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. 

 

Experience Scary Fast Test Drives in 360 Degree VIDEO

05/03/2012

Ever want to know what it feels like to be a passenger in a super fast test drive? Well, be careful what you wish for.

As you watch the videos below, click and drag your mouse over the streaming image to pan left or right. They're using a camera from GoPano.con that mounts on the dash for these somewhat bumpy rides.

This first one is in a race care on a track. Not sure what top speed he's hitting, but it's up there. Anyone care to guess?

So that was fairly scary, but nothing compared to this next clip. WARNING: Playing both of these streams simultaneously could max out your broadband connection. Best to play them separately.

Velocity Weekly Round Up: Week of January 9th 2012

01/22/2012

It was a busy week here at Velocity – we were on the lookout for the best news out of the Detroit International Auto Show, the Dakar Rally and every other place where cars are rolling.

Let’s not waste any time! Off we go…

The Detroit International Auto Show

The Ford Fusion:

The concept cars that hit the blocks at the IAS are all very cool, but could you actually afford or drive any of them? Likely not anytime soon.  So what was the buzz in the “I could actually own one” category?  The 2013 Ford Fusion.  It seems to have won lots of high ratings from the auto blogs covering the show. It has a sleeker updated design and a grand total of FIVE power trains – one naturally aspirated, two turbocharged, one hybrid and one plug in hybrid. This car is jam packed with options and with a projected 26 mpg in the city and 37 mpg highway it’s a real option to take on Japanese models in the mid-size category.

Credit: Rohatynski-Harlow Public Relations, LLC/Detroit International Auto Show

VW Debuts an All-Electric Beetle:

German automaker VW introduced its all-electric E-Bugster concept car. The car is darn cute and while many concept cars look spacey or something out of a futuristic movie, this car actually looks like the next design iteration of the current VW.  In short, you know it’s a Beetle. The car is powered by a 695 lb. Li-ion battery and gives a 100-mile range at full charge. It’s hard to tell where to future of electric vehicles will go given the limited range vehicles introduced to date, but due to it’s pop culture appeal maybe it will help propel greater adoption.

Credit: Rohatynski-Harlow Public Relations, LLC/Detroit International Auto Show

The Plastic Car Bubble    

Sometimes we think so high tech we ignore the low-tech items.  Not so here at Velocity.  We came across this story last week on Technabob – about an inflatable plastic bubble complete with a fan to circulate air around your precious.  The fact that it is see through so you can admire your car is an added bonus.  How much for this strange, yet not entirely crazy snow globe for your car? Starting around $249 and up… 

The Dakar Rally 2011

The infamous long distance, off-road rally was held in South America for the first time this year. It covered 5,025 miles stretching from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru. Stephane Peterhansel, France won his tenth Dakar rally but in a first time vehicle entry: a 315-bhp, 3.0-liter twin-turbo diesel-powered AWD Mini. After a grueling course this year, only 249 of the 443 vehicles entered in the race made it to the finish.  American Robby Gordon came in fifth in a glorious orange Hummer created cloud of dust. Check out the photos over at Jalopnik.

Consumer Electronic Show

It wasn’t just cars getting the showy treatment last week – the world’s largest consumer electronic show convened in Las Vegas. Traditionally, it’s the forum where big computer and electronic gadget makers debut their special products for the year. A round up of all the blogs who attended seemed to agree the real winner in the laptop stakes was the Dell XPS 13. It seems to be taking a swipe at Apple’s Macbook Air with this incredibly thin (6mm at it’s thinnest point) 11 in. “Ultrabook.” The screen is actually a 13in. despite the footprint because Dell has used a near frameless design; the carbon fiber base also stands out, which Dell claims will make it cooler than other laptops.

Other cool items from CES? Tobii’s Eye Tracking Interface – a system in which and infrared camera tracks where your eye is looking and that’s where the cursor goes allowing you to control items at will.  Some suggest it might replace the mouse or trackpads…stay tuned! 

One other item had people talking – AfterShokz headphones.  Apparently based on military special ops bone conduction technology, these headphones don’t rest in your ear, they rest outside them on the high cheekbones right next to your ear. This leaves your ear open to hear ambient noise around you – something that sounds like a pretty good idea given that report on earphone use leading to increased pedestrian deaths.  Dubious? 18th century composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who was almost completely deaf, tried the technique developed earlier by Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia in which he discovered he could hear music through his jawbone by biting a rod attached to his piano. Now that’s a cool fact.

Classic Wrecks

Looking for something a little more interesting to give your car fan? Check out Classic Wrecks – this guy will makes 1:24 scale models of some classic cars. The big difference is they are less shiny and bright and have more of a left on blocks look about them.  A different approach for sure and yet, strangely appealing.

What a busy week! We also had premieres episodes of our new shows including – One of a Kind, Autoweek's Vinsetta’s Garage and Saw Dogs.  There’s only more to come!

As long as we’re talking, what are your thoughts on electric cars – do you think they will ever become a viable alternative?

Now Go in the Kitchen and Make Me a Sandwich

12/16/2011

It's becoming a perfectly acceptable thing to say again. Not to your wife (!), but to these robots.

Cool New Thing From the Future: EXOdesk

12/13/2011

The EXOdesk is a 40” inch multitouch interactive desk that is designed to sit right in front of your regular PC monitor.

The teaser video came out right after Microsoft opened pre-orders for the Samsung Sur40, and with a price tag of about $7,000 less, the EXOdesk is much friendlier to the wallet. It doesn’t have all the cool specs the Sur40 has, but after watching the video I know I want it.

 
EXOPC will be showing off this new workspace at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January and will be available to consumers in 2012 for $1,299. 

Photo credit: EXOpc/exopc.com