The Best Car in The World

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Chevy to show SS in Vegas in race trim

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Chevrolet SS racecar prototype in checkerboard disguise at speed

A lot of speculation has been made with regards to the SS, the promised new Chevrolet rear-wheel drive performance sedan. The Holden Commodore-based muscle saloon will be prowling the open road as early as next year, while a NASCAR version is set to compete in 2013. Shots of the cars testing in their respective natural habitats have led to endless speculation, and it appears we now know which car will debut first.

Word from Speed is that the 2013 Chevrolet SS NASCAR Sprint Cup car is set to bow on Thursday, November 29 at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. The car will reportedly be shown in full race trim, sans sponsor graphics for Bounty, Skoal or Taylor Swift.

The Vegas debut will mark the introduction of the final vehicle to enter in the 2013 NASCAR season. Dodge unveiled its Charger racecar in March before leaving the race series. Toyota showed off its V8, RWD Camry NASCAR in May, while Ford debuted its race-spec Fusion in January of this year. The remaining entries are expected to (visually) bear a closer resemblance to their road-going counterparts.

While the SS racecar is debuting next month in Vegas, no mention of the production version SS was made. We are still under the impression that February 21, 2013 will still be the launch date for the road-going version of the rear-wheel drive Holden-based sedan that has GM enthusiasts so worked up.

Running order set for 2012 Petit Le Mans

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The 15th running of Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta is slated for this weekend, and there promises to be plenty of exciting racing in the last event of the American Le Mans Series. Despite being dropped from the World Endurance Championship in favor of the 6 Hours of Bahrain, the field of cars remains bountiful thanks to the European Le Mans Series joining in and making the 10-hour endurance race its series finale as well.

To set the starting order for tomorrow's race, each of the teams ran a 15 minute qualifying session this afternoon split up by class.

In P1 the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota qualified on pole, just ahead of the Muscle Milk Racing HPD ARX-03a that has dominated the class in ALMS this year. Rebillion Racing finished 5th in last year's event and are looking to add a victory at Petit Le Mans to their extensive list of wins already achieved this year.

In the hotly contested GT class it was a pair of Extreme Speed Ferrari 458 Italias leading the way in a 1-2, followed by BMW and Corvette. The SRT Viper team, constantly improving since their debut at Mid-Ohio, qualified in 6th and 10th.

After being extensively repaired from Wednesday's crash, the Nissan DeltaWing posted a qualifying time on par with the P2 class, netting a fast lap of 1:12.850, eight-tenths off the quickest P2 car.

Check out the complete list of qualifying times here (PDF), and check out our photos from the practice and qualifying sessions in the gallery above.

F1's New Jersey Grand Prix postponed until 2014

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Formula One's inaugural Grand Prix of America, not to be confused with the US Grand Prix slated for mid-November in Austin, TX, has been postponed until the 2014 F1 season. F1 head honcho Bernie Ecclestone has reported that the event, previously expected to take place in Weehawkin, New Jersey in 2013, has now been pushed back by a year.

The Associated Press is reporting Ecclestone as having said, "Everything is set up but now it's too late to finish on time." The New Jersey race had tentatively been scheduled for June 16 of next year.

Reasons for pushing back the race seem to lie in the slow arrival of some funding, and/or road repair and permitting issues. The Jersey Journal reported that organizers fell behind on said logistics, while Ecclestone mentioned, "They got all the permissions together. Everything was done, that was all fine, but then they missed the boat a little on some financing that was coming in." Of course, the very existence of this race has been a contentious issue for some time.

NBC replaces Speed as sole broadcaster of F1 races in the US

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It is now official, coverage of Formula 1 in the US will now be seen on either NBC or NBC Sports Network, as Speed will conclude its 17-year run with Formula One at the end of this season. In a report from Autosport, we read that NBC Sports Group has signed on to bring American viewers F1 for the next four years. The financial details of the deal were not specified.

The plan is to broadcast four races on NBC and the other sixteen on NBC Sports Network. It is reported that practice and qualifying sessions will be covered on the Sports Network as well. The four NBC-shown races will be the Canadian GP, as well as the final three races of the season.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone remains confident in the new arrangement, "I feel that [NBC] will promote Formula 1 to a level not seen before in the United States," he continued, "I very much look forward to working with NBC. Together, we will endeavor to broaden the scope of Formula 1 coverage available to US viewers incorporating digital content." NBC has touted its online coverage of sporting events such as the Olympics, and could bring a whole new dynamic to the way Formula 1 is covered in the United States.

With the debut of the United States Grand Prix around the corner, NBC could have picked an ideal time to start covering the sport. But before NBC can capitalize on the Austin, TX-held event, Speed will get a shot at the race, which is on November 18. It is Speed's second-to-last race. The final F1 race to be broadcast on Speed is the Brazilian Grand Prix, on November 25.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. given free rein to drift around Flat Rock Assembly Plant

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Vaughn Gittin Mustang Drift Flat Rock Plant

Having just announced its official sponsorship of the Formula Drift series, Ford (via Ford Racing) released a video with Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and his new 2013 Mustang RTR drift car. The video, titled "2nd Shift Drift," shows him drifting around the property of Ford's Flat Rock Assembly plant where all Mustangs are currently built.

Although not quite as technical as a Ken Block Gymkhana, Gittin's video delivers plenty of entertainment between slalom drifting a pack of driving Mustangs and a little game we like to call kiss the Mustang (at the 2:21 mark). This all happens around the facility's track that is normally used to perform spot checks of Mustangs rolling off the assembly line.

We expect to see more videos like this from Ford next year as it promotes Formula Drift, but until then, check out how much fun Gittin had visiting the home of the Ford Mustang in the video below.

Nissan DeltaWing repaired and ready for action at Petit Le Mans

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After first watching the scary crash of the Nissan DeltaWing at Road Atlanta yesterday, we were worried that the one-off racecar wouldn't be ready for Petit Le Mans on Saturday. We needn't have worried, though, as the car has been quickly repaired by the Highcroft Racing Team in plenty of time. In fact, the car will be running in the night practice session later today and in the practice and qualifying sessions tomorrow.

The quick turnaround is due to the fact that the crash didn't cause as much damage to the car as initially thought. Ben Bowlby, the car's designer, tells us that while the accident looked severe it didn't compromise the integrity of the chassis.

"There was skin damage to an enormous number of parts both sides of the nose, the side pods, the tail, one mirror were all damaged, but the chassis wasn't other than a few scratches," he tells us.

The suspension system and engine have also been swapped out so as to have a fresh start before the race. In all the repairs took right around 24 hours.

You can see our photos of the fully repaired Nissan DeltaWing in the gallery above, and check back this weekend for more coverage of the car and Petit Le Mans.