Archive for January, 2011
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Starts the 2011 Dakar Rally with Driver Sue Mead
Posted on 03. Jan, 2011 by admin.
While we’re still shaking off a restful break from the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, Sue Mead, Darren Skilton and the team supporting the FabSchool/General Tire Ford F-150 SVT Raptor are racing in the 2011 Dakar Rally in South America.
The Dakar Rally (formerly the Paris Dakar Rally) is the most grueling motorsports event in the world. Since 2009, it’s been run through the deserts and mountains of Chile and Argentina.
This year’s Dakar kicked off in Argentina on January 1, with an on-road rally from Buenos Aires to Victoria, before starting Stage 1 on January 2 in the first off-road leg from Victoria to Cordoba. The entire race is a 9,500 kilometer (5,903 miles) circuit from Buenos Aires to the Atacama Desert Chile that runs through January 16.
Mead, a freelance writer for PickupTrucks.com, is well versed and experienced in off-road racing, and has participated in the Dakar race once before as a co-driver. In 2000, she took part in the race when it was held in Africa, along with veteran off-road racers Darren Skilton and Troy Johnson racing for Kia. If you recall, that race was stopped by a terrorist threat, and many of the racers, including Mead’s team were evacuated. Mead was also a support driver for Volkswagen in the 2009 Dakar Rally.
Mead and Skilton have been running against the clock since well before the green flag dropped at this year's Dakar Rally. They had to custom fabricate hardware and line up sponsors in less than six months to get the F-150 ready for South America.
The FabSchool/General Tire Raptor (Truck No. 374) is outfitted with an ARB locker, King Shocks at each corner and wheels from Walker Evans Racing. Inside, there are Cobra seats with Crow Harnesses. Under the hood, the 5.4-liter V-8 Raptor is mostly in factory form except for a pair of Odyssey batteries and Royal Purple Racing oil.
Mead and Skilton aren’t the only Raptor competing in this year’s Dakar. Javier Campillay and Pablo Rodríguez from the Tamarugal XC Rally Team (Truck No. 375) are racing in a Raptor for the second year after gaining notoriety for their effort in the 2010 Dakar Rally. Both teams will be collaborating to make sure the two Raptors cross under the checkered flag in fifteen days.
So far, the FabSchool team is in 126th place but the tough stuff is just getting started. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks or follow along day by day at the official Dakar website or on Facebook.
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Video: Apprentice-Built Mercedes-Benz B55 Burnout
Posted on 03. Jan, 2011 by admin.
What we have here is a Mercedes-Benz B-Class, a car normally powered by efficient four-cylinder gasoline or turbodiesel mills, given a powerplant transplant by apprentices at the automaker’s plant in Rastatt, Germany. Their weapon of choice? A throaty V-8 engine displacing 5.5-liters and delivering no less than 388 horsepower and 391…
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Ferrari 458 Driver Runs Fiat Off Highway, Proceeds To Pick A Fight
Posted on 03. Jan, 2011 by admin.
It’s hardly a surprise to hear that a Ferrari driver may have a little air of superiority, especially when that driver is behind the wheel of the new 458 Italia, one of the Italian marques most gorgeous models in history and one with that lists for more than $225,325. Nevertheless, the 458 Italia driver involved in this latest incident has…
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Spy Shots: BMW Vision EfficientDynamics (a.k.a. i8 Supercar)
Posted on 03. Jan, 2011 by admin.
We know BMW is working on a new eco supercar to take on the likes of the Audi R8 and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, both of which will be spawning their respective all-electric versions, but apart from a tentative release date of October 2013 we don’t have too many solid details concerning the new car. All is not lost, however, as BMW has given us a…
