BMW says they make the ultimate driving machine. I don’t know about that. The fact of the matter is BMW’s have gotten quite fat, more luxurious, and a bit poserish to be blunt. That is not to say they aren’t great cars, and that some of their owners are not great car guys. It would be foolish to say other wise, but like with most companies the marketing outpaces the actual product sometimes. There is no doubt that once upon a time the BMW M3 was at the top of the heap in terms of driving characteristics but let’s not kid ourselves. BMW these days pipes in fake exhaust noise into the cabin. That’s pretty lame. In fact it’s so lame that it probably disqualifies the cars from being cool.
Still there is some fun to be had here with the M3 and M4. You may remember that BMW decided to split the 3 series into two numbers. The 3 would be a sedan, and the 4 coupes. Making what was once the legendary M3 coupe and M4. I’m sure there is some serious marketing thought behind that whole move and I’m not going to begin to tackle it. I think it’s another sign of BMW pandering to the suburbs which is just all a bit douchey for my liking.
May 09
BMW M4 and M3 photos
May 07
A measure of the Man: behind the scenes of a pit stop
The pit stop is an integral part of any racing series. In series like Nascar and Formula 1 the pit stop takes mere seconds before the car is off speeding back towards the track. These seconds can cost a team the win. That is why crews train vigorously to ensure they perform as good as the cars do on the track.
Ferrari has put together a short video of their team working to improve their pit stops. A good deal of training, then testing is implemented to make sure those doing the pit stops are in top notch shape. It takes 22 men to orchestrate a pit stop in F1. Check out the video after the jump on how they train to get it an F1 pit stop done in under 3 seconds.
May 07
How a Turbo Works
With turbocharging becoming more and more prevelant in new car building I thought it might be a good time to rehash our old post on how a turbo works. Turbos are everywhere now and they aren’t just for horsepower. Turbos are being used to boost fuel economy and driving characteristics of small and big engines. Some set ups are even getting quit exotic with sequential set ups and even triple turbos.
Of course car guys like turbos for their horsepower and insanely flat torque curves. Turbos are pretty basic way to boost power. Air comes out of the engine which spins a turbine. That turbine is connected to an impeller via a shaft. The impeller compresses the air on the intake side of the engine thus cramming more air into the cylinders. Magic and witchcraft take place and more power is made. To explain some of the witchcraft is a cool little video just after the jump.
May 05
Road Trippin’ with a bunch of Nissans
Ok Nissans aren’t usually our thing here at IG. However they have a great heritage of racing and fun driving. While some of the newer Nissans are a tad on the heavy side for our liking the older ones certainly capture the spirit of a great driver car. To celebrate all things Nissanness (yep made that word up) Some enthusiasts got together for a cross country road trip. There of course was some help from Nissan but that does not make it any less fun to drive across the country.
I will warn the IG faithful there are some questionable paint combination, body kit and wheel choices in the photos that follow. However that’s how the fans of Japanese cars do it these days. However there are also some really classy 300ZX, 350Zs and others in this photo set too. Most importantly though this group of enthusiast are out hitting the road and driving their cars. That’s what they are made for! So in the spirit of to each their own let’s hit the jump for photos and a short video of their trip across the country in a celebration of hitting the open road!
May 03
Car Shows: One week away
As I sit to type this out car show season is just one week away. Thank God. I’m dying to get out and see some cool rides. The season will kick off on May 10th at Hannibal, Missouri for the Loafers car club show. We hit the Loafers show hard last year and if all things work out I’ll be out there again this year snapping shots and spreading the word of IG.
I thought it migiht be a good time on a bit of a slow Saturday to look at some of the beauties from last years show. The show had it all. Hot rods, muscle cars, rat rods, street rods, etc. It was super cool. The show is an interesting dichotomy in downtown Hannibal which to say is in a bit of a downturn is a huge understatement. However in front of the dilapidated and rubble of torn down buildings were these awesome street machines.