Car Throttle

To give the team its full title, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will launch their new race car for 2012 in February. The car is known as the MP4-27 (yes, McLaren have a knack for numerically-boring names) and the world will get its first glimpse of it on the first day of the month when it is revealed at the Team’s HQ in Woking, and just 6 days later it will begin its first 4 day test at a race track in Jerez. Naturally that first test will be very telling. Will this year’s car be faster than the new Red Bull? There have been many changes to the rules and regulations for the 2012 season and every team hopes to capitalise on the changes. Blown diffusers were

Whilst your humble Car Throttle author is keen to show-off his motoring madness via a late entry into the Mongol Rally this year, chances are it won't have anything on the mighty Dakar. In fact, multiply the "sissy" journey of London to Asia in a small banger by the rough factor of one hundred, and you still won't be close to imagining the sheer terror, excitement and energy that the Dakar Rally shoves in your face with abundance.

The Dakar Rally 2012 was a tad misleading by name this year, and has been since 2008. Participants do not race from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal due to continued high security threats in Mauritania. Instead, they are treated to some of the roughest terrain

I booked my ticket to Autosport International 2012 at Birmingham's NEC for three reasons, none of which were to do with the exhibits. Firstly, I knew there were a going to be a few motoring journalists present who it'd be very useful to meet and greet. Secondly, while I'm at university in Brum, the whole extravagaza is on my doorstep, so it's be rude not to have a snoop around. Finally, if there's any good excuse to get out of doing yet more dissertation, then I'll take it. In fact, Autosport proved to be rather more than a bit of cheeky truancy. If racing cars of all classes, shapes and sizes are your thing, as you'd expect, Autosport had them on show, from GT3 McLarens and Porsches to classic Formula

  Proof, if you needed it, that amateur drag racers are a determined bunch:  They'll race even if the timing equipment is off.  It's the mentality of "I drove all the way here, I wrenched on this car all night, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let an electronic malfunction keep me from banging off redline shifts down the quarter mile."  Even though drag racing without a timeslip is a lot like TV without the remote, coffee without the caffeine, or a Rick Astley music video on mute. Which is what happened for the first four hours and change of this month's Street Wars at Rockingham Dragway, sponsored by Phantasm Motorsports.  Phantasm is a local import performance shop that's been tuning cars since the

Speed, like everything in life, is entirely relative.  You might think you're "only doing 90, gosh!" but the cop writing you a ticket for doing that speed in a 45mph zone probably disagrees.  And when you hit the speed limiter at 155mph in your BMW M3, you might think you're going fast - but the guy in the ZR-1 with his foot planted in 5th shooting for 200mph can't even see your headlights.  And that ZR-1, well, it'd seem pretty mundane from the seat of a Bugatti Veyron. So what makes a Bugatti Veyron seem a little slow?  Considering a current Veyron Super Sport is good for 268mph flat out, it'd have to be something really, really fast. But when your hobby is Land Speed Record racing,

Germany's DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) racing series has been without BMW as a competitor since 1994. That is quite a long time. Its absence left the competition with three manufacturers; Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Opel. Opel pulled out in 2005, leaving just two competitors - pretty sad for a racing series. Now BMW is changing that with the entrance of a new M3 DTM car. For now, it is officially a "concept" but what you see here is basically the car that will be out on the track competing. The finished product will be unveiled in in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The M3 DTM is finished in a matte black plaint, and it looks quite aggressive. BMW says it looks forward to its entrance

XDC - Xtreme Drift Circuit - is a nationwide drifting competition with stops at some of the most well-known race tracks in the US - Irwindale, VIR, Summit Point, Texas Motor Speedway, etc.  It's a high-level exhibitionist drifting competition, mixed with a car show, mixed with some racing.  If it comes near you, you oughtta go - the closest XDC event to me was held on July 3rd at the Charlotte Motor Speedway - which is primarily a NAPCAR track - and the 2.5hr drive down there was totally worth it.  Some of the most insane cars I've ever seen showed up, both competitive drifters and perfect show cars. The car in the intro image is Sikky Manufacturing's 350Z drift car.  How do you

Formula One drivers are supposed to be the best drivers in the world, with unbelievable car control and feel for the vehicle underneath them. You would therefore expect them to know what they are talking about when it comes to road cars. We therefore took a look at the road car choices of F1 stars. Car insurance and fuel prices will not be a concern for multi-millionaires race drivers, this is all about performance: Ayrton Senna - Honda NSX The legendary Brazilian won three world championships for McLaren Honda between the years of 1988 and 1991, establishing himself as one of the sports all time greats. His uncompromising attitude, remarkable dedication to his driving and supreme natural speed helped establish an almost god like following of Senna

I brushed on this topic in my article yesterday, about the Higgins brothers both breaking track records in two different Subaru STi's on two different continents, but frankly it deserves an article of it's own: this Sunday, Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, a Pikes Peak veteran since the early 90's, finally broke the 10-minute barrier up the world's most famous hillclimb.  And it's an impressive feat in a lot of ways. Competitors have been saying for years that this was the year they were going to break the 10-minute barrier; Rod Millen was saying it back in the 90's with his insane 3S-GTE powered Toyota Celica hillclimb special, but it never happened.  Tajima wheeled his custom-built Monster Sport Suzuki SX4 hill climb special (all 910 horsepower of

I've always liked Subaru's attitude towards performance measurements. While BMW and Audi will brag about their 0-60 metrics, or how many lateral G's of acceleration their cars can pull on a perfect skidpad, Subaru is all about their racing record.  And within a month, two different Subarus - driven by two brothers, no less - have both laid down new lap records on two of the toughest race courses on planet earth. I'm talking about the Isle of Man, and the Mount Washington Hill Climb.  The Isle of Man hosts a yearly motorcycle race that dates back to 1904, although the current course used for the race (the Mountain Course) has been in use since 1911.  This twisting, winding intricate piece of road spans almost 38