The most prominent championship in stock car racing is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, named after its sponsor Sprint Nextel. It is the most popular racing series in the United States, drawing over 6 million spectators in 1997, an average live audience of over 190,000 people for each race.
Today most stock cars may superficially resemble standard American family sedans, but are in fact purpose-built racing machines built to a strict set of regulations governing the car design ensuring that the chassis, suspension, engine, etc. are architecturally identical on all vehicles.
A stock car, in the original sense of the term, described an automobile that has not been modified from its original factory configuration.
Top level races are 200 to 600 miles (320-1000 km) in length. Average speeds in the top classes are usually within 70-80% of comparable levels of open wheel racing at the same tracks.
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain and Brazil. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately ¼ mile to 2.66 miles (about 400 meters to 4.2 kilometres) in length, but are also raced on road courses.
Touring car racing is a style of road racing that is run with production derived race cars. It often features exciting, full-contact racing due to the small speed differentials and large grids.
Students at colleges and universities can also take part in single seater racing through the Formula SAE competition, which involves designing and building a single seater car in a multidisciplinary team, and racing it at the competition. This also develops other soft skills such as teamwork whilst promoting motorsport and engineering.
There are other categories of single-seater racing, including kart racing, which employs a small, low-cost machine on small tracks. Many of the current top drivers began their careers in karts.
In 2009, the FIA Formula Two Championship brought about the revival of the F2 series. Domestic, or country-specific series include Formula Three, Formula Renault, Formula Ford with the leading introductory series being Formula BMW.
In North America, the cars used in the National Championship (currently the IndyCar Series, and previously CART) have traditionally been similar though less sophisticated than F1 cars, with more restrictions on technology aimed at controlling costs.
The Clipsal 500 Adelaide was attended by a massive 291,400 in 2008. The largest crowd for a domestic motorsport event in Australia. It is almost normal for the current event to set a new attendance record over the previous year. The event also features a concert every night, air displays, amusements and social attractions that bring in spectators from Adelaide, interstate and overseas.
The Clipsal 500 is an annual racing carnival for Touring Cars held in the east end of Adelaide on a shortened form of the Adelaide Street Circuit, the former Australian Grand Prix track. The event is named for naming rights sponsor Clipsal Electronics.
The Australian Grand Prix is a Formula One race that is part of the annual Formula One championship season. It is held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne.
A promotional model is a person hired to drive consumer demand for a product, service, brand, or concept by directly interacting with consumers. A promotional model can be female or male, and typically is attractive in physical appearance.
The Osaka Auto Messe (大阪オートメッセ) is an annual auto show that is held at Intex Osaka in Osaka, Japan since 1997. It focuses on modified car and car after parts.
Single-seater (open-wheel) racing is one of the most popular forms of motorsport, with cars designed specifically for high-speed racing. The wheels are not covered, and the cars often have aerofoil wings front and rear to produce downforce and enhance adhesion to the track.
The 1930s saw the transformation from high-priced road cars into pure racers, with Delage, Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye, and Bugatti constructing streamlined vehicles with engines producing up to 450 kW (612 hp), aided by multiple-stage supercharging.
With auto construction and racing dominated by France, the French automobile club ACF staged a number of major international races, usually from or to Paris, connecting with another major city in Europe or France.
The first regular auto racing venue was Nice, France, run in late March 1897 as a "Speed Week." To fill out the schedule, most types of racing event were invented here, including the first hill climb (Nice - La Turbie) and a sprint that was, in spirit, the first drag race.
Racing began soon after the construction of the first successful petrol-fueled autos; before that time people raced in other vehicles such as horse-drawn buggies. The first race ever organized, by the chief editor of Paris publication Le Vélocipède, Monsieur Fossier, was on April 28 1887 and ran 2 kilometers from Neuilly Bridge to the Bois de Boulogne.
Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) is now starting to appear in production vehicles such as the 2007 (Mark II) BMW Mini. Exhaust gases are also cleaned up by fitting a catalytic converter into the exhaust system.
Gasoline engines have the advantage over diesel in being lighter and able to work at higher rotational speeds and they are the usual choice for fitting in high-performance sports cars. Continuous development of gasoline engines for over a hundred years has produced improvements in efficiency and reduced pollution.
Diesel-engined cars have long been popular in Europe with the first models being introduced in the 1930s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. The main benefit of diesel engines is a 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 27% in the best gasoline engines.
Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel internal combustion engines, which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.
An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor.
Before the start of a race (either SuperBike Championships or MotoGP), the riders have to pull up onto their grid and wait for all the other racers to take their places on the line.
Paddock girls (or umbrella girls) is a term that has been used in professional motorcycle racing for many years. It refers to females employed to hold umbrellas above racers to protect them from the sun. "Paddock" refers to a pen where racehorses are saddled and paraded before a race.
The first usage of promotional models in motor races was during the late 1960s when model Rosa Ogawa was brought in to represent the race winners. It was then that the term race queen was coined.
The models, referred as "grid/pit girls" in Europe, are very common in many series worldwide, but are mostly banned in the United States due to the reasons of being associated with sexism.
The official job of a race queen is to hold an umbrella over the driver while his car is being worked on. They generally wear some sort of revealing costume (mini-dress, swimsuit, hot pants, or the like), as well as pantyhose and high heels or knee-high boots.
After months of scouring the country and much anticipation within the biking world, the Bennetts Babes squad for the 2008 season has been unveiled.
If I wasn't a MotoGP convert before, now I surely am! Just absolutely fantastic! Fast bikes, plenty of action and lots of people packed in 3 days of petrol fume fulled days of sunshine. Granted watching the bikes on tv provides somewhat more comfortable conditions and better viewing.
In 1997 and 1998, the "Australian 1000 Classic" was run for V8Supercars. The 1997 edition was called the "Primus 1000 Classic" and held two weeks after the traditional race, whilst the 1998 "FAI 1000 Classic" was held in mid-November.
The race has a long and colourful history, having been conducted for numerous categories such as Series Production, Group C, Group A, Super Touring and currently V8 Supercar category. Although the Bathurst 1000 is today run by just two marques, Ford and Holden, makes as diverse as Morris, Jaguar, BMW, Nissan and Volvo have also tasted success at "The Mountain".
The Bathurst 1000 (currently called the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000) is a 1,000-kilometre (620 mi) touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race was traditionally run on the first Sunday in October but is now held on the second Sunday.
Top riders travel the world to compete in the annual FIM World Championship series. The championship is perhaps most closely followed in Italy and Spain, home of many of the more successful riders early in the 21st century. But in recent years more riders from the USA have been competing.
In most cases, people are interested in increasing the power output of an engine. Many well tried and tested techniques have been devised to achieve this, but all essentially operate to increase the rate (and to a lesser extent efficiency) of combustion in a given engine.
The grid is composed of three columns (four for the 125cc and 250cc classes) and contains approximately 20 riders. Grid positions are decided in descending order of qualifying speed, the fastest on the 'pole' or first position. Races last approximately 45 minutes, each race a sprint from start to finish without pitting for fuel or tires.
In 2008 a MotoGP event was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time on a newly prepared track, and observers noted that the Speedway had hosted motorcycle racing before cars raced there. All three classes were scheduled to race but severe wind and rain prevented the 250cc class from racing.
Engine tuning is the adjustment, modification or design of internal combustion engines to yield optimal performance, to increase an engine's power output, economy, or durability. It has a long history, almost as long as the development of the car in general, originating with the development of early racing cars, and later, with the post-war hot-rod movement.
MotoGP, the premier class of GP motorcycle racing, has changed dramatically in recent years. From the mid-1970s until 2002 the top class of GP racing allowed 500cc with a maximum of 4 cylinders, regardless of whether the engine was a two-stroke or four-stroke. Consequently, all machines were two-strokes, due to the greater power output for a given engine capacity.
Car modifying has been very popular among youth in the United States, especially in Southern California, since the days of hot rods in the 1950s and 1960s. There is significant evidence indicating that import drag racing first started in Southern California in the mid-1960s, with Volkswagen Beetles, Sit-up-and-beg Ford Populars and Austin A40 Devons including documentation of quarter-mile passes published in Hot Rod Magazine as early as August 1965.
Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP.
Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for "Spain," has the broader reference, potentially encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasizing the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common.
Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race in the newly-created Formula One World Championship. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but relocated permanently to Silverstone in 1987.
Put a beautiful girl next to a hot sports car and you’ve really got something. There’s always something sexy about shooting a hot girl with a cool classic car. We’ve put together some highlights so you can see the photos.
ilverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, named after the village in the former, England. It is best known as the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948 and which has been held on the circuit every year since 1987.
Yesterday at the office we were visited by a pair of sexy Japanese Race Queens. At first I didn't realise why they were there - not that I'm complaining - and I just assumed this was one of the unmentioned perks. It turns out that they were there to promote some racing thing that's going to be held at the Sepang race circuit. I'm still not complaining.
Grand Prix cars and the cutting edge technology that constitute them produce an unprecedented combination of outright speed and quickness for the drivers. Every F1 car on the grid is capable of going from 0 to 160 km/h (100 mph) and back to 0 in less than five seconds.
A modern Formula One car is a single-seat, open cockpit, open wheel race car with substantial front and rear wings, and engine positioned behind the driver. The regulations governing the cars are unique to the championship. The Formula One regulations specify that cars must be constructed by the racing teams themselves.
