The North American Eagle LSR car is an F-104 without wings. (Photo by Terry Parkhurst)
Ed Shadle has a dream. It is to use a F-104 Starfighter jet fighter plane, sans wings and retrofitted with a powerful turbine engine and hand-crafted aluminum wheels instead of rubber tires, to set a new world land speed record.
Shadle has set speed records at the Bonnevile Salt Flats in the street roadster. Back in 1993, he took a roadster based on a 1927 Ford model “T” body, powered by a 258 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8, to 159.43 mph.
The 2009 Superbike World Championship is going to be spectacular. BMW is finally in the game with a big literbike, and they should make for an interesting season. This being their first year, I really don’t think they’ll be in contention, but they’ll probably finish well and up the level of competition with the rest of the crowd.
Either way, the most exciting part of BMW entering the race will be the production S1000RR. People have been looking forward to this bike since BMW announced it’ll be entering Superbike. Although, according to BMW Motorrad CEO Hendrik von Kuenheim, there will be only 1,000 S1000RRs built in 2009, meaning they’ll be impossible to find. Plus you know they’re getting snatched up by money men and celebrities first. Check out pictures of the official race version and production version:
Thanks go to HellForLeather for coming through with the official price list for the 2009 Ducati lineup. It looks like they got their hands on a dealer’s order form with all the prices and availability dates. Well done.
Most of the bikes fall in line with expected prices, but the big question was the Streetfighter and the Streetfighter S: turns out they’ll be $14,005 and $18,995, respectively.
Check out the whole price list and the actual order form where they came from:
The times they are a-changin. Before their official debut at the LA Auto Show on the 19th, both the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid and the Fusion Sport will be performing duties as the official pace cars for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this Sunday. This will be the first time ever that a hybrid will be the NASCAR pace car, almost. The Fusion Hybrid will lead at the starting green flag, and the more powerful non-hybrid Fusion Sport will take over the rest of the pace car duties.
The stock Fusion hybrid is able to get up to 47 miles per hour using it’s electric motors alone, but the green flag lap will be a bit faster than that, so the hybrid fusion will be polluting at least a little bit. But the Homestead-Miami Speedway is 2.3 miles long, and the Fusion hybrid can go 700 miles one one tank of fuel, so the new Fusion could go over 300 laps without making a pit stop.
Since the S2000 was introduced to great acclaim nearly ten years ago, it has been given the same treatment that the NSX received by Honda/Acura. Mainly, just being left alone to whither on the vine. Not that either vehicle wasn’t extremely solid to begin with. But as sales would attest, buyers demand at least the appearance of a vehicle upgrade periodically to keep their attention. Since peak U.S. sales of nearly 10,000 units in 2001 and 2002, the two-seater is currently leaving dealerships at about 1/5th of that number. The 2009 ”CR” is Honda’s response to boost sales by boosting the vehicle’s performance in advance of a more complete future redesign.
Filipe Massa did everything he could at his home track, but it just wasn’t enough to keep Lewis Hamilton from winning the overall title and becoming the youngest F1 drivers champion in history. For Massa to take the title, he would have not only had to finish 1st, but Hamilton would have had to finish in 6th place or worse. There were more than a few Brazilians hoping for a Hamilton crash. But it didn’t happen that way.
The entire season came down to the final lap of the final race, which was a great end to a great season. Massa led for nearly the whole race, and eventually converted his pole position into a win. The nail biting came from Hamilton’s position. He was in 6th place as Massa passed the finish line, but moved up past Timo Glock in the Toyota to finish in 5th, assuring him the championship by a single point. Glock’s inability to hold off Hamilton also assured that millions of Brazilians will now hate him along with his team, Toyota.
While admittedly not as offensive as the Urban Whip GLK tuned for Mercedes by Boulevard Customs, RENNTech’s Pikes Peak GLK Hybrid still appears to have exercised a questionable amount of taste in regards to the aftermarket accessories. Apparently abandoning the novel concept of “tastefully understated” design, the RENNTech Pikes Peak GLK also features a rear spoiler with approximately the same wingspan as a mature osprey. Under the hood, however, RENNTech seems to have done it right, outfitting the Pikes Peak GLK Hybrid with a supercharged V6 capable of producing an impressive 375 horsepower and 320 pounds-feet of torque.
Much more than just another over-accessorized muscle car (we salute you, Mr. 2010 Camaro), the FR500CJ Cobra Jet Mustang Ford unveiled at SEMA ‘08 today is being described as a completely race-ready production vehicle, more than capable of kicking ass on the drag strip. Released in tandem with the 40th birthday celebration of the Mustang Cobra Jet, the new FR500CJ will sit atop the Ford Racing lineup as king of the beasts and restore the glory of the 1968 Cobra Jet.
While meaty details like net horsepower and official lap times are currently being withheld, video leaked last month of the Cobra Jet throwing down on the tarmac has us prematurely pegging the FR500CJ’s 5.4L V8 at producing an ass kicking number of horses - technically speaking.
Cafe racers have been making a big comeback in the past decade, although people have been replacing the term cafe racer with streetfighter. Either way, they’re the same thing: a powerful bike that has has it’s fairings removed and been generally stripped down and modified for speed.
For a while, one of most commonly modified streetfighter style bikes was the Ducati Monster, but it’s been losing it’s popularity lately. In an attempt to win back that market niche, Ducati came up with a new model called, appropriately, the Streetfighter.
Check out the pictures and specs:
NCR, the maker of exclusive high-end motorcycles has just come out with a limited edition Mike Hailwood TT replica built in honor of the 30th anniversary of Hailwood’s Isle of Man win on the Ducati 900 NCR. They actually based this bike on the Ducati Sport 1000S, which will make it the second bike NCR has based on the 1000S, the first being the highly tuned, race ready New Blue.
If you’re a Ridelust reader, you’re probably aware of my love for all things Ducati, especially the Ducati Sport 1000S. So I’m really starting to appreciate NCR. This bike is ridiculously light. It features titanium all over the place, which is NCR’s calling card: it has an 11-pound titanium frame, a titanium exhaust system, the engine has billet titanium connecting rods and titanium valves, and all the fasteners are titanium. Plus carbon-fiber wheels and bodywork.
Check out specs and pictures of the NCR Mike Hailwood TT Replica:
