Monday, June 16, 2014

The Worst Car I have ever driven..........



Peugeot 308 Station Wagon. It has an automatic transmission that feels like a high-schooler lives inside and shifts for you. The eco mode is terrible on hills and the diesel motor left a bit to be desired. It did, however, fit all of our bags and go 120mph on the Autobahn.....

Cruising through Southern Germany.....sponsored by Red Bull
116mph snapshot
C'mon Ferrari...let the Peugeot through

Saturday, June 14, 2014

East Belguim Action & Fun Karting Center




Despite a group of weird Belgians playing skee-ball in livestock costumes, this is the best indoor karting track I have been to. First off, all of the employees spoke English well so that was a good start. The karts were gas-powered which I prefer and the track was long with lap times around 57-60s. At first it seems a bit expensive at 38 Euros per session, but one session is a total of 35min of track time - 10min qualifying session and a 25 minute race which is far superior to the 8min non-race sessions standard at American tracks. We had 16 drivers in our session. I got beaten by a few flyweight Belgians qualifying 4th and finish 4th in the race. Overall, I would high recommend this place if you are rolling through Eastern Belgium....it's just around the corner, right?


Btw, I didn't get any photos or video from the karting center so these are photos and videos I pulled from the interwebs.

Link to the East Belguim Karting Center

Oh yah...with techno beats:

This is what it's like onboard:

Nürburgring Touristenfahrten - Onboard Suzuki Swift BTG Lap from back in May

Castle Vianden on the drive from Lux to the Nurburgring
Lambo action on the Autobahn

A little late posting video and pictures from my trip to Europe....this was back on May 18th. I rented a Suzuki Swift stage 2 from Rent4Ring. Same as last year, Dale Lomas of Bridge to Gantry blog fame helped me get the rental sorted and he hooked me up with the highest HP Swift they have....


or maybe it's just pink. Either way, it was fun to pass Porsches and Ferraris in the pink Swift. It was a really busy Sunday when we were there so traffic was quite tough. My best BTG time was 9m30s but it was impossible to get a clear lap that day and two-up in a 140hp Swift is not ideal for fast times. The Swift was tons of fun to drive despite the low power - it has a good balance and really high grip tires which made it pretty forgiving. It was a good platform to get back in the groove at this tough track.

Driving the Suzuki Swift out on track

Onboard video w/data:

First Time to Spa-Francorchamps.....Spa Classic 2014



With my trip to Luxembourg, I was able to make the 1 hour drive up to Circuit Spa-Francorchamps for the 2014 Spa-Classic historic races. There was a really nice mix of cars there highlighted to Group C prototypes, F2 formula cars, and the Sports Racers and GT cars of the Classic Endurance Racing classes.

My favorite cars of the weekend were the Group C. This was my favorite:


Here is onboad video from one of the car owners....pretty spectacular noise:


Here are some photos from the weekend:

Elevated Podium...euro style
Endurance Pits and Garges...a blast from the past
Mazda 767B in before Group C Quali
1978 Porsche 935 in the CER 2 Group
Historic F2 car in the F1 Garages
Sports Racers coming through Eau Rouge and the Raidillion
Cool view through a hole in the fence looking up the Raidillion
Hot looking 1968 Chevron B8
A look down the Endurance Pits 
Nissan R90 missing its engine cover
Group C cars in the pits after a red flag
Sauber C11 poking out of the F1 garages

Sunday, June 8, 2014

SpeedHunters Article: Inside Monster's Lair



Fascinating article about one of the most interesting characters in racing. Most Americans only know Monster for his exploits at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb so this is a really interesting look at the story behind the Pikes Peak star.

And I'll be back to blogging now. I'm back from my trip to Europe and will be getting the my race season back under way soon. Look for pictures and videos from Spa, Nürburgring and Monaco soon.