General Motors is celebrating the 100 year anniversary of its Chevrolet brand in 2011 and in its latest piece of promotion is casting light on its motorsports heritage.

Company founder Louis Chevrolet was an aspiring racing car driver and the bowtie brand has been active in almost every major U.S. racing series for the past 100 years. One of the more significant connections is between Chevrolet and the Indy 500 with Chevy-powered cars winning the event seven times and production vehicles pacing the field 22 times. Louis Chevrolet himself competed in early Indy 500 races and also designed race-winning cars for the 1920 and 1921 events. Interestingly, next year Chevy will again power Indy 500 cars in the form of a 2.2-litre, twin-turbo V-6 engine currently in development.

In NASCAR, Chevrolet has been even more successful. Since the mid-1950s, Chevrolet has racked up over 680 victories in NASCAR competition, winning 35 manufacturer’s titles and 27 driver’s championships in the process. (more…)

The say the final moments of this year’s Bathurst 1000 were exciting would be an understatement – it was a dead set thriller.

After six hours, twenty-six minutes and fifty-two seconds on the Mount Panorama track the difference between the leading two V8 Supercars came down to just 0.29 seconds. The Toll Holden Racing Team pairing of Garth Tander and Nick Percat crossed the line first closely followed the Team Vodafone pairing of Bathurst veterans Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife.

With 21 laps to go Lowndes was running in seventh, but by lap 148 the seasoned competitor had made his way into second. It was all set up for a grandstand finish and that’s exactly what spectators and fans at home got. Four time winner Lowndes continued to push up on Tander but the rookie held his nerve and Lowndes couldn’t force his way through. Epic stuff and the winning margin of 0.2917s is the closest in the history of the great race. (more…)

Fast Five is in NZ cinemas right now and it’s got the kids going crazy, while there’s the same action stars in this flick, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker the co-stars are, like always the cars.

In this fifth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise a whole new batch of vehicles debut and this time it’s mostly about American muscle. Car guy/funny man/denim warrior Jay Leno gets a good look at the film cars in his awesome garage and has used it as an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage (see video below).

Leno has movie car builder Dennis McCarthy on hand to show off the C2 Corvette Grand Sport replica he built for the film. It features a 1980s Corvette suspension and a custom body by Mongoose. While many movie cars are powered by fairly limp engines, this Vette still comes packing 500 ponies. Since the Corvette was built for movie production, there are another nine copies floating around a couple of them even sit on Volkswagen platforms so they can handle the film’s off-road stunts. (more…)

Since its recent release Ford has been all about big claims that its 2011 Boss 335 GT goes seriously hard, and is motivated by the most-powerful V8 ever offered in an Australian sedan. While we knew they were for real, a new video featuring race legend Allan Moffat is now driving the point home.

FPV’s high-tech, supercharged 5.0 litre V8 engine produces 335kW of power and 570Nm of torque, and is now standard fitment across the GT, GT-P and GT E models. It’s also very compact in size — 47kg lighter than the outgoing 5.4 litre Boss 315kW engine. It’s certainly enough power to easily get owners in trouble with the law.

Click below to see the first advertising video for the fresh-engined 2011 FPV Boss 335 GT. Might want to turn the volume up a notch too. (more…)

We’re assuming that most of you already know what gymkhana is, in fact most of you have likely given it a go in a supermarket carpark at 3am. But we’re also guessing none of you have ever pulled gymkhana moves in a semi truck. That’s crazy you say. Well, yes it is, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some nutter out there who is willing to give it a crack.

In this cheesy video, American stunt man and race driver Mike Ryan drifts his 4,535 kg purpose built semi truck on the same Gymkhana race track where Ken Block reinented the sport. The track is built around the El Toro Marine Base in California. The Freightliner truck produces 1,454kW of power and over 4,600Nm of torque, so it’s little wonder that frying the truck’s handmade Michelin tyres isn’t a problem. (more…)

We don’t see too many Chevrolet Camaro Convertible SS models here in NZ, in fact, we don’t see any at all. But if we did, it looks like a machine that most of us would totally enjoy. Over in the States it’s a different scene and for some the standard Camaro SS doesn’t quite pack the punch they desire.

When that’s the case, aftermarket tuners Hennessey is there to help out and to prove it, the company has just unveiled the first example of its HPE600 Camaro Convertible, complete with a walloping 602 horsepower. That’s a solid whack and a full 172 ponies more than the most powerful production example with the extra grunt coming from a TVS2300 supercharger and host of other upgrades designed to help the big V8 breathe a little easier.

Hennessey don’t just quit after the engine upgrades either and have done some serious work on the Camaro’s suspension. Buyers who opt for the muscle-bound droptop can expect to find a KW adjustable coilover suspension and wider 20-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres.

In terms of performance Hennessey says that the topless beast can get to 100kph per hour in just 3.9 seconds and can cover the quarter mile run in 12 seconds flat. This isn’t some hairdresser’s car.

To see the HPE600 Camaro drop-top in action check out the video below. (more…)

There’s no replacement for displacement is how the saying always goes and as this crazed story proves, it’s not exactly a new sentiment.

After the end of World War 2 Germany wasn’t allowed to own any military aircrafts which meant there was a huge amount of planes and plane parts laying around idle. So some German locals decided that they could use one of the BMW V12 plane engines to craft a one-of-a-kind racecar. Sounds like a good idea right? Well that BMW V12 aircraft engine was a  a 1925 46.0-litre 12-cylinder unit, to be precise. Not something you’d fit into your average race car, at all.

Understandably there were problems with this bespoke beast, the engine tipped the scales at 510 kg and was huge measuring 1.8 meters long, 1.1 meters tall and 0.87 meters wide. Locating a suitable chassis in post war Germany was difficult but the keen carmakers managed to get hold of a 1908 American LaFrance car that could take the engine’s size and weight. It then took the builders several years to complete the car, which was manufactured in a workshop belonging to the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim and was given the apt name – Brutus.

According to the museum, the engine puts out 500 horsepower at 1,500 rpm, but other sources claim that it can produce 750 hp at 1,700 rpm (but for only one minute). Its fuel consumption is about as bad as it comes with 1 litre being consumed for every kilometer it travels. For this reason Brutus has a huge fuel tank and is said to comfortably cruise at speeds of over 100 km/h at just 800 rpm. (more…)

It hasn’t happened overnight, but it has happened, the next installment in the Fast and Furious film franchise is fully wrapped up. Named Fast 5, this latest action/automotive movie brings together familiar faces from previous movies including Vin Diesel as ex-con Dom Toretto, Paul Walker as former cop Brian O’Conner, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, as well as some new characters such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who plays the role of federal agent Luke Hobbs.

This time the story heads to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil where there is a generous dose of action, chase scenes and rap-video-hot girls in bikinis. The film is set to be released over in the States on April 29, 2011. Expect it to reach our cinemas shortly after.

Click below to watch the trailer video. (more…)