Home / Posts tagged 'Formula 1'

• British Man Builds Frankenstein F1 Racer

  In Sponsored / By Staff / 26 April 2013

  

  A Formula 1 fan from Brighton in the UK has built a full-scale racing car in the shed at the end of his garden. The car, which needed £8,000 in parts and took four years to build, is modeled on a 2001 BRA Honda 003.

  Perhaps most remarkable of all is that Kevin Thomas, the dedicated craftsman, has absolutely no engineering experience whatsoever – or formal training. He hand-built the replica without using a manual or the internet and taught himself to work with carbon fibre. The latter is especially impressive because he managed to get the side-pods from a Williams-BMW F1 car to fit the engine cover from a BAR, which is no mean feat.

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• Get Excited: Longer U.S. Trailer for Rush Brings the Awesome [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 12 April 2013

  

  On Monday the international trailer for Ron Howard’s Formula 1 historical docudrama Rush burst onto the internet, and boy howdy, does it make the flick look good. The cars, the costumes, the special effects…it all looks amazing. Of course, with Ron Howard as skipper, you would expect that, wouldn’t you?

  Now a second, longer trailer aimed at U.S. moviegoers is out. And you know what? It’s even more amazing. Example: Check out how well the VFX team managed to replicate the Nürburgring’s old parallel front and back straights and pit complex, all of which were bulldozed in the early ‘80s when the modern Grand Prix circuit was constructed. Plus it does a markedly better job of fleshing out the backstory (kind of a necessity, since so few Americans are familiar with Formula 1 past or present) and, oh yes, more Olivia Wilde. Did we mention September 20^th can’t come soon enough? Because it can’t.

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• Opie’s Open-Wheel Opus: Rush Trailer Hits the Web [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 8 April 2013

  

  When we first got wind that Ron Howard would be making a movie called Rush chronicling the 1976 Formula 1 season – specifically, the rivalry between that season’s top title contenders, Niki Lauda of Ferrari and James Hunt of McLaren – we positively squeed with glee. Yes, pretty much every non-documentary racing movie made after Le Mans has been an over-(and/or under-)acted, Newtonian-physics-flaunting-crash-filled farce, but this project was being helmed by Ron Bleeping Howard. You know, the ginger-maned (or what’s left of it) artist behind such masterworks as Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, and Frost/Nixon. So we had hope.

  Now it looks like our hope was well-placed. After watching the above video, the first international trailer for Rush, we can now say we are officially stoked. The cars, the venues, the fashion…it all looks dead on and lifted straight out of one of F1’s most glamorous (and dangerous) epochs. Even the tobacco sponsor logos on the cars and trackside signage are present and accounted for (though we’re sure they will be blurred out in France, Canada and other revisionist history countries). With this movie and the drag racing epic Snake and Mongoose both set for release in September, we reckon this autumn will be a most bountiful one for motorsports history geeks like us.

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• Totally Radical Racing: Formula 1 and Rally in the 1980s [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 4 April 2013

  

  Although most motorsports historians like to wax poetic (or not-so-poetic) about the barnstorming between-the-World-Wars era, or the glamorous 1950s, the 1980s was a damn good period for racing in its own right. Advancements in design and engineering led to major advances in speed and safety, and increased manufacturer and sponsor involvement – not to mention improved and expanded TV coverage – increased awareness of the sport exponentially. Oh, and the fact that rule makers still gave manufacturers and constructors a long leash with regard to creativity certainly didn’t hurt.

  With this in mind, Finnish YouTuber Antti Kalhola made this video tribute to this remarkable decade. Yes, we wish there were clips from series besides Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship (namely Indy car and IMSA/Group C sports cars), but we’re guessing F1 and WRC were the only two series from which Antti had suitable footage to work. Besides, no one can begrudge him choosing a track from Jan Hammer (Specifically “Crockett’s Theme” from Miami Vice.). No one!

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• Infiniti Red Bull Racing Shows How Rhythmic Creating a New Formula 1 Car Can Be [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 14 February 2013

  

  Formula 1 cars are by far the most expensive and technologically complex racecars on the planet. Each team rolls out a brand new (or at least heavily revised) one every year, and each car is the result of thousands upon thousands of hours of dedication and labor by, in the case of the top teams, hundreds of people. The process of developing an F1 car is not unlike an orchestra performing a concert: Each member plays a specific instrument, and has to make his or her assigned contribution at just the right time in order to form a cohesive, pleasing whole.

  Interestingly, there’s one team that has taken that analogy one step further. Infiniti Red Bull Racing – winners of the last three drivers and constructors championships – put together this decidedly artful take on the process that went into creating the squad’s 2013 weapon, the Renault-powered RB9. From the pencil and drafting table of technical chief Adrian Newey (He may be old school, but he’s schooling his rivals!), to prototyping, crash testing, assembly and finally the finished product, there’s a lot that goes into crafting a modern grand prix car. Obviously, a lot was left out of this video due to both time and secrecy concerns, but it’s still a good primer on the processes involved.

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• Chill out with Formula 1 Legends and Fresh Moods’ “My Face” [Video]

  In Fast Forward / By Tom Anderson / 8 February 2013

  

  Considering the name and nature of chill out music (the relaxed, almost ethereal subgenre of electronica), it seems counterintuitive to pair a song that fits that category with footage from what was arguably the most glamorous – and dangerous – period in the history of Formula 1 racing. Yet that’s exactly what the folks behind Fresh Moods, a limited edition reissue of a chill out compilation LP of the same name, did. The gentle, meandering rhythms and gentle (compared to more aggressive electronic music subgenres like dubstep and trance) “instrumentals” and “vocals” actually mesh with the sinewy, largely uncluttered F1 cars of the late-‘60s and early-‘70s. And the kaleidoscope of vibrant colors doesn’t hurt, either.

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• The Top 20 Car Themed Bedrooms

  In Lists / By Tom Anderson / 20 December 2012

  

  Rare is the child who does not want to personalize his or her bedroom to better reflect his or her interests. And for almost anything you can think of that kids are into, there’s a wide range of things like bed sheets, wallpaper, rugs, furniture and other things with which they can personalize their personal spaces. One of these interests of children (mostly boys, it must be said) is, of course, cars.

  However, some kids don’t outgrow bedrooms decorated in an automotive motif. Some grown up gearheads refuse to expunge their Formula 1 fixation or Audi addiction from the place they rest their heads, and instead embrace it. It is for these people that we have collected the following 20 pictures of car nut bedrooms. Some are for kids and some are for adults, but all are likely to fill your dreams with the sounds of screeching tires and screaming engines. And folks, those are the best kinds of dreams.

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• F1 Race Stars is the Pinnacle of Motorsports…Only Cuter [w/ Video]

  In Video Games / By Tom Anderson / 25 October 2012

  

  Ever since it acquired the highly-prized Formula 1 license for video games in 2009, Codemasters has been turning out super realistic, super polished F1 games for PC, the major consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) and, in the case of some installments, the major hand-helds (PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS) and Apple iOS. All are about as close as you can get to being a real Formula 1 driver without having started karting at age five and presenting Sir Frank Williams or Vijay Mallya with an eight-figure check.

  Now, the British-based company is looking to get a lot more out of what’s probably its priciest property. But instead of staying on the serious simulator path, Codemasters is taking its new F1 offshoot – F1 Race Stars – in a decidedly more whimsical direction. How much more whimsical? Take a look at the gameplay trailer after the jump and decide for yourself.

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• The Top 10 Gearhead Documentaries of All Time

  In Lists / By Tom Anderson / 19 October 2012

  

  Last summer, we compiled a list of 25 movies that should be required viewing for car buffs. We hope you’ve been able to watch at least some of the movies we named since then, because we’re about to tell you about 10 more movies you’ll want to put on your “must watch” list.

  You see, we pointed out in the intro of last year’s article that we were excluding documentary and non-fiction works. We did that for two reasons: One, to leave more room for fiction movies and two, to avoid being accused of favoring one genre over another. Now, the documentaries finally get their turn in the spotlight. However, since there’s one motorcycle-centric flick on the following list, we’re calling them gearhead (as opposed to car nut) documentaries. Here they are.

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• Sub5Zero Fantasy Collection: Renault Espace F1 [w/ Video]

  In Featured / By Tom Anderson / 17 August 2012

  

  Ah, the minivan. It is an exceptionally user-friendly, eminently practical car-based carrier of people and stuff. It is also a seven-seater (give or take) beacon to the rest of the world, signaling that you’ve abandoned any and all attempts at being cool, sexy, or any other exciting adjective. Sure, you may have managed to stay cool or sexy or whatever in spite of being a minivan driver, but people who see you in a minivan but don’t know you won’t know that, will they?

  This is not to say that every minivan is uncool. The Toyota Previa, with its egg-on-wheels profile and supercharged inline-four lying on its side and under the floor, was cool by way of quirkiness. However, if you want a minivan that’s cool by way of being totally badass, you can find one by winding the clock back to 1994 and the Paris Auto Show. It was there that the Renault Espace F1 concept was unleashed upon the world.

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