RideLust

The Dakar Rally is one of, if not the most grueling off-road event in the world. It pits teams from all over the globe in a race that covers every type of off road terrain there is. Mud and gravel, to some of the largest sand dunes in existence make up a course that will test the constitution of every team member. The vehicles and competitors that run this race are as hard as they come, and their preparation is almost as grueling as the event itself. Vehicles are forced into conditions the likes of which would disable a production vehicle in a matter of minutes, thus these competition vehicles are engineered to the max. The above shows the Czech Dakar Team testing for this years Dakar Rally (currently underway). Their weapon of choice – a Tatra 815 4×4 truck that is powered by a massive Caterpillar diesel engine. This is not some little runabout, but a full on off-road beast that is capable of taking mass amounts of punishment. Watching the Czech Team sling this thing around like a slot car is simply astonishing and something that I think everyone will enjoy.

Source: Dakar.com

Carlos Sainz

3,100 miles of brutal off-road racing across mountains, dunes and through desert canyons just cannot be easy for anyone, even celebrated Spanish WRC champion Carlos Sainz. But despite the terrain and mechanical issues, Sainz, the 2010 Dakar Champion, scored a victory on Monday, taking the second stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally in his 310 hp Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 with a finishing time of 3:11:28. In second place for the car class was his VW teammate, Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finished the stage in 3:12:31. The champion of numerous Dakar Rallies (both in the motorcycle and car classes), Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, took third in his BMW X3 CC with a time of 3:13:02.  Overall, Sainz leads the car class, with Peterhansel in second and Al-Attiyah in third place.

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I spent a lot of years traveling on business. I’ve worked for companies based in the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S., so it’s safe to assume that I’ve spent a fair amount of time in each country (and plenty of others in between). When people would say, “Oh, you get to travel on business, how lucky,” I’d remind them that I HAD to travel on business, and there’s a distinct difference. You GET to travel when you’re staying in nice hotels, sleeping late and sightseeing. You HAVE to travel when you stay in convenient hotels, sleep when you can and see the inside of a conference room or a convention center. On business, there isn’t much of a difference between Des Moines, Iowa and Tokyo, Japan, except that Tokyo is a longer flight.

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Trust me when I tell you that you need to watch the entire length of this video. This is the Pro Rally team of Olaf Dobberkau and Alexandra König. Their car is a Porsche GT3 and the way that they pilot it is simply incredible. Now for those of you who have never been in a rally car of any type I can tell you the car itself is a pretty amazing piece of machinery. The drivers though, they’re on a completely different level. You see rally drivers don’t possess that little switch in their heads that tells them that danger is approaching. In fact when they actually see danger they just stare it in the face and look for a way to either go through it, or around it. I’m a big fan of speed, but it took me only one stint as a passenger in a true rally car to understand that these guys possess skills that are simply not of this planet.

Source: Youtube.com

Ever notice how over the years racing has changed. It used to be that cars were pretty evenly matched and that a race was decided more by the drivers skill than by what lay under the hood. Today’s cars are so advanced and have so many drivers aids that one wonders when the cars will simply eject the drivers and run themselves. Back in the day however there was a race over in the UK called the BBC Rally Sprint. Think of it as the Race of Champions, but instead of having it in a stadium, it was held on a real racetrack with the worst cars imaginable. The BBC Rally Sprint race took four Grand Prix drivers and pitted them against four Rally drivers in 1600cc, 110 hp Rovers in a 10 lap sprint race around Donington Park Circuit. This particular race took place in 1983 and included such race legends as Nigel Mansell, Danny Sullivan, Stig Blomqvist and Jim McRae. This video is about 10 minutes long, but trust me when I tell you that it’s some of the best racing you’re ever likely to see.

Source: AxisofOversteer.com

Tunnels underneath Guanajuato. Photo: Hexodus

It sounds like something out of a video game: a rally stage where the competition takes place deep underground, through the tunnels of a World Heritage Site. In 2011, the FIA World Rally Championship will make it a reality when they visit Guanajuato, Mexico. The 2011 Rally Mexico will kick off with a special stage run through Guanajuato’s extensive network of tunnels, created by silver mining that took place in the city from the 16th century through the early part of the 20th century. Over the years, some of the mine tunnels have been turned into neighborhoods, complete with residences, shops and museums.

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For those of you that don’t know, Carlos Sainz and Marc Coma are two of the top names in motor sports. Here in the United States WRC (World Rally Championship), isn’t followed too closely. If however you do follow it than you’ll no doubt know the name Carlos Sainz, as he holds the most WRC records for points, podium finishes and career starts. Basically the guy is a legend. Marc Coma is another motor sports legend, but prefers two wheels instead of four. He’s actually won the Dakar Rally twice, in 2006 and 2009 and by the looks of it has no plans on slowing down. The above video shows us just a little glimpse of Carlos Sainz and Marc Coma getting ready for the upcoming 2011 Dakar Rally this coming January. I know that this is work for them, but for some reason it looks as though they’re having just a little too much fun.

Source. Streetfire.net

DiRT 3 Teaser Trailer Video

If you’re a fan of FIA Rally, Ken Block, classic rally cars or even Pink Floyd, you’ll find something to like about Codemasters’ upcoming release, DiRT 3. This teaser has great visuals of Block racing stages in Kenya, Finland, Norway and Monaco, before cutting to a slow-motion gymkhana run through the abandoned Battersea power station, just outside of London. If you’re a Pink Floyd fan, you’ll recognize the Battersea plant from the cover of Animals, and it’s one of the easily recognized structures in all of the UK. There’s a brief shot of a classic Ford RS200 Evolution, and I certainly hope the game lets you get behind the wheel of one. Codemasters hasn’t given a firm release date yet (other than 2011), so let’s hope they don’t get sidetracked adding content. Sure, driving a 1978 Ford Escort RS1800 would be cool, but don’t push the launch back by another 11 months just to add it to the game.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Cadillac is returning to racing in 2011 in the SCCA America World Challenge GT Series and I for one, am totally stoked. If you’ve taken the time to read my reviews on the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and 2011 CTS-V Sport Wagon then you’ll know that I love both of these cars. With an engine that could pull the moon out of orbit, beautiful interiors and sharp edgy styling, the new CTS-V’s from Cadillac have no problem taking on the competition from the worlds premier manufacturers. For 2011 a race prepped version of the CTS-V Coupe will compete in the SCCA’s World Challenge GT Series, North America’s top production-based series.
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NASA probably isn’t sending anyone to hoon around on the moon anytime soon, but that didn’t stop the space agency from developing a new set of tires for the moon buggy. Each tire is made from wire mesh and has 800 springs to absorb impact. They do not go flat, even over the gnarliest moon rocks. They also weigh less than the last generation of moon tires, which is a big deal when you’re shooting stuff into space. The tires will likely end up on rover-type robots, but one can always hope an enterprising privateer will build another moon buggy for our enjoyment.

Source: Gizmodo

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