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Oklahoma speeder caught at 208 mph

11/16/2016

An Oklahoma man was arrested on Saturday after leading police on a 208 mph chase.

Nineteen-year-old Hector Fraire first tripped a radar gun doing 84 mph on the Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City, before speeding away as police tried to pull him over.

Slow down! Dale Earnhardt, Jr. pulled over for speeding

According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Fraire’s heavily modified 2011 Ford Mustang was then clocked doing 176 mph and 208 mph, and he tried to elude the chase vehicle by turning off his headlights and brake lights.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman tells FoxNews.com that as the pursuing officer lost contact with the vehicle, he radioed ahead to any units in the area. A Canadian County Deputy sitting in a parking lot spotted the car and was able to intecept it. The driver then pulled over, dropped his keys out of the window, and was arrested and later charged with reckless driving and felony eluding.

Founder of legendary tuning company HKS has passed away

11/10/2016

With a long list of accomplishments and world firsts, Hiroyuki Hasegawa has died at the age of 71.We recently have heard the founder of legendary Japanese tuning company HKS, has passed away. The company's website in Japan posted news that Hiroyuki Hasegawa has died at the age of 71.

The cause of death is unknown at this time but we have reason to believe it was of natural causes. Hasegawa-san lived and worked in the area Fujinomiya City in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, where the HKS world headquarters are based.

In a picturesque area of Japan located near the the base of Mount Fuji, Hasegawa-san set out to create an empire in the emerging Japanese vehicle tuning market. Starting in back in 1973, a young Hasewgawa-san along with Goichi Kitagawa began tuning engines in a simple shed prior to an investment by Sigma Automotive to form the three initials of the company HKS Co. Limited. The former Yamaha engineer worked tirelessly at putting his new company on the map and by 1974 had developed the world's first aftermarket turbocharger kits available to the public.

By the 1980's, turbocharger kits and upgrades became the core business of HKS. Hasegawa's company, HKS also became the first in the world to offer staple tuning electronics like the turbo timer and the boost controller, where users could find extra horsepower and control boost through their HKS turbo kits or even factory turbo cars.

But HKS also set many new benchmarks in the world of racing by proving their product in competition. HKS was involved with Japanese Grand Touring Car (JGTC), Formula 3, Time Attack, the D1 Grand Prix drifting series and of course, drag racing of all kinds. HKS even developed a V12 engine for use in Formula 1 but the technology didn't see competition thus preventing the course of HKS history from changing. But HKS still became renowned around the world and set up expansions: HKS USA in the U.S., HKS Europe in the U.K. and HKS Thailand to meet the exploding demand for tuning parts and electronics.

We wanted to reflect on HKS founder Hiroyuki Hasegawa with some personal stories:

tags: nathan finneman , racing , hks , car , motorsport

Watch This Fabulous Ride Onboard the Last of the USAF's F-4 Phantoms

11/9/2016

As the USAF’s QF-4 Full Scale Aerial Target program winds down the jets and their pilots are making the rounds on the airshow circuit one last time. In July a pair of QF-4s attended America’s largest airshow, EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our friends at Airshowstuff.com covered their final appearance at the show brilliantly, including capturing some awesome headcam footage of the pair of jets wheeling around the sky over Wittman Regional Airport.

The first video below starts with a section of QF-4s on the runway, and quickly the pair start their formation takeoff roll and climb out with the jet’s General Electric J79 turbojets in burner the whole way. You can see the pilot constantly cross check his formation position and his instruments throughout the departure. The Phantoms then proceed with a series of flybys. The second video shows the view from the ground of their maneuvers. The third video is of the Phantoms arrival from the cockpit point of view, and fourth includes a downright exhilarating series of flybys.

Warning, these videos contain gratuitous amounts of afterburner!By the end of November the QF-4 will have been totally retired from USAF service and the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron will complete its transition to the QF-16. The remaining QF-4 airframes will be dragged out into the desert and used as ground targets.

You still have three opportunities to say goodbye to American F-4s once and for all. The QF-4s will be making the following appearances before bowing out:

14-17 Oct – Ft. Worth, TX

6 Nov – NASCAR Sprint Cup Flyover at Texas Motor Speedway

10-14 Nov – Nellis AFB, NV

tags: Nathan Finneman , breed of speed , breedofspeed , f4,

Nathan Finneman: New discovery could solve mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart

11/1/2016

Legendary aviator Amelia Earhart was attempting to become the first female pilot to fly around the world when her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

Last month, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) proposed the theory that she landed her plane safely on a remote island and died as a castaway.

Now, scientists say a new discovery shows a striking similarity between the pilot and the partial skeleton of a castaway found on an island in the country of Kiribati in 1940.

A historical photo provided the vital clue.

The legendary pilot

In May 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, taking off in Canada and landing in Ireland.

Three years later, she flew solo from Hawaii to California, winning a $10,000 prize.

She was America’s darling, famous for being a daring, but modest, pilot.

Together with co-pilot Frederick J. Noonan, she was attempting to circumnavigate the globe when the plane disappeared somewhere near Howland Island, in the middle of the Pacific.

In August, TIGHAR’s Ric Gillespie said Earhart made more than 100 radio transmissions calling for help between July 2 and July 6 of 1937, ruling out the possibility of a crash landing.

Her calls were picked up as far away as Texas, Florida, and even Melbourne.

“She’s out there calling for help,” Mr Gillespie said, adding that she must have landed safely, because the radio wouldn’t have worked without the engine running.

A strange detail

The bones were uncovered on the island of Nikumaroro, also known as Gardner Island, which is about 400 miles south of Howland Island.

They were analysed in 1940, but a doctor said they were male, ruling out the possibility they belonged to Earhart.

However, when TIGHAR discovered the files in 1998, scientists said modern techniques proved the bones were “consistent with a female of Earhart’s height and ethnic origin”.

More recently, anthropologist Richard Jantz was preparing an updated evaluation when he noticed a strange detail: the skeleton’s forearms were considerably larger than average.

However, without knowing the dimensions of Earhart’s body, Dr Jantz had no way of comparing if her forearms were similarly longer than normal.

The fascinating science

TIGHAR turned to forensic imaging specialist Jeff Glickman for help.

Using a historical photo where both of Earhart’s bare arms were visible, he calculated the ratio between the bones in her lower and upper arm.

“Because there is tissue over the skeleton in living people ... the location of each bone end must be estimated,” he wrote in a report published last week.

Her clothing also added a layer of difficulty, however, he used the point of her shoulder, the crease of her elbow, and the indent of her wrist as landmarks.

“Given the evidence and my experience in the field of photogrammetry and photo interpretation, I estimate that the radius-to-humerus ratio of Amelia Earhart is 0.76,” he wrote.

In other words, the difference between her lower and upper arm was virtually identical to the partial skeleton, unearthed in the South Pacific.

The discovery doesn’t conclusively prove the castaway was Amelia Earhart, but it’s certainly another step in that direction.

tags: nathan finneman , flying , amelia earhart , found , crash

Oklahoma speeder caught at 208 mph

Founder of legendary tuning company HKS has passed away

Watch This Fabulous Ride Onboard the Last of the USAF's F-4 Phantoms

Nathan Finneman: New discovery could solve mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart

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