Motorsports

What do you get when you combine rallying and drifting? Exactly, the ultimate drift race by Subaru Rally USA Racer Ken Block. He calls it Gymkhana, which stands for “an Indian and Pakistani term which originally referred to a place where sporting events take place. The meaning then altered to denote a place where skill-based contests were held.” That is what Wikipedia thinks it is. Ken just calls its his dissertation on hoonage and general automotive tomfoolery.

Check out the video and see what happens when a great driver gets a specially prepared 530bhp Subaru Impreza. Just watch and learn.

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As you all may know the Essen motorshow is all about tuning and pimping cars. Which isn’t the complete deal. Car manufacturers like Volkswagen, Seat and Audi show their latest line-up of regular cars with enhanced engines, interior packages and exterior trim.

The most important part of the show was the introduction of the customer race version of the well-known Audi R8. The official name of the new GT3-spec racing car is R8 LMS, named after the Le Mans Series - one of the four major championships Audi won this year.

If you are willing to spend around 260.000 euros (excluding taxes), a track-ready R8 is yours. Its mid-mounted V10 produces more than 500 bhp and more than 500 NM. If you as manufacturer want to compete in a GT3-championship, you need to have a street legal version of your racing car. This means that after the R8 LMS introduction a V10 version of the “standard” R8 is rather close by.

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We know that the Nürburgring during the week is the same for car manufacturers like what rain should be for the people of California at the moment. This week it isn’t different, Audi is testing it’s GT3 variant of the R8. The even more leightweight R8 did a laptime of 8:41, not fast at first view, but when you know it’s raining and the temperatures are rather low, it’s not bad at all. Big question is, will they ever reach the 7:26 the Corvette ZR1 lapped a while ago, offcourse in dry conditions.

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Nice video 3 minute of Volkswagen and motorsport. Great editing of bits from rally and track races. All we are missing is the Golf GTI that did the Gumball 2005 as team 13 last year.

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Top laptimes at the Nürburgring Nordschleife:

7:28 — 166.652 km/h — Porsche Carrera GT, Walther Röhrl,(Autobild July 2004)

7:32.00 — Pagani Zonda F, Sport Auto Magazine

7:32.44 163.911 km/h — Porsche Carrera GT, definitive time Horst Von Saurma (sport auto 01/2004)

7:32.52 163.882 km/h — Gemballa Porsche GTR 600 EVO, Wolfgang Kaufmann

7:36 — 162.631 km/h — AC-Schnitzer M3 CLS II E36, 350 hp, Michelin Sport Cup R , Mattias Ekblom

7:36 — 162.631 km/h — Porsche Carrera GT, factory test driver Walther Röhrl (2002)

7:39 — 161.575 km/h — Koenigsegg CCR, 806 PS/1180 kg

7:40 — 161.217 km/h — Corvette Z06 Blue Devil, 600 PS/ 1419.7 kg (estimated), Jan Magnusen (AutoBild 7/2005)

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Here’s a compilation video of rally crashes. The video features bits of the WRC and from rally championships held long time ago. Some crashes are very nasty so beware!

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Amazing video of Petter Solberg and his co-driver racing through the woods in Finland. They are driving a Subaru Impreza World Rally car. It’s amazing to see the speeds they reach on the forest roads. The video features a full rally stage driven in less then 17 minutes!

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Here you can find the schedule for the 2006 F1 Races:

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This video takes you onboard with Serkan Yazici in his Hyundai Accent WRC car during one of the rally stages for the 2005 World Rally Championship. The drivers are both from Turkey so we can’t make up a worth of what they are saying but we have very much respect for both driver and co-driver.

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This is by far the fastest rally run we have ever seen. The video takes you onboard in an open Porsche, not sure which model, and does a uphill rally run in 2 minutes. The speed at the tight mountain roads is amazing. The driver certainly knows his Porsche and the track!

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15 minute video onboard with Scott Lyman in his Porsche GT3 during a GT3 Cup race at the Watkins Glen track. We really enjoy the Porsche GT3 Cup races, the car is really nice and the races usually have a lot of action.

Enjoy the video:

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Just found a 4 minute crash compilation video. Some crashes are plain stupid others are just bad luck. It ranges from superbike and rally crashes to dragrace and F1 crashes.

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