It’s common sense to move your valuables to higher ground when floods threaten your home, however, we’re not sure jack stands, garden blocks and a trailer are what they mean. Regardless, one Texas man had the foresight to raise his two BMW E36 M3s and one BMW X5 just enough to stand above the floods brought by Hurricane Harvey.
Houston-area BMW enthusiast Cody W. Crochet isn’t the only person in Harvey’s flood zone to save his cars by raising them up. Several friends of mine put their favorite vehicles on a home lift before the floods came, and another parked his car on an upper floor of a parking garage. However, Crochet may have had the most inventive solution to the rising waters.
Crochet said that he was originally supposed to get only around one foot of flooding. That was enough to prompt him to put his white BMW E36 M3 up on his trailer, and his red BMW E36 M3 up on jack stands last Friday. 

adly, the water kept coming and coming. When Crochet realized the flood would reach above the projected one foot mark, he turned to garden blocks to raise up the red M3:
I woke up on Sunday morning at 4:45 a.m. to a decent amount of water outside. All cars were safe at that point. By 6:00 a.m., I knew the water was rising past the 1'-0" mark. So I went out to raise the car to the top of the jack stands. 
As I was doing so, the water was rising faster and faster, about 5 inches every 30 minutes. I had to improvise and only thing I had were garden blocks. I immediately started grabbing garden blocks and put one set under each jack stand thinking this was enough. But as I would finish that, the water rose to the bottom of the tire. So I progressively added more an more as the water rose. By the time I was done I was working in above knee water using the last of my garden bricks to get the car to the max height you see.
At this point, even the lifted X5 was in danger. So, Crochet drove it up as high on his property as he could—right to the front porch. Unfortunately, the house eventually got about one foot and six inches of water inside but at least the BMWs were safe. 
Crochet documents his adventures with his BMWs on his Texas E36 Garage YouTube channel, and he says he plans to upload the process of lifting his car to safety there once he has power back. For now, though, Crochet and his cars are at least safe in the unprecedented storm that has claimed ten lives to date and left thousands stranded across the area. 
“In 100 years this house has never flooded at all,” Crochet told Jalopnik. “This area has never seen this amount of water.”
The rain isn’t over yet, and Crochet may need to source a few more blocks. In the meantime, it’s hard not to appreciate his quick thinking. 

Underground Racing is known for producing frankly ridiculous cars that can achieve unbelievable speeds on tarmac. Fans of the Huracan and its sister, the R8, the garage has set a number of records on the chassis and now it has one more: 244 mph after just half a mile in an R8.

Drivers along Route 66 in Washington Township got a surprise Wednesday when they drove past what appeared to be a PennDOT worker — but actually was a state trooper monitoring their speed.
Police say 25 people were cited and four others were given warnings.
The ruse was part of Operation Yellow Jacket, a partnership between the state police and PennDOT in which state police officers are stationed on the side of the road in a PennDOT truck, wearing a construction hard hat and clothing in an effort to catch people speeding.
"Speed is usually a top factor in all fatalities," said Lt. Rich Quinn, commander with the state police in Greensburg.
PennDOT spokesman Jay Ofsanik said the program allows speed enforcement in areas where it may be hard to fit a police vehicle. And it helps make drivers aware of speed in construction zones.
"It helps us in our work zone safety," Ofsanik said. "The thing we want people to realize is: the next time they're going through a work area where there (are) PennDOT workers and they see somebody on the side of the road in a PennDOT truck, it might not be a PennDOT employee — it could be another trooper."
During the operation, once a driver is clocked over the speed limit, the trooper in the PennDOT truck will radio to other troopers stationed farther up the road the description of the vehicle and how fast it was going. Those other officers in a marked police car pull the speeder over and conduct the traffic stop.

Ofsanik said they chose Route 66 to hold Wednesday's event because there have been three fatal accidents along the road this year.
That's compared to four fatal crashes that occurred there the last five years combined.
"We're very concerned," Ofsanik said.
Washington Township Police Chief Scott Slagle said he welcomes the help to get drivers to slow down.
"This road is notorious for speeding," he said.
Along with speed, Slagle also pointed to distracted driving as a factor in many crashes.
"People are doing too much other than driving," the chief said.
About 8,600 motorists drive the road daily.
Although Wednesday's Operation Yellow Jacket was publicized in an effort to draw safety awareness in the area, troopers could be stationed along any road at any time.
"Our main goal is the safety of everyone on the highways," Quinn said. "We are hoping that this small event might raise awareness for those people traveling on the highway to slow down."

Two top-shelf Tesla cars both beat a Lamborghini Aventador, continuing to prove the technical advantages of high-end electric motors in acceleration.
A Tesla Model X and Model S, both P100D models with Ludicrous, edged out the Lamborghini in a quarter-mile drag race held by Brooks Weisblat of Drag Times at the Palm Beach International Raceway.
The Model X ended up setting a record time for a sport utility vehicle, according to the video.

tags: breed of speed , lambo vs tesla , nathan finneman , drifto , drag race tesla , amazing

If you've been following along lately, you've noticed that Porsche is quite excited to tell you all about its new limited-edition car. The 911 Turbo S is being offered in a small batch called the Exclusive Series, and it's serving as a 607-horsepower welcome mat for the Exclusive Manufaktur program. The latest fascinating tidbit about the car? You can fit carbon fiber wheels at all four corners.
Porsche is making these wheels in house, and it's using a rather large radial loom wheel to do so. The loom turns 18 kilometers of material into the base of a rim. More carbon fiber is applied to that base and more than 200 parts come together to create a wheel. It's then cooked up.


Using brutal machines, the wheels are tested over the course of 2,000,000 kilometers so Porsche knows they will hold up. Porsche has also put more than 4,500 test laps on these wheels on the racetrack. That's how you wind up with a wheel that you know is incredibly strong and durable, yet also lighter than aluminum wheels.
In fact, they''re both 20 percent lighter and 20 percent stronger than the standard forged alloy wheels fitted to a Porsche 911 Turbo S. They also cost about $18,000 for the 9x20 front and 11.5x20 rear wheels, and right now they're just an option for the $257,000 Exclusive Series Turbo S. We would be shocked, however, if carbon fiber wheels don't wind up on the options list for more Porsche vehicles down the road.
Heck, in five years you'll probably be able to spec out a Macan into the stratosphere and slap some 22-inch carbon fiber rollers on there.

tags: carbon fiber wheels , porsche carbon , breed of speed , nathan finneman , carbon wheels , amazing , drifto

A couple have blown up their SUV in the middle of the road by lighting a cigarette while transporting a propane grill that was switched on.
Nobody was killed in the incident, which occurred at about 3.30pm on Sunday in Orlando, Florida, and left a red Kia Sorento on the side of the road with its roof blown partially off. 
Police say a husband and wife were driving the Kia, which had a propane grill inside that had the gas valve switched on.


The wife lit a cigarette as the car was driving near the entrance to the Central Florida Fairgrounds.
The resulting explosion blew out the windows of the car and peeled open the roof of the car.
The car traveled off the road and crashed into a pole, police said.
The man and woman suffered burns that were not life-threatening, and were transported to a hospital.
No further information about the couple was immediately available. 

Thanks to miracles of modern science, the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter has become a reality, and some genius YouTuber has decided—for whatever reason—to use it to tear down a 1.6-liter B6ZE Miata engine. Either that, or this amazing video is just stop-motion—it’s not entirely clear.
Few things in this word are as pleasing to the human eye as forged, cast and machined engine internals, but rarely do we get to see them without sweaty, hairy human appendages obstructing the view. Every now and then, though, we come across a stop-motion film (like this one of a Triumph rebuilding itself), and the world becomes a significantly better place.

tags: breed of speed , miata engine , engine tear down , nathan finneman , beautiful engine , motor , stop motion 

The Nürburgring is arguably the toughest race track in the world, right?
And the Radical is one of the fastest things on 4 wheels, right?
Well sit back and strap in, while this talented Supra driver take's you on a wild ride in this high powered 2JZ weapon.. in an impressive display of driving he weaves through traffic to not only keep up with, but overtake (twice no less) a Radical to eventually beat him in a lap around the most infamous track in the world.

tags: breed of speed , supra vs radical , nurburgring supra , ring , nathan finneman , amazing nurburgring

Facebook live; it’s good for personal announcements, publicity stunts, or telling the world how gosh darn excited you are about your new talking Chewbacca mask. It’s not as great for capturing super dangerous stunts that put your life and others at risk. But that’s precisely what Onasi Olio-Rojas, the 20-year-old Rhode Island man in the above video did while joyriding yesterday morning on a Providence highway, hitting speeds of up to 115 miles per hour.
In the three minute long video, Olio-Rojas can be seen swerving in and out of traffic, sometimes using the shoulder to breeze past cars while topping out at 100 on at least two or more occasions. Thankfully the video cuts off right before the moment of impact, when he lost control of the vehicle and rear ended a dump truck.
Witnesses told police he was driving erratically when he lost control of his car, which spun sideways and then hit the truck. The car then shot across the road and crashed into the Jersey barrier.
Rescue crews had to extricate Olio-Rojas from the vehicle, but the driver of the truck was not injured.
As of 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night, Olio-Roja was listed in critical condition but is expected to survive his injuries. It’s unknown what reckless driving charges he may face if and when he comes to, but he is just damn lucky no one else was injured in his little stunt, because he’d likely be looking at manslaughter or murder charges, as well.

Visitors to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance typically spend an abundance of their time at the event wistfully observing that "The don't build 'em like that anymore." 
But with the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet, Mercedes has built one like the timeless beauties exhibited on the lawn, a devastatingly gorgeous instant classic ready to take its place alongside existing members of the vintage car pantheon.
"The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet takes modern luxury into the realms of the ultimate in luxury, and is the perfect embodiment of our design strategy," explains Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of Daimler AG. "Breathtaking proportions combined with a luxurious "haute couture" interior help to create the ultimate experience," he continued.

While the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet's sheetmetal offers a nod to the past of hand-crafted boattails, its powertrain looks only forward, with an all-electric drive system producing 750 horsepower that boosts the car to 60 mph is less than 4.0 seconds.
Top speed is electronically limited to 155 mph and the battery's driving range is 200 miles. A monstrous 350 kilowatt charging system will give the Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet enough extra juice for 60 miles of driving in just five minutes. Notably, this particular show car does not have the word "Vision" in its name, as have other concept cars that were not built with production in mind, so we can hope maybe that is hint that Mercedes will actually build a run of these incredible machines for future Pebble Beach shows.

tags: mercedes , maybach , breed of speed , nathan finneman , maybach 6 , super cabriolet