If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be “Bond, James Bond”, then you are far from being alone. Every man who as ever watched a James Bond movie has walked out of the movie theater or maybe just got up off the couch thinking, “Damn I wish i was that cool.” And while we all think we know what it takes to be agent 007, its not just the Golden Gun or unbelievable swagger. You must also have “cojones” the size of basketballs. No one in their right mind can tell themselves that they would perform a stunt like this car barrel roll seen in the movie “The Man with the Golden Gun.” The amazing thing is at the very end of this clip you see Bond’s face and it looks like the flip did not phase him in the slightest. And until we are willing to repeat that feat, we can all keep dreaming.
In an effort to stay one step ahead of the media blitz launched by fellow Detroit automaker, GM, Ford has launched a new marketing campaign involving the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, relatively unknown comedian Mark Malkoff, and a 28-day road trip. It sounds like the campy plot to a Nickelodeon movie, but Ford’s goal is not to see how many painful eye rolls it can elicit in one sitting but rather to showcase the Fusion Hybrid’s astounding fuel efficiency. According to the press release, Malkoff’s lofty goal is to see how many mayors east of the Mississippi he can convince to hand over the keys to their cities while using Ford’s hand-free SYNC system to keep all 10 of his fans updated on his progress via Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.
“Mark came to us with the idea, and we loved it,” said Jeffrey Eggen, manager, Ford Car Experiential Marketing. “It fits in well with our strategy to raise awareness of our new Ford vehicles by getting real customers behind the wheel and letting them tell their own story.”
You order a bedroom set for your son, but when it arrives, the mattress you thought would be included in the deal is missing. What do you do? If you’re Robert Caton of Hampshire, UK, you guzzle two bottles of cheap whiskey, hop in your ‘83 Rolls-Royce, and plow through the store in a drunken, poorly conceived rampage. Oh, and not on the first try either – he made two unsuccessful attempts to raze the store before finally succeeding in careening the Roller through the window, causing roughly $100,000 worth of damage.
As much as the drifting crowd would like to think their four-wheeled acrobatics will incite a new renaissance in grass-roots racing, conjure up the ghost of Steve McQueen, and cure cancer, in actuality it is the automotive equivalent of synchronized swimming. Still, even the most cynical among us has to admit that repeatedly maintaining control of a couple thousand lbs of machinery through excessively oversteered corners deserves our respect on some level.
One of the reigning kings of this (let’s call it) sport, is Vaughn Gittin Jr., who if you didn’t know, is the new poster child for Ford’s campaign at making the 2010 Mustang a legitimate drift contender. As part of that effort, they have released six documentary-style webisodes that chronicle his recent tour of the drifting motherland: Japan.
What do you do when your state is so far under water it makes the Mariana Trench look like a kiddy pool? You hustle, baby. Someone at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office came up with the brilliant idea of having the celebrity Governator sign 15 of the more than 500 used state vehicles up for auction so as to raise additional money. As of Tuesday, the highest bid on a signed car was for a 2003 Civic Hybrid at a steal for $5,500! But if that doesn’t suit your fancy, there are vans, Crown Vics, and even ex-CHP BMW motorcycles to choose from. Sick of the state of the state? Put your money where your mouth is and pony up for the greater good!
Considering that we have a weakness for vintage motorcycles and a soft spot for anything Steve McQueen, this link to a scan of a 1966 Popular Science article of McQueen reviewing several dirtbikes of the time was too good to not share with you, our loyal readers. Not only is it pretty interesting to read about what passed for a dirtbike back then (a Triumph Bonneville 650?), but McQueen also discusses his own personal bike, built in collaboration with Rickman Motorcycles and their famous Métisse-framed low production cycles. ” Métisse” meant, in a loving sense, “bastard,” because Rickman stole the best kit off of various motorcycles, but he was singularly innovative in pioneering the technique of using the frame of the bike as both an oil tank and oil cooler. Sort of Erik Buell-esque. Anyways, a great read.
Yeah, that’s right. How about some white guys ghostriding a DeLorean DMC-12? Bet you weren’t expecting that to greet ya first thing in the morning, eh? Look closely for the dude with the prosthetic foot – that dude gets extra props for jumping out of a moving DeLorean and freakin’ DANCING. Check out the video after the jump.
The sort of aerial automotive acrobatics pictured here are the result of the collaborative efforts of rally car racer Ken Block and performance engine and component manufacturer Cosworth. As you can imagine, pulling off such insane maneuvers takes some pretty talented people, and a pretty sick car. Or is it the other way around?
How do you feel about heavily boosted J-tin cruising from apex to apex in full-on opposite-lock four-wheel-drift? If you’re anything like us, you are sort of transfixed. You don’t even have to like drifting to appreciate the cars and the extreme skill needed to whip them around a track not just adequately, but with style too. There are a lot of specialist sites catering to very specific car fetishes (brown Lincoln Continentals? Rolled-over donks?), but Noriyaro is where I go to get my JDM drift fix. If you don’t like the idea of 1,000 HP Supras banging against the rev limiter, then best not jump over to his site.
From the annals of utter insanity comes this tale of Bob Maddox, the man who decided that strapping two pulse-jet engines to a Electra bicycle would be an excellent idea. Bob, we here at Ridelust salute you for making this work, but also for narrowly avoiding the Darwin Award that was a potential outcome of this experiment.
