Apart from illegal Californian road rallys and eighties Group B, it’s hard to think of any other billion dollar motorsport that allows fans such access and closeness to the racing as NASCAR. I absolutely understand its appeal to the working man.

Simple and proven technology is what powers these cars. No telemetry can be used during racing and only the most basic of electronics are allowed since the ignition is mechanically timed. The engines even have carburettors and pushrods! The roll cage act as a space frame chassis and is covered by sheet metal. The V8 is 358 cubic inches, about 5.8 litres and develops around 850 bhp without restrictor plates and is capable of revving in excess of 10,000 rpm. However, due to safety and cost concerns, the rev-limit is controled by the NASCAR gear rule stating that the highest gear ration must be 1:1. A NASCAR engine at 9,000 rpm has a piston speed of 24.75 m/s, roughly that of a Formula 1 engine!
Brakes must be of steel and the only aerodynamics allowed are the front splitter, rear wing and NACA ducts in the windows.

There you have it. I’m a fan now! And, standing so close to a NASCAR going 300 km/h tickles your balls in a very pleasant fashion.

The guys at Axis of Oversteer write one of my favourite blogs. I just ripped this one off of them!

I can’t remember the last time I wanted a car as badly as I want the Boxster Spyder. It is really all I need: two great bucket seats, a wheel in each corner, a flimsy top barely describable as a roof and a chassis that never stops giving.

Take the Nissan GT-R for instance. It is such a silly car! You know the story about the bumble bee? The GT-R can’t go really fast around corners, but it doesn’t know it can’t, so it does it anyway. The computers in the GT-R will flatter you way beyond your abilities but the Porsche does that without computers. It is so well balanced that any trouble you get yourself into, you can easily sort them out, even with the PSM turned off. News travel fast in the Boxster Spyder and your hands, butt and feet get it the moment it happens so you really just have to react to something small and nip it in the bud before it develops into anything more serious. It even allows you to slide in the infamous Porsche corner at Ring Knutstorp! Just perfect.

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Few things embody NASCAR quite like an ice cold Bud. They even have their own race team! Actually, most things at NASCAR is about drinking beer. Or carrying it. Or storing it. Or chilling it.

Click through for more pictures.

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This is so good I am ripping it straight from Visual Gratification:

“I received a mail in response to an earlier post on the Lucifer’s Hammer. The mail was from Mr. Scott Turner a.k.a Kenny Roberts and the gentleman had send a link of a YouTube video featuring the Lucifer’s Hammer. now that’s even rarer.
He also mentioned ‘If you click on my YouTube channel, you can see other rare videos. I’ll be adding more in the future.’”

“The video shows a great ‘Battle Of The Twins’ race between Gene Church and Marco Lucchinelli at Daytona in 1985 with Gene Church riding the Lucifer’s Hammer. Its a 9 minute video with the last minute having a short interview with the winner, Mr. Gene Church. Enjoy the video and many many thanks to Scott Turner for sending the link.”

GT3 CLIMB from Will Roegge on Vimeo.

See for yourself!

Great Grand Prix Racing Heroes, coming soon apparently.

Are you like me and prefer classics over that, mostly revolting, stuff they call cars nowadays? Then GT Racer is something for you. A two season documentary series covering such classics as the Six Hours of Spa, Le Mans Classic, La Carrera Panamericana and many more.
Here’s the trailer for La Carrera Panamericana:

I’ve started working with Carfax in Sweden so naturally my first gig for them will be to cover Carrera Cup and team Xlander. However, then things are heating up! I’ll be flying to Detroit to cover the Carfax 400 NASCAR race on August 15. Awesome!

The pictured Carrera 3.2 will be tested on Monday.

When leaving Le Mans after the race, it’s like a piece of you goes missing. I definitely understand all the fans coming from far away to share the experience. 238,150 motorsport enthusiasts were in place for the 78th installment of the 24 Heures du Mans since 1923. It’s an amazing experience and 24 hours is far longer than you actually think. It’s comparable to 13 consecutive Grand Prix! And there a four different classes of cars on the track going at it at their own pace. The flat out Audis and Peugeots dominate and there’s a considerable difference in speed down to the LMP2 class, however, then there are two GT classes as well: GT1 and GT2 consisting of an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini, Ford GTs, a Saleen, BMWs, a Jaguar, Corvettes, Porsches and Ferraris. In other words, if you’re racing, there are another 55 cars on the track going at different speed that you have to look out for. Some are faster, some are slower so the level of concentration is unbelievable.

In endurance racing it’s not about who is the fastest really, but who can be the most consistent and reliable. The amount of different cars on the track also means that you rarely get to choose the perfect racing line. Either you’re overtaking someone or being overtaken so it’s a constant battle of keeping the car planted while going as fast as possible and, at the same time, keeping it out of the way of the others.
I have an immense admiration for the drivers and teams that go through this as it’s one of the most grueling tasks you can get yourself into.

Another thing about Le Mans is the lack of women present. The ones that are here either work or have been dragged here by their motor mad boyfriends/husbands. There is also an immense amount of alcohol being ingested. When I was walking around at 4 am trying to get some night shots, most everyone I met was drunk out of their mind. I guess you have to drink yourself stupid if you live anywhere near the track as the roar of the cars can’t be explained. You can feel them going past, the sound is that incredible. Like vibrations in your chest. Absolutely fantastic. But it also makes it rather hard to sleep.

Along the track there are fans sleeping in whatever they brought with them, like sleeping bags, foldable chairs and someone had even brought out a cot and placed it on a hill, about 50 metres from the Dunlop esses.
On my way to Arnage on foot to get some great shots, I ran in to obstacle after obstacle. Everywhere I tried to go, I was told to go back and around. Finally, I ended up at the Porsche curves instead. At 5 am I didn’t have much stamina left and I had probably walked, in excess of, 20 kms already.
Next to me, in two foldable camping chairs, are what looks like two large larvae in cocoons sleeping. I notice movement and one of the larvae is breaking out of its shell, looks around and reaches down into the cooler for a beer. This is a little after 5 am! Turns out that it was a Danish camp. No wonder then.
The Danes really turn up in force. They have, at least that I noticed, two entire camping sites to themselves. A Danish journalist I spoke to estimated 50,000 Danes and I believe him. I could also tell by the trail of empty beer cans; they don’t sell Faxe anywhere but in Denmark.

I have lots to learn about media accreditation when it comes to Le Mans. Turns out that the media pass I was granted just gives me access free of charge, it doesn’t really allow me in anywhere. Good thing Aston Martin has such a splendid lounge next to the Maison Blanche section of the track that lets me see, and take proper pictures. Some stewards at the grand stand have been nice enough to let me in to take photos but otherwise I’m pretty much just hanging where the regular folks are. I’ll be heading to the Mulsanne straight in five minutes time and then I’ll spend daybreak at Arnage.

Reminder for next year: bring some form of foldable bicycle as distances are way too long for walking. The track is 13,62 kilometres long so I’d spend most of the 24 hours walking if I wanted to see every corner. Another thing that bothers me is that there’s a very high fence surrounding the entire track which means that most photos contain chicken wire. Apparently, Arnage and Indianapolis have none of this.

It’s past midnight now and most people in the lounge has gone home. My decision to stay up all night remains unaffected. There are plenty of parties around also if one would ever feel like venturing out to the tent sections. Like Glastonbury but with cars racing instead of bands playing, even though they have performances of artists here as well. Not that I care.

Yesterday, I flew down to Frankfurt to pick up an Aston Martin DBS that was going to take me to Le Mans for the annual 24 Heures du Mans. Overnighting in Paris to pick up a friend, I am now in a house 7 kms east of the Mulsanne straight. I actually drove on the Mulsanne straight in the DBS today, however only averaging about 50 kp/h with the occasional bull run acceleration to please the waving and cheering onlookers.  At this time, it is 13 hours, 45 minutes left to start.

OK, so I have spent a full two days with the DBS now and I can truly say that it’s a fantastic car. It looks gorgeous first of all. It’s like driving around in Dountzen Kroes. Heads turns, people whistle and clap. In a DBS, I automatically become a star. That’s also probably why some people buy it.

Let’s talk power. The DBS has an abundance of it and it’s the kind of power you normally only associate with the nuclear arsenal of the US or Russia. 20 bombs are enough to blow the entire world to smithereens, yet they both have several thousands of them. That’s what it feels like flooring the throttle on the DBS. Like I’m about to extinguish the world.  A normal overtaking procedure is over and done with in less than 3 seconds and by the time I have passed whatever it was I passed, I’m averaging 170 kp/h.

The Touchtronic gearbox is a splendid tool for most anyone but me. I like a proper gear lever and three pedals. I’m not chasing tenths of a second on paper but care more for the feel when driving. I like heel toeing, I like blipping the throttle for crowd pleasing and being able to choose to stay in gear when hitting the redline. However, for rolling around Paris for an entire day while Putin’s entourage had half the city closed off for traffic, I was pretty satisfied with having an automatic.

Hitting the kerbs in the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight!

Arriving at Le Mans was slightly chaotic but absolutely wonderful. Cars and fans galore and what cars. People sure bring their best when coming here. I can’t name a car I haven’t seen today, totally amazing. The Danish contingency is very strong and there are emply Faxe Kondi cans everywhere. Tom Kristensen has sure made an impression. Actually, it seems to be mostly Danes and Brits here.

This evening, Aston had a BBQ and I happened to sit next to Aston’s head of design and we had a very interesting chat about everything Aston Martin. More on that later. I also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ulrich Bez. I kind of feel sorry for Aston Martin Europe’s Manager of Brand Communication, Manuela Höhne, as I keep badgering her to drive every single car Aston has, including the Rapide that competed in the Nürburgring 24 hours. She has only said no on the One-77 so far but that’s because Aston doesn’t have any to test drive. I’d have to know an owner to get behind the wheel of one of those.

To get hourly reports, and pictures, follow me on Twitter, http://Twitter.com/TheCartorialist.

That’s about it. Just one thing missing…

It is with great sadness, and a little bit of shame, that I admit that the tease pic of the Porsche is nothing more than a bodykitted stock Carrera. Sure, it has a sports exhaust, short shift and an alcantara clad steering wheel and gearlever, but that’s about it. With looks like that, I half expected the car to rip my spine in two during cornering, have my eyes pop out of their sockets during braking and squeeze all the air out of my lungs during acceleration. Nope, not even the sound was that impressive.

I love the sound Porsches make, all of them. I love Porsche almost unconditionally (except the ugly models like the Cayenne and Panamera), but this Carrera left me disappointed. I would’ve been happier with a plain, stock 997, but with graphics like that, I automatically expected more, lots more.

There is one vital thing one needs to remember when driving a Porsche fast through the corners. My brother illustrated this with excellence when he simulated the sound of a shotgun loading each time i approached a bend with the ESP in sport mode. If the ESP caught the car violently, he immediately made the explosive sound of a shotgun firing. That’s what a Carrera does; it shoots you in the face if you don’t handle it properly. Even a fake Cup racer.

Here’s a teaser. More to come next week.

Nine days ago, a BMW M3 GT2 took everyone by surprise by winning the 38th annual 24H Rennen Nürburgring Nordschleife. A race I will someday be a part of as a driver to practise for my run in the 24 Heures du Mans.

It’s very hard to convey the feeling of what it’s like attending a real life 24 hour endurance race. There have been a few films that come close, but Audi’s Truth in 24 is by far the best one. However,  two German lads have done a remarkable job with a little short they call 24 Hours in 19,500 Frames.

Click here to watch it!

Wanna learn how to handle a car properly? Get one without any electronic or aerodynamic aids and drive it really fast. Hopefully, you’ll end up as talanted as this fellow after som proper practise:

There’s something about slow motion that makes everything look cool.
At the end of the eighties and early nineties, German DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) featured some iconic racing cars, like the BMW E30 M3, the Mercedes 190E Evo and Ford Sierra Cosworth. Even a Volvo 240 Turbo managed to snag the title once in 1985.

Now that’s probably one of the coolest titles you can have on your business card. It’s right up there with astronaut or bomb squad leader – like Sarah Silverman said when she told the Pope to sell the Vatican to feed the world: “You get crazy pussy.”

I’ve known Sam for about five years now, ever since he drove that Bentley GT in the inaugural Londino in 2005, and he’s the sweetest man and one helluva driver. Obviously. Since I too will be going to Le Mans and doing the business of Aston Martin, albeit on public roads, my trip just got twice as good. How many going to Le Mans will have press accreditation, access to Aston’s hospitality lounge AND a friend driving the most badass LMP1 car currently running? The Lola-Aston Martin LMP1. Forget the diesels, that’s practically cheating. No, take a stock V12 block from your production car and make it into a real petrol race engine, then paint the whole car in full Steve McQueen Gulf livery and you’ve got yourself the ultimate Le Mans car.

To be able to keep track of all the goodies I will encounter, make sure to follow me on Twitter (Twitter.com/TheCartorialist) and check back here to for shaky pics of hot women, fast cars and and me enjoying the Aston Martin grill buffet with a smile.

I am about to realise one of my current dream projects! Aston Martin just confirmed a DBS for me to use getting to and fro Le Mans for this years iteration of the 24 Heures du Mans. I’ll try not to go Bond style (getting shot at by a secret international conspiracy of criminals) but rather enjoy that big V12 and the glorious road trip with plenty of sideways action to please the eyes of my fellow motorists!