Coverage for WRC Rally Jordan begins tonight on Discovery HD Theatre at 9:00 PM Central with a Preview and Day 1 coverage. Day 2 and 3 coverage continues on Friday also beginning at 9:00 PM Central. Rally Jordan was the 3rd event of the WRC season and is a gravel rally. Mikko Hirvonen won last year’s event and was looking to repeat and make up some ground on Loeb in the WRC driver points standing, but unfortunately things didn’t turn out so well for Mikko. Loeb managed to fight off Mikko’s teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala, for another victory for the season. Loeb has quite an advantage in the driver points standings going into Rally Turkey. Petter Solberg made another strong showing finishing in 3rd and Kimi Raikkonen finished his first event and even cracked the top 10.
Sunday was my first autocross event of the year and first event in the BMW 135i with the new set up. The course for the first NRSCCA Solo Points Event at Lincoln Air Park was pretty long, with most times in the 75-95 second range. Was a great opportunity to get accustomed to the new setup and do some tuning on it. I had 2 other drivers driving the car, Jon S. (from Tarsust) was co-driving with me in STU and provided a lot of help and input on suspension settings and Dan H. drove the car in BSP.
Dan H. driving the BMW 135i in BSP
Since my first autocross event of the season, at least driving event, is fastly approaching (this Sunday!), I thought I would give an update on what I’ve done to the 135i during the autocross offseason. Last year I ran in STU with my only modifications being a larger front sway bar and larger width front wheels. The larger front sway bar and less staggered wheel/tire combo helped a lot over the stock set up (with run flat tires), but to get the car to be anywhere near competitive some more upgrades were required.
New Setup with AST coilover and Apex ARC-8 Wheels on BMW 135i
The 2011 Subaru STI was unveiled today at the New York Auto Show. For the first time the STI will be offered in both a hatchback and sedan version. The sedan version takes the STI back to the roots that defined the model. Also with the return of the sedan is the return of the giant wing, which made the car so unmistakable in the past.
2011 Subaru STi sedan unveiled at New York Auto Show
Gotcone was at the Texas National Tour last weekend (March 27th & 28th) in Mineral Wells, TX taking photos. Wow, what a windy day Saturday was. The wind made it very challenging to get photos to turn out. You can check out the nearly 1500 photos in the gallery.
Christy Carlson took 1st place in STUL at the Texas National Tour in her 2006 Subaru STi
Don’t forget to set your DVRs, WRC coverage in the U.S. continues this week on Discovery HD Theater. Rally Mexico coverage begins on Thursday with a preview and a recap of Day 1. Coverage wraps up on Friday night with recaps of Days 2 and 3. See the full schedule for times in your area.
Ken Block made his WRC debut at Rally Mexico
It seems like every time I attempt to install or upgrade something on a car it is way more difficult then it should be. ‘Simple tasks’ that should take less then an hour end up taking 4 or 5 hours including at least one trip to the auto parts/hardware store and a few choice words yelled at whatever I am working on. Sometimes I think I must be the least mechanically inclined person in the world. Yet I still try to do things myself, maybe it’s stubbornness or maybe it’s stupidity! I think a lot of people have probably experienced this, at least I hope I am not alone on this journey to install my new parts like new hydraulic hoses and new batteries. Speaking of auto parts, if you want to buy the best for your car then make sure you do your research first and if a part does take a chunk out out of your wallet then you may want to get a mechanic to install it so you ensure that it gets placed perfectly and not end up with something that you will have to repair later on. Also, don’t buy something just because it’s cheap. It may be tempting to buy a tuning kit half off, but if you’re looking for quality then you should take a look at Whipple Superchargers.
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Just about everyone on the planet has watched Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos. Well, Ken Block will be making his WRC debut with the Monster World Rally Team this weekend at Rally Mexico. Block will be driving a Ford Focus RS sponsored by Monster Energy Drink this year in his WRC appearances. Keep an eye on how he does on the WRC site, current results are located here.
Ken Block drifts his Monster World Rally Team Ford Fiesta at Rally America 100 Acre Wood
We got one of these a couple months ago and they are amazing. Takes excellent video in upto 1080P or 720P at 60 frames per second. They are perfect for mounting all over (inside and outside) your car or on a helmet. It even comes with mounts and brackets and a waterproof casing.
This deal is only $213 that’s $87 off retail and free shipping!
http://www.superbikesupply.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SBS&Product_Code=camera-gopro-01&Category_Code=camera-gopro
GotCone.com has gotten a makeover of sorts with a brand new site design for 2010. The gallery has been redone so that less scrolling will be necessary to see the photos, which hopefully will help the overall experience on the website. If you run into any issues please let me know by posting a comment below. I tried to test the site in a wide variety of web browsers, but there are some many varieties it is hard to get all of them. Please let me know what you think of the new site design!
