To Be Or Not SubieHot weather testing in Death Valley brings a lot of weird machinery to California, like this Subaru Legacy with a massive WRX STI-style hood scoop. What's going on here?
Mostly what we have are rumors. But they are big, juicy, delicious rumors. The best guesses at what's under that scoop is a new turbocharged version of Subaru's H6 3.0-liter flat-six making somewhere north-well north-of 300bhp. The blown six would be used not only in a new high-performance version of the Legacy sedan, but also be shoved into the B9 Tribeca SUV that has been roundly criticized as underpowered. There are further rumors that have the H6 whipped up to 3.6 liters before adding turbos to the equation.
Currently, the only car for sale in America equipped with a turbocharged flat-six is the Porsche 911 Turbo. If this super Subie ever comes to pass, don't expect it before 2009.
Gm Employee Of The MonthFor no apparent reason, GM posted seven photos of Vicki Vlachakis (the design manager for GM's West Coast Advance Design Studio in North Hollywood, California) on its media website. What do we know about Ms. Vlachakis, other than that she was one of the lead designers of the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters' interiors? Not much. But if we were GM, we wouldn't have posted just seven.
Volvo Goes To SemaLast month, we got a look at the new Volvo C30 hatch and were impressed by its appearance and promise of performance. Now comes word that Volvo will unleash three C30s on SEMA at the end of October in Las Vegas. What's fascinating here is that Volvo hasn't yet admitted it's bringing the C30 into America. And the last time we checked, both SEMA and Las Vegas were very American institutions.
Each SEMA C30 is being built by three different shops that have traditionally supported Volvo tuning. Evolve (www.evolvecars.com) in Monrovia, California, is being coy about what it's doing, but we know it's yellow.
Heico Sportiv (www.heicosportivna.com) from Germany will build its C30 in partnership with Burton Snowboards and promises the result will be "part Paris-Dakar raider, part efficient weekend gear-hauler and part stylish, sporty performer." We know it's orange.
Finally, ipd (www.ipdusa.com) of Portland, Oregon is building one with an emphasis on performance, including a boost of the turbocharged engine from 220bhp to "nearly 400." It will also add a coilover suspension and cover the thing in a blue and yellow paint job, evoking the Swedish flag.
If Volvo is going to all this trouble to build awareness of the C30 in America, what's the point? Come on, Volvo, admit it: America is getting this car.
When Worlds CollideLess-than-glamorous Irwindale Speedway in nowhere-near-glamorous Irwindale, California played host to the first 'All Star Duel' between the best drifters from the D1 series and a gaggle of NASCAR drivers. That's right, NASCAR guys drifting (in borrowed cars) against (sort of) the best in the business. And the whole thing was to benefit NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne's foundation (www.kaseykahnefoundation.com).
Let's be clear, the event was a lot of big stupid fun. What it wasn't, however, was any sort of duel. While NASCAR drivers Kasey Kahne, Robbie Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Bill Elliott, Greg Biffle and Casey Mears did in fact drift, they stayed in the infield, outside the main oval where real speed could be built. Meanwhile, 'real' drifters like Rhys Millen, Tanner Faust, and Samuel Hubinette ran the full drift course that included the racing oval.
What NASCAR driver would want to learn to drift in front of 10,000 screaming fans when he had never even been to a drifting event before? Some NASCAR guys took to drifting better than others. Bill Elliott, the Winston Cup champ from 1988, took his 40-something self out there and seemed a total natural in the Team Falken Infiniti G35 coupe.
Unfortunately, he only got a single lap in before the car broke. Towards the end of the night, Kasey Kahne was seemingly at ease behind the wheel of Hubinette's Mopar-sponsored Viper, doing natural sweeps and transitions with some grace and maintaining decent angles through the corners.
Meanwhile, all Robbie Gordon managed to do in Millen's Red Bull-sponsored Pontiac GTO was slam it into a wall.
The most interesting aspect of this 'grip versus drift' event was watching the NASCAR guys watch the drift guys at work. They seemed almost mesmerized at the spectacle of two-, three-, and even six-car close drifts at high speed. If there's one thing other racers always appreciate, it's astounding car control.
At the end of the event, Kahne was presented with a check for $30,000 toward his foundation. That following weekend, Kahne won both the Busch Grand National and Nextel Cup races at California Speedway. The Busch race paid him $90,825 and the Nextel race netted $279,214. That puts Kahne's total haul for the week at $400,039. Not bad.