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Posted
Nov 06 2008, 12:15 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 18 comment(s)
Now its my turn to post! I'm here in Las Vegas on Need for Speed business, collecting reference for future projects, but thought I would squeeze in a Speedhunter post or two. I have been to the last four SEMA shows and its a real love-hate affair for me! SEMA is huge, although with the economic problems, it is smaller than last year. If you are armed with a camera, it will take you a good 3-4 days to see the whole show, so by the end of the week, I can't wait to leave, tired and worn out...
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Posted
Oct 25 2008, 02:20 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 10 comment(s)
Just a quick heads-up for our North American Speedhunters. Speed TV's coverage of Formula D debuts this weekend at 4pm EST Sunday afteroon. The hour long programme featuresRound 1 from Long Beach. The programme will be repeated during the week and a new episode will air the following Sunday, all the way through to Christmas. Meanwhile, if you're in Europe, keep your eye on Motors TV. They are currently showing the EDC finale in Poland and UK Time Attack. Next air-ing is on Wednesday. - Andy...
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Posted
Oct 21 2008, 03:32 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 8 comment(s)
Porsche clinched the remaining two manufacture championships at the final round of the American Le Mans series last weekend. The DHL Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard finished on the LMP2 podium, scoring one more point than Acura, securing the manufactures crown. Meanwhile in GT2, valuable points from the Farnbacher-Loles team resulting in the GT2 crown going to Porsche. At the front, the dominant Audi Sport team finished 1st and 2nd, with Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr from team mates...
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Posted
Oct 08 2008, 04:18 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 14 comment(s)
Volkswagen UK recently published a press release highlighting the 33 year of Golf GTi history, which makes interesting reading. I thought this could form the basis of our latest Retrospective piece, on the original hot hatch. Golf GTi Mk1 1977-1984. If you are old enough, cast your mind back to 1975! The Giorgetto Giugiaro designed Golf GTi is launched at the 1975 Frankfurt Motor Show with a 1600cc 110PS engine. One of the first ever hot hatches (there had been others such as the Renault 5 Gordini...
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Posted
Oct 06 2008, 05:10 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 2 comment(s)
The Eleventh running of the 1000 Mile Petit Le Mans resulted in a classic Audi-Peugeot-Audi battle in the last half of the race. Andrew Jennings was at Road Atlanta taking these fantastic images for us. There was drama even before the race had started. 2nd place starter Allan McNish lost control on a warm-up lap and spun his Audi R10 TDi into the barriers. The Scott managed to get the deranged car back to the pits where the Audi crew set to repair the car. “I lost control of the Audi due to...
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Posted
Oct 03 2008, 04:09 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 5 comment(s)
Wow, that was a great qualifying session! Just like a sprint race. Allan McNish put in some really quick times early in the Qualifying session earlier this afternoon and with five minutes to go the Audi Engineer told Allan he could come in to the pits,his pole position was safe... However,,,,as Allan was exiting his car, Stephane Sarrazin took pole, by just 0.08 of second. An amazing performance by both teams. Given that everyone thought Peugeot would dominate qualifying, it was an impressive performance...
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Posted
Oct 03 2008, 03:00 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 13 comment(s)
In our second post we will look at the Asian and North American manufactures who launched products at the show. Hyundai Genesis Coupe- Hyundai showed this body kitted version of their soon to be launched Genesis Coupe which has been seen in North America. The Kia-Hyundai group continue to launch massively improved cars.I can't get use to that rear quarter window! Honda Insight- Looks like a well designed Prius a bit doesn't it? Well, the similarities do not end there. This is Honda's...
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Posted
Oct 03 2008, 09:55 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 15 comment(s)
The Paris Motor Show is currently taking place in France. Lots of car launches have been announced so following the success of our London round up, here comes the first of two posts on the French show. In this post we concentrate on the European cars. The most talked about car at the show was the new Lamborghini Estoque concept. We'll talk about that in a minute, but I'll focus on a couple of more affordable cars first. Volkswagen Golf GTi Concept Doesn't seem that long ago that the 5th...
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Posted
Oct 03 2008, 08:55 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 6 comment(s)
The Jewel in the American Le Mans Series crown takes place this weekend at Atlanta, Georgia. ‘Petit Le Mans’ is a 10 hour endurance event at the Road Atlanta circuit. Its a unique event for the ALMS, so there are quite a few extra entries. With the Credit Crunch having a major impact in the USA, many see this event could be the peak of competition for a while. But back to this event. Peugeot return to the States to battle it out with Audi in the Prototype ‘P1’ class. The French...
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Posted
Sep 26 2008, 04:00 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 42 comment(s)
I thought it would be great to show other Speedhunters something unique and exclusive as an extra bonus to our Porsche feature month. As some of you may be aware, I work on the Need for Speed Car team as the Senior Vehicle Concept Artist at our Downtown Vancouver Studio. The majority of my working day is taken up designing bodykits and cars and assisting with livery/vinyl direction. I'm going to explain the process in designing a unique bodykit for one of the key cars in our game. I think this...
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 05:59 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 10 comment(s)
Yes, yes, another Porsche post. However, this post is special eye-candy as it features some very cool artwork by the Porsche Vehicle Design Studio. Each year Porsche release a number of calendars. A special 'style' edition has been available the last couple of years and features some stunning artwork from the Design Studio.I love big calendars, I always try and get one each year. Its not a cheap calendar, but its been a great resource for me this year even if it did cost me an arm and a leg...
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 11:30 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 1 comment(s)
James Thompson claimed Honda's first ever victory in the World Touring Car Championship last weekend at Imola, Italy. The ex-BTCC champion triumphed on the third race of the weekend, narrowly beating fellow Brit, Rob Huff (Chevrolet) and Jorg Muller (BMW). This followed an impressive 3rd place in race one. The Accord race car is built by JAS Engineering, the same company that builds Honda's Civic Rally car, which we featured last month. The team itself is run by N-Technology, who achieved...
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 06:31 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 8 comment(s)
The final three rounds of the 2008 British Touring Car Championship took place at Brands Hatch last weekend. Vauxhall driver, Fabrizio Giovanardi needed just 9 points to secure his second consecutive title and despite being pushed onto the grass and finishing 14th, championship rival, Jason Plato could only finish 5th, ensuring Giovanardi of the title. Race One was won by Mat Jackson in the family run BMW Dealer Team UK car. Steven Kane and Rob Collard in similar BMW 320Si's were 2nd and 3rd...
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Posted
Sep 24 2008, 04:08 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 9 comment(s)
As the Porsche Feature month draws to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to show some of the iconic liveries which have graced racing Porsche's over the decades. Our first example is a group shot of the Porsche 956/962 from the Rennsport Reunion back in 2007. Seems an awesome event. The Porsche 956 and 962 dominated endurance racing around the world. The 956 made its competition debut in 1982 (the car with 'ROTHMANS' in Capitals is one of the first chassis). The 962 was an updated...
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Posted
Sep 18 2008, 04:07 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with no comments
The final three rounds of the British Touring Car Championship take place this weekend. Current champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall) leads Jason Plato by 44 points. Gio' needs just 9 points to take the championship, but SEAT has been the quicker car in the second half of the season after SEAT Sport UK found a good set up. SEAT still have some reliability issues.This would, in theory, put SEAT in a great position for next season, but in a bizarre decision which shocked UK Motorsport last week...
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 11:50 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 21 comment(s)
The Racing Poster dates back to the early 1900's when race organisers publicized their forthcoming events on large billboards. This was very popular in mainland Europe. The posters were often graphical masterpieces showing a stylized sense of speed in the form of an illustration. German designer Erich Strenger was approached by Porsche at the beginning of 1950's to assist with producing brochures and posters. Porsche Marketing department commissioned Strenger to produce a number of race posters...
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Posted
Sep 10 2008, 06:00 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 16 comment(s)
For our second post on the Langley Cruise, I thought I'd focus on 'Imports'. I was surprised at the selection at the show. I assumed it would be an all American show, but the show had a very eclectic mix. As you can see from theses images, European and Japanese cars such as the Datsun 510 and Fiat 500. I regret selling mine when I immigrated to Canada, so you'll have to put up with my indulgence for Fiat 500 images and posts! There was a great selection of Datsun 510's. I wasn't...
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Posted
Sep 09 2008, 06:50 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 4 comment(s)
The Langley 'Good Times' Cruise-in started in 1997 by a group of classic car enthusiasts. Eleven years on, and the small town, just outside of Vancouver is now one of the largest cruises in North America. Classic car TV personality and handbar moustache owner (!) Dennis, Gauge puts it in his top 10. I hadn't been to the Cruise before, so I didn't know what to expect, but I came away massively impressed. In this post we'll concentrate on Domestic cars, but Part Two will feature...
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Posted
Sep 08 2008, 03:47 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 9 comment(s)
The last weekend in August saw a unique event take place in the UK. Over 1000 Subaru owners took part in a massive convoy to break a world record in Honour of the World Rally Champion, the late, Colin McRae. With the full support of the McRae family and Prodrive, the convoy started in McRae's hometown, Lanark, Scotland, travelling south down to Banbury, England. The home of Prodrive. At its peak, the convoy stretched 30 miles!!! Fittingly, the convoy was led by Colin's father, Jimmy, who...
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Posted
Sep 05 2008, 04:35 PM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 12 comment(s)
VW website 'Edition 38' held their annual Show and Shine event last weekend for VW group owners, and it was up to the usual high standards associated with the site. There were some great examples of clean almost stock looking cars and the show highlighted that many 'Dubbers' have taken this route with older VW's. I had a look at a few forums in the week and came across some great photos. The first images I'm showing are from 'SnapCornia' on the Edition 38 forums. These...
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