The 2013 Autodrome Heritage Festival at the Linas-Montlhéry banked oval, located just south of the French capital city of Paris, provided rich pickings of classic cars and showed off the incredible range of shapes and approaches to car design used between the ’60s and ’80s. There were plenty of cars that are either relatively unknown [...]
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 [...]
There are a few cars in the world that completely transcend the automotive genre – cars that absolutely anyone can recognise, whether or not they are car geeks. Ignore supercars, as they’re a false-positive when it comes to judging true popularity. I’m talking about cars that the average person on any given global street would [...]
No matter what school of thought you may belong to, the kyusha scene in Japan has been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years. The vastness in which vintage cars are approached in Japan is as diverse and as varied as the culture itself, no matter how you tackle your own build, it will [...]
The Winter Olympics venue of Tignes in the French Alps is well known for its amazing skiing and freestyle off-piste. Going downhill is one thing. How about going uphill. And then doing a backflip.
In a Mini?
Former extreme ski world champion Guerlain Chicherit was fresh from competing in this year’s Dakar Rally (where he’d finished an impressive eighth overall in his SMG Buggy) when he was strapped into the Mini Countryman to take on this challenge. Four years of preparation had gone into the attempt, and no doubt a lot of computer modelling – and finger crossing.
Back To The Future crossed with Live And Let Die: Guerlain had to maintain exactly 60kph and be full on the throttle on the ramp to achieve the correct velocity. He made two attempts: one in private to prove it worked – and he was still still still in one piece – and then a second in front of the crowd at the ski resort that evening.
In the air, in slow motion, it all looks graceful and in control. It’s the reality of how the four wheels are going to reconnect with the snow that’s the worry.
Make sure you’ve had your breakfast before watching this one…
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It’s the middle of January again, which can only mean one thing – time for Tokyo Auto Salon! This is the event that every Japanese car enthusiast looks forward to in the new year, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have attended for the last five years. However, this year I would be exploring new [...]
While I’ll be the first to admit that motorcycles are unfamiliar territory to me, the idea of motorcycle engines swapped into cars has always been exciting. Of course you can’t really just toss a bike motor into any old car – it should be something very small and very light. Something like this Mini built by Speedhunters reader Robert Valk.
Overwhelming. That was the first reaction on entering the second showroom at JD Classics in Essex, the UK’s – if not the world’s – premier historic car restoration firm. Surrounded by Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and so on, I had the impression that I was in an international automotive art museum of the highest calibre. Which [...]
With my second look at the DUMPd show I’ll focus a bit more on the old-school rides. In one corner I saw this immaculate AE86 Levin on white multispoke wheels with a fresh new paintjob. This is something you almost never see on Dutch soil. In my book you can never go wrong with a MkI on [...]
Right it’s time to get cycling again now as I finish up my ride along Kanpachi-dori in Tokyo, checking out the cool shops, dealers and anything car related that I came across. I’m very happy to see how well the first part went down, it’s great that a lot of you guys out there want [...]
When we established the new featurethis@speedhunters.com program, I was expecting some great machines to be shared by Speedhunters fans from around the world. Still, I didn’t think there would be this many amazing cars to sort through. Let’s just say that there are some seriously cool cars and builds coming down the pipeline – one of which is this Austin Mini owned by Jeff Pang out of Ontario, Canada.
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 [...]
Last weekend’s Motorsport At The Palace event in London showcased some amazing cars from across the decades, racing on the remnants of the original 76-year old racing circuit. Rally cars like this stunning Alpine could be seen in the show area. Out on track, one minute you could witness an old BMW 2002 tourer rolling [...]
The organisers of the Donington Historic Festival have made the car clubs an intrinsic part of the event, and their presence is seen as a vital element of the weekend’s atmosphere. Hundreds of cars represented over 35 clubs. The range of clubs which attended was impressive: marques from all ends of the spectrum lined the [...]
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 [...]
