We tackled the third leg of the Targa Rally today which took everyone from Los Angeles to Santa Barbra. A great pack of cars and a timed/mile route lead to a great event. Sadly, our car broke down at the 50 mile mark of a 400 mile day trip like our Gumball 3000 trip earlier this year. We crammed our video guy in another car so he could Targa Scum it and produce us some great video. Our photographer stayed with me at Mt. Frazier as we waited 4 hours for Cadillac to come rescue us and get us in a loaner. It was of course an adventure so check out our trip inside.
The 2009 Gold Rush Rally started in San Francisco and finished up in Las Vegas this year. They took 50 cars over a span of 800 miles to complete this mini rally. Above is a preview video running almost three minutes covering some of the great machines in the rally including the guys who went as far to wrap their cars in gold.
Wustefest 2009 was a three day event in it’s third year that took place this month in Las Vegas. It’s free to show up and this year brought the attention of over 500 cars including caravans from Canada and North Carolina. If you want to attend in 2010 the tentative date is June 4th-6th. You can find out more information about the meet at: wustefest.com. We received photos thanks to Mo Satarzadeh.
This has to be the greatest automotive commercial made in quite some time. Without saying anything
the new Audi R8 makes quite the statement with this video. Audi drives the new V10 Audi R8 straight through the heart of Italian motorsports country and the results are too be expected. The only way you could of made these Ferrari loving fans more pist was have Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel!
This video puts two amazing sounding Audi’s together for one video. What more could we ask for other than two amazing Audi R8’s dueling. The two aftermarket companies MTM and ABT pit the cars against each other to build the greatest Audi R8 on the market.
Day 1 is now complete which was a fairly small leg of 250 miles. We started at the Santa Monica Pier and made a swing through Orange County for the D1GP event. After leaving Orange County it was a straight dash up I-15 to Las Vegas, Nevada. We have some great photos of the Brabus Mercedes SL, purple Audi R8, the Bugatti’s and much much more!
It’s now time to forget everything you have ever known about the Need for Speed series. The new gaming engine that is utilized in Need for Speed Shift is three years in the making and it is going to re-invent simulation racing games as we know it. We were invited to a special sample test of the game where the EA staff let us play with the Audi RS4, Porsche GT2, and a Zonda. This game is going to win surely on the details.
The interior details have to be the most amazing thing I have ever seen. While your racing in car you can use the secondary joystick on the Xbox 360 to rotate your drivers head around the cabin. You can look down and watch your driver operating the pedals. While looking at your gauge cluster you will notice the revs on your tachometer operate just like a real car as the NFS team eliminated the smooth arcade like motions of simulation games past and now have bouncing revs like a real vehicle.
The real amazing game play is when you focus outside the interior. The game makes you feel like your practically driving these expensive machines around a racetrack. On the faster cars like the GT2 and Zonda the car presents a great representation of acceleration G’s and braking G’s. The cars also represent an accurate version of understreer/oversteer that with some practice you can steer out of very easily. It just adds to the simulation level and realistic feel of this Need for Speed game.
My favorite feature is when you exit the in-car mode it keeps the car’s factory gauges on screen instead of putting some generic boring gauges on screen when your out of car. So if your playing with a Porsche GT2 and you leave in car mode you still see the GT2 factory gauges for speed and RPM’s.
An Audi racing heritage commercial is a great 60 spot talking about how in the 30’s they redefined racing with the mid engine racer. The Audi R8 appears in the 1930’s flying down the racetrack. The video does a great representation of the new Audi flying through an old racetrack. A very authentic flashback that brings you entertainment as you listen and watch an Audi R8 flying down the dirt road.
Coolspotters is an amazing website that let’s you stalk celebrities and find out what they enjoy and where to buy the products. To test it out I wanted to see who is driving my favorite car of the moment, the gorgeous Audi R8, an unassuming exotic powerhouse that looks as mean as it sounds and drives! The list of celebs Coolspotters found behind the wheel of an Audi R8 was quite impressive:
The Hollywood R8 List:
Jay Leno
Lauren Conrad
Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies)
Hugh Grant
Seal
Robert Downey Jr.
Larry Ellison
Zac Efron
