The Grand Ascent Hillclimb 2012

06/16/2012

On Tuesday 12/11, you'll get to see a classic episode of Chasing Classic Cars where Wayne Carini goes through his plan to market and then sell th Porsche Special Hill Climb Car. He takes it to the Hershey Hill Climb race to put it through its paces and has a darn good time doing it. But that doesn't stop him from taking it to auction.

THough the Hill Climb took place back in June, we were lucky enough to have Kenneth Visser - automobile fan, blogger and photographer extraordinaire on site and reporting back on the action. Take a walk down memory lane below, and don't forget to tune in to Chasing Classic Cars starting on Tuesday 12/11 starting at 9p.

Another fine tradition has been reignited with the second running of the The Grand Ascent Hillclimb held on the grounds of the Hershey Hotel.  This is a VSCCA sanctioned hill climb exhibition and features a wide variety historic racing cars thundering up a five turn three quarters of a mile long course.  A unique opportunity to see, hear and smell vintage race cars slamming gears.  This event was reignited with the start of the Elegance At Hershey.  We'll talk more about the Concours later.  Let's take a look at some of the neat machinery that was attacking the hill.

Wayne Carini was selected as the Honary Grand Marshall of the Grand Ascent.  He brought his smile and his driving skills to the hill.

Wayne Carini of Chasing Classic Cars took the Bill Rutan VW* special with a 356 four cam motor up the hill.  Wayne spoke about the rides up later "I had a blast"  And his sub 57 second times were reflective of his blistering pace. 

 

Top 10 Most Iconic Movie and Television Cars

04/14/2012

In some movies and television series the car played just as big a role (or an even bigger one) than the actual human characters. In this list we are counting down the most memorable and iconic movie and television cars that have driven across your screen.

10. George Barris Batmobile

Luxury Mercedes Vans I Would Not Mind Having

04/08/2012

Tonight on Inside West Coast Customs Ryan will turn a Mercedes Sprinter into the office of his dreams. To get you into Custom-Mercedes-Sprinter spirits I thought I’d share with you these other amazingly customized Sprinters.

Let me just grab some of my stuff and move into this car. I would happily live in this one.

How to Improve the Already Awesome Camaro

03/30/2012

In 2015 General Motors nis going to launch their sixth generation Chevrolet Camaro, but designing the new car is difficult. The Camaro has outsold the Ford Mustang for the past two years and has a 40% share of the rear-drive performance coupe market.

You can’t mess with success, so how do you change such a successful car? A few things have already been decided: the next Camaro will share the smaller-and-lighter Alpha platform with the Cadillac ATS. This will make the car a few pounds lighter, which will boost fuel economy and make the car a better performer on the track.

But looks matter too. Al Oppenheiser, Camaro’s chief engineer told Automotive News styling the car will be tough “Do you make it look like a second-gen (built from 1970-81), or do you make it look like the first gen (1967-69)?”

The team apparently already has a direction in mind, but they are not willing to share any information yet.

 "We talk with our teams about what would you do to top [the current Camaro] or not top it, at least make sure you don't lose what you have today," Oppenheiser said.

Maybe they should take the advice from Ryan Friedlinghaus and his West Coast Customs team. They designed the awesome Camaro shown in the picture above for the American Cancer Society. The car features a new supercharger and updated exhaust system, an upgraded suspension, sweet body kit and custom subwoofers. All things that would be great for the sixth generation, no?

Watch Inside West Coast Customs Sunday at 9pm to see the Camaro getting transformed. Only on Velocity.

Inside West Coast Customs: Most Amazing Mustang Yet?

03/22/2012

In 1967 Mustang faced its first serious competitor, the Chevy Camaro, so this model had to be powerful enough to keep up with this competition. So Mustang’s manufacturers made the car bigger, faster and tougher.  

The increased body size allowed Ford to put their first big-block engine in a Mustang. This optional 390-cubic-inch 6.4L V-8 motor was capable of producing an impressive 320 hp. The car could reach 0-60 mph in only 7.4 seconds and had a top speed of 115 mph.