Just goes to show how vast to the cars are. We're almost convinced that the F1 footage is sped up, but an expert has told us it is infact not.
 To say the Porsche 959 is a legend is an understatement. Whereas its archrival, the Ferrari F40, represents a no-holds-barred approach to speed, the 959 blazed a trail of technology that continues to influence the automotive world to this day. Refined and technically proficient supercars like the Bugatti Veyron and Porsche 918 Spyder can trace their roots to the 959's philosophy, as it truly is a sensational vehicle.  1. The 959 was originally designed as a rally car, not a sports carEngineers wanted to test new technologies like an electronically adjustable four-wheel drive system, and the ultra-fast Group B rally class that epitomizes 1980s rallying was in full swing, so it was a perfect fit.  2. It won the famous Paris-Dakar Rally across North AfricaBlasting past pyramids and up sand dunes looked easy compared to its Mercedes G-Wagen and Land Cruiser competition.  3. With a top speed of 197 mph, it was officially the fastest car in the world...brieflyWhen it debuted, it edged out the Ferrari 288 GTO’s 188 mph to be the first car to 190, as this gorgeous shot from Evo illustrates. The reign lasted just one year until the 959’s arch rival, the Ferrari F40, managed to hit 202 mph.  4. The 959 impacted the future of the 911 more than any 911 ever didThe 959 was indisputably a turning point in Porsche history, and represented a shift toward cutting edge technology and all-wheel drive in the pursuit of performance.  5. A road race-prepped version, called the 961, won its class at the 24 Hours of LeMansAs a result, the 959 is considered the only car to win both LeMans and Dakar.  6. There’s a special gear in the transmission purely for off-road use“G” stands for gelande (loosely, that's off-road in German) and was meant to help you trudge through thick mud and the like.  7. It was the first production car with tire pressure monitorsAlso, some of the earliest run flat tires were developed for the car.  8. It had active suspension that adapted to the road...in the 1980sFormula One was still in the process of trying to get active suspension right while the 959 had it on the street.  9. If you were bored of driving on a highway in the world’s fastest car, you could tackle not-so-paved areas without getting out of the carA touch of a button added over two inches to the ride height, which you can see in this video of the car raising itself up. To put that in perspective, that’s how much extra ride height a company like Toyota adds to its super-serious TRD Pro off-road trucks.  10. The engine was one of the very first to utilize a complex “sequential” twin-turbo system. Without delving too deep into technical jargon, turbos are driven by exhaust, and all of the 959’s exhaust went to one turbo at low RPM, then computers rerouted it to both at high RPM. The result was a smooth power band—which is both ideal for motorsports and the polar opposite of the 911 Turbo of the day, infamously known as "The Widow Maker."  11. The 959 was so beloved by powerful people that congress changed the federal importation lawsBill Gates bought one, and it wound up in a storage area at U.S. customs for over a decade. The government’s stance was that the car wasn’t legal to import, and couldn’t be made so—someone would’ve needed to donate a car for crash testing—so Gates helped get the law changed to allow cars of unusually high significance into the country.  12. The Porsche 959 was built in the same factory as the BMW M1With the M1, a specialist company by the name of Baur was brought in after a contractual issue between BMW and Lamborghini, but with the 959, Baur was selected as the builder from the get-go.
tags: breed of speed , 959 , porsche , nathan finneman , supercar , 80s , 959 legal  Successfully placing a satellite in orbit is no small expense, often costing tens of millions of dollars. In addition to the cost of the satellite itself, there’s the cost of the launch vehicle and the ground control system to bring all the elements together. If the satellite is tiny, less than 12 pounds, often referred to as a CubeSat, organizing a launch becomes even more problematic because few rockets exist of the size needed for a successful launch. The easiest way to launch a small satellite today is to simply sit back and wait for enough space to become available on a larger rocket. That can sometimes turn into a long wait. Enter a little aviation history to the rescue: the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Designed in the 1950s, the F-104 was the first manned aircraft in the U.S. Air Force arsenal capable of top speeds in excess of Mach 2. Starfighters were used to train pilots to fly hypersonic X-planes as well as test new materials like the heat-resistant tiles used on the Space Shuttle.  Florida-based launch firm CubeCab has designed rockets small enough to act as the source of launch propulsion for the tiny satellites. The small rockets will be attached to the F-104’s former rocket pylons beneath the wing. The launches are expected to take place once the F-104s, leased from Starfighters Inc., have reached altitudes near 60,000 feet. CubeCab’s chief operating officer Dustin Still believes a launch should be able to happen in as little as 30 days from order to orbit. He hopes the Starfighters will be ready to begin launching CubeSats sometime next year. tags: f104 launches satelites , nathan finneman , breed of speed , fighter jet , nasa , space , rocket , f104 ,  Hundreds of Humvees are being made available at surprisingly low prices.In what may be one of the ultimate military surplus sales of all time, the government is liquidating a lot of decommissioned Humvees, and the prices are a lot more affordable than you might think. Govplanet.com is helping host the sale, and hundreds of hummers are being sold all across the country. Surprisingly, some are going for as little as $4,000. Not bad for a piece of former military hardware. Some appear to be in better shape than others, but there are a lot of photos for each listing.There are a couple catches, however. First off, you need an end user certificate to finalize the sale. A EUC just means you are the last owner. The EUC is required because the government obviously doesn’t want these machines going overseas to U.S. enemies. The other catch? These Humvees don’t come with a title, and they’re being sold under the designation as being for off-road use only. But don’t let that be the deal-breaker if you’ve always wanted one! You can still pick up a sweet ride for cheap, although you will have to likely endure a lot of time and headaches with the DMV to make your new vehicle legal. tags: military , humvee cheap , nathan finneman , h1 , hummer , h1 sale, off road, breed of speed   Lockheed-Martin has announced that their latest trainer jet the T-50A has completed a successful test flight. As fighter jets continue to evolve so should the methods of learning to fly them. The Lockheed-Martin T-50A was designed for the purpose of training pilots to prepare them for fifth-generation fighter jets.The T-50A emphasizes Advanced Pilot Training (APT) for modern aerial combat for fighters such as the F-22 and F-35. The advanced version of the T-50A has completed its first test flight and will move forward towards being the trainer of tomorrow’s pilots. “Lockheed Martin’s accompanying T-50A Ground-Based Training System features innovative technologies that deliver an immersive, synchronized ground-based training platform. The T-50A team also brings extensive experience in world-class, worldwide logistics support.” The testing facility in Greenville, South Carolina has flown a pair of these new jets together with stellar results. Pilots are pleased with the ease of use, low-cost and low-risk flight after the inaugural tests. Footage in this clip demonstrates the capabilities from this new advanced trainer as it enters the realm of pilot training. tags: jet , t50 , nathan finneman , breed of speed, usaf trainner  Most “hidden” restaurants are small, demure things, tucked away out of sight and only accessible with a whispered password. But Restaurant 917, the recently opened Porsche-backed restaurant strutting atop the sports car manufacturer’s Experience Center (a fancy phrase for their driving school and showroom) in Carson, CA doesn’t fit that mold at all — yet it’s practically guaranteed you’ve never heard of the place. The sweetest part of the whole experience is the automobile eye candy The grounds on which Restaurant 917 (that’s “nine-seventeen,” a famous Le Mans-winning car from the Porsche lineup) span acres, with a couple of rolling hills, tight racing corners and mechanic bays. It’s a noisy plot of land tucked into a triangle between the 110 Freeway and the 405 Freeway, a few hundred yards from the eye-catching Goodyear Blimp landing pad. Not exactly out of sight (and with the low thrum of tuned engines cresting hills every so often, not out of sound either). That said, Restaurant 917 doesn’t much cater to the public. The second-floor restaurant sits inside a looming Porsche facility packed with timeless auto racing relics, its entrance hidden behind visitor badges, locked doors, and long hallways. The clientele is almost exclusively folks who work at Porsche, and those who have come to drive. But the truth is, anyone can show up. You can even make a reservation on OpenTable for a weekday lunch or weekend evening meal, then be whisked away to your seat against floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Porsche performance track. There’s a bar, a private dining room, and a small outdoor perch for catching the action with your ears as much as your eyes. Butter shaped like the iconic Porsche 911 As for the food, it’s far better than you might think, owing in no small part to the discerning clientele coming in for a bite to eat. Chef Matt Lee comes over from a stint as executive chef at the restaurant at the Getty, and he’s turning out a tuned-up menu of basics — grilled flat bread, ahi tuna, flat iron steak, an $18 burger — and notable surprises, not least of which is Lee’s commitment to sourcing everything from within less than 200 miles away. A lunch tasting menu runs $35 a head, and cocktails hover in the $15 range. Really though, the sweetest part of the whole experience is the automobile eye candy. Cars line up for road course jaunts every hour or so, and in the meantime guests can wander around downstairs to watch the mechanics do their thing on some truly classic rides. After all, just about everyone in the restaurant is there because they love Porsche — even the guy in the kitchen who makes sure the butter that accompanies each table’s bread service is shaped like the iconic Porsche 911. Restaurant 917 quietly opened late last year, and keeps hours for lunch Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner Thursday through Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Restaurant 917 19800 S. Main St. Carson, CA  NAPLES, Fla.- Florida Highway Patrol troopers are cracking down on drivers traveling too slowly in the left lane on Interstate 75. “Driving on the interstate, a lot of people are just ignorant,” said driver, Joseph Portner. They won’t move over.” Troopers say many of the slow drivers are multitasking on their phone, something Maria Strawder says she sees it all the time. “If they’re looking down, they’re not looking at the road, so they’re looking at their cellphone,” said Strawder. Traveling too slowly in the left hand lane is against the law in Florida. Troopers say it forces other drivers to pass on the right, messing up the natural flow of traffic and causing road rage. “I try not to flash my lights at people,” said driver John Ballard. Troopers are now ticketing anyone driving 10 mph or more below the speed limit in the passing lane. “A ticket is a little excessive,” said Portner. “I think a warning would probably be the better way to go.” But other drivers are applauding the move, “I say give them all a ticket,” said Strawder. “Sooner or later, I want you to get the hell out of the way,” said Ballard. “I’ve got places to go.” The tickets can cost drivers about $150 depending on which county they’re stopped in.  Wet weather driving is something most supercars will never encounter, but Ford wants everyone to know what the new GT is capable of. Living in Florida, we are accustomed to flooded roads and the calamity they cause. In order to breath cool air most new cars are bottom breathers. The engine’s air intake is mounted low to take advantage of high pressure generated by the front bumper. So inevitably rain water is sucked into a few unlucky cars and its game over. Hydro lock is when an engine is destroyed by water. It can happen to any car in the right situation, especially supercars with low ground clearance. In a move that would kill most cars, Ford Performance decided to ford a river by plunging the GT into a splash test. In a test trench usually reserved for trucks, the GT makes swimming look easy. The rear mounted 3.5 liter engine has intakes located behind the cockpit, so you would have to work very hard to get water into the cylinders. We inquired with them about replicating this test at our facility, but for some reason we have yet to receive a reply. Please don’t try this at home, and if you do please send us the footage. Stay with us for all your Ford GT updates. tags: nathan finneman , ford gt , water testing , ford supercar , awesome , breed of speed , bos  A heated argument between two racers ends in a race setup with a total pot of $9,000! Things don’t go quite as planned for one of the racer and it gets heated! You may have seen this XBox Forza Horizon R32 Nissan Skyline in videos on the net so you probably know it’s not to be messed with (800whp), but this Lambo driver with a temper didn’t know what was comingWe haven’t seen too many fights when out filming, but when we do it’s typically over ego, money, or BOTH! This was a very exciting way to end our trip in Australia at the end of the roll race night at Queensland Raceway. Luckily the only actual damage done was to one Lambo owners ego and his pocket book!  One of the most dangerous aspects of a police officer’s job is chasing down a car. Constantly walking the fine line of staying on pace with the suspect while ensuring the safety of the officer and the surrounding public, an officer is often forced to make split-second decisions that can (and do sometimes) end in tragedy. In an attempt to reduce the chance of injury or death, a company called Grappler Police Bumpers has invented a unique pursuit termination device that quickly and safely brings a car chase to a controlled stop. Utilizing a device that resembles a retractable slingshot, the Grappler launches a series of straps that wrap around the rear tire of a vehicle. The pursuing officer then applies the brakes and uses his or her squad car as an anchor, safely bringing the vehicle to a stop. It's fast, it's simple, and based on the video of the Grappler in action, it works stunningly well. Unlike spike strips, this Grappler car lasso does not give the vehicle being pursued as great a chance to slide out of control due to an extreme deceleration. And instances where it is too dangerous to remain tethered to the vehicle, the officer is able to cut it loose, leaving the pursued vehicle's wheel immobilized while giving the cop room to back off. This is not the first time an alternative to the spike strip or PIT maneuver has been created. However, the Grappler's simple design means fewer things to break, improving its odds of surviving the rough-and-tumble life of the patrol officer. Plus, let's face it: It's a car lasso. Police departments might pick it up on the cool factor alone. |
///Categories
All
Archives
January 2024
|
RSS Feed