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Posted
Dec 31 2011, 06:00 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 20 comment(s)
We couldn’t complete our review of 2011 without looking back at Dan Wheldon, one of the most successful British drivers of the recent era. Daniel Clive Wheldon was one of the most popular figures in North American motorsport. He was on a high after winning this year's Indianapolis 500 in a midfield car and was about to start a new chapter in his IndyCar career with a full season drive for Andretti Autosport. Sadly he lost life in October's tragic events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway....
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Posted
May 26 2011, 04:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
When you picture a rally car, what model comes to your head? An Evo? An Impreza? A Citroen? If you are looking back to the gold old days maybe a Ford Escort or a Mini Cooper?
How about a V8-powered Ford Falcon?...
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Posted
Apr 29 2011, 03:00 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 22 comment(s)
Honda UK have been present in the British Touring Car Championship for many years, so as a follow up to our Honda Retrospectives, let's take a look at Honda and the BTCC. Honda first entered a team in 1995 when they partnered with MSD to develop a British Touring Car just as the SuperTouring era was taking off, with James Kaye and David Leslie behind the wheel. In 1997, Prodrive built a new car for Honda. Gabriele Tarquini and James Thompson were the drivers. In three years, Honda had Kenwood...
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Posted
Apr 29 2011, 10:30 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
There is something special about Honda as compared to other large automakers. It's hard to put a finger on it exactly, but I think it has something to do with how motorsport has been ingrained in the brand since its earliest days. In the early to mid 1960's for example, Honda drew more worldwide attention from its Formula One racing program than from any of its production cars. ...
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Posted
Apr 29 2011, 05:55 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 15 comment(s)
As we round out our Honda coverage, it is time to have a look at Honda's involvement in Formula One. The Japanese manufacturer has competed in Formula One as a team on two occasions. They originally entered the world of F1 back in 1964. Honda built their own chassis and engine - which was unusual in the 60s - just as the all conquering Cosworth DFV started to take a hold on Formula One. In their second year of competition, Honda won the Mexican Grand Prix with Richie Ginther at the wheel. It...
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Posted
Mar 19 2011, 10:00 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 29 comment(s)
With the 12 Hours of Sebring happening this weekend in Florida, we thought we would put up another blast from the past as we did around the time of the Daytona 500.
This time we have a selection of photos that Mark Windecker shot at the 1988 Sebring IMSA race.
So, what did sports car racing in North America look like 23 years ago?...
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Posted
Mar 06 2011, 09:22 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 21 comment(s)
To say that the return of the GT-R to Japan's premier motorsport category was a major event would be a huge understatement. Despite earning massive success with its Fairlady Z in the years 2004 - 2007 (two titles plus two second places in the Teams' championship, plus one Driver's title), the anticipation surrounding the arrival of Nissan's latest weapon, the R35 GT-R was palpable. Before the season even got underway, the buzz about the car was like nothing before it. At the pre-season...
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Posted
Mar 04 2011, 05:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 11 comment(s)
As part of Skyline week, it seems only appropriate to include images from the R34 GT-R's final season in the JGTC (All-Japan Grand Touring Championship), 2003. After taking the title in its debut season in 1999, the R34 later came up against stiff competition from the likes of the Toyota Supra and Honda NSX. After a disappointing 2002 where the Skyline GT-R recorded no victories, for 2003 a concerted effort was in place to reverse the fortunes of the crowd-favourite. In addition to major development...
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Posted
Feb 24 2011, 12:21 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 38 comment(s)
How many of you guys follow NASCAR? Not a whole lot I would imagine. It might not be the hippest thing to say, but I try to tune in whenever I can.
If you happened to watch the 2011 Daytona 500 last Sunday, then you know that it was one hell of a race....
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Posted
Jan 04 2011, 12:15 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 27 comment(s)
In fitting with our celebration of the Nissan S-Chassis, here's a repost of a story I did back in November '08.
And now for a look at the history of another one of Nissan's most famous cars, the Silvia and its sister-models. I'm sure when most of you hear "Silvia", you probably picture a tuned S13 or S15 blasting through a corner sideways, but the model actually has roots that go back 45 years. The first Nissan Silvia was the CSP311 model, shown at the 1964 Tokyo Motor Show....
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Posted
Jan 03 2011, 06:45 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 36 comment(s)
When I was in my teens, every year I'd look forward to the six hour drive from Vancouver to Oregon, to watch the G.I. Joes Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway. It was an amazing time for sports car racing in America, with factory entries from Jaguar, Nissan, Toyota, and Ford as well as a host of privateer Porsches. In the support role to the big prototypes were the GTs, which amazingly enough, had enough numbers to run in a totally separate race. The main players back then were the AAR...
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Posted
Nov 29 2010, 02:14 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 50 comment(s)
I think I speak for most of us when I say that I LOVE station wagons. Wagons make awesome platforms for customization, and they will often end up being cooler than their sedan or coupe counterparts. Over the years there have also been some very desirable station wagons, straight off the showroom floor.
As we close out Sedans and Haulers month, I thought I'd take a look back at the history of the hot production station wagon....
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Posted
Oct 26 2010, 03:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 5 comment(s)
Last week, I took a look at one the most well known exhibition drag cars of the '60s, the Hurst Hairy Olds. To follow that up, I thought I'd look at another one of Hurst's wild exhibition machines - the Hemi Under Glass Barracuda. While the Olds was built to smoke its four tires down the length of the dragstrip, the Hemi Under Glass was to built to shoot down the strip on only its rear wheels....
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Posted
Oct 20 2010, 04:01 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
By the mid 1960's, drag racing had exploded in popularity across the United States. With the massive audiences attending these events, some folks started building cars not to break records, but simply to entertain and leave a lasting impression on the crowd.
Of all these exhibition racers, one of the most legendary is a twin engine, 2000 horsepower, all wheel drive Oldsmobile 442 known as the Hurst Hairy Olds....
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Posted
Sep 26 2010, 05:01 AM
by
John Brooks
with 6 comment(s)
Even for those of us getting on a bit, ten years, a whole decade, is a significant chunk of time. Ten years ago saw the third edition of the instant endurance racing classic, Petit Le Mans. The landscape back then, both on and off the track, was somewhat different. Hell, Bill Clinton was still President of the United States of America. September 11 was just a day like any other, there was a calm before the storm. The signs of the impending troubles were there for those with eyes to see but most of...
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Posted
Sep 23 2010, 07:15 PM
by
John Brooks
with 24 comment(s)
SpeedHunting and consequently SpeedHunters, are all over the planet. None of the continents are safe, one minute it is Bonneville, next San Luis, the next Monza, but this frenetic travelling grows less and less attractive, the more it is experienced. If I never see the dump that is London Heathrow and its peculiar inhabitants again, I would be very happy. So finding a motoring activity that takes place in your backyard and involves minimal distance to cover is a wonderful thing. Earlier this month...
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Posted
Sep 08 2010, 05:25 PM
by
John Brooks
with 32 comment(s)
They say that time flies when you are having fun, actually, I have found that it also flies if you are deep in the ***. Last weekend I was rummaging through a big box of old prints and slides researching for a new book project. I found a sheet or two of slides that reminded of my first visit to the majestic circuit known as Spa Francorchamps. It was exactly 25 years ago, the first week in September and what should have been a great time became memorable for all the wrong reasons. Then the thought...
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Posted
Jul 27 2010, 01:20 PM
by
John Brooks
with 35 comment(s)
Here at SpeedHunters we are in the final stages of Photography Month. There have been many fine posts with great images but it hit me when preparing my previous piece about the Suttons that something was missing. In all the talk of gear and technique, laced with healthy doses of self promotion, the real magic, the real purpose of photography was being ignored. The great Henri Cartier-Bresson expressed this quality in far more eloquent terms that I ever could. " We photographers deal in things...
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Posted
Jun 30 2010, 05:30 PM
by
John Brooks
with 7 comment(s)
Sometimes you do not need the Ouija board to forecast the outcome of an event. Ten years ago it was the assembled wisdom that Audi would dominate the Le Mans 24 Hours and finish 1-2-3. So it came to pass. Mind you, the same, self appointed experts reached a similar conclusion about Peugeot this year and we all know how that turned out. That, perhaps, encapsulates the enigma of Les Vingt Quatre Heures du Mans. The image above shows the staged finish; the flag waving and enthusiasm of Emanuele Pirro...
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Posted
Jun 29 2010, 06:10 PM
by
John Brooks
with 14 comment(s)
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose . The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyone taking a casual glance at the results from the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours and recalling the verdict way back in 2000, would conclude that the wise words of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, from the mid 19th Century, still hold sway. We had the same result, an Audi clean sweep, from completely different circumstances. And yet the Le Mans universe is a very different place from that of ten...
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