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Posted
Sep 11 2009, 09:34 AM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 17 comment(s)
Here is a video that Ken Block sent me this morning of himself and fellow rally driver Chris Atkinson having some fun in Ken's 1978 Ford Escort. Under the hood sits a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder Millington engine that boasts 280 BHP. It also is setup with WRC-styled paddle shifting and a six-speed sequential gearbox. I think this video does an incredible job of capturing the definition of fun!
-Vaughn Gittin JR
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Posted
Aug 05 2009, 01:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 8 comment(s)
I've hardly finished unpacking from my last Speedhunting trip, and already it's time to hop on a plane and head to Seattle for this weekend's Formula Drift event. Before I move on to cars sliding around on pavement though, I have a few more photos to share of cars sliding around off the pavement at the X Games last weekend....
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Posted
Aug 03 2009, 01:09 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 18 comment(s)
Sunday was the final day of the X Games 15 in Los Angeles and for gearheads like us, the schedule saved the best for last.
Following Saturday's Moto X comp, the course inside the Home Depot Center was leveled and new the rally course was constructed in its place. By Sunday morning, the course was complete and the teams entered the Home Depot Center for morning practice.
Up until this point the Ford Fiesta teams had dominated on the tarmac, but many wondered how the Fords would perform on the dirt section and most importantly how they'd fly over the massive gap - a centerpiece of X Games rallying....
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Posted
Jul 31 2009, 03:31 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 21 comment(s)
We round off this AWD month on Speedhunters with a look back to the golden age of Rallying, Group B. A time when rally cars were true supercars. Four wheel drive, over 500bhp, mid-engine layouts, space-frame chassis and massive budgets. It is remembered as the golden era of Rallying, but it would only last a few years. Rallying in the 1970’s was all about the domination of Ford Escort. One of the most successful rally cars of all time. It won multiple national and international championships...
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Posted
Jul 12 2009, 02:37 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 4 comment(s)
Speedhunters reader Adam D passed on this link to a fantastic collection of Rally videos on Youtube... As we just did a retrospective on Ford Rally cars, I chose these two videos on the history of the Ford RS200 to highlight. Cheesy canned music aside, these youtube videos are full of some great historical footage of this the RS200s. It's good watching if you want to learn more about Ford's rally program in the legendary Group B era.
:R
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Posted
Jul 11 2009, 05:21 PM
by
Patrick McGrath
with 17 comment(s)
‘The side numbers were usually the first thing that spectators saw of my Escorts.’ These words from motoring legend Ari Vatanen, are for most, what epitomize the story of the Ford Escort. They were always driven the hardest and usually, the most sideways. In their prime, the Escorts won more rallies, races and rallycross events than any other car in the world. They were driven by some of the biggest names in rallying; Timo Makinen, Roger Clark, Hannu Mikola, Bjorn Waldegard, Ari Vatanen...
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Posted
Jun 10 2009, 10:20 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
After a quick 11-hour hop across the Pacific, I'm back here in the land of small cars and funny soft drinks. I'll be in Japan for a couple weeks, visiting the in-laws and of course doing some Speedhunting along the way. I'll try to post as much Japan material as I can, but before that I want to post a few photos from a show I attended right before I left - the Belmont Concours d'Eleganza back home in good old Fresno, California....
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Posted
Jun 09 2009, 06:20 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 28 comment(s)
The guys over at Fueltopia send me this link where a Focus RS is being chased by an undisclosed car. The Focus is really pushing hard to stay ahead. Do you have any idea who is following the Focus RS. After seeing the first Fifth Gear of the season my bets are one the Mitsubishi EVO X.
-Jeroen Willemsen
Autocar
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Posted
May 27 2009, 09:19 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
Outside of the occasional Nissan Sunny truck or Silvia conversion, you don't see too many pickups here on Speedhunters. There's a good reason for that, as trucks usually fall a bit outside of our focus. However, a good number of the vehicles at the 2009 Cruisin' Nationals were pickup trucks, and to overlook them would be to ignore an important and fast growing part of the rod and custom scene. Even if you aren't big on pickups, after looking at this gallery I think you'll agree with me that these haulers are just as cool, if not cooler than the cars you saw earlier....
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Posted
May 04 2009, 11:00 PM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 6 comment(s)
Even if you don't approve the engine under the hood, you have to admit to yourself that this car is seriously sexy. If you've seen the movie "Lost in Translation," there's a part when actress, Scarlett Johansson, is pracing around her hotel room in her panties. That was a moment of the purist form of falling in love. That same feeling applies to this very car. Head to the desktops section experience such love on your desktop! -Linhbergh Nguyen Special April Drift Features on...
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Posted
Apr 30 2009, 08:15 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 75 comment(s)
Darkness still blankets the world when you wake up and get out of bed. The minute that your toes touch the floor, you're wide awake. There's no sensation of grogginess or tiredness. As you wipe your eyes, the thought of how the rest of the world still sleeping at this very moment flashes through your mind. It makes you smile, and you quickly get dressed. The attire does not matter since your destination does not require for your pre-dawn fashion senses to awaken just yet. As you step outside...
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Posted
Apr 28 2009, 02:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 34 comment(s)
No doubt you've already seen plenty of photos of Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s 2010 Ford Mustang competition drift car, but I thought could add a bit American flavor to our drifting features this month with a closer look at this unique beast. After being teased by videos earlier in the year, I couldn't wait to finally see this car in person during the Formula D Long Beach event earlier this month. The first exposure I got with the car was when JR took it out for practice on Friday morning. While drifting, the car moves more like an AE86 or Silvia than a V8-powered muscle car....
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Posted
Apr 05 2009, 04:54 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 4 comment(s)
The first three races of the 2009 British Touring Car Championship may have lacked the usual outcome of season debuts - ie. half the cars ending up as scrap - but it certainly didn't lack for action. Initially pole man Mat Neal lost the lead off the line to the Rob Collard and Colin Turkington's BMWs. There was the usual dogfight on the sprint down to Paddock: Jonathan Adam's BMW was fired off the track as Stephen Jelly's BMW was sandwiched by Adam and Gordon Shedden's Civic....
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Posted
Apr 04 2009, 04:23 PM
by
Jonathan Moore
with 7 comment(s)
There were some last minute returnees to the first round of Britain's favourite 'roundy-roundy' racing, but none more high profile than crowd favourite Jason Plato. Left high and dry by the works SEAT team closure and having not scored a drive over the winter, British race engineering specialists RML rustled up a car for him: a 2008 works Chevy Lacetti. Although the BTCC has lost last year's surprise indy success story, Mat Jackson, there's still strength up front, and the top...
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Posted
Mar 19 2009, 03:21 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 5 comment(s)
The British Touring Car Championship held their media day today with the majority of teams showing off their 2009 outfits. We will have a full preview later in the month, but this image shows three of the leading cars in the 2009 Championship. Team Dynamics have lost their Halfords Sponsorship, but now have a cool black and silver livery for the Civic. GM is represented by the Vauxhall brand. Fabrizio Giovanardi is current champion. Arena Motorsport return to the series with their new Ford Focus...
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Posted
Mar 04 2009, 04:26 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 18 comment(s)
I always look out for good shots of the cockpits of racecars. Its a hard area to photograph, particularly during a busy race weekend. The 'office' for a race driver is very different from a normal road car. Here is a small selection to wet your appetite for the 2009 season of competitions. British Touring Car Championship driver Tom Chilton (above) sits in his new race car, the Team Aon Ford Focus ST. The car, developed by Arena International (who use to run the old BTCC Honda team) is typical...
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Posted
Feb 11 2009, 08:03 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
Do the words "Ford Taurus" and "interesting" sound like a strange match to you? If you answered "yes", then you might want to check up on your history. The Ford Taurus SHO was one of America's first real sport sedans. When the SHO debuted in 1989 with its Yamaha-developed V6 that made 220hp, it became one of the best sleeper cars of all time. A 220hp sedan might not sound like much by today's standards, but that was a very big deal 20 years ago when even exotic cars struggled to make 300hp. Ford discontinued the SHO in 1999, but they have just announced the return of this cult-favorite performance sedan....
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Posted
Jan 16 2009, 02:00 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 15 comment(s)
Speedhunter, Vaughn Gittin Jr and Falken, brought their new 2010 Ford Mustang to Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale this week and showed off the Formula Drift car in action. Auction goers could register for a chance to be passenger with Vaughn. It was no demo run though, with Jr pushing the Mustang to its limits, entertaining his passengers along the way. Full story and more images over at Autoblog.com -Andy Blackmore Autoblog.com - Barrett-Jackson 2009
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Posted
Jan 12 2009, 05:44 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 16 comment(s)
In the second of our two part retrospective, we look at the second half of the 1990's in the British Touring Car Championship. If you missed the first part, then you can catch it here . With the help of images from BTCC.net and Peter Still Photographic, we rejoin the action from '96 season. BMW, Renault, Vauxhall, Ford and Honda were joined by Audi for the '96 Season. Audi Sport UK would dominated the series, thanks to their four wheel drive A4 quattro. The extra traction gave them more...
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Posted
Jan 02 2009, 06:00 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 24 comment(s)
Happy new year and welcome to 2009. What better way that to look back to the 1990's with the help of BTCC.net and Peter Still Photographic archives. Many Touring Car fans would classify the ‘Super-Turing’ era as the golden era of Touring Car Championships, although the competition in recent years runs this era close. The man in the street believed his Ford Mondeo ‘rep’ car was the same, as one Nigel Mansell would drive in 1998. They were worlds apart, but customers and...
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