Author Archive: Eric Rood
This ’86 Omni GLH Helped Bring America Out of the Automotive Dark Age
While Ford and General Motors both continued to build V8 pony cars in the 1980s as attainable sports cars, Chrysler instead tried to turn their econoboxes into their performance offerings. They did...
American Powerplant, British Handling: Would You Drive This V6-Swapped MGB?
British automaker MG may be the very definition of British sports car. Sure, the Jaguar E-Type gets all the Oohs & Aahs and the original Shelby Cobras were built on another, less-well-known...
Watch This Finnish Toyota Starlet Set a New Record at Michigan’s Empire Hill Climb Revival
The Empire Hill Climb Revival might not be the longest hilll climb in the world–in fact, it’s probably one of the shortest–but in the event’s fourth year since rebooting the classic...
You Can Buy This Bus With a Jail Cell In It Right Now For Totally Non-Nefarious Uses
I’ve seen some weird stuff come up for sale periodically on CraigsList, but nothing—and I mean nothing—has come across quite as strange as this Jail Bus for sale in Kentucky on GovDeals.com, a...
Flyin’: Watch This Mustang Smash a Lap Record at Watkins Glen
Road racing videos can make it hard to gauge relative speed, especially in time trial runs. Because Brian Faessler drives his monster Ford Mustang so smoothly in this video of his lap-record run at...
Watch These ‘Retired’ ChampCar and F1 Cars Ring Up Substantial Repair Bills in Crash
While many Formula 1 and other top-flight open-wheel race cars end up museums and collections in non-operative order, there is a series in Europe where once can race wheel-to-wheel in “retired”...
Dajiban! Another Great Look at the World of Dodge Race Vans in Japan
Dodge Ram vans don’t really stand out in this country. Most have been worn down to the nub and the custom vanning scene, while enjoying a resurgence, isn’t as keen on the old Mopar haulers as...
Get a Close Look at This 200 MPH Volkswagen-Powered Lakester
Most people don’t put “Volkswagen Jetta” and “200 mph” in the same pattern of thoughts, but Bonneville has a way of mashing together two unlikely things. We should say, of course, that Dan...
Chris Harris Loves the Viper ACR and You Should, Too
“The man from America I met said, ‘You can’t slide that car,’” Chris Harris quips before tossing the bright blue Dodge Viper ACR sideways on the Top Gear test track. I’m about 99 percent...
The Nurburgring Claims Another: This BMW M235i Cup Goes Tumbling After Contact With the Glickenhaus SCG003
The Nurburgring gets a lot of credit as the most daunting racetrack in the world, at least for four-wheel cars (i.e. There’s a strong argument for the Isle of Man TT course). The Ring’s...
Formula E Announces Plan to Race in Brooklyn Against Manhattan Backdrop
The FIA’s all-electric racing series, F0rmula E, has become an interesting anomaly in the motorsports world. While the cars aren’t particularly fast and the noise of the electric motors...
This Class Alfa Romeo 155 DTM Car Revs to 12,000 RPM and Is a Proper Italian Work of Art
While the cars that run in the modern German DTM series are pretty cool, we’re not sure if they’ll ever be as cool as the Mercedes 190 vs. BMW E30 days of the 1980s. Even less likely, however, is...
A Video Memorial to Yoshimi Katayama, Pioneer Racer of Rotary Engines
In March, Japanese sports car racing legend Yoshimi Katayama died at the age of 75. Aside from an eloquent memorial by The Drive and a short obituary in Road & Track, Katayama’s passing went...
Sitting Around With Nothing to Watch? The SCCA Runoffs Are Streaming This Weekend
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) holds their annual championship this weekend, the SCCA Runoffs, at the famous Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. While the world of club racing typically races on their...