Grand Prix - the Killer Years A BBC documentary on how rapidly evolving technology and an indifference to driver safety on the part of car designers and track owners caused ever-escalating casualties among the top-tier drivers of the '60s and '70s, and the efforts of the drivers to introduce modern safety standards and rules. The footage is in places exhilarating, capturing the beauty and the excitement of the sport at its best, and in others horrifying and tragic, the sport at its worst.
posted by Slap*Happy
on May 23, 2011 -
76 comments
In the 1920's, there was a series of race cars developed by Count Louis Zborowski, Chitty Bang Bang I through IV. Though in the film version of
Ian Fleming's book the name came from the sound the cars made, there is some conjecture that the name is based on a
bawdy WWI song. Zborowski died before finishing Chitty Bang Bang 4, (also known as the Higham Special). The car killed its next owner in a particularly grisly fashion and was buried on the spot by his horrified friends.
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posted by 445supermag
on Dec 18, 2010 -
19 comments
Colin Berry's Spinout is a a touching, tragic story about his older brother, Kevin. Kevin competed in--and very nearly won--the All-American Soap Box Derby, but lost to Bobby Lange, the son of ski-boot magnate and engineer Robert Lange Sr..
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posted by mattdidthat
on Aug 8, 2010 -
19 comments
RACER is a recreation of a
Wipeout-style racing game using "a modified vintage arcade machine, a RC model car with a wireless camera,
an a self-constructed racetrack/game level made entirely from cardboard." [
via]
posted by brundlefly
on Aug 3, 2010 -
16 comments
Skid MK is a fiendishly addictive and entertaining Mario Kart clone which has already taken up far too much of my week. Developers
Conix Games also made a top-down zombie shooter in the Robotron tradition called
Daytraders of the Dead, which is just about as addictive.
posted by Kattullus
on Jul 23, 2010 -
8 comments
Healthy competition can advance technology, and motorsports is a good example of this.
The Isle of Man TT has been a motorcycle proving ground since 1907, with a bike earning its mettle by doing
ton-up on the 38 mile course. Enter Michael Czysz and his
MotoCzysz E1pc. After disastrous failure at the Isle of Man TT the previous year, his company redesigned their electric sport bike from the ground up. The results could have wider implications for electric vehicles as a whole.
Previously.
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posted by The Power Nap
on Jun 10, 2010 -
29 comments
After years of meticulous research of historic documents, mapping, modeling, texturing, and trying to convince a video game released in 1998 to do something it was never intended to be capable of, the 72 kilometer, 567-turn Piccolo circuito delle Madonie
was released as a community add-on track for
Grand Prix Legends last September. The track was home of the
Targa Florio from 1932 to 1936 and 1951 to 1977, and is made up of
curving,
winding mountain roads in the
Sicilian countryside, and is beautifully recreated in the game. Best of all, it's
absolutely free.
posted by clorox
on Mar 12, 2010 -
21 comments
Why is (Radio) Shack -- a company that only markets to North Americans -- spending $20 million sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his team as he spends a year racing bicycles mostly in Europe? "Somewhere, someone has a Venn diagram showing the crossover between electronics geeks and cyclists. I’m sure
those two sets have a lot of crossover."
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posted by ardgedee
on Sep 4, 2009 -
78 comments
You can't buy a
CycleKart and, even if you could, the racers wouldn't let you participate. You have to build your
CycleKart. It's one of the many reasons this is a very cool hobby.
posted by Tom-B
on Apr 22, 2009 -
35 comments
The best driver never to win the Indy 500. Despite winning in midgets, stock cars, and both the Sebring and Daytona road races, he will always be best known for the one race he didn't win - despite running in it for eighteen consecutive years. Though he would like to be remembered "
just as old me. I enjoyed racing," if you ask a Gurney, Andretti or Foyt and they'll tell you he's "a soft-spoken Texas lead foot with enormous natural talent." Race driving legend Lloyd Ruby
passes away at age 81 in his hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas.
posted by quartzcity
on Mar 26, 2009 -
9 comments
As the Tour de France concludes, let's spend a moment commemorating the
derrière garde of world-class cycling, those bad enough to come in last but never bad enough to fail, les
Lanternes Rouge. If Wim Vansevenant can retain his tenacious hold on 145th place in Sunday's stage he will be
the worst cyclist to complete the Tour de France for three consecutive years and set a Tour record. You can, indeed, win by losing.
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posted by ardgedee
on Jul 26, 2008 -
53 comments
Once upon a time in the postwar, before the advent of EPA and OSHA and the Consumer Products Safety Commission and weenies in bike helmets and multilingual warning stickers on stepladders, crazy people walked this earth. Good, fun-loving Americans who knew that "instructions" were something you threw in the trash along with the empty Falstaff bottles. A halcyon era filled with manly men who savored the wholesome virtues of a rugged game of un-seatbelted automotive chicken. One of these men was Gene Middlebrooks, who founded
Turbonique.
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posted by dg
on Apr 23, 2008 -
50 comments
Over the past decade, as
NASCAR's popularity has grown, and Formula 1 has expanded into
new international markets, open wheel racing in the US has floundered along with 2 rival series: IRL and CART. With little sponsorship money, the loss of big-name drivers to retirement, F1 and NASCAR, this year's
unification of IRL and CART was a long time coming, and may lead to a series that race fans may start caring about again.
posted by jaimev
on Mar 5, 2008 -
73 comments
What if the Devil tricked a well-meaning computer developer into making a horrendous animal racing game? (cringeworthy YouTube link) Now we know! Yes,
Cougar Interactive has a product for you. Zoo Race! The biblical flood is over, and with hardly any people around, what's Noah, God, and the animals gonna do? Why, RACE of course! The game features compelling voice work, top flight graphics, and of course...
animals straddling on rockets. And to top it all off, God is the announcer! It was the best 2007 had to offer, and it's still available... so, like their web site says..
Buy the FUN game that the big game companies would not ever make. (as found at
Kotaku)
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posted by tittergrrl
on Jan 17, 2008 -
58 comments
Automotive journalist, cartoonist and architect Earl Ma
passed away this week after a three year battle with cancer. But you would never have known it from how he lived his life. Last month, he refused to let his partial paralysis keep him away from the Indianapolis 500 (though fellow Hawaiian
Jim Nabors was too ill to attend), and with the help of friends
covered the race from his wheelchair. His boundless energy, generosity and wide range of talents earned him many friends and admirers, and he is already greatly missed.
posted by Scram
on Jun 12, 2007 -
2 comments
Bjarne Riis, current coach of premier cycling squad Team CSC,
used drugs to win the Tour in 1996. His protege, Ivan Basso, was suspended from Team CSC before last year's Tour for suspicion of doping. Team Discovery hired Basso to fill Lance Armstrong's seat as captain, but
Basso quit shortly before he had a chance to win his second consecutive Giro d'Italia, and is out for the season, if not permanently. The conclusion of
Floyd Landis's appeals to reinstate his 2006 Tour victory will wait until some time after this year's Tour de France. Jan Ullrich capped a good but unsatisfying career by retiring early and under a cloud. Several of Ullrich's former Deutch Telekom/T-Mobile teammates, including Erik Zabel,
admitted to doping, and the team masseur claims to have personally administered EPO to Ullrich. Ullrich, Basso, numerous other leading riders, and the majority of some team rosters continue to be under suspicion as the
Operación Puerto EPO lab investigation grinds onward. It might be the best time ever to market a competition road bike called the
Addict.
(previously, previously, oh-so-very previously, )
posted by ardgedee
on May 27, 2007 -
14 comments
From far away they came to toil under the scorching Outback sun, and their hardy dispositions and tireless labor helped to create the central
Australian railway and telegraph systems.
They are the
Camels [NPR story w/ audio], and today they are free (well, okay,
feral), and they are many (700,000 strong, at least.) While they're no
cane toads, they're becoming a bit of a pest. What to do with all those dromedaries? Well, you can
race 'em, or you can
eat 'em, or maybe you can even try
milking 'em. Just get 'em before they get
you, mate.
posted by maryh
on Dec 9, 2006 -
18 comments
