RideLust

Audi’s TT-RS will be imported into the U.S. in a limited quantity of just 1,000 units, and each one features 360 horsepower and the latest generation of Audi’s quattro AWD. North Carolina’s Tail of the Dragon, on the other hand, features 318 curves in 11 miles of road, complete with plenty of elevation changes. Unfortunately, it’s also complete with plenty of idiot drivers and motorcyclists, driving (or riding) above their ability. As a result, accidents (including fatalities) are commonplace, and law enforcement is paying more and more attention to speeds on the Dragon.

In the words of Yogi Berra, “No one goes there anymore – it’s too crowded.” If you can manage to hit The Dragon mid-week and off season, your chance of having fun is greatly increased. If you can hit it under those circumstances in an Audi TT-RS, you can call us jealous. Read More…

I’m not sure what’s more frightening: the fact that 86 year old Mary Lee Fine is still driving, or the fact that she really has no idea how she drove her car through a metal fence and into a swimming pool. Luck was on her side, since Fine knocked a metal chair into the pool, which ultimately prevented her car from sinking (and Fine from drowning). Read More…

Let’s be clear about something: speed doesn’t kill, but disparity in speed does. Thus, when you’re demonstrating your manhood behind the wheel of a 604 horsepower Porsche Carrera GT, there are better places to do it than the freeways outside of Houston, TX. A buck-thirty in traffic doesn’t prove that you’re a competent driver and it doesn’t prove that you’ve got huevos mas grande. It does, however, prove that you’re likely living on borrowed time, and that (sadly), you’ll probably take someone else out when you finally do stack your Porsche into a bridge abutment, courtesy of a cell-phone addled driver in a clapped-out Toyota Camry. Read More…

If you’re a fan of all things Clarkson, then you’ll want to add the new TomTom Top Gear edition GO Live to your holiday wish list. In addition to voice guidance from none other than Jezza himself, the special edition GO Live includes Top Gear themed startup and shutdown screens, and unique icons (although we can’t confirm whether or not one is really a hamster). In case that’s not enough, there are also Top Gear-themed points of interest, which leaves us Americans scratching our heads wondering what they may be. Perhaps the Miami used car lot where the salesman showed Clarkson his Saturday Night Special? Read More…

Image: Flickr user Alan Cleaver

Today, the fastest speed you can legally travel on a highway in the United Kingdom is 70 miles per our. Like our own 55 mile per hour speed limit (or our current 70 mph speed limits), the number is considered by most drivers to be a suggestion, not an absolute. Reflecting this, Britain’s Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, has announced his intention to raise the UK’s maximum speed limit to 80 miles per hour, beginning in 2013. Read More…

Why worry about top speed, when most cars spend a very small percentage of their lives anywhere near maxed out? Instead, why not use acceleration as a benchmark of performance, since that’s something we enthusiasts tap into every time we get behind the wheel? That’s the premise behind the latest video from Road & Track, which introduces us to the “Two Second Club.” Read More…

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's about to be a distraction...

I’ve never heard of the Russian girl band SEREBRO, and I don’t speak a word of Russian (which, to my untrained ears, sounds a lot like forcing a weasel into a garbage disposal). I’m not a big fan of pop music, either, but I will suddenly admit to being a huge fan of SEREBRO. It’s got nothing to do with the band’s music, and I think you’ll enjoy the video a lot more if you turn the sound down. If you’re a heterosexual male, however, I assure you of this: you WILL like this video. Read More…

I-90, somewhere in Montana. Image: smithje77

You Tube user smithje77 was moving his family from Seattle to Maine, so he did what any of us would have done: he wrote a script in python to have his Droid take an image every ninety seconds, then he set this to video and dubbed in a Woody Guthrie tune, which he also performed.

And by “any of us,” I mean not me. I’m adept with an iPhone, but I draw the line at writing apps. As for setting images to video, I still struggle with Photoshop, and I’m fairly sure that people would pay me large amounts of money to NOT sing. I sure as hell can’t play guitar, but I have driven across this country more times that I care to ponder. Read More…

Buried deep in the wilds of Collier County, FL, is a test track that backs up against the Everglades. To call it “remote” and “inhospitable” is like calling the Mojave Desert “sandy”; you’re guaranteed to have alligators, snakes and mosquitos, but you’re also guaranteed that you won’t have too many pesky neighbors to worry about. The location made the track ideal for hot-weather testing, which is why Ford originally built the facility. Ford sold it to Harley-Davidson, and Harley is now looking to divest itself of unneeded real estate. If you’ve got the $7.5 million asking price, the test track can be yours. Read More…

Image: Pat Hawks

From 1974 though 1987, 55 miles per hour was the national speed limit. In the early days, the limit almost made sense, since those were the dark times between our first and second gas crisises. Back then, most cars on the road weren’t getting 30 miles per gallon, so restricting speed in the name of fuel savings became the logical thing to do. Somewhere along the line, groups embraced the 55 mile per hour speed limit since it was “safer” than the old 70 mile per hour limit. When the double-nickel fell in 1987, those opposed to raising the national speed limit predicted carnage, death and highways flowing red with blood. Read More…