There is a reason why many consider the notorious corkscrew at the Laguna Seca raceway both fantastic and scary at the same time. If you want to know about the scary part, then you should take a look at what happened during the 2012 Ferrari Racing Days this past weekend. While tackling the corkscrew, one of the drivers came in way faster than he should of and the 458 Challenge just continued on straight. Due to the car's momentum, the gravel and tires did not stop the Italian racer, which was flung into the air like a toy before it landed on its roof. A very scary incident indeed. Fortunately, the driver walked away from the crash shaken but not hurt. You can view the accident from various angles in the videos below.
General Motors engineers recently took the new 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the drag strip to see how fast it could run the quarter mile (~400m).A showroom-stock Camaro ZL1 with the six-speed automatic and the factory-issued Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar G:2 tires completed the run in 11.93 seconds with an exit speed of 116 mph (187 km/h), while the six-speed manual model ran an 11.96-second ET at 117 mph (188 km/h). “The ZL1 is great at everything and we’re very proud of that. You can take it to the drag strip and run 11-second quarter-miles all day long,” commented Tony Roma, Camaro ZL1 program engineering manager. “You can also take it to a road course, where it’s balanced, handles well, and does exactly what you want – including lapping Virginia International Raceway’s Grand Course in under three minutes – and yet the ZL1 is sophisticated enough to use as a daily driver. It’s a supercar you can drive every day,” he added. The ZL1 is powered by a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 rated at 580HP (432 kW) and 556 lb.-ft. of torque (754 Nm), with prices in the U.S. starting from $54,995.
Immediately after the 2012 season opener in Australia, the Formula 1 circus moved to Malaysia for the second race of the year. In contrast to Albert Park, which uses public roads that are closed in order for the Grand Prix to take place and is a relatively easy track, the Sepang Circuit features an unusual layout, with a tight hairpin leading from the very long back straight to the pits. In Australia, we got a first taste of each team’s pace during tge race. Apparently, the Malaysian GP qualifying session proved that the picture it painted was an accurate one. Both McLarens will once again start from the front row of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton beating his teammate to claim his second pole position in as many races. Jenson Button, however, commented that Hamilton is not his only concern for Sunday’s race. That’s because a resurgent Michael Schumacher brought his Mercedes in third place, the best result since his 2010 return. “The Mercedes is renowned, especially Michael, for getting good starts so it’s going to be a fun Turn One I think”, said Button. For the second race in a row, Lotus was also very strong. This time it wasn’t Romain Grosjean but Kimi Raikkonen who looked like he never left the F1 tracks. In fact, the “Iceman” said that even though he made a couple of mistakes on his fastest lap, it was good enough for fifth place: “Without that, we were in with a shout for pole today”, he added. Unfortunately for him, a gearbox replacement meant that he got a five-place penalty, so he’ll start from 10th place. That was good news for Sebastian Vettel. The 2010 and 2011 world champion complained that he was “struggling to find a balance” with either the medium or the harder compound tires, but after Raikkonen’s penalty he gained one place on the grid and will start fifth, right behind the other Red Bull of Mark Webber. Ferrari’s qualifying session was a mixed bag. The F2012 is clearly inferior to the front-runners, struggling to beat both Williams and Sauber, and Felipe Massa didn’t even make it to Q3. Fernando Alonso will start from eighth place after Raikkonen’s penalty. The Scuderia’s technical director Pat Fry was full of praise for Alonso, despite his lap time being 1.34 seconds slower than Hamilton’s pole. “As usual, he squeezed every drop of performance out of the F2012”, said Fry. “We had a KERS problem right in the final stages of the session, when Fernando set out for his last timed lap in Q3, but I don’t think without it he would have got a different position on the grid.”
In its debut appearance at the Monte Carlo Rally, the Chevrolet Volt's European twin, the Opel Ampera, picked up its first win in the electric and alternative propulsion category. From the seven Ampera models that competed in the rally, four finished in the top 10. The French duo Bernard Darniche and Joseph Lambert finished first, while the Ampera teams with Charlotte Berton and Olivier Sussot ranked third, Jean-Claude Andruet and Patrick Lienne came in 7th and Hanns Werner Wirth and Daniel Riesen finished 8th. "The Ampera’s success in this versatility contest under very challenging conditions proves its impressive balance between durability and fuel efficiency," commented Opel’s Director E-mobility, Enno Fuchs. "This underscores our leadership role in the field of alternative propulsion." Some 130 competitors from about 30 manufacturers took part in the Monte Carlo Rally for electric and alternative propulsion vehicles including the Renault Fluence Z.E., a Tesla Roadster sports car, a Mitsubishi I-MiEV and a Peugeot Ion. The rally started in the three towns of Annecy-le-Vieux, Clermont Ferrand and Lugano, with the teams driving 550 kilometers (342 miles) to Monaco. The second day, they had to complete a distance of 272 kilometers (169 miles) from Monaco and the original route of the Monte Carlo Rally through the French Maritime Alps.
Ah Russia, the land of great artists, endless distances, dashboard mounted cameras and 1,000-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokees challenging some of the fastest cars around. In this match, we see the previous generation Grand Cherokee SRT-8 that's powered by a Stroker 7.2-liter supercharged V8 engine competing against a completely stock Audi R8 V10 5.2 with 525-horses, a Switzer-prepped Nissan GT-R R850 with 850-ponies and a BMW X6M by Evotech with 620-horsepower. Race through the break to watch the one mile runs.
The crew over at Japan's Car Nifty sent us this video of the new 2012 Ferrari 599XX Evolution performing its first runs on the track at Suzuka following the racing car's world premiere at the Bologna Motor Show last December. The debut took place during the first event of the Ferrari Racing Days that groups together the races for the entrants in the Asia-Pacific series of the Ferrari Challenge Tofeo Pirelli and the track sessions for clients involved in the 599XX and F1 programmes. The 2012 599XX is an evolution of the original model (hence the name) sporting a more powerful version of the Enzo-sourced V12 engine delivering 750PS (740hp) at 9,000 rpm and 700Nm (516.3 lb-ft) of peak torque. Other changes include a revised gearbox, tweaked aerodynamics with a modified front splitter and a larger rear diffuser, new Pirelli tires and a weight reduction of 77 pounds (35kg). According to Ferrari, the 599XX EVO laps the Fiorano race track in just 1’15”.
Six Drivers' and seven Constructors' Formula 1 World Championships won by legends Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti are enough to secure Lotus' place in the history of F1 racing, even if it currently isn’t ranked among the title contenders.Yet, the Hethel-based sports car maker has another world title to show for itself in a completely different form of racing: it won the 1982 World Rally Championship with the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. Confirming previous reports, Lotus is returning to special stages in partnership with the Italian team United Business, which won the 2011 title. It will enter the FIA European Rally Championship with the Exige R-GT painted in its iconic black and gold colors. "This will be the first GT car to be homologated by the FIA", says Lotus Racing Director Claudio Berro. "Lotus, of course, has been successful in rallying before, so in many ways we’re going back to our roots." The Exige R-GT will undergo its final test next week before it is subjected to the FIA homologation process, and if everything goes by plan, it will enter the Mille Miglia rally on April 19-21, driven by former Super 2000 World Rally Champion Bernando Sousa. Lotus will also compete in the GTE Pro class of the 2012 European Le Mans Series with the Evora GTE. The factory-prepared car will be run by the Lotus Guidici Racing outfit. Lotus’ factory driver Johnny Mowlem has already been confirmed, while two other drivers that will comprise the one-car team will be announced later.
The first thing that came to mind upon viewing the videos of Toyota's brand-new TS030 Hybrid Le Mans Racer as it was leaving the pits at the Paul Ricard circuit in France for its first test run was the Batmobile – well, that or Anakin Skywalker's podracer from Star Wars Episode 1.And no, we're not referring to the racecar's shape and styling but the sounds emitted by the hybrid powertrain which starts off with the electric motor before the V8 engine kicks in like an afterburner – yes, it's that cool. After that, you get the usual screaming sounds produced by race-prepped engines. Toyota's racing team is still developing the TS030 Hybrid as it has yet to decide whether it will combine the all-new 3.4-litre normally-aspirated V8 petrol engine with an electric motor from Aisin AW powering the front wheels or an electric motor from DENSO driving the rear axle (regulations stipulate that electric motors can only power two wheels). The TS030 Hybrid will make its racing debut on May 5 in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
There's no question that the Nissan Juke-R is wickedly fast, but is it actually fast enough to give a lesson to exotic supercars like the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, for example? Well, there's a lot to take into consideration including the place and the person driving (let's not forget that any car is as fast as its driver is), but for whatever reasons, this time the Juke-R came out as the winner.
In the video clip from Carsandspeed that follows, we see the 485HP-strong Juke-R winning a race against the three aforementioned supercars on a tightly designed makeshift track in Dubai as part of a promotional event on the sidelines of the local 24hrs Endurance Race, in which it took part as the official pace car. We managed to find out that the man behind the wheel of the Juke-R was 26-year old Lucas Ordoñez from Spain who was the winner of the 2008 PlayStation GT Academy competition. Professional race-car driver Christian Vann from New Zealand sat in the Lamborghini, which finished in second place, while professional race driver Michael Mallock from Britain drove the Mercedes that came out last. We haven’t managed to find out who was driving the Ferrari model yet, but we'll post an update if/when we do.
