Rally crash gets exciting after car comes to complete stop

Racing of any variety is inherently dangerous, and rally racing may very well be the most dangerous flavor of all motorsports. Niceties like track runoff and Armco barriers are replaced with sturdy oak trees, water hazards and some nice old lady's front porch. Hell, just getting out of the car post-off can be hazardous to your health.

Just ask the BRAKIM Racing team. Driver and co-driver suffered a brief miscommunication last weekend during Stage 7 of Rally West Virginia, which was enough to put the team's Subaru down a quick embankment.

After the party came to a stop, the co-driver decided to do his best to extricate himself from the car by climbing up and out of the passenger window. That's when things began to get really hairy. Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Amazingly enough, no one was harmed. Check out the video below to see the craziness.

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Toyota GT86 to make British motorsport debut in Britcar 24 Hours wearing AE86 livery [w/video]

If you liked the Martini Racing Porsche 918 Spyder we just brought you, then you ought to dig this, too. Toyota is bringing back its Team Toyota GB livery for the GT 86 entry into the Britcar 24 Hours. Unlike the the classically decorated 918, we can confirm that the so-hot-right-now Toyota coupe will actually be racing.

The livery harkens back to the AE86 of the raging 80s for the Japanese-British race team. Successfully campaigned by Tiff Needell and others, it took on the likes of an Atari-sponsored Mitsubishi Starion. How's that for getting your 80s fix?

Team Toyota GB ran with great success in the British Touring Car and British Rally Championships in the 80s and early 90s. The rendering released by Toyota, seen above, boasts the livery of that heyday in lightweight Japanese racing.

This will not be the first time that Toyota has entered a GT 86 in competition. The Japanese automaker ran it at the Nrburgring 24 hours, but Toyota has now decided to pull at the heartstrings of nostalgic race fans.

We can't wait to see what this throwback racer will look like for real when it runs at the Britcar 24 at Silverstone, on September 22 and 23. Click below to watch a video of Tiff Needell carving it up in an original AE86.

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Porsche 918 Spyder prototype looks delicious in Martini livery

As much as Gulf Racing livery may be synonymous with the Porsche 917, Martini racing is an equally famous Porsche sponsor of years gone by. The livery has adorned both 911 and 917, and now, its graced upon the all-new 918 hybrid supercar.

We had seen spy shots of the 918 in classic race guise at the Nrburgring, but here are the first official photos from Porsche. With permission from Martini owner Bacardi & Company of Switzerland, the German automaker has grafted the iconic livery onto its high-performance green machine.

Martini has been involved with auto racing since as far back as 1968, sponsoring a Formula Two race at the Hockenheimring, and their first support of Porsche came in 1969, entering two 907s in several races. It was a Martini-liveried 917LH that won the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours, but it was not until 1973 that Martini became a factory partner of Porsche. That partnership lasted until 1978, and during that time, Martini-shod cars won the Targa Florio in '73, the Sports Car World Championship in '76, and Le Mans in '76 and '77.

The red, white and two-shades-of-blue could be found on almost every racing Porsche of the 70s, including the 908, 917, 935, 936 and 911 RS and RSR models.

Hopefully Porsche brings the 918, in standard or RSR form, to the motorsport world. If so, though, it's probably unlikely that the plug-in hybrid supercar will wear a livery as tied to the brand's heritage as a company that makes vermouth.

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Honda reveals 1.6-liter turbocharged heart of its new WTCC Civic racer

Technical details are still scant, but we do know a tiny bit more about Honda and its plans for a World Touring Car Championship entrant based on the Euro-spec 2012 Civic. The automaker has unveiled its HR412E, a 1.6-liter, turbocharged and direct injected gas engine, and let us know its plans for getting the engine and car into some races: Tiago Monteiro will race one example in the final three rounds of the season, beginning with Suzuka, and multiple touring car champion Gabriele Tarquini will join him for races in the second car as of 2013. Tarquini is doing development work on the car this year.

The car itself is currently in Milan, Italy being tested and prepped by JAS Motorsport, a collaboration we've already had a taste of in the dirt with their Honda Jazz rally car. Honda has also partnered with Mugen on its WTCC project. It will be three months before we see the Civic WTCC going for the checkered flag, the Suzuka race running October 19-21. Have a read of the presser below for a few more details on the engine and the drivers.

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Who knew exhaust manifolds make great iPhone docks?

The era of engine-as-art has been over for quite some time, done in by computers, both the ones controlling our cars as well as those used to design them. But if popping the hood today reveals only a giant slab of ugly black plastic or worse, a tangled mess of wiring and piping that looks like it was assembled by kindergarteners rather than engineers thankfully there are still plenty of artistes outside the auto industry who appreciate and celebrate the beauty of internal combustion.

We're talking about people like Matteo Panini and Mirco Pecorari, Modenese partners in iXoost, a company that's building beautiful audio systems out of Formula One exhaust manifolds. Their iPhone/iPod docking system comes in 8-, 10-, and 12-cylinder models, and features 420 watts of power driving either six or nine separate speakers. An iXoost will set you back between 5,000-8,000 (roughly $6,100-$9.800), which is a lot for a docking system, but chump change in the audiophile world. We'd be happy if it sounds even half as good as it looks.

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Lapping it up at the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix [spoilers]

Monaco. Italy. Canada. Japan. There are a handful of grand prix host countries that Formula One could not do without, so central they are to the character of the sport. But Hungary?

The Hungarian Grand Prix actually dates back to the pre-war era when the legendary Tazio Nuvolari won its first running for Alfa Romeo, and the race has been held every year without fail at Budapest's Hungaroring since 1986.

McLaren has won it more times than any other team, but which would emerge as this year's winner? Keep reading for the breakdown of today's race.

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European Le Mans Series cancels last two races, will join ALMS at Petit Le Mans

In a recent announcement, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest informed endurance racing fans that the two remaining races of the 2012 European Le Mans Series will be canceled. Citing too few cars to fill the grid, the September 7-9 race in Brno, and the November 2-4 race in Algarve will not be held.

In a statement from the ACO, the recent news is a "result of the current economic climate and a very competitive GT market with numerous championships that have led to the disposal of cars of this type in Europe."

In a spot of good news, ALMS has invited full-season competitors to Petit Le Mans in October. As many as 14 registered full season teams will get help from ALMS to Road Atlanta, a 1,000-mile/ ten hour endurance race. These 14 teams will join a grid of up to 40 cars from ALMS.

The remainder of the ELMS schedule is the latest casualty in road racing, as the FIA GT1 World and GT3 European Championships have also been axed.

Petit Le Mans is set to feature double-points scoring for teams. ELMS is still expected to award entries to 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours for LMP2, GTE-Am and GTE-Pro.

At the Six Hours of Donington, a season-low of only 13 cars entered, promoting a series of internal meetings at ACO. Hopefully, a long-term plan will be hatched that can allow one of the top road-racing series to continue for next year.

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Car and Driver dissects the physics of monster trucks

It doesn't really matter what age you are, we can all agree that monster trucks are awesome. How can you argue with a 20-foot tall tube-frame harbinger of destruction, mowing down row after row derelict cars and trucks? Every "SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!," somewhere in America, a dirt-filled arena is hosting this spectacle of high-horsepower automotive carnage.

For the more mathematically inclined, monster trucks are a also feat of engineering, sending over 10,000 pounds hurtling through the air at 30+ mph. To this end, Car and Driver has put together a little breakdown of the physics behind these beasts. For instance, a monster truck needs 1,500 horsepower, developed from a supercharged, alcohol-fueled V8 to rocket into the air at a 45-degree angle at 40 miles per hour. The likes of Bigfoot and Gravedigger reach a peak altitude of 32.5 feet, moving through the air at 32 miles per hour.

When a monster truck makes its descent, things get interesting. A direct landing can come down with the force of 25,500 pounds. That's enough to turn a Crown Victoria or Oldsmobile 88 into a doormat.

Some other fun facts: two-thirds or roughly 7,000 pounds of a monster truck is unsprung weight. In the main, that means the wheels, axles and rubber. The tires themselves are about 66 inches tall.

C/D explains that with the four-wheel steering systems on these behemoths, these trucks can maintain spins in a nearly inverted turning radius. As their speed rises, the center of gravity pushes to the outer wheels, and the truck can topple over.

Hold on to your corn dogs.

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Ecclestone may buy Nrburgring outright

Bernie Ecclestone was apparently quite serious when he said he would "do everything" to save the troubled Nrburgring. In fact, according to a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek, the megalomaniacal Formula One boss might just buy the track outright. That'd certainly be a quick answer to the 'Ring's financial troubles.

That said, Bloomberg reports that Ecclestone has no plans to organize a Formula One race on the Nrburgring at his own expense. Furthermore, Ecclestone has declined to comment on pricing or conditions for the alleged agreement.

The Nrburgring's severe debt crisis is hardly news the legendary track has been going through hard times for a while now, despite efforts to boost revenue by building a roller coaster and shopping mall on the premises. The European Union has refused to bail out the ailing track, as well, specifically because it has bigger fish to fry at the moment (you know, like the declining economies of many of its countries).

A timetable for a potential sale of the Nrburgring to Ecclestone has not been disclosed.

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Watch this Audi S1 Group B racer tear up the Kyustendil Hillclimb

Bulgarian tuner Prospeed has built a replica of Audi's fabled S1 World Rally Championship mauler out of a garden-variety Audi Coupe, and it's a convincing-looking beast. Helping in its bid for authenticity is genuine Group B horsepower: 800 ponies, to be exact. It won the Bulgarian Hillclimb Championship last year, and it recently ran up an incline at the Kyustendil Hillclimb, part of this year's championship series.

The list of modifications made to the donor car are intense, and so is the sound of the final product, singing like a crazed goldfinch as driver Nikolay Zlatkov races to the top of the hill. You can have a watch and a listen in the video below.

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Team O'Neil offering two-day women's only rally class [w/video]

Team O'Neil has something special lined up for next month. The home of perfecting the art of rally driving on the East Coast will offer a special women's two-day school August 18-19. The class will feature all of the standard classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training with the school's regular instructors, as well as input from a couple of special guests who know more than a little bit about competing as a woman. Verena Mei, a former Formula D and Redline Time Attack driver and Christy Carlson, a National SCCA Solo champion, will both be on hand to instruct, encourage and answer any questions.

Carlson first crossed paths with Team O'Neil back in 2008, when she won a three-day course from the school while competing in SCCA. When she's not working on her dissertation in a quest to complete her PhD in Meteorology and Climatology, she's been busy in the SCCA rally world. She's also the first and only woman to walk away with a trophy at the SCCA Rallycross National Championships and was the quickest female at both Sno*Drift and the 100 Acre Woods events this year.

"There are lots of women who would love to take the course just as it is," Carlson said, "but with a women's only course, it gives women the opportunity to not feel like they have to compete."

The school will cover basics like left foot braking, using the throttle to steer the vehicle, accident avoidance, types of skids and the basics of weight transfer and pendulum turns.

"Both myself and Verena Mei will be there to help sit with the drivers and provide additional insight on techniques as female competitors."

The whole package will cost $1,897, and will include vehicles, safety equipment and lunch on Saturday. Head over to Team O'Neil site for more information. Watch Carlson lay waste to the 100 Acre Wood in her 2002 Subaru WRX by scrolling below.

While Team O'Neil is technically the first rally school in the country to offer an exclusively female curriculum, word has it other rally schools are set to do the same. Both Rally Ready in Austin, Texas and DirtFish Rally School in Snoqualmie, Washington are reportedly working on similar programs. Stay tuned.

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Maria de Villota home from hospital, Marussia to conclude accident caused by "mistakes"

Spanish Formula One driver Maria de Villota has been released from the hospital following treatment for injuries sustained from a crash with a support truck during testing early last month. Doctors at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid found de Villota hadn't suffered any neurological damage in the Marussia MR-01 crash and will not require brain surgery. Even so, physicians will continue to monitor her injuries, and the driver is expected to undergo plastic surgery in the near future to address "the serious injuries to her face." Earlier reports indicate de Villota lost an eye in the impact and she spent 17 days in the hospital following the crash.

The BBC reports it's unclear whether or not the driver will return to Formula One. The FIA, which oversees the sport, does not grant international racing licenses for five years after a driver loses an eye. Physicians say that period of time is the minimum required for the brain to grow accustomed to the loss.

Marussia, meanwhile, has said it will announce the unfortunate collision was the result of a "chain of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes" that eventually caused her helmet to strike a loading ramp on the truck. Reports indicate de Villota may have struggled to find the clutch lever as she entered the temporary pits because the steering wheel was still turned outside of its standard position. In addition, German publication Auto Und Sport has indicated de Villota may have forgotten to push the neutral button.

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Chevy Camaro NASCAR looks the business

Chevrolet has stepped up to the NASCAR Nationwide Series plate with a racer that not only isn't an Impala, it isn't bad on the eyes. The junior series to the Sprint Cup big dogs had made concessions to allow cars that look more like their production counterparts. While some disagree, the cars still have nothing to do with their production counterparts, but hey, that's NASCAR. The new rules induced Ford to hop in with a Mustang, while Dodge opted to go with a Challenger. Chevy, on the other hand, stuck with its Impala.

No more: welcome the new Camaro to the NASCAR Nationwide Series. No, it won't be that much different than its Mustang, Challenger and Camry competition underneath its blue, blue skin, but from this angle that's all right. If they could run it just like this, with no sponsor stickers to get in the way, well, we think that would be epic.

Chevrolet will begin racing the Camaro next season, while the Impala will also be replaced in the Sprint Cup series when the new Chevrolet SS NASCAR racer makes it debut at the Daytona 500 next year.

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Chris Harris pits Porsche 911 GT2 RS against Ducati 1199 Panigale

Just because you can't ride a motorcycle doesn't mean you can't appreciate them. Chris Harris is one of those guys who can't ride, but admits to being fascinated by motorcycles. So to that end, he brought his pal Ben Cope from visordown.com to Santa Pod drag strip with a Ducati 1199 Panigale to face it off against a Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

Some numbers to ponder. The Porsche has six cylinders, 620 horsepower, and a traditional manual transmission. The Ducati packs just two cylinders, but doesn't give up any enthusiasm to the Porsche, with an astounding 192 hp from its V-Twin. You might think the bike would spank the Porsche, but consider this: both vehicles proved tricky to launch.

So, which extreme machine is quicker? Scroll down to watch the video.

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Is Toyota working on a Lexus-influenced extreme Yaris?

This could be something or it could be nothing, but it's got us curious and we have no idea what it is. A site in China found what appear to be renderings of a three-door Toyota Yaris wearing an as-yet-unseen body kit and a Lexus-shaped grille. The changes are thorough, and alterations like the bulging fenders front and back and the deep skirting all-round indicate that they aren't taken casually. Of particular note is the spindle grille lifted from the Lexus design book and what looks like an aero element around the rear glass.

Theories so far are that it is a concept for an upcoming Chinese auto show, a sportier Yaris production model that will be added to the lineup, a factory-installed kit or a tuner kit. Or it could have something to do with Toyota's return to the World Rally Championship. A company source has already cited the Yaris as the car that "makes sense," with Autoweek reporting it will be a "Yaris-based" entry even though the Yaris is too short according to the WRC regulations. One issue with that, though, is that the tiny, split-twin exhaust pipes make no sense for a WRC car; the Mini WRC car runs its pipes the same way, but they're huge. We will look out for more information on whatever kind of Yaris this might be.

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The List 0360: Learn to Drift

To let a car do what it wants is very different than making it do what you want. It's the difference between a car's rear end getting loose in a corner and the intentional act of drifting. There's a huge chasm of skill that lies between the two, though the end result might look the same sometimes.

A few of us on the Autoblog team know a thing or two about drifting, particularly that it's not as easy as it looks. To control that moment of chaos the way professional drifters do takes incredibly precise inputs (from both your hands and feet), the right equipment and many hours of practice. You can't just hop in a high-powered rear-wheel-drive car and go for it, but that's exactly what we asked Jessi and Patrick to do for this episode of The List.

They won't be alone. We've asked professional drifter Conrad Gruenwald to give them some instruction. How much can they learn in less than a day? Scroll down to find out.

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NASCAR suspends driver indefinitely after positive drug test

NASCAR has indefinitely suspended Penske Racing driver AJ Allmendinger after a second drug test confirmed the presence of "a banned substance" in his system. Race officials have not clarified exactly which substance was found in Allmendinger's urine samples, but a spokesperson for the driver said he has contracted an independent lab to test the products he uses on a regular basis to see if there's a reason behind the positive result. The Allmendinger camp says the results were within nanograms of accepted parameters, though NASCAR has declined to comment on the levels themselves.

Meanwhile, the driver took to Twitter to assure fans that he "will do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this and get back out there no matter what." Previously, Allmendinger had tested positive for a stimulant back in June and was temporarily suspended on July 7, but denies knowingly taking any banned substances.

At this juncture, Allmendinger will only be reinstated as a driver once he completes a "Road to Recovery" program. NASCAR will issue a letter on that program, and the driver will have to agree to those terms in order to take part.

In the interim, Sam Hornish, Jr. will take Allmendinger's seat at Indianapolis for the next race.

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Formula Cross seeks to turn ATVs into mini racers

Although the vehicle sliding through the image above looks something like a cartoonified World Rally Championship Ford Focus, it is actually an ATV the Yamaha YZF 450 Raptor, at right turned into a miniature rally car. The transformation comes courtesy of Formula Cross, a company that wants to create an entry series into motorsports or weekend-warrioring that's more open, and kinder on the body, than karting. From what we can tell, the brains behind the machine is none other than RMR.

The resulting YFC 450 has equipment like a tubular chassis and "build it" roll cage, a racing steering wheel, and 12 inches of wheel travel with an adjustable sway bar and a wider track. The Formula Cross site announces its creation is coming this fall, so there's not a lot of information to really figure out exactly how they've completed the metamorphosis or how much it will cost. The whole thing is said to weigh 495 pounds wet; there's an asterisk after that, though, and back to that lack of info, we have no idea what the numerous asterisks on the equipment and specs lists represent.

We can say without any asterisks that we're intrigued. There's a video below to watch the Formula Cross in dirty action.

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Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast 292 LIVE

We record Episode 292 of the Autoblog Podcast tonight and you can drop us your questions via our Q&A module below and chime in to direct our conversation. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.

Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode 292

• 2013 Cadillac ATS
• Nurburgring going broke
• 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL Class
• 2013 Ford Escape last-place comparo finish

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
[RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator

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LoveFab debuts 850-HP NSX Pikes Peak hill-climber [w/video]

Cody Loveland, owner of LoveFab in Traverse City, Michigan, is joining the ranks of drivers for the 90th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on August 12. Known especially for his work packing monstrous power into the Acura NSX, it's no surprise that he's whipped up his own unlimited-class chassis based on the legendary Japanese car that we'll dub the FrankeNSX and that rides on HRE wheels the same rim-maker who will be supporting Rhys Millen and Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima.

The 850-horsepower, twin-turbo C96S LoveFab NSX is said to throw down 600 hp at the wheels. To see what it should look like running up the mountain, below are some short clips of it testing in the Michigan backwoods with just 500 hp at the wheels. And below that is a press release with more info.

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Watch nine McLaren MP4-12Cs get ready for Spa

This weekend there will be nine English visitors to the 24 Hours of Spa endurance race, all of them with the surname MP4-12C GT3. The nine cars are being fielded by six teams, one of which has already been victorious in GT races with its McLaren racer.

Have a look at the video below to watch, and more importantly, listen to some highlights of the MP4-12C GT3 so far in its first year of racing. You'll also see the company's chief test driver lay out some of the challenges of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

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Ecclestone says he will 'do everything' to save 'Ring

The idea of a world without the Nrburgring seems unconscionable. Not only has it provided generations of exciting races, but it has become the measuring stick for performance credibility. While 'Ring times aren't 'official' we still pay close attention to them. Cadillac even uses those unofficial times in its advertising.

Unfortunately, things are looking bleak in the land of Nordschleife, and the track is heavily in debt. However, relief may come from an unlikely source as F1 boss and potential megalomaniac Bernie Ecclestone has vowed to "do what he can" to keep the historic track on the F1 schedule. Ecclestone has said that he will waive the usual race sanctioning fee for F1 to come to the 'Ring in 2013.

As a refresher, race organizers at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas will have to fork over $25 million for F1 to show up, so this could be huge for the 'Ring. The uncharacteristically generous Ecclestone said that he would "bear all costs, but also claim all revenues."

The Green Hell has apparently fallen under hard times and could use Berine's help. After building a roller coaster and mall on the property, the track is heavily in debt. The European Union, which has the problem of ailing economies on its hands, has said that it will not bail out the 'Ring. It may have to be partially or completely sold in order to cover the private investment made for the aforementioned off-track projects.

According to a track official, there is only a small window to put this deal together. Let's hope the most unlikely of saviors, Ecclestone, can save the 'Ring.

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Feds vote to continue military advertising in NASCAR

Shortly after the Army National Guard halted sponsorship of Stewart-Haas Racing, which fields teams for Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allow the military to continue using funds to advertise in sports, including NASCAR.

Reps. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., sought to cut over $72 million from the defense budget in 2013, which would have ended sponsorship deals the military holds with NASCAR, IndyCar and National Hot Rod Association drag racing. The cuts would also have affected Ultimate Fighting Championship and bass fishing sponsorships.

Perhaps it's not surprising that major opposition to the plan came from representatives of North Carolina, Florida and Mississippi, hotbeds of NASCAR activity. In addition, a joint letter opposing the move was submitted by NASCAR, the IZOD IndyCar series, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association.

Ultimately, it appears that military advertisements at sporting events won't be going away in the foreseeable future.

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Hocken' it up at the 2012 German Grand Prix [spoilers]

Seven races with seven winners. That's how the 2012 Formula One World Championship started out. But eventually something had to give. And give it did, when Fernando Alonso edged out the competition to score his second grand prix victory this season. Mark Webber followed with a second win of his own the following race. But would this race at Hockenheim prove one driver as the clear frontrunner in this year's championship? Would it catapult one of the others into the running? Or would it elevate a new grand prix winner this season? Keep reading to find out.

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Ariel Atom gets new Cup Racer series in UK

The Ariel Atom is about the purest street-legal sports car you can buy. Known for its radical tube frame, minimalist bodywork and insane power-to-weight ratio, it is one of the quickest cars on pavement. Owners have also found them to be a natural on a racing circuit.

So it comes as little surprise to hear of the Atom Cup. In a nutshell, the Atom Cup is a new spec racing series starting in the UK next year (think along the lines of the Ferrari Challenge and Porsche Cup series) with races held at circuits such as Brands Hatch and Silverstone.

While the Ariel Atom doesn't need much in the go-fast department (the Honda 2.0-liter four-cylinder, rated at 245 horsepower, remains mostly unchanged), the 'Cup Spec' vehicles will be upgraded with a rollover cage, twin master cylinders (to adjust brake bias), six-point harness, Race Technology LCD dash display, additional protecitve bodywork, race-tuned suspension and Yokohama slicks.

The Ariel Atom Cup Racer weighs just 1,125 pounds - about 800 pounds lighter than a Lotus Exige - and it will sprint from 0-60 mph in just 3.1 seconds. Sounds like fun.

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Watch Honda transform a stock Civic Si into a race car

Chief designer for Sunbeam, Louis Coatalen was once quoted as saying "Racing improves the breed." With Formula One racers that look like nothing on the open road, and NASCAR, whose cars only LOOK like what you can get in a dealership, its hard for the average Joe to see why motorsport is relevant to their daily lives.

Production-based racing is where you can truly find that connection of road car and race car, Cars that wish to enter in these types of race series must start life as a model that you can find at your local dealer. The folks at Compass 360 Racing have chronicled what it takes to turn your daily driver into a race winner, and according to the description, "it's easier than you think."

The team starts out with a 2012 Honda Civic Si and takes the necessary steps to ready it for race series like the Grand Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The first move for racing mechanic Steve Stantidakis and the rest of the team is to gut the car almost entirely, removing interior panels, seats, accessories and the engine. The spread of parts along the shop floor in the video is quite remarkable.

Next, they separate parts that will return to the compact racer from the items that will be discarded. Once stripped down, a roll cage is installed, the car is painted, and necessary parts will be reinstalled.

A version of the Si's 2.4-liter VTEC four-cylinder tuned by Honda Performance Development engine is next to go in. According to HPD Senior Engineer Lee Niffenegger, the four-pot achieves roughly 25 percent more power than the standard Si engine through improved intake and exhaust flow, among other things.

And why go through all this trouble to convert a bone-stock coupe into a performance machine? Says Niffenegger, "The reason Honda races is to push our cars to the limit. You can only learn so much through what you do on the street."

Scroll down to see it all come together.

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Lexus challenges passengers to control their heart rates... in a hybrid

Picture the scene: You're in a quiet place; a forest. The grass is green, the sky a perfect shade of blue. It's sunny; the temperature is hovering somewhere near perfect and a gentle breeze wafts by. You look at the pretty flowers bend down to reach one... then, BAM!

No, we're not talking about Bambi versus Godzilla though we do offer Marv Newland a healthy round of applause. What's we're talking about is the Lexus GS Hybrid. Or, more specifically, the car's Italian advertising campaign as seen in the video below.

Lexus claims its 2013 GS 450h can accelerate from 0 to 60 in just 5.6 seconds, courtesy of its 3.5-liter V6 engine and electric motor hybrid powertrain that puts out a combined 338 horsepower. Combine that level of thrust with rear-wheel drive and a professional driver and you've got yourself some fun at the race track.

Lexus decided to put this combination together, mixing in a blend of new-car shoppers to see what effect its hybrid sedan had on the heart. Scroll down below to watch it all unfold.

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Mario Kart meets F1 in new Codemasters game

Where better than Comic-Con for Codemasters to announce the deceptively titled F1 Race Stars. A 180-degree hairpin from the other Codemasters F1 game, this is less about the stars and much more about the wild, arcade-style racing with weapons and bonuses on "fantastical" versions of real Formula One tracks. It looks like McLaren's Tooned as a video game, with more drivers and cars.

As for those stars, your driver lineup will be Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Romain Grosjean and eyebrows raised here Bruno Senna. There'll be lots of arcade options like online racing with up to 12 players, split screens with up to four players, and carerr modes. It's arriving in November for PCs, Playstation and xBox 360. Check out the promo video below.

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Honda and Mugen develop widebody twin-turbo V6 CR-Z... for racing [w/video]

Honda has announced that it's working with M-TEC and Team Mugen on a CR-Z GT that will campaign in the GT300 category of Japan's Super GT championship. The racing hybrid uses a 2.8-liter, twin turbo V6 paired with a specially developed hybrid system, and it will enter its first race at this month's SUGO GT round on July 28-29.

The CR-Z GT will race in the same class as the Subaru BRZ GT300 and Toyota Prius GT300. That latter car also uses a specially designed hybrid system with a larger battery from the Prius Alpha and a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6.

The Honda CR-Z GT was recenly tested at Twin Ring Motegi, scroll down to watch the video and check out the official press release.

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Watch this 19-year-old F2 racer dramatically save his own bacon in the wet

Dino Zamparelli has mad skills behind the wheel of his FIA Formula 2 machine, and he managed to show just how good or how crazy he is on Belgium's legendary Spa circuit.

As the track filled with rain mist from cars in front him, Zamparelli, 19, sped toward a group of cars clustered together at 150 mph. The racer narrowly misses a slowing car that appears at the last second from out of the mist, deftly swerves out of the way on to the grass, passes two more and then cleanly brings his car under control back on the slick track.

Amazing.

Of course, not all of the Youtube specators were as impressed, pointing out that Zamparelli may have also missed a yellow flag, telling everyone to slow down. Zamparelli defends himself in the comment thread on YouTube:

"Actually just to clarify we had already passed the incident that caused the yellow flags and for the safety car boards to come out. If you look at the car ahead, he was actually pulling away from me up eau rouge, because we were trying to catch up to the safety car. Someone then slowed down on the straight line after eau rouge and that caused everyone to bunch up...so my reactions were not to a yellow flag situation, but to another incident which had just occurred"

However, the one comment seemed to sum up the whole breathtaking experience:

"Almost died, gained 3 or 4 places in the race. Standard."

Scroll down to check out the near crash from Zamparelli's point of view.

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Brumos to offer special edition Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racer

The Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racer is not only very good at getting around a track, it's very good at getting to the checkered flag in first place. To celebrate the team's 50-plus-year history and winning last year's Rolex Grand-Am championship, Brumos, in conjunction with Porsche, is offering prepping the final five U.S.-spec 2012 911 GT3 Cup cars just like its racers.

The means a 4.0-liter flat-six with more torque and more than 450 horsepower, a Motec data acquisition system, carbon interior bits, a front debris screen, a rev-blipping system for better downshifts and new brake and steering sensors. It will be finished in the white-with-twin-stripes Brumos livery, and offered for $265,259 plus tax for five fortunate buyers. That price will also get owners to a handover ceremony and dinner at Porsche Motorsport North America with Brumos Racing vice president Hurley Haywood and drivers Leh Keen and Andrew Davis.

The cars will be eligible for various domestic racing series. If you want to see what one can do given the right pilot, check out Porsche Motorsport North America driver Patrick Long delivering coffee to his boss. Otherwise, there's a press release below with more details.

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Pikes Peak Hill Climb rescheduled for August 12

The organizers behind the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb have rescheduled the race event for August 12 in the wake of extensive wildfires in the Colorado Springs area. The competition's 90th annual event was initially slated to take place on July 8, but the massive Waldo Canyon fire forced a postponement due to safety concerns. Organizers say the full week's worth events will remain on the schedule, including the Fan Fest in downtown Colorado Springs. Despite the shift on the calendar, 21 of the 31 top drivers have already committed to making the event.

Organizers reportedly originally looked into dates as late as early September, but opted for August 7 to avoid conflicts with football, school openings and other events scheduled for the Pikes Peak area. Expect to see qualifying and practice runs start as early as August 8, while the official race gets going on Sunday, August 12.

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Watch this F1 driver put down a hot lap in the wet around Spa Francorchamps... with one eye

We've seen lots of camera angles from close to an Formula One driver's point of view, but we don't think we've ever seen the actual thing a genuine driver's-eye view. Pirelli F1-tire test driver Lucas di Grassi has changed that, placing a camera on his helmet over one of his eyes while doing a hot lap in the wet around Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit. So, yes, that means he drove with just one eye 'open.'

Even though the rain was cause for caution in the corners, di Grassi didn't tiptoe, surpassing 270 kph (167 mph) on the straights more than once. Now imagine doing that for two hours with 23 other cars and their rooster tails it wouldn't be a bad way to spend a Sunday. You can watch the lap below.

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Nrburgring goes bust, EU not planning to help

The Nrburgring is officially broke. According to various German sources, the only chance the owners of the 'Ring have to fend off bankruptcy is if the track gets 13 million euros of new life injected into it. Problem is, state officials have said it's not going to happen.

In other words, the Nrburgring will go into administration and its future will at least in part be decided in court. Also up for debate will be the legality of 524 million euros worth of funding that the state has already pumped into the track, an amusement park with hotels and a shopping mall that make up the local attraction.

Reports indicate that the rest of 2012 will proceed as planned at the 'Ring. After that, it's anybody's guess what will happen to the famous German racetrack.

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Chasing gold at Silverstone for the 2012 British Grand Prix [spoilers]

The British Grand Prix could be considered the sport's home race. That's why Silverstone, as behind the times as it may be, is still on the calendar, and why so many elements within the sport are keen on having a race in London. Because while other races come and go, F1 could not do without a British Grand Prix in some form or another.

This year's came hot on the heels of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where several drivers were on hand to demonstrate Formula One machinery old and new. From there it was on to Silverstone where the real action took place today, taking a season jam-packed with action one step closer to the halfway mark. Keep reading to see how it went down.

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Watch this 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 pull a 9-second quarter mile

The 2013 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 is an impressive piece of hardware right out of the box. It's a package capable of pulling 11-second quarter mile passes one minute and lapping your favorite road course with genuine fury the next thanks to its impressive suspension tuning and heady 662-horsepower. But how much quicker can its supercharged V8 get with a little tweaking? The guys from Lethal Performance recently set out to find the answer. The team isn't saying exactly what they've done to the king Pony, though we can see a set of dragstrip-friendly "bigs n' littles" have found their way into the wheel wells.

As a result, the 3,852-pound two-door bolted down the drag strip in just 9.77 seconds. Judging by the "thank you" list in the video's credits, this GT500 may even be rocking a shot of nitrous, though we can't say for certain. Check out the full clip for yourself below.

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Travis Pastrana, Dodge Dart get first RallyCross win [w/video]

Travis Pastrana has had a tough start to 2012, wrecking out of nearly every race he's entered. The Global RallyCross Championship has been particularly frustrating, with the Red Bull Motorsports driver finishing 8th and 15th in the first two events of the season and failing to make its past the first round of the X Games after getting smashed into the wall in the first turn.

Pastrana hopes his fortunes have turned around, though, after managing to give the Dodge Dart its first RallyCross win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this past weekend. He qualified third overall and managed to win his heat, giving him a spot on the front row for the final race. Pastrana took advantage of his position, jumping out to a first lap lead after passing Tanner Foust in a hairpin and eventually finishing just ahead of Samuel Hubinette. Brian Deegan rounded out the podium in third place, with Foust finishing in fourth and Ken Block in fifth.

"It's been so long, I almost forgot what it's like to win," said Pastrana after the race. "It is absolutely awesome to get out here and get on top. It has been a rough season."

The next and final race of the 2012 Global RallyCross season will be at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend of September 28-29. Check out the videos below for all the leaps, jumps and bumps.

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Marussia rules out mechanical fault in de Villota F1 tragedy

Marussia has concluded there was no mechanical failure in the accident that saw Formula One driver Maria de Villota collide with a service truck during testing earlier this month. According to CNN, the F1 race team conducted thorough tests alongside an external forensic company and the UK's Health and Safety Executive and found there was no fault with the MR-01 car itself. De Villota was testing the platform for the first time when the freak accident occurred. de Villota lost an eye due to the collision. Marussia team principal John Booth said in a statement that the team has concluded the investigatory work and can now focus on the priority of supporting De Villota and her family.

The 34-year-old Spanish driver was one of just two female drivers contracted to compete in F1 this season. She also became the first female driver in F1 since 1992, though before signing on with Marussia, de Villota tested with Renault and campaigned in Spanish F3 and the Daytona 24 Hours.

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Ken Block's Gymkhana 5 has arrived

Ken Block has officially released Gymkhana 5. This time, everyone's favorite shoe-salesman has unleashed his 650-horsepower Ford Fiesta on the quiet streets of San Francisco. How's that for an impressive venue? Cleared of traffic, the hilly terrain makes for a perfect playground. The video spends plenty of time getting up close and personal with the city's famous trolleys before moving to the Port of San Francisco. There's also an impressive bit of hotshoeing on a barge in the bay as well. This time, Block has brought along a special friend to help him send tires to their smoky graves.

Travis Pastrana has hopped on a bike for the first time since his massive crash at the X Games a year ago, and the two proceed to craft a mechanized ballet for everyone to enjoy. That's cool and all, but we enjoyed watching Block vault the Fiesta for some serious air time. Check out the video below for yourself. It's ten minutes of insanity.

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Watch 10 years of WRC trials, tribulations and triumphs

Sebastien Loeb has won the World Rally Championship with the same team for eight consecutive years, and this year, he's so far ahead more than halfway through the season that he'd have to sit out two rallies to let the second-placed drive overtake him. Yet few complain about the predictability of the WRC, with complaints mostly about vehicle regulations and not Loeb's suffocating consistency.

It's videos like the one below that explain why. Stage 1 Technology and its timing and tracking gear has been involved with the WRC for ten years, and has put together a fine compilation video with a decade of wins, losses, jokes, slides, highlights and high jumps. Scroll down to check it out.

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Racing In Slow Motion IV sells the drama

Things we never tire of: chocolate, stuff we can't mention here, and slo-mo racing footage. YouTube user Matzell 89, whose slow motion compilations we've seen before, has only gotten better at putting these videos together.

The latest effort is called Racing in Slow Motion IV and is almost sixteen minutes of racing that spans disciplines, countries and eras. A Steve McQueen voiceover from the movie Le Mans kicks it off, and the late Moto GP rider Marco Simoncelli closes. In between, it's all awesome. Have a watch below.

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Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button get animated in McLaren F1 cartoon

The UK's BBC and Sky TV channels have split the broadcasting of Formula 1 races. Naturally, each channel puts together promos to showcase the upcoming race, such as the Beeb's recent stellar effort before the Monaco GP. In advance of last weekend's British GP, Sky aired the first in a series called Tooned, which will follow the capers of team drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

The shorts are being produced with British visual effects firm Framestore, who've taken home heaps of awards silverware of their own for commercials, music videos and movies like The Golden Compass and The Dark Knight. There will be 11 more to appear throughout the rest of the season, scroll down to watch the first.

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Watch this motorcycle racer suffer from premature celebration

Some tragedies are funny. Even if it costs you the 2012 Italian CIV championship race in Mugello.

Motorcycle racer Riccardo Russo held a three-bike lead over his nearest racer, but when he started the final lap, Russo thought he had already crossed the finish line.

Russo began his celebration by letting off the accelerator and lifting his arm, cheering for himself as all of the other cyclists zoomed past. "What does it matter?" he must have thought. As a visibly pumped Russo stood on the bike's pegs, the Yamaha Team Italia FMI racer still didn't realize he had cashed in his chips a lap too soon. And while Russo didn't lift the trophy, people will probably still remember him for this monumental flub than the gent who actually took home the hardware.

Scroll down to watch the video, which is worth watching all the way to the end, as the last lap is a fight to the finish even without Russo.

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Toyota launches Emirates drift team with new 86 video

Toyota drifted an FT-86 all over United Arab Emirates roads when the coupe was launched there last month, and now it's doing it again. 27-year-old Ahmed Omran Al-Amri is the two-time drift championship winner as part of the Emirates Drift Team in his native UAE, and he has used a turbocharged, 570-horsepower Toyota Soarer (our Lexus SC) as his ride to those titles.

Rewarding his team for its winning ways and Toyota love, the Japanese company has taken over to form the Toyota Emirates Drifting Team and provided it with Toyota 86 hatchbacks (our Scion FR-S) to campaign. Al-Amri has already won this year's title, but check out the video below of testing the new cars at Yas Marina Circuit for his thoughts on the new car and, of course, beaucoup tire smoke.

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How the V8 became drifting's engine of choice

Early privately-owned drift cars were fitted with with either turbocharged engines from Nissan S13, S14 and S15 platforms (four-cylinder) or turbocharged powerplants like the Toyota 1JZ (six-cylinder). They were easy to work on, reliable, and they produced plenty of the wheel-spinning power needed for a smoky sideways show.

But today, as real money flows into the sport, the teams taking the podiums at the professional Formula Drift events are much more likely to use American V8 power - naturally-aspirated big-bore Chevrolet LS muscle that makes a tire-cording 700-plus horsepower. The torquey V8s give the drivers more control when they run side-by-side. As one puts it, "...the way Formula D now is, with tandem, you want to be on someone's door."

This video, shot by MPGomatic, takes a closer look at why the motorsport made the switch from low displacement/forced induction to big displacement/naturally aspirated power. It's posted below, and as they say, there's no substitute for cubic inches.

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U.S. Army ends decade-long NASCAR sponsorship

If you question why the Army National Guard has been spending your tax money on a NASCAR team, apparently you're not alone. Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum (D) is wondering aloud why the U.S. Armed Forces has spent nearly $20 million over the past couple of years sponsoring the Stewart-Haas Racing team. That relationship is reportedly coming to an end now, however, as the Army has declined to renew sponsorship for next season.

At first, it might seem NASCAR's core audience and the pool of potential Army recruits would have big overlap. But according to a Marketplace report, Senator McCollum says she was told by the Guard themselves that the NASCAR sponsorship deal has brought in some 24,800 interested recruits. But of that group, only 20 were actually qualified to join the Guard. And of that same group, exactly zero joined. McCollum says her goal is to get Congress to limit what the Army can spend its ad dollars on, and sports sponsorships will not be on her approved list.

Stewart-Haas Racing currently fields teams for Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Danica Patrick was to come on board next season, but those plans could be jeopardized by the loss of such a huge sponsor.

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Viper GTS-R will debut at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 4 [w/video]

SRT has confirmed that the Viper GTS-R will make its competition debut in the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio on August 4. While development of the car has continued in earnest, SRT Motorsports, along with partner Riley Technologies, has only been able to perform three test sessions since its debut in April one at Carolina Motorsports Park in South Carolina, another time at Virginia International Raceway, and most recently at Mid-Ohio over the July 4 holiday. Says Gary Johnson, Road Racing Manager for SRT Motorsports, "Each test has met and more often exceeded our expectations, so we'll see how things go at Mid-Ohio and then make a decision about the rest of the 2012 season." While the rest of the 2012 season may be up in the air until after the GTS-R's debut at Mid-Ohio, the team is planning to campaign the entire 2013 ALMS season.

SRT Motorsports will be fielding two Viper GTS-Rs on race day at Mid-Ohio. The drivers include Dominik Farnbacher of Germany, who set a claimed production car lap record at the Nrburgring last year in a Viper ACR, Marc Goossens from Belgium and Kuno Wittmer from Canada, with American-born Ryan Hunter-Reay from Dallas, Texas joining the team for longer endurance races than Mid-Ohio's three-hour jaunt. The cars will compete in the production-based GT class of ALMS, which means on race day they'll be rubbing fenders with the Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M3 GT, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Ferrari 458 Italia, Lotus Evora and Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

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Formula racer removes steering wheel at full speed for quick fix

Successful racers make smart split-second decisions about what line to take, when to accelerate and brake and so on. So when recently faced with an electrical problem in his Formula Renault 2.0 car's steering wheel, Jeroen Slaghekke was faced with pitting and losing position or taking a chance.

Slaghekke is apparently a gambling man and decided to literally take fate in his own hands. Watch the video below and pay close attention at about the 11 second mark. Up comes a long straightaway, off comes the steering wheel and then, boom, three seconds later, the problem's fixed and the wheel's back on in plenty of time to take the left-hander.

It's admittedly not the most dramatic of videos, but that's exactly what makes it so impressive: There's no drama, no panic. Just quick, cool thinking that ended with Slaghekke taking 6th place at Oschersleben. We look forward to seeing how his future career turns out.

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