Final Formula 1 race of 2008

The final race of the season is here! BAM! So, will Hamilton be calm and show his true talent or will he lose his temper and pull another dumb mistake like Japan or Toronto? That is the question... Check out this cool track diagram - http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/brazil_804/circuit_diagram.html . Cheers. [image source - wikipedia.org]
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Top Gear takes on the US parts 1 & 2

If you woke up today hoping it was Friday but were disappointed to realize it's not then these Top Gear vids might just cheer you up. The first one gives entirely new meanings to the concepts of HPDE and Car Control Clinic. Top Gear take on the US part 1: $1000 car & alligator brake challenge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJ7thnYqLk and Top Gear take on the US part 2: close call in Alabama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkl_h7eC2kU&feature=related. Cheers. [image source - TopGear.com]
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Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo

The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo is a lightweight version of the Gallardo LP 560-4. According to the info from Lamborghini, "The Super Trofeo will come with a reworked chassis, significantly reduced weight of only 1300 kg, and power output of 419 kW (570 hp) from its V10, ‘Iniezione Diretta Stratificata’ engine. Lamborghini has a clear objective to ensure the Super Trofeo is the fastest one-make series in the world.
The race car will feature Lamborghini’s permanent four-wheel drive, making the Super Trofeo the only one-make, all-wheel drive motorsport series. Lamborghini will build cars for a 30-strong grid, available to individual professional and ‘gentleman’ drivers, as well as Lamborghini dealer teams. One factory car, reserved for celebrity ‘guest drivers’, will be included in the line-up at each round." Thanks to Shahin from Lamborghini Bellevue for passing this on. I certainly hope that I qualify to become one of those "celebrity" drivers! ;) Cheers.
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Rental Car Recap

My wife and I just returned recently from a trip to Maui where we had the pleasure of renting a Shelby Mustang from Hertz for a day. It was a great car. I didn't expect a lot from it but with 325 hp and a growl to match what's not to like. Seriously, it was a pretty nice car. It may not be as luxurious as a M3 but it sure packs a punch. The supercharged V8 catapults it down the roads quite nicely. The curvy roads in Maui didn't phase it either. There was no noticeable body lean in the curves. It was quite comfortable and had plenty of headroom for a tall guy like me. After driving it I starting pondering the used costs of a Shelby Mustang. Hmm...

The other day to day car that we rented was pretty decent too. It was a Mazda 6. It was comfortable, accelerated reasonably well, and handled okay. The manual automatic worked pretty well. Overall it was pretty fun to drive for the week. I also pondered the possibilities of converting a used Mazda 6 into a track car... Grassroots Motorsports featured a couple of these that were converted to race cars, for SCCA racing I believe. One team was able to coax 265 hp out of a car that was originally 160! Cheers. [image source - wikimedia.org]
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Lotus Evora in action

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Japan to host next F1 showdown at Fuji

Check out the calendar for practice and race times in your locale. Fuji appears to be a challenging track but still has a long straight for some interesting passing (I hope). Their site also has a very cool interactive track map (way cooler than the boring one above). Cheers. [image source - wikimedia.org]
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Seattle Auto Show 2008

The Seattle Auto Show is coming up pretty soon. It will be held November 5th - 9th at the Qwest Field Event Center. It looks like there will be a great lineup of new car models there including everything from domestics to exotics. Ticket info is here. Looks like it is $11 for adults and kids 12 and under are free. Cheers.
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Top Gear's car chooser

The Stig apparently has a new part-time gig of helping people pull the slot machine lever to find a car. Check out their new car chooser! It lets you specify price (in pounds unfortunately for us Americans) and other parameters such as "very fast". :) While you are there you'll notice that Top Gear has redesigned their .com with lots of goodness. Cheers. [image source - TopGear.com]
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Gallardo LP560-4 Open House

Lamborghini Bellevue hosted a nice open house today for some folks from a large Redmond software company and the local BMW club. Shahin, from the dealership, gave us the low down on the updates to this already amazing car. It has 40 more horsepower, a launch mode (corsa), new styling elements such as taillights inspired by the reventon, slightly different nose, openings for cooling, and other updates as well. This link lists the specs for this bold supercar. Two superleggeras, a custom Murcielago, and other Gallardos were on hand to drool on too. Right in the other room was a little original Mini Cooper surrounded by Bentleys galore. Now I just need to work on my investing so I can get one! Click the photo above or the ones below to jump to more. Ciao.

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The heavy hitters roll out their new weapons at the Paris auto show

Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Ferrari all rolled out new cars at the Paris auto show. According to TopGear.com, the new four door Lambo might even become a hybrid! Ciao. [image source - TopGear.com]
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