RideLust

Steve Saint is a missionary that has done what countless others have tried to do and failed, he’s built a flying car that actually works. While doing the Lord’s work down in Ecuador, Saint saw the need for a vehicle that needed to be simple, economical and very intuitive, thus he began working on the i-Tec Maverick. By utilizing a 170-hp, flat-four engine out of a Subaru, a ram-air wing which is similar in design to those used on powered parachutes and light a fabric concealed frame, the Maverick is able to combine flight with light weight and performance. The main goal when developing a successful frontier vehicle, according to Saint was that:

“it must be rugged and easy to service in remote areas, use widely available automotive fuel, and be able to fly over terrain when the roads inevitably fail. The Maverick is designed to meet – and exceed – these requirements, and do so in an efficient and straightforward manner.”

Approved for flight by the FAA, Saint hopes to have the Maverick on sale by July 2011, just in time for AirVenture 2011: The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration. Price on the Maverick is said to be around $84,000, which isn’t that bad for this wild two-for-one combo. Apparently the Lord does work in mysterious ways…

I have on good word from Mr. Edward Prendick, himself, that Doctor Moreau had not perished on his terrible island, as legend dictates.  Evidence of his survival has surfaced of late, through daguerreotypes of a ghastly creation that one can only dare to attribute to that horrifically disturbed mind.  I confess, my hands tremble as I provide the images below.  I advise that children and the feeble avert their eyes!

The horror!

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Another month, another teaser video for the upcoming Triumph adventure bikes. We’ve been following their development, and I posted some speculation on what the new bikes might turn out to be last month. It turns out I was partially right, so maybe my next career should be as a weatherman.

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2011 Raptor SuperCrew. Photo: Ford Motor Company

Need to tow a desert race truck into the middle of nowhere, far from any paved or even graded roads? Want to take some friends plus gear with you? Are all three friends NFL linebackers? Until now, your options for such an outing were pretty much limited to an army surplus deuce and a half truck, which wouldn’t make you very popular with your NFL buddies. Today, however, Ford’s announced a SuperCrew version of the F-150 SVT Raptor, capable of towing up to 8,000 pounds and hauling the biggest of your buddies in air conditioned comfort. The SuperCrew Raptor joins the standard cab and the SuperCab already in the 2011 F-150 SVT Raptor lineup.

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I have to say that Monterey, California is probably one of my favorite places to spend time. You’ve got the pristine surroundings of Monterey Bay, wonderful restaurants, and then, on one fabulous weekend out of the year, you have the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The Concours d’Elegance captures the best vehicles from around the world and puts them on display for the world to see. Keep in mind that these are not tired out old relics, but the best of the best from around the globe.
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Desert racing is something that unfortunately does not get the coverage it deserves. It utilizes some of the most advanced technology in motor sports and draws spectators and crowds by the thousands. It’s also, from a competitors standpoint, one of the most grueling forms of off-road racing there is. We’ve all heard of the Baja 1000 and the Paris Dakar Rally but I don’t think that people understand the true punishment that both man and machine take on runs like this. The above video shows trophy truck driver Marc Ewing (he founded Linux by the way) as he bounds through the desert from Las Vegas to Reno, Nevada. The visuals are shot in high definition and I’ve got to tell you that the camera work is simply stunning. I’ve been saying that I would like to try my luck at running off-road someday in something other than a golf cart. Who knows, maybe the stars will align one day and I’ll actually get my chance.

Source: RalfBecker.com

Many are obsessed with finding the perfect vehicle to traverse a post-apocalyptic world. The Qt Services 300 STR Wildcat makes me want to obliterate civilization just so I can blast across the badlands between crumbled cities at 100 miles per hour. Plowing through tribes of nomadic mutant raiders would be ever so fun in the featherweight, 4-liter V-8-powered beast. The Wildcat pounds the dirt with 270 horsepower through a race-proven 4WD system and suspension setup. A proper five-speed gearbox is standard. To order yours today, visit Qt Services.

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Eventually, even your most diehard SoCal bro grows up and starts a family, or at least knocks a couple broads up, and suddenly he finds himself needing two extra doors on his desert hauler. Enter: the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Supercrew.

Introduced to an awestruck audience (which included us) last year, the Ford Raptor turned the world of 4×4′s on its ear when it hit the scene as the first baja-ready production pickup truck in history. Shortly thereafter, pleas came pouring in from fanboys for a 4-door version. “We’ve had requests for a crew cab,” acknowledged Ford marketing manager Mark Grueber, “We haven’t made any decisions but there’s some demand for it. Not everyone is going to use [the Raptor] for aggressive off-roading. It could be something similar to the four-door Wrangler.” With these new spy shots, however, it seems they’ve advanced considerably beyond merely toying with the idea. Read More…

Courtesy Boston Globe

Sometimes crackpot ideas end up being pretty good. The Wright brothers lifted off the ground in what was essentially a giant box kite. Surely it seemed like a bad idea at the time, but it worked. When Local Motors put out the word that they wanted to build a kit car based on a submitter’s design, it must have seemed like quite a risk. The resulting Rally Fighter is intriguingly awesome, packing a BMW turbodiesel out of the 335d into a Dakar-rally-looking street legal package. (In case you don’t recall what makes the 3.0 twin-turbo diesel special, possibly the 265 HP and 425 ft-lbs of torque, available at 1,750 RPM, will remind you.)

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We’ve been ridelust-crazed for months now in anticipation of the 2010 Ford F-150 Raptor SVT finally hitting the market, but speculation over the price tag has continuously placed a significant damper on our amorous affections. Dangling juicy morsels like “6.2L BOSS V8″ and “400 horsepower” in front of our face, Ford made sure we were good and seduced before dropping the buzz-killing bombshell: the price. According to the official release, the 2010 Raptor will begin with a base price of $38,995, which includes the standard 320-horsepower, 390 lb-ft of torque, 5.4L Triton V8 engine and all the promised desert-hauling goodies. To get their hands on the 400-horsepower, 400 lb-ft of torque 6.2L BOSS V8, SoCal baja bro-skies will have to shell out $41,995, which doesn’t include the $1,995 luxury leather seating package, the $1,075 exterior graphics package, or the $395 interior accent package. What both the $38k and $41k models do include, however, are 35″ of BF Goodrich All-Terrain TA/KO 315/70-17 tires and custom built Fox Racing shocks (capable of 11.2″ of travel in the front, 13.4″ rear) that effectively make the 2010 Raptor the first production pickup to ever come outfitted with position-sensitive internal bypass shocks. Read More…