Mad About Cars

I couldn’t help but show you all the dynamics of this one!

Now we don’t like accidents at all but when it turns out to be a sleepy driver on his way to Hyundai Heaven we cannot help but spread the shame – luckily everyone’s ok in this one!

This Lambo is obviously the perfect shape to be shunting SUV’s in the air as its nose dives under the rear bumper of this Hyundai Santa Fe on a freeway somewhere near Seattle, U.S.A.

The Lamborghini Murcielago holds up well considering there’s a few tonnes bursting through the windscreen…!

I wonder if he’s learnt his lesson!!! Ouch!!

So yes, we all love drifting / power-sliding / broad sliding, whatever you want to call it!

And if you can actually drift across one end of a car-park to another then hands down to you but what actually goes on with the car when in this breath-taking motion???

Well, were about to find out!!…

The word ‘drifting’ obviously comes from a Japanese derivative (dorifuto sōkō?) and looks a bit like this – (ドリフト走行) – and is it surprising given our far eastern friends are the brains of all rapid technology!
And all the fun!!

They are masters in producing technology their forte being ‘engines’ and equally supplying the support gear needed to be able to control the car in adverse situations, and electrifying the crowd!

A real drift is where a driver will intentionally over-steer a vehicle through turns which results in loss of traction at the rear wheels. At the same time they are still controlling the vehicle whilst exiting the corner at high speed.

A car is said to be drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle prior to the corner apex, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (e.g. car is turning left, wheels are pointed right or vice versa).

The driver is always controlling these factors, and that’s what makes drifting an art!!! We love it!!!

Today im going to look over the art of Left-Foot Breaking!

A more commonly known action in motor racing, however very popular in a range of driving methods…

This technique allows drivers to operate a vehicle’s brake pedal using the left foot – as opposed to the right foot, which is usually naturally bound to the break and acceleration pedals.

The advantage of this method is ‘time saving’, as in racing, – every second counts!

By leaving the left foot free to operate the brakes and using the right foot only to accelerate, it allows the driver to gain fractions of time where it would usually be lost during the change from throttle to brake pedals. These are the minimal, but very beneficial effects when taking part in events utilising time trials and so on – like Sports Racing and Rallying, and technically, it is also possible to control the weight distribution of the vehicle when travelling, particularly cornering at high speeds through the left foot braking method, thus also saving seconds!!!…

Here we have the beautiful Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

Jointly developed by two of the longest serving motor industry manufacturers – Mercedes Benz and McLaren Automotive, this is one of the most substantial cars on the face of the planet

‘SLR’ – standing for ‘Sport, Leicht, Rennsport’ (Sport, Light, Racing) says it all in terms of the cars purpose. It has a front-mid engine placement arrangement governing an automatic gearbox resulting the Sport Light Effect.

Its rivals are in catagories such as the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

Around 3,500 are still in the process of being built over a 7 year span since 2003, and this machine, will set you back in the region of £300,000 smackaroonies!……

Red Bull put a spanner in the works by battling two legends head to head on the infamous 800 metre ‘Mur de Grammont’ cycling track in Belgium this weekend.

Just a week before the Tour of Flanders cycle race is due to fly over, the occasion marks the first time that any vehicle, not to mention a ‘rally car’ has had the privilege of driving over the cobbles during race periods.

Yes that’s right, 5 times World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb went up against 10 time World Motor-cross Champion Stefan Everts – Citroen C4 against KTM MX.

Two test runs were done prior to the event but both times were kept a secret leading up to the big duel, where eventually time was on the bikers side but winning by only a ‘tenth’ of a second!!!

Wow, now that’s close! – but for Sebastien the forfeit was to clean Evert’s motor-cross bike after the competition had finished. What a great event idea! Thank God for Red Bull!!!

Sebastien said – “It was a fantastic experience.” Red Bull came up with a great idea when they suggested this duel, and I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to meet Stefan. He’s a truly magnificent champion, and his 10 world titles are an exceptional record of achievement. Of course I would have preferred to have won our duel, but it was a very close contest! I had the upper hand on certain parts of ‘The Wall’ but I lost time in other places. At the end, it was too close to call.”

And Stefan replied – “I hope I’m the only person to beat Sebastien this year – or at least I wish that for him! It was a real honour for me to meet him. I’ve got a deep respect and admiration for rally drivers. I just tried to ride very cleanly in order to gain the maximum time possible and win.”