I’m still basking in a gloriously dusty coating of rallycross love following the opening of the Rallycross RX season at Lydden Hill in the UK, something which has been promoted yet further by Steve White’s excellent contribution to the #IAmTheSpeedhunter programme from the preceding British round.
Looking to keep my rallycross fix up, I can’t help but watch on repeat this footage released by Petter Solberg’s older brother Henning, as he tested his Saab 9-3 Supercar ahead of the race. Getting a good result in rallycross begins with getting off the line at maximum velocity, and good god do RX Supercars launch at a frightening speed. Check out this clip for 40 seconds of neck-snapping, double-speed acceleration heaven.
Dirt in every orifice. Cameras covered in dust. The sound of popping and banging exhausts echoing around my head even days later. Neck and arms aching from trying to keep up with the rocketship acceleration of the cars. It can only be rallycross. Ah, it’s good to be back. The opening round of the 2013 [...]
Last year on our pilgrimage to Lydden Hill, the spiritual home of the frantic sport of rallycross, the rain had lashed down to create a mudbath of epic proportions for the competitors to tackle. For 2013 and the birth of a new era for the European branch of the sport, Lydden was instead distinctly dry [...]
This all happened by accident really. What was meant to be a relaxing weekend away, abruptly turned into a fevered hunt for speed. I wouldn’t mind, but I specifically chose the French capital to purposely get away from any sort of car culture for a few days. One of the largest population centres in all of Europe surely couldn’t lend itself to being a hospitable host to an auto-enthusiast, could it?
Even after I’ve had a week to soak it all in, all I can say is holy *#&^ing $#@*! world-class rallying, is there anything more glorious? As a petrol head, it seems virtually obligatory to be interested in Rally and like many of you, I’ve admired the WRC from the sidelines for some time. While [...]
They just don’t make them like they used to. How often do we say that? In this case however, it really is true. Car commercials today are a rather tame affair. I’m not sure how things are in the US, but in Europe manufacturers cannot depict speeding or what could be considered dangerous driving in their advertisements. Toyota recently fell foul of the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK, who banned their GT86 commercial for portraying ‘speed or driving behaviour in a way that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly in future.’ Thankfully, there is still a vault of classic ’80s auto-commercials out there which we can relish in. These are some of our favourites…
We feature a lot of cars here on Speedhunters that are quick – or at least have the promise of speed due to big horsepower numbers, outrageous body kits or some other product or part that infers performance. But there are some cars that just deliver, without any histrionics or showing off, and require you [...]
The Classic Motor Show at the Birmingham NEC is a Mecca for retro car fans: hall upon hall of clubs, cars for sale, restoration workshops, auto-jumble and auctions. For me it turned into an unexpected journey of nostalgic bliss, with cars at every turn that triggered memories from across my life: childhood pin-ups, cars that [...]
Ken Block brought his Gymkhana extravaganza over to Europe in 2012, with a series of qualifying heats during the Autumn building up to the grand finale held in the UK, featuring a race against Ken and €5,000 on the table as the prize. Special guest Vaughn Gittin Jr joined him with an RTR Mustang to [...]
If you want modern motive emotion, pretty soon it’s going to come with electricity as standard in some form or another, but the Mondial De L’Automobile show in Paris showed that it’s not necessarily always a bad thing, especially when it involves well over 700 electrified horses… Geneva might still be the place for an [...]
There’s no question that X Games does a phenomenal job promoting its athletes, oftentimes elevating them to household name celebrity status. Over the years countless individuals have been morphed into charismatic icons, all under watch of the public eye. Since adding Rallycross to its calender in 2006, X Games has undoubtedly pumped some much-needed interest [...]
The Musée Automobile De La Sarthe at the Le Mans circuit in France is the perfect way to familiarise yourself with over a century of automobiles linked to the famous race, containing both important road cars from across the decades and a slew of racers from the 79 editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours. [...]
If there’s one event on the New Zealand motorsport calendar that I’ll never miss, it’s the local round of the World Rally Championship. I’ve followed the rally since the early ’90s when the Special Stages were dominated by Toyota Celica GT4s and Lancia Delta Integrales, and while the cars may have come a long way [...]
Although it’s not exactly rocket science, there are a few key elements that make up a great photograph beyond technical understanding and skill. For petrolheads these ingredients are pretty basic, a great car and a great location – Berg Cup provided both in spades. Regardless of lens selection or the cost of the camera body [...]
70 wins? 70? Like Rossi in MotoGP and the previous-life Schumacher in Formula 1, Sébastien Loeb has evolved to another level of success that other drivers can only dream of. Victory in Argentina made it seven South American rally wins in a row for Loeb. It’s becoming like the trained and sentient Neo at the [...]
