Rams Eye The Track Guy

Ford had already revealed that the car is "projected" to make 700 hp, and now it's promised to make over 700 hp (and around the same power as the Ford NASCAR race car, Ford said). That may be all what A LOT of people need to know about it. But, as magnificent as it is, making that much horsepower alone isn't the best thing about this car. Less than two weeks ago, I wrote what I thought is going to be the best thing about this car in This GT500 should stay truer to the original 1967 GT500 formula put together by Carroll Shelby and Ford and be more track capable. Carbon Fibre All Things There's a Track Pack. It's called Carbon-Fibre Track pack. I fully expected this car to be more track capable, and I figured there would be a performance pack of some sort like Ford did with the last generation (i.e. the SVT pack). But I didn't expect something of this caliber. Ford seems to have a clear target in its sights; the Camaro ZL1 1LE. The same Ford Per...

730 hp Mustang Saleen 302 Black Label - Saleen © Most people who track their cars quickly come to recognize one of the biggest enemies of speed; heat. Heat affects tires, brakes, fluids, the engine, everything. One area that gets more than its fair share of heat is the engine bay. The most efficient gasoline/petrol engines struggle to exceed 35% efficiency - meaning that more than 65% of the energy in the fuel that is burnt inside the engine is not converted into motion or 'useful energy'. Most of the non-useful energy left over is turned into heat. That means that your average hot hatch making 200 hp could easily produce around 300 kW (400 hp) of heat as a byproduct of making 200 hp. If you're having trouble wrapping your head around that number, that's enough power to heat a large home improvement store. In Canada. Some of that heat goes out the exhaust (thankfully) but a lot of it has to be dealt with in the engine bay through your radiator, and oil cooler i...

Yes, I have mentioned a Dodge in the same breath as a McLaren, and a McLaren that was named after no one other than Ayrton Senna. You might get angry. You might think I've gone mad or lost my bearings. But before you do any of that, consider this: What is arguably the most outrageous metric or aspect about the Senna? Power? Construction? Brakes? No, in my opinion, it's aerodynamics. The power, the brakes, the suspension, the attention to detail, everything is very impressive, but none is ground breaking, especially for McLaren. The aerodynamics, though, are what resulted in the menacing and brutal function-over-form styling of the Senna which makes an Alien vs Predator battle scene look like child's play in comparison. So if it's aerodynamics, the amount of downforce must be huge (it is). You know the 911 (991) GT3 RS? It makes do with just 262 kg (622 lb.) at 150 mph. The insane 991.2 GT2 RS generates a maximum of 450 kg (992 lb.) at its 211 mph top speed. Tha...

If you've been paying attention in 2018, you probably already know that a brand new S550 Mustang Shelby GT500 is coming this year. And there is good reason to believe that the 2019 North American Auto Show (often referred to as the Detroit Auto Show) in less than two weeks will host the debut of the GT500. Why the 2019 Detroit Auto Show? It's one of the biggest auto shows for Ford. Ford decided to reveal its Ford GT at the same show three years ago in 2015, and also threw in the current Shelby GT350R and the current F-150 Raptor for good measure. The Shelby GT500 has already been confirmed by Ford and teased in a couple of pictures and videos. Why is the GT500 significant? The first Shelby GT500 was a 1967 model and it was developed with help from the legend himself, Carroll Shelby. Because of Shelby's personal involvement in racing at the time, the original Shelby GT500 was actually meant to be a track monster, not only a straight line car. It used a a modified versio...

With Michael Schumacher's recent fantastic news that he is no longer bedridden , I figured it would be a great opportunity to share one of my absolute favourite videos about him. I stumbled across this video last year and immediately bookmarked it. It includes bits from interviews with various F1 drivers, including Schumacher himself and team mate Johnny Herbert. But my favourite part of the video is when they compare telemetry between Schumacher and Herbert. The telemetry clearly explains where Schumacher is saving (lap) time and how exactly his talent and skills translate to better (and ultimately faster) driving. His talent is even more impressive when you consider the lack of active throttle mapping in modern F1 cars and the myriad of improvements made to driveability. Watch below to see for yourself. What I love about this video is that I found Jonathan's Palmer analysis of Schumacher's telemetry to be absolutely true when applied to my driving on track. ...