RideLust

It’s no secret that when you’re racing a car on the track things can go wrong. Mishaps and crashes occur all the time at venues the world over and because of this there special highly trained safety teams that are there to get you out of harms way… or so you would think. At a raceway in Brno, in the Czech Republic during the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race series, driver Giorgio Bartocci crashes into a barrier resulting in his car being completely engulfed in flames. During this video you can clearly see the “supposed” safety units have absolutely no idea what the hell they are doing and as opposed to concentrating on pulling the driver out of the wreckage to safety, they focus more on putting the pavement around the car out. The ill-trained manner in which the safety team came to the aid of Bartocci was simply disgusting and the fact that their equipment was only semi-functional is simply a travesty of the highest proportion.

Bartocci was not freed from the fiery wreckage until one of his co-drivers and crew members physically pulled him out of the car. The scariest part of the entire scenario is the amount of people on the track that just stood around and watched as the terror unfolded. As a driver this scenario is something that happens in your worst nightmare, as a spectator it’s something that makes you rethink how dangerous motor sports can actually be.

Source: Jalopnik

Meet James Neal, he’s the former Nascar driver and nimrod that tried to outrun the police in Los Angeles. Apparently Neal had retired from Nascar back in 1987 after racing at the old (and now closed) Ascot Park track in Gardena, CA. It’s also apparent that he thought he still had the chops to allude some of L.A.’s finest by taking them on a 140 mph high speed chase through parts of Southern California. Who knows, with his background Neal may have actually gotten away with it had it not been for the engine in his 2003 Corvette blowing sky high.

On Tuesday Neal pleaded guilty to felony evasion while driving recklessly and will spend a month in the clink plus 3 years probation. Guess he should have had that sucker tuned up before he decided to run.

Source: LA Times.com

Photo: Steve Russell, Toronto Star

Remember the story of Madeline Leonard? She’s the Canadian woman, living on a fixed disability income, who was swindled into paying $66,000 CDN for a $41,000 CDN Mazda 6. We originally told you about her here, but a lot has changed since last weekend.

First, in the “do-the-right-thing” department, Mazda of Orangeville has agreed to refund Leonard’s money and take back the Mazda 6 she was tricked into buying. The dealership was also quick to point out that the employees involved in the transaction (a salesman and a business manager) have been fired. Regardless of their termination, the dealership still faces a fine of up to $250,000 CDN and the employees themselves face fines and / or jail time. It would be prudent for them to practice maintaining a firm grip on the soap in the shower, as I’m sure that will become a necessary skill for both gentlemen in the near future.

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Photo: Steve Russell, Toronto Star

A 56 year old Canadian woman, who lives on a disability income of $1,900 CDN per month and is listed as “intellectually disabled”, brought her 2004 Mazda 3 into Mazda of Orangeville (outside of Toronto) for a new set of tires. By the time she was through, a fast talking salesman had convinced her to trade up to a new Mazda 6. Madeline Leonard, the victim, was confused by all the numbers but signed for the deal anyway. And what a deal it was.

First, Leonard agreed to pay $45,846 CDN for a car that should have stickered at $39,969 CDN. And that’s if it was new, which the car Leonard purchased wasn’t: it had accumulated some 6,000 miles as a dealer demonstrator. The fast talking salesman then proceeded to sell her add-ons, like a window etching and undercoating package for $4,500 CDN. They were kind enough to arrange 8 year financing as well, which ultimately added another $16,000 CDN to the price (including a final balloon payment of $7,000 CDN). When the dust settled, Leonard had agreed to pay $66,000 CDN for a car that, if new, should have sold for around $41,000 CDN.

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Photo: MUFON

It’s no longer enough that bug-eyed aliens visit us in our sleep to perform bizarre medical experiments or harvest our organs. Now the thieving little bastards are trying to steal our cars, too. At least that’s what two NH teens are claiming happened to them in Laconia, NH on March 20.

An 18 year old girl and her 16 year old boyfriend borrowed her mother’s car and drove to an “undisclosed” location in Laconia, one that conveniently resembles a secluded parking lot. While sitting in the car, in separate seats of course, the pair was glancing at the moon when the girl noticed the “weird black-shaped object”. It must have been weird, since last time I checked, black was a color and not a shape.

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You knew it was only a matter of time.

In response to the floor mat scandal that’s been slowly gaining steam at the Toyota camp, a group of enterprising ambulance chasers from the California-based law firm of McCuneWright, LLP have filed a class action lawsuit against the Japanese automaker. Spearheading the lawsuit are LA residents and Toyota owners Seong Bae Choi (2004 Camry) and Chris Chan Park (2008 FJ Cruiser) who claim they, along with thousands of other Toyota/Lexus owners, have experienced multiple instances of sudden acceleration.

While it would be convenient to dismiss the lawsuit as opportunistic and the representing firm as precisely what has attributed to America’s embarrassing, “victimized” reputation, the raw data certainly paints a very grim picture. Toyota has maintained that the problem is due to improperly secured floor mats, but the NHTSA has reported that a total of 16 fatalities and 243 injuries have been confirmed as a direct result of sudden unintentional acceleration in Toyota vehicles, which seems more serious than an interior accessory flaw. Read More…

Mark Fields, president, The Americas, Ford Motor Company, introduces the 2011 Ford Super Duty to media at the 2009 State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas September 24, 2009.

Documents released by the federal courts today report that former Ford employee, 47-year-old Xiang Dong Yu (aka Mike Yu) of Beijing, China, has been federally indicted on charges of theft of trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Apparently, Yu was employed as a product engineer by Ford’s China branch from 1997 through 2007 and on the eve of his resignation he allegedly downloaded copies of 4,000 classified documents detailing specifications for pending design projects. He then attempted to use the documents as leverage to gain employment with an undisclosed Chinese automotive company, though the information included in the indictment does not detail whether he was successful or not. Read More…

After a public relations fiasco that was in many ways reminiscent of the Pinto “Car-B-Que” debacle of the 1970s, GM is finally requiring fleet buyers like rental car companies to keep standard side airbags on cars normally equipped with them. The previous, highly questionable logic was that fleet customers could save around $150 by checking off a “no side airbags” option when they ordered from the automaker. The real issue is that the cars that were affected by this normally have them standard, and when rental car agencies like Enterprise went and sold them after their normal period of time, without properly informing customers that the airbags weren’t there. Thus, unwitting customers were horribly misinformed, all while some fat Enterprise cats saved a bundle – not by switching to Geico, but by shortchanging customers on safety. Tragically, some of these customers were killed and injured in subsequent crashes, which uncovered the duplicity. More after the jump.

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Is it karma? A former Canadian government prosecutor, Micheal Bryant, was charged on Tuesday for killing a bike messenger during a road rage incident. While that is horrible and tragic, Bryant was also known for aggressively pushing for stronger traffic safety laws, including quite controversially in 2007 giving local Ontario cops the ability to seize and crush any vehicle modified for racing even if no charges were filed against the owner. That’s right, that AEM cold-air intake would have been enough for Bryant’s goons to crush your car. That made it way more insane than California’s controversial law about crushing street racers. Make the jump for more details on the highly ironic road rage incident that lead to Bryant’s arrest.

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Answer: Wrong

There are plenty of reasons to hate/fear/be disgusted by the Cash for Clunkers program (now called Car Allowance Rebate System – CARS)… but this isn’t one of them. So as much as I enjoy Glenn Beck’s anti-government ravings, I’m going to have to call him out on this one.

The jist of the above video is this: When you log on to CARS.gov, the government can gain control of all your files and everything in your house and your firstborn son, simply because of a loosely worded security statement. This is erroneous, on all counts. Read on:
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