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Posted
Feb 19 2010, 09:30 PM
by
Will Roegge
with 32 comment(s)
I love challenges. Where there is doubt, I find inspiration. This past January, we traveled to UAE to film a team driving a car for 24 hours straight, in a field of 75 plus cars, in the desert, in the grandest city in the world - Dubai. Having never filmed an endurance race, I was looking forward to the challenges presented by the event. The Audi documentary Truth in 24 had just beaten my short film Climb Attack for an award, so it was time to see if I could hang with the competition. At the Dubai...
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Posted
Jan 31 2010, 08:22 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
Hello Speedhunters! My name is Patrick Soderlund and I recently trekked out to the UAE to race in the Dubai 24Hs. We finished the race last year in fifth and came to the event with the goal of a podium finish. The competition for the 2010 edition of the race was tougher than last year, so we knew only a trouble free run would get us this result....
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Posted
Jan 31 2010, 04:13 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with no comments
Finally i've had a chance to put together some desktops from the Dubai 24 Hours trip: the race-winning Imsa Porsche 997, 'our' Speedhunters Porsche Cup and a couple of night shots for race fans out there. Check out both widescreen and standard formats in the desktops section. Jonathan Moore
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Posted
Jan 25 2010, 05:26 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 33 comment(s)
"Sorry sir the car doesn't have satellite navigation" ... this was the answer given to me as I propped myself up at the car rental counter at the Dubai International airport. It was the middle of the night and I was trying to muster enough energy to get myself over to my Dubai hotel room. I eventually convinced the car rental company to give me a portable navigation unit, but unfortunately it contained outdated maps and could not locate my hotel. This meant I had to try and find my...
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Posted
Jan 20 2010, 05:35 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 15 comment(s)
The Speedhunters trip to the Dubai 24H will certainly go down as one of our most exotic and inspiring experiences to date. I absolutely loved the laid back and friendly nature of the event, as well as the diversity of machinery.
...
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Posted
Jan 19 2010, 04:46 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 24 comment(s)
I'm currently sitting in a tiny hotel room in London, UK trying to stay awake long enough to type up this blog post.
It was only yesterday that I left Dubai, but already the experience of London-town is moving front and center in my mind. So I'd better get this post done while the memories of Dubai are still relatively fresh.
...
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Posted
Jan 18 2010, 05:21 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 11 comment(s)
As the sun began to rise over the Dubai Autodrome race the state of the surviving cars became clearer. The nights are always hard in endurance racing. Drivers are pushed to the limit by the concentration required to keep going at maximum pace over their stints. Of the 75 cars that started, over a third had hit trouble (or something more solid) over the course of the race and were out of contention. ...
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Posted
Jan 16 2010, 07:46 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 10 comment(s)
The Dubai 24 Hours had a proper 12 hours of darkness. At Le Mans, the mother of all endurance races, it's still light way into the evening – it does happen in June after all. But here in the Middle East it's a pretty even split. The start straight at the Dubai Autodrome is under powerful daylight-strength floodlights, but as soon as the cars run down the hill from turn one it's into darkness. There's a fair amount of ambient light pollution from the nearby town, but for the...
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Posted
Jan 16 2010, 03:50 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 15 comment(s)
Before taking up position for the start of the Dubai 24 hours I had a couple of minutes to run round the grid: or half of it at least. The usual parade of national flags awaited the cars as they formed up. With 68 cars taking the 2pm start (five would start from the pitlane) the start straight was packed with people and jostling teams trying to get their cars through the throng and into position. As with the pitlane, there were some near misses as drivers just didn't see people or someone stepped...
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Posted
Jan 15 2010, 02:35 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 16 comment(s)
Number of minutes to set the grid: 90. Number of cars fighting it out: 72. Chances of finding a clear piece of track to set your lap: 0. Qualifying will be followed by two hours of night practice to round the day off. All drivers must make it out on track for at least a lap so their car can take up its qualifying slot, so the pressure will be on. The all-Australian entry from Mal Rose Racing is a big Aussie V8 Holden Commodore. It's a shame their sponsor didn't seem to have any product on...
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Posted
Jan 15 2010, 11:00 AM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 10 comment(s)
The Dubai 24 Hours is the first major race of 2010 and its fifth running features multi-national teams running near to 80 cars spread over 10 classes, a dozen manufacturers and both petrol and diesel power. More and more professional teams are turning up, bringing top drivers with them, but the depth of the field means no one expects a clear run. Traffic is a killer, and closing speeds immense between the fastest GT cars and the slower diesel hatches. The crew of the Need For Speed Porsche made have...
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Posted
Jan 14 2010, 09:14 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 21 comment(s)
I don't have much time to write up this report as I have to meet the Speedhunters team in the hotel lobby shortly, before heading out to the track. The race is starting today at 2 in the afternoon... ... and will continue until the same time on Saturday. So I'm sure by this time tomorrow I'll be feeling like a bit of a wreck! We're planning to stay at the circuit for the entire 24 hours. Anyway... let me show you a few more odds and ends from the paddock area at the Dubai Autodrome...
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Posted
Jan 14 2010, 03:57 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 14 comment(s)
This is going to be a busy few days on Speedhunters.com. John Brooks is already in Birmingham, UK getting set for the Autosport show, Dino is gearing up for the Tokyo Auto Salon and a group of us have converged on Dubai to film and photograph the Dubai 24 hour race. Some of you will remember last year we had a Porsche entered in the race which took fifth overall. We're back with the car again this year, and this time we'll be will be producing a film of our experiences at the event. Arriving...
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Posted
Jan 01 2010, 05:49 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 32 comment(s)
On July 7th 2009, some of the Japan's top modified RX7s gathered together for a meeting at the legendary Daikoku Parking Area . Speedhunters' Japan based team member, Dino Dalle Carbonare was on hand to witness the police break up the meeting and travelled with the envoy of the RX7s to a second location: the Umihotaru Parking Area (pictured), a man-made island in the middle of the Tokyo Bay. In a similar fashion to the annual August 6th, AE86 day celebrations , the seventh day of the seventh...
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