RideLust

Everyone each and every year has a few things that they look forward to. For some it’s Christmas, for others it’s a birthday, but for me, it’s Brock Yates’ One Lap of America – the toughest 8 days of racing in the United States. You see this event signifies my one true vacation per year where I get to cut loose and race around the country with my buddies in fast cars. We did our first event back in 2010 and from then on we were hooked. The One Lap offers three components that no other event out there brings to the table. First, it grants you access to some of the greatest raceways in the United States. Second, it brings together what is probably the best group of people in all of amateur motor sports. And third, it gives wannabe race car drivers like myself the chance to explore the limits of their vehicle in a truly safe environment… oh yeah, it’s also 3,500 mile long. Recently Brock Yates Jr. posted up the proposed route for 2012 and I have to say I’m diggin’ it.
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Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to inflate the tires and get the bags packed for another edition of the One Lap of America. Some of you may recall that I ran this event last year in my 1968 Dodge Charger, a car that was too big, too loud and that, at the end of the day, drank WAY to much fuel (10 mpg sucks). Don’t get me wrong, we had an absolute blast of a time, but trying to compete against Nissan GT-R’s and Porsche 911 Turbo’s in a 42 year old muscle car probably wasn’t the best idea. This year however we’ve upped the ante the little bit and are now prepared to run with some of the best cars and drivers that this country has to offer.
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If you live in the Northeast then you know that Mother Nature has been a total bitch this year. She’s nailed us with five snow storms and freezing temperatures that will ensure that we’ll have snow on the ground until April. What that means is that all of us up here in the land of the chosen frozen have nothing to do but look forward to this years crop of upcoming events. For example, car show season is in full swing which is great, IMPA test days are coming up and every now and again we’ll get a day that’s over 30 degrees. For me though, I’m just looking forward to my vacation. Now most people like to spend their time off either at the beach or traveling. Me… I’m a road trip guy, which means right now I’m looking forward to this years 2011 One Lap of America.
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Over the past year both Kurt and myself have done our best to bring you guys the best that the automotive world has to offer. We’ve attended shows, reviewed loads of cars and have even managed to have a little fun along the way. The best part about what we do though are the emails, comments and feedback that we receive from our readers. For instance, if for some reason we stumble, we know damn well that you guys are going to nail us to the wall for it. Same goes if we have strong opinions about certain subject matters or if we throw some humor your way. Our goal is to make Ridelust.com a place where you guys can come, hangout and enjoy everything that the mechanized world has to offer and for 2011 I promise that it’s only going to get better. Below is quick listing of 5 of my favorite highlights from 2010… enjoy.
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For the majority of the people out there being at work sucks. We trudge into the office day in and day out, stare at the same people and make the same idle chitchat that we’ve been making for years. It’s a boring process and by the end of the day you generally feel more like the walking dead than you do a living, breathing human being. But what if I told you there was a cure for this… what if I told you that with the click of a button and a few of your hard earned green backs you could kick that zombie feeling and join the land of the living again. It’s true and all you have to do is click BUY IT NOW, on the eBay auction listed above.
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Earlier this year I took part in the One Lap of America, a combination road rally / track event that takes competitors on a 3500 mile journey to some of the best racetracks in the United States. This event will test not only your stamina and endurance but every single part on your car. It’s long, it’s tough and it’s probably the most fun you’ll have on four wheels. When prepping the car for this event one of the biggest decisions that I had to make was tire choice. I needed a max summer performance tire that could handle the rigors of 9 days of hardcore track duty, 3500 miles of open road and perform well in both the wet and dry. In the past I’ve run Nitto NT555′s, Goodyear Eagle F1′s, Michelin Pilot Sports and Michelin PS2s. These were all good tires but each one had some inherent drawbacks.

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Motor Trend does their best to recap the 2010 One Lap of America race, but it’s damn near impossible to cover nine days and 68 cars in a twenty minute video. There are a few shots of the RideLust sponsored Ferrari F430, and even less video of Mike’s ’68 Charger, but he does have the best burnout in the video, during the segment filmed at Tulsa Raceway Park.

Check out the Mazda 5 with the Mazdaspeed 3 drive train, built by two guys at a Mazda dealership, that finished in 15th place overall. Also, be sure to catch the guys with the twincharged ’93 Civic that puts out 300 horsepower from a single cam, 1.6 liter motor. A turbo feeding a supercharger? An icewater cooled intercooler to lower intake intake air temps? Cool stuff indeed, and these guys finished in 8th place in the overall standings.

I’ve been back for exactly 4 days after running the 2010 One Lap of America and already I am getting bombarded with questions as to if I’ll be running next year. Obviously the key to not only finishing the event but placing well is showing up with the right car. This year, instead of bringing a gun to a knife fight, we brought a sledge hammer and man was it a rough deal. Trying to sling that Charger around 8 racetracks while competing against Porsche’s, Corvette’s and all manner of imports proved to be an exercise in futility. I then started thinking about what would be the best car to come out of each price range and came up with the following price points: $25,000 or less, $50,000 or less, $75,000 or less, $100,000 or less and $100,000 or above.

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It’s over… it’s finally over. This past Saturday was the completion of the 2010 One Lap of America. An event that covered 9 days, 8 racetracks and 4500 miles. If you’ve been following our progress you’ll know that we took my 1968 pro-touring Dodge Charger. This is a car that weighs in at 4000 lbs., makes about 415 hp out of a 440 cubic inch big block and has absolutely no climate control whatsoever.

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Right now I’m sitting trackside at Nelson Ledges Raceway in Ohio surrounded by some of the fastest street legal cars in the United States. For us it’s day 9 and well over 3000 miles and so far we’ve survived. We’ve got one more track session left for today and then it’s another 300 mile run back to the Tire Rack Facility in South Bend, Indiana – we’ll make that in two fuel stops. Once in South Bend we have only one more event to complete, the dry skid pad. We ran the wet skid pad on day one and came in dead last out of the entire field running. Sure it sucked, but in the end it worked for us because when you’re last the only place you can go is up.

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