by installing a set of their high-performance street tires, while the Behind The Scenes video (also after the jump) gives us a taste of some of the other animals we’ll see in future “Bolt On” ads.

Although the animal kingdom analogies will be at the heart of this campaign, the ads also feature two stars in the automotive world and members of the TeamBFG program. Two-time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hübinette did the stunt driving for the spots and Rally pro Lars Wolfe provided technical and special counsel.  The vehicle featured in the broadcast ad is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with BFGoodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S tires.

The new campaign features a media plan that includes a variety of television, print and Internet advertising mediums. Kudos to BFGoodrich for thinking outside the box on this campaign and injecting some humor and style into their “Bolt On” ads. We look forward to seeing what animal makes a cameo in the next one.

[Source: BFGoodrich Tires]

Continue Reading…

Mark Niver, a 60-year-old native of Phoenix, AZ, died on Sunday when his Top Alcohol dragster crashed at Pacific Raceways in suburban Seattle during the final day of the NHRA Northwest Nationals.

According to the NHRA, the crash happened in the shutdown area, where Niver deployed his car’s parachutes to rapidly slow down after crossing the 1/4-mile finish line at over 260 mph. The NHRA’s website states that Niver’s parachutes opened but then became detached. The runaway dragster ran off the end of the drag strip and into a sand trap and then into a restraining net, but tragically the impact proved fatal.

The loss of Mark Niver is the third fatality of the season for the NHRA, Neal Parker, 58, of Millville, NJ, having lost his life in a very similar crash just 30 days earlier (June 11th) at Old Bridge Raceway Park when his Top Alcohol dragster crashed into a barrier and sand trip designed to slow runaway cars. In February, a spectator was killed at Firebird Raceway when the left rear tire flew off a Top Fuel dragster during a collision with the wall.

Given these tragic events and with speeds of Top Fuel dragsters exceeding 300 mph, there’s little question the NHRA will be investigating any and all ways to improve the safety of its sport. All forms of motorsport involve a level of risk to the drivers, but clearly longer shutdown and runoff areas are required for these top tier dragsters given the incredibly high speeds they are now achieving.

[Source: insideline.com]

GST Motorsports and their venerable 1996 Subaru Impreza “L” had a perfect weekend at Round 6 of the Redline Time Attack Championship at Willow Springs Raceway (Rosamond, CA), claiming the Super Modified AWD class and Overall victories with a blisteringly fast lap of 1:20.759 (just 0.3-seconds off the AWD track record set by the Sierra Sierra Mitsubishi Evolution last year).

Mystery driver G-Stig then went on to win the Super Session, where the top cars from the event participate in a 5-lap sprint race for bonus points in the championship. This put an exclamation point on the weekend for the GST crew, completing their clean sweep at Willow Springs and solidifying their lead in the Super Modified AWD class.

“The entire crew has worked very hard on the back of the engine issues we encountered during the previous round”, said G-Stig, driver of the GST Time Attack Subaru L. “With the motor working flawlessly all weekend it allowed us to start concentrating on the handling aspect of the car. We’re getting close and I look forward to testing the changes the team is making to the chassis and aero for the next event.”

Mike Warfield, owner and engine tuner of GST Motorsports, added, “The new engine internals from Brian Crower really did the trick for us this past weekend. The motor ran strongly all weekend and we’re confident we have the powerplant in place now to start pushing things that much harder. We have always had fantastic grip from the Hankook Ventus 214 C91’s and now we’re going to start pushing the chassis and aero that much harder. The win this weekend was attributed to the reliability of the engine in the extreme heat coupled with the tires’ ability to maintain constant grip levels throughout our sessions.”

For in-car evidence of GST’s amazing 1-minute 20-second lap around Willow Springs, check out the video after the jump.

[Source: GST Motorsports]

Continue Reading…

If “regular” Touring and GT class race cars are just too small and too low budget for your taste, then you need to check out the Italian-based Superstars Series, which pits the heavy metal of Grand Tourers against each other in a 10 race season at some of Europe’s (and South Africa’s) greatest racing circuits.

We’re talking BMW M5′s, Audi RS4′s, Maserati Quattroportes, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMGs, Jaguar XFs, Cadillac CTS-Vs and even a few Chrysler 300C SRT8s. That’s some serious 4-door luxury barges trading paint, a site unique to this growingly popular series. There’s even a Porsche Panamera S scheduled to make its first start at Mugello on July 25th with multiple Touring Car champion Fabrizio Giovanardi behind the wheel.

Now in its sixth season, the Superstars Series truly “arrived” in 2009 when its own video game for the Xbox360 was released called ‘Superstars V8 Racing’. In February of this year there was a sequel released called ‘Superstars V8 Next Challenge’, so if you’re unable to attend one of these races yourself you can get a pretty good taste of it just by firing up your Xbox.

For a glimpse of some real Superstars Series action, check out the video after the jump.

[Source: AxisOfOversteer]

Continue Reading…

As part of their series of SLS AMG ‘Rare Experience’ contests, this time Mercedes-Benz is giving you a chance to win an exclusive guided tour of the AMG factory in Affalterbach, Germany along with the opportunity to drive the SLS AMG supercar after watching it come together on the assembly line. And if that’s not sweet enough for you, the boys at AMG are also throwing in a a two-night hotel stay for you and the companion of your choice along with a visit to the famous Mercedes-Benz museum and a complimentary dinner for two.

This rare experience is scheduled to take place on August 3rd to 5th, 2010, with the contest ending on July 19th. To enter, all you need to visit your nearest Mercedes-Benz retailer and take a close look at the SLS AMG ‘Astonishing Power’ poster inside to find the hyperlink required to enter the competition online. Or if the internet has made you as lazy as we are, you can find the poster here as well.

If you turn out to be the lucky winner, don’t forget to pack your driving shoes and send us a post card!

As we reported a few days ago, the Mustang Challenge Driver Shootout is a great way for drivers to win the opportunity to drive in the season finale Ford Racing Mustang Challenge race at Miller Motorsports Park, and now iRacing.com and the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge have cooked up another even more accessible way for enthusiasts to get behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang FR500S.

iRacing.com has announced that the Ford Mustang FR500S, which is the competition platform for the Mustang Challenge, will be added to one of the coolest virtual garages in the world as iRacing.com members will have the opportunity to select the FR500S to race on a huge selection of tracks.

For those of you uninitiated in the world on online racing simulators, iRacing.com is the world’s leading online racing sim service thanks to its outstanding physics and highly accurate models of many of the world’s most famous race tracks and most exciting race cars.

The iRacing.com release of the new FR500S was not just a new car for the program, as they’ve also has established the Mustang Cup, a series that makes exclusive use of the FR500S, just as the real-world Mustang Challenge does. ”The Mustang is an iconic performance car that over 45 years has continuously confirmed its bona fides on the race track, from the legendary Trans-Am cars of the late 1960s to the current Mustang FR500S,” said Steve Myers, iRacing.com’s executive producer.  “Our members have been eager to get their hands on the FR500S since the day we announced that we’d be building it.  That day is here, and our members are already saying that it’s one of the most fun cars to drive.  Many of the competitors in the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge are taking advantage of this opportunity to use iRacing.com’s internet-based simulation service to prepare for upcoming races.  But more important to most of our members – and Mustang owners and fans all over the world – is that we’ve created an online Mustang Cup racing series that runs on many of the same tracks as the Mustang Challenge.  If you’ve got a broadband internet connection and a race game wheel-and-pedal set, you can join iRacing.com and after passing some rookie requirements, compete in the series.”

Having done some racing on iRacing.com, we can tell you from firsthand experience that this is by the far the most competitive and realistic online racing simulator out there. But don’t take our word for it, check out the video of the iRacing.com FR500S in action after the jump.

[Source: Mustang Challenge]

Continue Reading…

According to Car & Driver Euro-based blogger Jens Meiners, more than one of his sources within the Volkswagen Group suggest that they would like to take over Alfa Romeo from Fiat. According to Meiners, this move would allow Alfa to reach its ambitious sales targets, given that a takeover by VW would virtually guarantee class-leading performance and execution of future Alfa models.

A takeover of Alfa would also further strengthen VWs hold on the global sports car market, given its much ballyhooed acquisition of Porsche and continued strong sales from Audi. Meiners also argues that bringing Alfa into the VW Group would allow for a softening of the Audi brand, where the focus on sportiness sometimes borders on excessive. Such a reposition of Audi in a slightly softer and more luxurious direction is apparently viewed as a positive thing within the VW Group, making the Alfa acquisition rumor even more intriguing.

Our only concern with a VW-Alfa merger would be the Italian flare Alfas have always been known for and how an injection of Teutonic engineering might alter the brand’s character. Of course part of that Italian “flare” has often come at the cost of reliability, so Meiners remark about guaranteed performance and execution is certainly not lost on us. Worse things could happen than the arrival of reliable and well built Alfa Romeos.

[Source: Car & Driver]

According to a recent report by Car & Driver, the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI sedan is three years late to the party for a number of reasons. Initially, Subaru decided to focus its efforts on the hatchback body style for the current generation STI because of advantages this body shape would provide their WRC rally cars (eg. shorter rear overhang, making it easier to slide sidways through tight spaces).

When Subaru abruptly ended its factory-backed WRC program in 2008, dealerships were left with a 5-door hatchback body style that wasn’t able to win buyers with a link to the car’s appearance in the WRC. This opened the door for Subaru to begin developing a 4-door sedan version, a body shape STI buyers have long associated with this ultimate Subaru thanks to the WRC success of drivers like Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Peter Solberg. We’ve always loved hot hatches, but we have to admit that the STI just looks “right” with a sedan trunk and a big obnoxious wing mounted on it.

Returning to the sedan body style offers more than just improved looks though. Subaru claims the sedan has 5 percent less drag than the hatchback, allowing it to reach a higher top speed. Subaru says the sedan should be marginally lighter than the hatch, too.

Interestingly, Subaru hired 4-time WRC Champion Tommi Makinen to test drive the new STI sedan around the Nurburgring, despite his championships all coming with rival Mitsubishi. Nevertheless, the combination of a rally racing legend and the new STI sedan made for the fastest Ring lap time ever recorded by a factory-stock STI. For a little history on the STI’s development at the Ring and an in-depth look at the new STI sedan, check out the video after the jump.

GALLERY: 2011 Subaru WRX STI Sedan Nurburgring Record

[Source: Car & Driver]

Continue Reading…