 French professional skier Candide Thovex is back with yet another clip that showcases just how insanely talented he is. After recently seeing him haul ass down a mountain with no snow, Thovex proves once again that the perfect conditions aren’t exactly necessary. Here, Candide starts in what seems to be at least decent powder, but then ends up skiing through water and over-top grass and rocks, all while taking on incredible jumps and landing outrageous tricks. Watch the video below!   MULHOLLAND HIGHWAY IS an amazing road, a ribbon of blacktop that meanders through the Santa Monica mountains overlooking Los Angeles. It’s a popular destination for anyone who loves to drive or ride. But one section is revered above all: The Snake, a two-mile stretch that ends with what could be the most crashed corner in Southern California. On any given Sunday, The Snake is overrun by drivers and motorcyclists. They’ve been hitting this spot 30 miles northwest of Hollywood for decades, but it became a hot destination in the 1960s when Steve McQueen started blasting through Mulholland on his Triumph. The road’s popularity grew over the years, and even an aggressive crackdown on speeding and a temporary shuttering of the road in the 1990s did little to slow the The Snake’s popularity. These days it isn’t uncommon to see celebrities like Jay Leno motoring through in six-figure cars. But it’s the motorcyclists you’ll see most often.  And see most often crashing, particularly at Edwards Corner. The 180-degree hairpin is the unofficial finish line of The Snake. You’ll find a contingent of spectators there each weekend, most of them with cameras. That encourages showboating and unchecked ego. And that means countless crashes. Last year, the California Highway Patrol responded to 43 crashes in the 300-square-mile area that includes The Snake, but that number doesn’t even begin to tell the story. For that, you need to check out YouTube. A search of “motorcycle crash” with “Edwards Corner” or “The Snake” brings up thousands of hits. Most of them involve rookies with more ego than skill, who quickly find themselves in over their heads. “Riders treat The Snake like a skate park for motorcycles,” says Ken Snyder, a frequent rider who shoots video at Edwards Corner on Sundays during the summer. “Most who crash are inexperienced and pushing themselves. Even though they have seen countless crashes, it seems everyone learns the hard way.” Snyder has been filming at Edwards Corner for more than four years, posting videos that highlight brilliant riders and hamfisted n00bs. His videos, under the handleRNickeyMouse on YouTube, have garnered tens of millions of views, but the ones that attract the most eyeballs are the most chilling, including a terrifying crash involving a Suzuki rider and two cyclists last year. But the irony is that Edwards Corner is a piece of cake — assuming you’re not an idiot. “There are trickier sections,” says Adey Bennett, a regular known among riders as The King of the Hill. “But [Edwards Corner] is where people push it — in front of the bystanders. They pussy-foot it through the rest of The Snake and then showboat through that last corner.” Bennett says Edwards Corner is not a tough one. It’s an uphill bend with a constant radius and positive camber, meaning the road’s angle is steady and the surface is tilted inward. The riders who go down tend to hit the corner way too fast, realize they’re in over their heads, fixate on the guard rail, and slam right into it. Just as often, though, riders get too greedy with the throttle on the way out, causing the rear end to slide. Beginners and squids tend to jump off the throttle or lay on the brakes, causing the bike to go wide and forge a trail into the hillside. The skilled riders come down from speed before the turn, lean in, and roll on the gas after the apex — keeping their eyes on the exit the entire time. “The reason why most people crash on this turn is because they don’t know how to assess the type of corner they’re riding on,” says Bennett. “It’s such a simple turn when you see it done well, but people make it so complicated.”Snyder’s videos show exactly how, in excruciating detail. A playlist of 79 clips shows every type of rider imaginable making every type of mistake imaginable. Lowsides on Harleys, highsides on Ducatis, and the occasional car crash. But through it all, there’s an air of camaraderie, with riders helping each other pull bikes from ditches as others slow incoming traffic and even sweep up dirt and debris to prevent another crash. Most of these crashes are never officially recorded. For every motorcycle crash in the CHP’s log, another half dozen never come to their attention — until they see them on YouTube. “We estimate that at least 60 to 70 percent of [motorcycle crashes] are unreported,” says Officer Leland Tang of the CHP’s public information office. “We look at the videos ourselves, and there were two months where I saw bunch of crashes on YouTube and looked at our collision stats and didn’t see any reported.” It’s not as if the troopers and the local sheriff’s deputies don’t know Edwards is a hot corner, or The Snake a popular destination. They’re often out there, patrolling the road, waiting for riders to cross the center line or go off road. But the sheer size of the area they patrol means they have to limit the amount of time they spend on any one section of road. As special as The Snake is to riders, crashes happen along all of Mulholland. And despite the road’s propensity for eating machines, people continue to come back. “A fast one-way lap from the bottom up takes about two minutes and 15 seconds,” says Bennett. “That’s fast. And it’s very, very entertaining.”  Imagine that you have an American “shooting brake” Mustang with 435hp, I.R.S., and room for your toys to boot. Sure this could be called the Redneck (Ferrari) FF, but I would call it the sensible “Family Truckster GT”. With the muscle car game strong, there is no telling if something as unorthodox would show its face at a car show or at least through us here at GearHeads. All we know is that we would be glad to drive this in the Swiss Alps with an American Flag livery and bald eagle head cornices as rear view mirrors.  Sure this car will be $#!t in the snow and ice compared to the FF, but who cares, if you wreck this one you can still buy 6 more (or more) for the price of one Ferrari. So what it all boils down to is if the world and especially America would accept this hunchback of north Detroit or if it would likely end up a marketing disaster.  NASA knows a way to get humans to Mars in about a month, and to land unmanned probes in just three days. In a NASA 360 video University of California Santa Barbara professor Philip Lubin describes the process of "photonic propulsion." It involves propelling objects with mass-free particles of light (photons). Basically, pushing spaceships with a great, big laser. Lubin explains that the proposed system would require about the same amount of energy as the upcoming Space Launch System to get to "relativistic speeds." Which is to say speeds matching a significant percentage of the speed of light. In this case, 30 percent in about 10 minutes. That speed is totally unheard of as far as human technology goes. And at a relatively reasonable energy cost, it sounds too good to be true. So what's the catch? According to Lubin there doesn't appear to be one. At least none that we couldn't overcome. "There is no known reason why we could not do this," Lubin says in the video. Lubin has a far more detailed roadmap on the subject, if you're interested in the specifics. Though the broad benefit is this: at that speed we could scout, and perhaps one day reach potentially habitable exoplanets light years away from Earth.  Small Twin Otter aircraft thought to have crashed during short flight between resort town of Pokhara and trekking start point in Jomson, official says A small plane with 21 people on board and flying in poor visibility over mountainous terrain in Nepal on Wednesday has gone missing and feared to have crashed, officials said. Domestic airline Tara Air said rescue helicopters had been deployed to search for the Twin Otter aircraft, which lost contact with air traffic control eight minutes after it left the western town of Pokhara on Wednesday morning. “A plane that took off from Pokhara for Jomsom this morning is out of contact,†Tara Air spokesman Bhim Raj Rai told AFP. “There are 18 passengers, including two foreigners, and three crew members on board.† The police chief at Jomsom, Harihari Yogi, said they had reports from local villagers of hearing a loud explosion near the small v
Airport official Yogendra Kuwar said there were no landing strips between the two airports and it is believed to have crashed. Helicopters were searching the route more than two hours after the plane was to have landed, but poor weather conditions are making that difficult, he said. Nepal, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake last April, has suffered a number of air disasters in recent years, dealing a blow to its tourist industry. Most have been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance. The country’s aviation sector has come under fire from international authorities and in 2013 the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying there.  Lamborghini’s current CEO Stephan Winkelmann will step down from the Italian performance brand next month to take up a new role as head of Quattro, the performance division of Lamborghini’s parent company Audi. Replacing Winkelmann will be Stefano Domenicali who is most famous for running the Ferrari [NYSE:RACE] Formula One team from the end of the 2007 season until midway through the 2014 season. Domenicali will start his new role at Lamborghini on March 15, 2016. Winkelmann has led Lamborghini for the past 11 years and has been influential in transforming it from a cottage industry to a high-tech, luxury powerhouse. Lamborghini is enjoying its best sales in its entire history and is just a couple of years away from significantly lifting volumes with the Urus SUV.  During Winkelmann’s reign, the sales figures at Lamborghini more than doubled, and the turnover more than tripled. The dealer network has also tripled in size and now encompasses 135 dealers in 50 countries. During this time the number of employees, today 1,300, practically doubled. The reason behind the shakeup isn’t clear at this point but with Domenicali’s history it may point towards an expanded motorsport program at Lamborghini. A less likely scenario could be the Volkswagen Group getting ready to spinoff the brand in an effort to raise funds in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal.  Yes, you read that right and we have the video to prove it. Aussie Owen Lansbury got the fright of his snow loving life when he, his guide Dave and Hotham ski patroller Bill Barker from Bills Trips in Gulmarg got chased down by a snow leopard. Check out the video below Crazy, right? Makes you want to go to Gulmarg to ski powder with big cats.“OK – so the story is we skied our first powder line and the guide in yellow almost ran over the leopard” said Owen on his Facebook page. “I stopped just as it huddled in the snow, where it stayed for about a minute checking us out. It then let out a solid roar and bounded away down the slope towards Dave, but scooted off into the forest, where we think it probably had a kill stashed. Pretty amazing experience!” And here’s a still image for the obsessed (that’s me). Look at that cat stalk it’s prey! Here kitty kitty kitty.   "Formula One is the worst it has ever been. I wouldn't spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way." Bernie Ecclestone has sided with Sebastian Vettel rather than reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton over the current state of Formula One. Ferrari's Vettel declared last week that F1 is no longer "about the sport and which driver is the fastest" amid the new era of "far too complex" technical regulations.The quadruple world champion added: "The dominance of Mercedes has taken away the excitement for many fans." Hamilton, the reigning triple world champion who with Mercedes has dominated the controversial "power unit" era so far, hit back at Vettel."It's pretty funny because he had four years of it and I've only had two," he told Britain's Sky television. "Until I get to his level I won't have bored them as much as he had!" However, F1 supremo Ecclestone appears to agree entirely with Vettel, pointing the finger directly at teams like Mercedes who are reluctant to agree to sweeping rule changes for 2017. Ecclestone also said there is "no chance" F1 teams will meet the March 1 deadline to agree to sweeping 2017 changes. "Most of the participants are only thinking about what's good for them in the short term," he told the Daily Mail. "Long term for most of those people is two or three races. "The result is that Formula One is the worst it has ever been. I wouldn't spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way," Ecclestone added."What's the point when you pretty much know - and the bookmakers know, and they're not stupid - that Lewis Hamilton will probably put the car on pole and more likely than not win the race, and the other Mercedes will be on the podium?" Nico Rosberg - Hamilton's teammate - hit back at the critics by insisting they are not "respectful" enough when it comes to Mercedes' achievements in dominating F1 for the past two years. But Ecclestone is not only critical of Mercedes, as he also pointed a finger of blame at Jean Todt, the FIA president who he says is more focused on road safety than the state of F1. "He should carry on with the other stuff, but hand over responsibility for Formula One to someone else," he said. "I am going to speak to him about it."  Lamborghini and its customer teams have been hit with a series of penalties following last month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, IMSA announced Monday. All five of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 entries, fielded by Konrad Motorsport, Paul Miller Racing, O’Gara Motorsport and Change Racing, have been given post-race time penalties equivalent to a stop and hold plus 5-minute penalty. Additionally, Lamborghini has lost all of its GTD championship points from Daytona and has also been given a $25,000 fine. The ruling comes in the wake of an alleged performance advantage by the Italian manufacturer’s cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener. The four quickest race laps in GTD were all set by Huracan GT3 teams, with Richard Antinucci’s 1:45.873 time in the No. 11 O’Gara entry more than one second faster than the quickest time set by a non-Lamborghini. IMSA said the penalties have been applied under Sporting Regulation Attachment 2, Paragraph 2.9, which states the following: “Competitors and manufacturers are expected to provide valid data upon request to assist IMSA in the BoP process. “Any competitor or manufacturer who deliberately gives false information, attempts to influence the BoP process, or displays a level of performance beyond the expected result may be issued a penalty prior to, during, or after a race of a minimum stop plus five (5) minutes. “Penalties assessed after the race are added to the car’s finishing time for the race and may include a lap count penalty.” The ruling follows the completion of dyno testing of each of the Huracan GT3’s engines at NASCAR’s R&D center in Concord, N.C. All five of the engines, plus the GTD class-winning Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS powerplant, were impounded post-race for further inspection. It is the first time IMSA has enacted its so-called “sandbagging” rule, which has been in the rulebook since the start of the 2014 season. The revised results sees the fifth-place finishing No. 28 Konrad entry drop to 10th in class, with the O’Gara car losing one position (14th to 15th) and the remaining cars maintaining their finishing positions.  Legendary musician Jimmy Buffett had a lot to say while flying the A5. “This is the ultimate toy for the next ten years of my life—and beyond!” Watch the video |
///Categories
All
Archives
January 2024
|
RSS Feed