RideLust

ESPN, not always known for their F1 coverage, seems to think the answer is “yes”. Here’s what we DO know: first, Hamilton fired his father as manager earlier this year. McLaren has been looking after the business interests of their star driver since, but that’s kind of like asking an anaconda to babysit your pet rat; sooner or later, it’s not going to end well. Even McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is advising Hamilton to seek independent management.

Enter Mika Hakkinen, who left F1 as a driver back in 2001. After a few years in DTM, Hakkinen retired from professional driving in 2007 to focus on managing rising-star drivers in Formula 3. Hakkinen has ties to McLaren, and has previously worked with Hamilton on an anti-drunk driving campaign for team sponsor Johnnie Walker.

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Ah, the perks of being a star in Hollywood. In addition to money, sex, glamour and free schwag, you occasionally get asked to do things like drive a race car for charity. Through the streets of Long Beach. At full tilt.

I’m down for anything that involves using someone else’s gas, brakes, tires and paint, especially when I’m expected to drive in full-hoon mode with no repercussions. I was available this weekend, but sadly, yours truly didn’t make the cut. We internet journalists just don’t get the respect we deserve, or maybe we’re just not pretty enough for celebrity racing.

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You’re looking at the most insane car ever built. It’s a 1935 Monaco Trossi racer with an air-cooled, two-stroke 16-cylinder radial engine driving the front wheels. Just picture it howling down the straight at Monza at 150 miles per hour, looking like a lit cigar on wheels, engine roaring, headers glowing.

It was the brainchild of technician Augusto Monico. It was built on an aircraft-style space frame and rocked independent suspension all around. It also had hydraulic brakes, a rarity for the time. Unfortunately, the car had 75/25 front/rear weight distribution and suffered from uncontrollable oversteer. It never actually raced and was only driven a few times during the testing phase. Today it’s locked up in the Museo dell’Automobile in Turin, its version of Arkham Asylum. Will the batshit car ever escape and get a chance to vaporize its front tires and kill race car drivers? One can hope.