Blog Archives

Watch Driving Instructors Get Pranked By a Pro Racer

8/15/2017

Driving tests are supposed to be nerve-racking for new students, but one Malaysian driving school flipped the script and absolutely terrified their rookie instructors.
To prank employees on their first day of work, the school hired Leona Chin, a professional rally-racing driver, to be the unlucky tutors' first pupil.
Chin, dressed up in a nerdy-looking outfit, spends the first half of the video pretending she’s a hopeless learner. Then, just as instructors are getting frustrated, Chin reveals her true talents—and the reactions are priceless.
"The 3 employees you saw at the end loved it and laughed it off, but the guy in the blue shirt was not too happy. That's why we didn’t have footage of him smiling," Izmir Mujab, CEO of the media company behind the video

tags: breed of speed , nathan finneman , student driver funny , driver , drifting , mr.drifto

Whoa, We Did Not Realize Helicopters Could Do This

8/14/2017

Flying vertically, dipping the tail rotor into the dirt — none of this seems safe, but it is really cool

Chris Hemsworth Loses It In A Formula E Car!

8/11/2017

The New York City street circuit proves too much for actor Chris Hemsworth.When the Formula E circus arrived in New York City a couple of weeks ago, actor and TAG Heuer ambassador Chris Hemsworth stopped by to check things out. Being an ambassador for the race series' official time keeper has its perks, which includes the opportunity to drive a Formula E car out on the track all by your lonesome. Watch how Thor handled the circuit in our third and final episode of TAG Heuer: Inside Formula E – or more accurately, how the circuit handled him.

The Giro Boat is the stuff you dream't of as a kid.

8/11/2017

Designed and sold in the early 1960's. It was towed behind a boat, at a speed of 20mph+ for the Giro Boat to achieve lift. This looks both awesome and very sketchy at the same time. That's why we like it. There were no pansays in the 1960's. Just shear design guru's coming out with contraptions such as this that define awesome.

tags: gyro boat , flying boat, breed of speed , nathan finneman , 1960's , flying gyro , gyrocopter

Singer, Williams Team Up to Build Insane 500-HP Air-Cooled Flat-Six Porsche Engines

8/10/2017

Good news, resto-modded Porsche lovers. Singer Vehicle Design and Williams Advanced Engineering have teamed up for a classic car that will have fans of the classic air-cooled flat-six 911 engine all hot and bothered. Three Singer clients will be getting restored and modified naturally aspirated, air-cooled, 500-horsepower flat-sixes made in concert with Williams for their Singer-customized 911s. Yes, you read that right: a naturally-aspirated, air-cooled, 500-hp flat-six in the back of a classic 911.
Singer, in order to meet the needs of these three customers, partnered with Williams (yes, the Formula One Williams people) to put together a lightweight, high-powered resto-mod. What started life as a 3.6-liter flat-six that put out 247 hp will end up as a 4.0-liter, 500 hp banshee.
According to Singer's press release, these are some of the specs and modifications that were done to the engines:

500 HP
Four-valve cylinder heads
Engine speed range extended beyond 9,000 rpm
Dual-oil circuits
Cylinders and pistons with titanium con-rods
Aluminum throttle bodies with carbon fiber trumpets
Upper and lower injectors for improved performance
A carbon fiber air-box with active multi-stage resonator chamber for mid-range torque optimization
Inconel and titanium exhaust system optimized for thermal performance
CFD optimized and enlarged engine cooling fan
Ram air induction system with pressure recovery in intake plenums
Lightweight materials, including titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber are used extensively to reduce component mass and vehicle weight.

If memory serves, the stock engine red-lined at around 6,500 to 6,800 rpm. The Singer/Williams mods will have it pushing more than 9,000 rpm. The 1991 911—or 964 if you will—has a curb weight of around 3,100 pounds; after Singer is done with the cars, they will most likely come in under that. So, you're looking at a (probably) sub-3,000 pound, 500-hp 964. This is the stuff of dreams.

Helping our clients realize their unique vision for a reimagined Porsche 911 with the help of automotive royalty is very much a privilege," Singer founder Rob Dickinson said in the press release. "Singer is delighted to be working with Williams Advanced Engineering and Hans Mezger to offer our clients a 'next level' of restoration and modification services for their Porsche 911s. With careful and dedicated development, this iconic air-cooled engine has much to give both its existing devotees and a generation of new enthusiasts.”
You read that right. They pulled legendary Porsche engineer Hans Mezger out of retirement for this project.
Singer will be announcing more partners and all the details when the first Williams car is revealed in September. Until then, you'll have to settle for drooling over the engin

tags: breed of speed , singer 911 , porsche 500hp air cooled , bos , colorado , singer 911 ,

Jesse From The Fast And The Furious Reunites With His Jetta 16 Years Later

8/10/2017

Jesse was such an underrated character in the first Fast & Furious movie, spouting such gems as “overnight parts from Japan” and his prayer to the car gods. Sadly, he didn’t survive to the sequels. But a shop in Canada recreated his car, and the stoke is strong with nostalgia all around here.
I can’t really tell if actor Chad Lindberg casually reprised his character with his style choices in this video on purpose, or like, if that’s just how he rolls. But it is kind of extra cool to see him rocking the black nail polish and a distinctly early-00s look that takes us right back to when this movie was new and MKIII Jettas ruled high school parking lots.
These cars never had as much momentum in the tuner scene as similarly-sized Hondas, but I’m sure you remember seeing a fair few of them rocking pre-LED accent lighting and rollcall stickers.
Update (Aug 9, 2017 6:48 p.m. PST): At first I was not sure what possessed Canadian speedshop GAB Eurosport to create such a painstakingly legit-looking movie car replica here, but the car’s designer Dominic Dubreuil got a hold of me and explained that he and Scott Centra, who apparently made the original movie car, collected the parts and orchestrated the execution of this project while GAB did the actual assembly work.
Dubreuil told me over Instagram messages that the car’s mission is actually to get Jesse’s character back on people’s radar and get him into another Fast & Furious movie as some of you (jokingly?) predicted in the comments.
We’re going to look more into the origins of this hero car replica and see what else turns up!
I guess that’s an important distinction to make too– he’s reuniting with the car’s character, not an actual movie car. The only one of those we’ve ever heard about was when Frankie Muniz (remember Malcolm In The Middle?) owned one that had been signed by Lindberg, Paul Walker may he rest in peace and original F&F movie director Rob Cohen. That car sold again last year for about $45,000.
Meanwhile, the video description just says Lindberg “has a grand plan of bringing Jesse back to life to bring joy to charities and hospitals” so maybe we’ll start seeing this goofy guy and this car at some events soon. Hopefully not drag racing any $100,000 S2000s, though. Think anyone else has made that joke yet?
Otherwise I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw one of these, stock ordressed up for pretend street racing, on the road. Are MKIIIs Jettas near extinction or is my neighborhood just that fancy?

Pilot lands Harrier fighter jet with no landing gear

8/8/2017

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. William Mahoney, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 263 (Reinforced) 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), AV-8B Harrier aircraft pilot, talks about his experience during a controlled landing after his front landing gear malfunctioned on his aircraft aboard the USS Bataan at sea, June 7, 2014.

Elements of the 22nd MEU, embarked aboard Bataan, are operating in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to augment U.S. Crisis Response forces in the region.

After the nose gear on this AV-8B Harrier malfunctioned, Capt. William Mahoney had to execute a Vertical Landing on the deck of the USS Bataan using a padded stool. Credit to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

tags: breed of speed , harrier landing no gear , nathan finneman , marine amazing landing , fighter pilot , amazing landing ,

HONDA ANNOUNCE 2 STROKE MAJOR COME BACK!

8/4/2017

Two-strokes are far simpler machines than four-stroke engines. They’re also lighter, easier to work on, and downright angrier, pumping out a lot more power per cubic centimeter of displacement, which has won them a lot of fans. But they’ve had a reputation for belching out a fair bit of smoke and unburned fuel, a situation that just couldn’t fly alongside tightening emissions regulations around the world, so they’ve fallen out of favour. But now there’s a glimmer of hope. Earlier this month, Honda submitted a patent application for a brand new two stroke motor that uses direct fuel injection for a cleaner burn and better piston cooling. We may yet see a resurrection of the ring-dingers.

Uncovered by eagle-eyed patent hawks at Morebikes, the new patent describes a new two-stroke engine with a fuel injection system mounted on the back of the cylinder, pointing upwards toward the back wall of the cylinder bore. The injector is set to spray the fuel when the piston is near top dead center, so that unburned fuel won’t get swept out with the exhaust gases, and the fuel is aimed such that the cylinder and piston can both be partially cooled as the fuel evaporates against them.

Honda believes this design can help eliminate some of the complexity of other injected two-stroke designs, helping bring the production and maintenance costs down and potentially making them relevant for manufacture again.
It’s widely believed that Husqvarna and KTM, among others, are sitting on injected two-stroke motor designs and waiting on the right time to debut something. But word is, KTM expects its injected two-strokes to be so complex that they’ll end up being as expensive and heavy as a four stroke engine, which could well kill demand. Perhaps with this design, Honda has managed to break down some of that complexity and find a package that can welcome the braappers back into the modern motorcycle landscape.

But language in this Honda patent, as well as the design drawings, suggest that this might not be conceived as a motorcycle engine at all – at least, not in its current form. In the first background paragraph of the application, Honda states that “the two-stroke engine is often preferred over the four-stroke engine in the field of general purpose engines because of the simplicity in the structure.”
Furthermore, that diagram would seem to show a long-stroke engine with a pushrod valve system and a thick mounting flange at the bottom. In addition, the patent wording states that “the liquid fuel may consist of diesel oil or any other fuel that is provided with a lubricating property.” All of which points toward an industrial generator-type machine rather than a high-performance motorcycle engine.
Even so, it shows Honda is still looking to innovate and develop in the two-stroke world – and there is most certainly a market (including Gizmag’s own highly emotional Mike Hanlon) that would love to see efficient, clean two-strokes come into the modern era. Stay tuned.

tags: breed of speed , two stroke comeback, nathan finneman, honda two stroke, new two stroke , fuel injected two stroke

Brand New Corvette Destroyed By Red Light Runner

8/3/2017

Traffic can get wild sometimes. Anytime you're on the road, there's a risk of somebody that can't drive or can't pay attention long enough to look at the road for more than 5 seconds, crashing into you. It's an unfortunate fact of life and comes with the territory of driving. In fact, it's probably worse nowadays since there's so many distractions on our smartphones, which cause many people to run red lights resulting in an accident. It's always best to pay attention to the road (and traffic lights!)

Unfortunately for the driver of this new Corvette, they didn't get to keep it in mint condition very long. At a red light, both the Corvette and the Jeep Cherokee begin to drive forward as they get a green light to go. Out of no where a Chevy Colbalt runs the red light and smashes into the Jeep, causing the Jeep to smash into the Corvette. Ouch! That's definitely not a good situation to be in, especially when it's your brand new car you just bought that just got destroyed! What a fail!

But that's why there's insurance and hopefully everything got sorted out and the Corvette looks as good as new now. What do you think about this?

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