Rally
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It's undeniably expensive to participate in motorsports at any level. At the level of the manufacturers--and the results they're expected to deliver--it's often insanely expensive. While Ford hasn't disclosed costs as the reason, it's pulling out of World Rally Championship (WRC) competition at the end of this season. Sandwiched between iPhone case announcements and talk of wins at the next rally, Ford Rally posted a simple declaration to its Twitter account: "Ford will withdraw from @OfficialWRC as title sponsor after 2012. #FordWRC thanks its fans, drivers and many partners for their...
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Ford Previews WRC Wales Rally Great Britain: VideoOur executive editor Marty Padgett is traipsing about the English countryside today, behind the wheel of the Subaru BRZ and on the grounds of the Goodwood Revival--but that's not the only significant motorsports happening going on in the U.K. this week. WRC is back for the Wales Rally Great...
Nelson Ireson -
Fiat 500 Abarth To Tackle Targa Newfoundland: VideoThe Fiat 500 Abarth seeks to prove its sporting cred at the 2012 Targa Newfoundland.
Nelson Ireson -
Three Serbian Rally Spectators Killed In Crash: VideoWarning: the video above contains footage of the accident that took the lives of three spectators. Rally racing, like any other kind of motorsport, is dangerous. It's dangerous simply because of the laws of physics: heavy things traveling quickly can cause lots of damage to our relatively soft...
Nelson Ireson -
Rallying Is Harder With Only Three Gears: VideoUnder the best of circumstances, rallying is among the most extreme forms of motorsport on the planet. Drivers spend an entire stage running on the very edge of control, piloting cars on surfaces ranging from gravel to snow to sand to mud to pavement (or any combination of these). Mistakes can be...
Kurt Ernst -
Cannonball 2000 Rally Entrants Help Sick Children's Dreams Come TrueThe original Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash was a highly illegal and controversial event hastily assembled by Brock Yates in protest of the Draconian 55 mph national speed limit enacted in the United States in the early 1970s. The idea was to run across the continental...
Kurt Ernst -
If you're not already intimately familiar with the wondrously insane human-car activity known as rally, this video should get you hooked. If you are familiar, it's just a great two-minute break in your day. Having gone through something similar--though much slower--ourselves, we'd gladly repeat the experience, despite it being one of the most frightening, physically and mentally stressful, and utterly bonkers things we've done. The scenes and (mercifully un-soundtracked) sounds you see here are from helmet-mounted cameras strapped to Ken Block testing the Fiesta RS WRC for Rally Finland.
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Walter Röhrl Cancels Pikes Peak EntryThe Colorado wildfires that postponed the 2012 running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb destroyed 600 homes, scorched huge swaths of forest, and generally caused mayhem. For fans of rally there's another loss to tally: Walter Röhrl has canceled his planned entry in the Audi Sport...
Nelson Ireson -
2013 Audi R8, 2014 Mazda6, 2014 BMW M3: Today's Car NewsYesterday evening, Audi released the first images of the 2013 Audi R8 update, and followed with the full details just after midnight. It's not a lot different, but it looks very, very good. The 2014 Mazda6 also made its debut in the wee hours of the morning, presenting a new face but a familiar...
Nelson Ireson -
Help An All-American Rally Team Get To WRC Rally FinlandAre you a rally fan? Do you wish we had more of it going on here? Then dig into your pocket and help the first all-American team to compete in the WRC Rally Finland in 40 years reach their goal. Chris Duplessis and co-driver Alex Kihurani are trying to become the first all-American team in four...
Nelson Ireson -
David Higgins Clinches Second Consecutive Rally America TitleIn July of 2011, Subaru Rally Team USA driver David Higgins took second place at the New England Forest Rally, which was good enough to propel the Manx driver to the top of the championship standings for the 2011 season. For 2012, history has repeated itself: Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew again...
Kurt Ernst -
SLS AMG E-Cell To Tackle Silvretta E-Car RallyGenerally speaking, rally events exist to test the capabilities of both car and driver, often among the most grueling conditions imaginable. Like biological evolution on an accelerated scale, rally racing improves the breed, starting with race cars and trickling down into production cars. The same...
Kurt Ernst -
The massive Waldo Canyon wildfire in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area, has spread flames, smoke, and ash as high as 20,000 feet and consumed more than 15,000 acres, creating tremendous, almost incredible images--and causing the U.S. Forest Service to forbid the running of the 90th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on its scheduled July 8 date. The fire is only about five percent contained. Right now, no specific time for the famed run up the mountain has been set, the organizers simply saying it will be run "later in the summer." The goal is to find a date that will allow the race's...
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Rally Co-Driver Gareth Roberts Dies In Kubica-Like Guardrail CrashGareth Roberts, a 24-year-old Welsh rally co-driver with a promising career ahead of him, died this weekend during the Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia rally after the Peugeot 207 Super 2000 piloted by driver Craig Breen was skewered by a guardrail. The accident is eerily reminiscent of...
Nelson Ireson -
Sebastian Loeb Rises To Pastrana's Challenge, Will Compete At X Games RallyCrossThe ultimate WRC champion Sebastian Loeb will be at this year's X Games in Los Angeles. Why? Because Travis Pastrana invited/challenged him to show up. Why would Pastrana, a favorite to win or place in the competition, make his own job exponentially harder by inviting Loeb? Because he wants to race...
Nelson Ireson -
Travis Pastrana At the Global RallyCross Texas Motor Speedway Event: VideoYou've already seen Travis Pastrana at the wheel of his new Dodge Dart rally/rallycross car. Now you can see the car in wheel-to-wheel action against the best in the business as they take to the track--and the jumps--at Texas Motor Speedway. The Global RallyCross Championship, if you're not...
Nelson Ireson -
2013 Golf Spy Video, Terrain Denali Video Review, 4-Cyls Most Popular: Today's Car NewsThe 2013 Volkswagen Golf MkVII has been spied on video, and we bring you everything we expect from the redesigned model. The 2013 GMC Terrain Denali is here, and we have a full video road test--check it out, and learn all you really need to know about the new crossover. And the four-cylinder engine...
Nelson Ireson -
Ford Fiesta Flies Off Side Of Mountain In Crazy Rally de Catamarca Crash: VideoRally is dangerous. This is known. But when the danger becomes reality and it's captured on video, it's spectacular--especially when the driver and navigator come away unscathed. This crash, with Nicolas Diaz at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta rally car during the Rally de Catamarca in Argentina...
Nelson Ireson -
Kimi Raikkonen looks to be in fine form after returning from a two-year hiatus from Formula 1 to spend some time grinding it out on the World Rally Championship circuit. But he won't be returning to the gravel anytime soon--it's against his Lotus F1 contract. It's an unsurprising stipulation in his contract considering what happened to Robert Kubica, who raced for the team when it was known asLotus- Renault GP, at the Ronde di Andora in 2011. When Raikkonen told the press he would like to compete in this year's Finnish rally, he added the caveat, "you'll have to ask the team if it fits in my...
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Buick Regal GS Takes Second In Nevada Open Road ChallengeLast week, we told you about Bill Rietow and John Townsend, a pair of Buick engineers who believe in practicing what they preach. Rietow and Townsend have a hobby that may not be shared by many other Buick owners: they race a Buick Regal GS in open road rallies. In September 2011, the duo ran the...
Kurt Ernst -
Monster Tajima's Monster Sport E-RUNNER Pikes Peak EV: GalleryLooking like some kind of Pikes Peak Batmobile, Monster Tajima's Monster Sport E-RUNNER Pikes Peak Special--GoPro cameras and all--is just about ready for his assault on the mountain. With a full carbon fiber body, what appears to be a very sturdy cage inside the pod-like driver capsule, and more...
Nelson Ireson -
Buick Engineers Seek Second Regal GS Open Road Rally VictoryLast September, a pair of Buick Regal GS engineers drove the car to a class win in the Silver State Classic Challenge, which allows drivers to compete in various speed-defined classes on closed public roads. Victory isn’t as simple as getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible;...
Kurt Ernst -
800-HP KEM Racing Audi Quattro? Yes, Please: VideoThere's very little that can be said to make us like the Audi quattro more, and pretty much nothing that can be said to make us like it less. This particular example, built up over time by Keith Edwards of KEM Racing from various bits and pieces, has come into a coherent whole that's simply...
Nelson Ireson -
Ken Block Delivers Refreshingly Humble WRC Mexico Recap: VideoKen Block is many things: shoe magnate, hoonigan honcho, and WRC driver among them. It turns out he's also rather refreshingly humble and aware of the difficulty of rally racing. Of course, he's had his fair share of exposure to adversity, both self-induced and environmental, over the course of the...
Nelson Ireson