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Hitting the Slopes in a Ferrari F40

5/18/2017

Watch the cascade of excellence when the world's most famous supercar tackles the snow.
The Ferrari F40, first built in 1987, is still one of the most loved supercars on the planet. So what happens when you take the legendary Italian supercar on one crazy adventure at Ryuoo Ski Park in Japan?
Equipped with chained tires to navigate the tumultuous terrain and some all-important supplies on the roof (due to a lack of trunk space), driver Takeshi Kimura takes the incredible machine for a jaunt on the mountain.

Five essential facts about the Ferrari F40

The F40 was the designed to celebrate Ferrari's 40th anniversary, hence the name. It was the last Ferrari to get the thumbs up from Enzo Ferrari himself before his death, a year after the F40 went into production.

The F40's good looks come from Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fioravanti who also designed the Ferrari Daytona, Ferrari 512 BB and 308 GTB.

At the time it was the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car Ferrari money could buy. With a top speed of 201 mph, it's still fast by today's standards.

The F40 sold for $400,000 back when it was first produced in 1987, but nowadays some have been sold for as much as $1.5 million!

Famous Ferrari F40 owners have included F1 drivers Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, Diego Maradona, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and even Luciano Pavarotti.

tags: ferrari f40 slopes, f40 , snow ferrari , ferrari drifting, breed of speed ferrari , breed of speed , nathan finneman , colorado , racecar , car ski slopes

Photographer Shoots Formula 1 With 104-Year-Old Camera, And Here’s The Result

5/17/2017

If ever there was a sport that required rapid fire photography, Formula One racing is it. Which makes what photographer Joshua Paul does even more fascinating, because instead of using top-of-the-range cameras to capture the fast-paced sport, Paul chooses to take his shots using a 104-year-old Graflex 4×5 view camera.
The photographer clearly has an incredible eye for detail, because unlike modern cameras that can take as many as 20 frames per second, his 1913 Graflex can only take 20 pictures in total. Because of this, every shot he takes has to be carefully thought about first, and this is clearly evident in this beautiful series of photographs.
Paul was inspired to cover F1 racing with his trusty Graflex after seeing a 1969 magazine containing images of that year's Indy 500. Noticing that the photographer had captured the event deliberately blurry and out of focus, he set about trying to recreate this technique with modern F1 as his subject. He first started shooting F1 racing at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, and he's now so passionate about the sport that he's even launched a magazine called Lollipop, a publication for Grand Prix enthusiasts. Check out some of his pictures below. You can also find him on Instagram.

Nurburgring lap record broken by NIO EP9 electric supercar

5/16/2017

► Electric supercar launched under new NIO brand
► 1341bhp, 194mph top speed, 0-124mph in 7.1sec
► Fastest electric car around the Nurburgring
Nascent electric car brand NIO has announced its new electric supercar, badged the NIO EP9, has broken the Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record for road-legal cars.
The 6m45.9s lap was set on Friday 12 May 2017, beating the car’s previous best time of 7m05.12s recorded in October 2016 and going even faster than Radical’s long-standing SR8 LM record. The NIO EP9 set the record on bespoke tyres designed specifically for the record attempt to deal with the car's significant downforce levels - it's claimed to be capable of cornering at 3g.
For comparison, Mercedes-AMG’s all-electric SLS recorded a 7min 56.23sec lap in 2013.
The EP9 has also previously completed a high-speed lap of the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in autonomous mode, without the input of a driver. There was definitely a driver at the wheel at the Nordschleife, however...
You can watch the on-board video of the NIO EP9’s record lap below:

tags: breed of speed , electric car lap record , nurburgring record , nathan finneman , colorado , racing , electric racecar

Enzo Ferrari’s Body Stolen, Held For $10 Million In Ransom

5/12/2017

These criminals now have had a target painted on their backs by Ferrari fans and well-connected buyers alike.
Ferrari’s current CEO Sergio Marchionne may have thought it blasphemy to even consider the prospect of a Ferrari SUV, and even tuners like John Hennessey likely get a stiff upward-angled nose from the Prancing Horse after daring to tune the pristine engine of a 458 Italia, but nothing tops the level of disrespect for Enzo Ferrari than the theft of his body himself. As previous reports indicated, a gang of thieves that specializes in selling arms and drugs was captured plotting the theft.

Italian police had caught onto the gang’s plot to dig up Enzo Ferrari’s grave plot and remove the body earlier in the week, but now the remaining perps have gone through with the plan, removing Ferrari's body from the gravesite despite being under the eye of the Italian authorities. Making matters worse is the fact that these are not some overly enthusiastic fans that want a chance to get closer to the great, who died in 1988 at the age of 90. Instead, the gang took the body in order to ask the Ferrari family for $10 million in ransom money. The gang struck the above-ground tomb, located just near the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, in the early morning hours of April 1st and made away with the corpse.

Initially the gang was planning to hide the body in the Apennine Mountains until the random was paid, but have likely decided on another location after authorities caught onto the scheme. Considering that Piero Ferrari, Enzo’s second and only living son, became an overnight billionaire after holding a 10% stake in the company during Ferrari’s October 2015 IPO, $10 million isn’t exactly an impossible sum of money for the family to drum up. Still, the grotesque nature of the crime is a shock to us all. Speaking with reporters after the crime had been announced, Marchionne voiced his anger and grief. “It’s hard to imagine a crime lower than the one perpetrated against Ferrari family and the Ferrari brand," said Marchionne.

He added, "We are deeply saddened and will see to it that justice is served. We are working with authorities to recover Enzo Ferrari’s remains and we encourage anyone with information on the crime to contact Ferrari." Whether or not the Ferrari family will pony up the ransom money remains to be seen, but we’d wager that Ferrari’s name carries enough weight with enough highly connected individuals that recovery will be swift.

tags: breed of speed , nathan finneman , ferrari , enzo ferrari body , factory , italy , ransom , drifto , car , history ,

CLASSIC MUSCLE VS NEW MUSCLE – 2008 HEMI CHALLENGER VS 1967 289CUI FAIRLANE

5/11/2017

It’s always cool to catch our gearhead brethren heading south of the border to do a little street racing in Mexico.

We like it even more when they line up some cool rides like this to do battle and the races are nice and close like in this video from the muscle 289 on YouTube. In this battle of old-school versus new age, this 67 Ford Fairlane with a 289 CID engine facing off with a 2008 Dodge Challenger on this long stretch of highway south of the border.

Surprisingly to most, the Fairlane jumps out and grabs the lead, and appears to hang on to it through the quarter mile, despite the Challenger trying his best to reel him in on the top end. The old Ford put the whoop on the new Challenger, showing us why it’s never okay to scoff at the vintage hotrods among us.

tags : breed of speed , nathan finneman , muscle car vs new muscle car , 289ci , hemi cuda , challenger , racing in mexico

Elon Musk says flying cars aren't a good fix for traffic — here's why

5/9/2017

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be known for disrupting transit, but he won't be touching flying cars.

Musk told Bloomberg's Max Chafkin he thinks flying cars are a dumb idea for city travel in a profile about his tunnel plans published on Thursday. He said even though his plan to build an underground network of tunnels might seem crazy, it's actually less crazy than flying cars.

“Obviously, I like flying things,” Musk told Bloomberg. “But it’s difficult to imagine the flying car becoming a scalable solution.”

Several companies are pursuing flying cars. Google co-founder Larry Page is funding secretive startup Zee.Aero to build a flying car. Uber has also launched a flying car project.

These ventures don't involve building a flying car per se because they aren't intended to drive on roads. Zee.Aero is building a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft that, like the name suggests, can take off vertically without a runway. Uber plans to use VTOL aircrafts for city transit, but plans to partner with other companies and the government to actually build the aircraft.

Musk said flying cars need to generate a lot of downward force to not fall out of the sky, which would result in a lot of wind and noise for people on the ground. He also said there's a risk of falling debris if falling cars were to get in a mid-air fender bender.

“If somebody doesn’t maintain their flying car, it could drop a hubcap and guillotine you,” Musk said. “Your anxiety level will not decrease as a result of things that weigh a lot buzzing around your head.”

Florida Carsalesman Man Arrested at Dodge Dealership after 180+ MPH Test Drive.

5/9/2017

The Florida Highway Patrol finally caught up with a local car salesman after he and a customer took a Dodge Charger Hellcat our for a test drive. FHP Trooper Richard Bishop stated that the Dodge Charger passed him on Highway 60 in Bartow going approximately 148 MPH. When he attempted to catch up in his own Police Dodge Charger, apparently the “race” was on! Troopers say they terminated the pursuit after reaching speeds over 180 MPH and they were able to get a license plate for local Dodge dealership, Thunder Dodge, which is located in Bartow.
Troopers were waiting for the salesman, identified as Eric Hale of Bradenton, FL and questioned the customer, who was only a passenger in the ordeal. The salesman was arrested on reckless driving charges and was bailed out by the customer a few hours later. There was no word on whether or not the customer bought the high priced, high performance car.

Land Rover’s new Discovery search and rescue SUV has a roof-mounted drone

3/9/2017

A special version of the new Land Rover Discovery dubbed ‘Project Discovery’ and designed for search and rescue operations is actually being deployed with the Austrian Red Cross – complete with a quadcopter drone that can take off from and land on the SUV, even while it’s moving. Magnets lock the drone in place while the Discovery is moving, and the drone can assist with search and rescue operations, extending the Red Cross staff’s ability to cover terrain beyond where the car and their feet can take them.

The car was designed by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) unit, which is exactly as cool as it sounds. it’s custom-made, and part of a long-running partnership Land Rover has had with the Red Cross across the globe, which has seen the two work together for 63 years in total. Land Rover’s new drone Discovery is almost certainly the most technologically advanced result of that longstanding arrangement, however.

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The drone that the Discovery carries onboard can broadcast live footage back to the rescue crew at the car, giving them a bird’s-eye view not only of potential survivors in case of accidents and disasters, but also letting them see how the landscape may have actually changed compared to any maps they may have as a result of earthquakes, avalanches, wildfires and storms. It’s a huge advantage to have on the ground in shifting emergency situations.The Land Rover Discovery created for Project Hero also includes a sliding floor panel that can be used as a work surface in a pinch, as well as more mounting points for gear, added LED lighting to better illuminate nighttime operations, and power supply points with international plug configurations for compatibility with a range of devices.

The project’s first deployment will be at an Austrian Red Cross training center in Erzberg, which is home to mountain-based mining operations. It’s going to be doing a 12-month stint at first, starting in June, 2017, and the drone will be running simulated operations to help rescue teams evolve their potential use of the added tech.

Nurburgring lap time record competition proposed by James Glickenhaus

3/9/2017

James Glickenhaus, the wealthy American who recently announced he plans to build a road-legal version of his Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003 race car, has also told Autocar that he wants to launch a “Road Cup” competition at the Nürburgring Nordschliefe to discover which road-legal car is really quickest around there.

Annoyed by unverified manufacturer lap times, most recently Lamborghini’s claim that the Huracán Performante has posted a 6:52 time of the 12.7-mile circuit, Glickenhaus is proposing a competition to be run as part of the Nürburgring 24 Hour race (N24), with road-legal cars having to drive from Cologne, Germany to the Nürburgring on the same set of tyres that they then set a lap time on.

Glickenhaus himself admits that this may sound mad, and also that the Nürburgring authorities haven’t agreed to his idea yet. “They’re reading about it in the press,” he told Autocar at the Geneva show, “they’re going to be like 'what the hell is Jim doing?'”

Yet Glickenhaus has form here – he already endows a cup and prize that’s awarded to the fastest-qualifying car at the N24 race, and he’s already spent many millions of dollars developing and racing both the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina and, more recently, his own SCG 003.

He’s also adamant that his newly-announced Stradale road-legal version, which will be limited to a run of three customer cars and which will cost $1.8m, will prove to be the fastest car around the Nürburgring.

“We know its [race] sister can do a 6:20 lap,” he told us. “It did that with 580hp, 100kg more downforce and half a g more lateral cornering ability. But this car weighs the same, has 300bhp and 250lb ft more.

"On race tyres it would be faster than the race car, but on road tyres it will be about 30sec per lap slower, so around a 6:40. That’s as fast as anyone’s going to go.”

Even if Glickenhaus gets his plan approved, we’ll have to wait until next year to see it. “My idea is to let them yell and scream,” says Glickenhaus of the N24 organisers.

“Then they’ll get over that and we’ll come back and race at the Nürburgring for next year. We’re going to do it.”

If he manages it, we’ll be there.

drifto , breed of speed , bos , nathan finneman , nurburgring lambo , ring record