Street Magic

That’s street magician Ryan Shadow, of Nashville TN.  A great act.

Bottom left: note his business card… and the absence of any internet presence (no email, website).

Interesting.

This is downtown Nashville with Nissan, when I was there testing their all-new Rogue (here’s my review).

And Didier – making an official blog pledge here to you – one day I’ll prove magic ;)

 

 

Starting up a Pagani Huayra

One of the world’s best cars.

Built in Italy, less than 100 will be produced.

$1.8 million

It’s a twin-turbo 6.0L Mercedes AMG V-12 engine,
outputting 730 hp and 740 lb.ft
top speed is 370 km/h
0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds

Busy interior eh.

I got the key mwah.

Huayra is pronounced: wai-rah. Say it with a Hawaiian accent. It’s Quechua, the official language of the Inca Empire, and translates to “God of the winds”.

This is the all carbon-fiber model.

Of course I turned this moment into a blog header.

It was Pfaff who brought the car to town, its first time on North American soil.  Thanks for having me guys.

 

 

Around the Track with Ken Block

Ford invited me to an event a few weeks back, Ken Block was in Toronto, and they’d set him up a course.

Non-car nerds: Ken Block, world-class precision driver and drifter. Sponsored by Ford, GoPro, Monster. Co-founded DC Shoes.

Watch him drift all of San Francisco:

He drives a 2013 Ford Fiesta ST RX43, outputting 650-hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, 0-100 km/h in 1.8 seconds.

Then, total luck, this happened:

We went around the course, it was about 90 seconds that felt like 2.

For such a maniacal sport, it was so calm in the cabin, surprised me; there’s less movement required than you may think.

We flew around,  I let myself get tossed around in the Gs, the entire cabin filled with smoke, and Ken drove so hard the car broke, making ours the final run of the day.

And then…

Above is the file list, no Ken footage, just poof: missing.  No explanation, that’s hard on a stomach.  Imagine writing that email to Ford… then one to Motoring TV… omg of all the footage to lose, in all the lands…

Adding to the disappointment: the footage of me driving the auto-cross course was also gone, and I’d driven so well that day.

Ken released his latest video, Gymkhana SIX. Wrote about it on Autonet yesterday, here. It’s ridiculous, go watch.

 

 

Driving Elation

Filmed in Napa CA, while testing the new VW 1.8L Turbo.

Ridiculous changes in elevation, not one straight line,
through beautiful terrain, on a clear blue sky day…
alone on total video game roads.

Manual all day long, too.

One of my best driving experiences to date.

Here’s the post about that trip. And another video, and about the car.