Austin track begins ticketing process

The Circuit of the Americas has begun the process of offering tickets for the Austin venue’s inaugural Formula 1 grand prix in November this year, launching a ‘Select Seating Wait List’ for its opening events. The venue has also released further artist’s impressions of the track, construction of which is expected to be completed in August . From Monday, fans will be able to register for ‘personal seat licences’ via the track website , giving them first call on premium grandstand seating and suites for events at the new venue.

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RPM forms Nationwide team for Michael Annett

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Patrick rules out 2012 Indy 500

Danica Patrick has ruled out contesting the 2012 Indianapolis 500, but says she remains open to returning to IndyCar’s premier event in future seasons. When Patrick announced her full-time switch to NASCAR last year, she expressed a strong desire to still fit in the Indy 500 alongside her stock car programme.

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Dieter Gass to reinforce Audi Sport

AUDI Motorsport Ingolstadt, December 19, 2011 – New position: Head of Racing Commitments – Engineer is returning to Audi family – Experience from eleven years in Formula One Audi is tackling the 2012 motor sport season with an extended leadership…

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Kimi Raikkonen continues his F1 familiarisation in Valencia | F1 pictures

Pictures from the second day of Kimi Raikkonen’s test for Lotus in Valencia.

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Adding Neighborhood 20 MPH Zones Isn?t a Zero-Sum Game

An exhaustive report published in the British Medical Journal found that traffic injuries declined in London's 20 mph zones and, to a lesser but still significant extent, on the streets immediately adjacent to the zones. Image: British Medical Journal
The Brooklyn Paper ran one of its trademark neighbor-vs.-neighbor stories today, turning a weekend public workshop about [...]

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Lotus: Raikkonen showed his class

Lotus’s trackside operations director Alan Permane said Kimi Raikkonen proved on his first day back in a Formula 1 cockpit that his return to grand prix racing can be a success. Raikkonen is spending two days testing a 2010 Renault at Valencia this week as he settles back into F1 after two seasons in the World Rally Championship. No times were released from today’s test, and Raikkonen’s pace would not be representative as he is using demonstration tyres and an older car, but Permane said his quality had shown through

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Lotus: It?s very difficult to know where Raikkonen should be

Lotus have been speaking about Kimi Rakkonen’s successful return to Formula 1. The former World Champion took part in his first test for the team this week following two years away from the sport. Speaking about how it went, Trackside operations director Alan Permane said: “From the first run he was pretty much there.” “It’s very [...]

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2013 Nissan GT-R Priced from $97,820; We Chart Godzilla?s Price, Power, and Performance Over the Years

The GT-R, Nissan’s twin-turbocharged hellion, has received upgrades each and every model year since it went on sale for 2009?and 2013 will be no different. Its price has been upgraded along with it: The 2013 GT-R will start at $97,820 for the Premium ?base? model or $107,320 for the uplevel Black Edition. Nearly (or more [...]

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Federal appeals court to hear NASCAR drug case

A federal appeals panel in Virginia is set to hear arguments in former racecar driver Jeremy Mayfields lawsuit against NASCAR over his suspension for failing a random drug test.

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37 Ford Coupe…….It’s Finished…………………1/25

I got this one with a coat of light Green on it ……………………..

Will have more coming soon…………………….

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Report: Hiriko folding electric car headed for production

Filed under: Concept Cars, Coupe, Etc., Europe, Technology, Design/Style, Electric

One very unusual electric car has debuted in Brussels. The Hiriko EV uses a hub-mounted electric motor at each wheel, though that’s not the most interesting aspect of the vehicle. According to The Telegraph, the Hiriko uses an interesting rear suspension design that allows the vehicle to fold up, rotating the cabin vertically, to take up less space while parking. The partnership behind the vehicle say the car consumes approximately one third the parking space of a Smart ForTwo. Occupants enter from a single front door, and the Hiriko ditches the traditional steering wheel in favor of a joystick.

The vehicle is set to begin production in Spain next year, and the partnership behind the vehicle’s development aims to use several European and American cities as testbeds for the bubble machine. The two-seater has been co-developed by a collection of Basque businesses, the Spanish government and the MIT media lab (you may remember the concept, from 2007). A total of 20 test vehicles are currently being built, and each vehicle is said to cost $16,253 to manufacture. No final price tag has been set, nor are there solid details on range, power or charge times.

Hiriko folding electric car headed for production originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Speedway hosting range of events

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U.S. Supreme Court Declares Vehicle GPS Tracking by Police Illegal?But Here?s Why You Can Expect More Surveillance

In the age of cruise-missile assassinations of U.S. citizens without a trial, a Supreme Court victory for civil liberties and freedom is a welcome aberration. Yesterday, a unanimous court ruled in U.S. v. Jones that police don?t have the authority to put GPS tracking devices on vehicles unless they get a warrant first. Yes, you?ve [...]

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Photos: NASCAR Fan Preview Event Builds 2012 Season Excitement

Thousands Enjoy Return Of Offseason Fan Event In Charlotte DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2012) ? For one day at least, Sam Alverson of Jacksonville, Fla., could lay claim to being NASCAR?s No. 1 fan. It wasn?t just because of his devotion to the sport; it?s because he was first in line. After a marathon [...]

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Ganassi celebrates run of championships

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RAB Racing To Attempt Sprint Cup Series Debut in 54th Daytona 500 with American Ethanol, Kenny Wallace

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Mercedes: FWD Baby CLS in 18 Months, Three Models Based on A-class to Follow a Year Apart

The new president of Mercedes-Benz USA, Steve Cannon, has a tough task ahead. The former Army Ranger arrives just in time to oversee launches for the new SL and GL in 2012, as well as face lifts for other products. But the real challenge will be steering Mercedes into compact-car territory in the States. In Europe [...]

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2014 Corvette C7 full body prototype spied winter testing

After prototype mules wearing C6 bodies first appeared in October last year, we finally have first pictures of a full body Corvette C7 prototype.

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Chevrolet gets weight increase

Chevrolet has had the weight of its Cruze model increased by 30kg for this year’s World Touring Car Championship, following its domination of the 2011 series.

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Photos: Preseason Thunder Daytona Testing Day 3

PHOTO CREDIT: NASCAR MEDIA

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Tarquini sticks with SEAT for 2012

Former World Touring Car champion Gabriele Tarquini will drive a SEAT under the Lukoil Racing banner again in 2012. The 49-year-old Italian will again be partnered with Russian driver Alexey Dudukalo, who Tarquini is mentoring as part of the Lukoil programme.

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Former NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. files for bankruptcy

Bobby Hamilton Jr. (Photo Credit: NASCAR Illustrated / Scene Daily) Former NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. has filed for bankruptcy to reorganize his debts, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tennessee. Hamilton Jr. filed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers last week. Hamilton Jr. and his wife are listed as debtors, as is his…more»

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Better racing – but is it fake?

In Monaco before Christmas, Formula 1′s governing body held a meeting to discuss one of the key and most controversial aspects of 2011 – the Drag Reduction System or DRS.

Introduced amid much controversy and no small amount of trepidation in some quarters, questions about the validity of the overtaking aid, not to mention the wisdom of employing it, decreased during the season. So much so that, at the Monaco meeting, it was decided that only small refinements needed to be made to its use for the 2012 campaign.

But while the FIA and the teams all agree that DRS has played a valuable role in improving F1 as a spectacle, they are determined to ensure it performs in the way intended. In particular, no-one wants to cheapen one of the central aspects of a driver’s skill by making overtaking too easy.

Sebastian Vettel enters the DRS zone at the Spanish Grand Prix. Photo: Getty

To recap briefly, DRS was introduced in an attempt to solve the perennial problem of there being too little overtaking. After years – decades even – of discussions, F1′s technical brains hit on what they thought could be a solution: DRS.

DRS does what it says on the tin. When deployed, the top part of the rear wing moves upwards, reducing drag and giving a boost in straight-line speed. In races, drivers could use it only if they were within a second of the car in front at a “detection point” shortly before the “DRS zone”. The DRS zone was where DRS could be deployed, which was usually the track’s longest straight.

The idea was to make overtaking possible but not too easy.

There is no doubt that racing improved immeasurably as a spectacle in 2011 compared with previous seasons. But how big a role did DRS play? And did overtaking become too easy at some tracks and remain too hard at others?

It is a more complex issue than it at first appears because it is not always easy to tell from the outside whether an overtaking move was a result of DRS or not.

In Turkey and Belgium, for example, several drivers sailed past rivals in the DRS zone long before the end of it, leading many to think the device had made overtaking too easy.

But, armed with statistics, FIA race director Charlie Whiting says appearances were deceptive. What was making overtaking easy at those two races, he said, was the speed advantage of the car behind as the two cars battling for position came off the corner before the DRS zone.

Whiting showed me a spreadsheet detailing the speeds of the respective cars in all the overtaking manoeuvres that happened in the Belgian GP.

“This shows very clearly that when the speed delta [difference] between the two cars at the beginning of the zone is low, then overtaking is not easy,” he said. “But if one car goes through Eau Rouge that bit quicker, sometimes you had a speed delta of 18km/h (11mph). Well, that’s going to be an overtake whether you’ve got DRS or not.”

According to Whiting, the statistics show that if the two cars come off the corner into the DRS zone at similar speeds, then the driver behind needs to be far closer than the one-second margin that activates the DRS if he is to overtake.

“One second is the activation but that won’t do it for you,” Whiting said. “You’ve got to be 0.4secs behind to get alongside into the braking zone.”

Confusing the picture in 2011 – particularly early in the season – was the fast-wearing nature of the new Pirelli tyres, which led to huge grip differences between cars at various points of the races. A driver on fresher tyres would come off a corner much faster and brake that much later for the next one. That would have a far greater impact on the ease of an overtaking move than DRS ever would.

Critics of DRS might argue that while it may be useful at tracks where overtaking has traditionally been difficult, like Melbourne, Valencia and Barcelona, for example, it is debatable whether there is a need for it at circuits where historically there has been good racing, like Turkey, Belgium and Brazil.

According to Whiting, DRS does not diminish the value of an overtaking move at tracks where it is usually easy to pass. It just means that DRS opens up the possibility for more. In other words, it works just as it does at any other track.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe is an influential member of the Technical Working Group of leading engineers which came up with DRS. He said people had been arguing for years that engineers should alter the fundamental design of cars to facilitate overtaking.

However, tinkering with aerodynamic design was never going to be a solution, according to Lowe, because F1 cars will always need downforce to produce such high performance, and that means overtaking will always, by the cars’ nature, be difficult.

“What’s great [about DRS is] at least we can move on from this debate of trying to change the aerodynamic characteristics of cars to try to improve overtaking,” added Lowe.

“We’ve found something much more authoritative, much cheaper, easier and more effective, and adjustable from race to race.”

Whiting thinks DRS worked as expected everywhere except Melbourne and Valencia.

Valencia’s DRS zone could be extended for 2012. Photo: Getty 

So for next season’s opening race in Australia, he is considering adding a second DRS zone after the first chicane, so drivers who have used DRS to draw close to rivals along the pit straight can have another crack at overtaking straight afterwards. As for Valencia, traditionally the least entertaining race of the year, the FIA will simply make the zone, which is located on the run to Turn 12, longer.

There is potentially one big negative about DRS, though.

There is a risk that its introduction could mean the end of races in which a driver uses his skills to hold off a rival in a faster car. Some of the greatest defensive victories of the modern age have been achieved in this way. One thinks of Gilles Villeneuve holding off a train of four cars in his powerful but poor-handling Ferrari to win in Jarama in 1981, or Fernando Alonso fending off Michael Schumacher’s faster Ferrari at Imola in 2005.

The idea behind the introduction of DRS was for a much faster car to be able to overtake relatively easily but for passing still to be difficult between two cars of comparative performance. In theory, if that philosophy is adhered to rigidly, the sorts of races mentioned above will still be possible.

However, once an aid has been introduced that gives the driver behind a straight-line speed advantage that is an incredibly difficult line to walk, as Whiting himself admits. “You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth to a certain extent,” he said.

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In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Children Face Extra Risk From Traffic

Kids are more likely to be injured while walking or biking in East Harlem and the Lower East Side than the wealthier areas between them. Click to enlarge. Image: T.A.
Children growing up in Manhattan’s low-income communities are at significantly higher risk of being seriously injured or killed in traffic than their neighbors in wealthier districts, [...]

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