Author Archive: Eric Rood
Russian GAZ Trucks Driving Sideways On a Rally Stage Look Like a Darn Good Time
Motorsport was never really part of the program for automobiles in Soviet Russia. Vehicles, like the Soviet ethos on people, were intended to work rather than to be used for trivial pursuits like...
Watch a Small Touring Car Crew Swap an Engine in Under Two Hours To Make Qualifying
Dutch racer Tom Coronel makes the rounds. Coronel and his brother, Tim, will race just about anything at any time, including the odd Dakar run. When he’s not hopping in a GT car or headed off road,...
This Audi Prototype Driver Celebrated His Birthday With Go-Kart Paintball!
Lucas Di Grassi just might become the first Brazilian with an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Audi and he came up just short of his first series championship in Formula E this year. He’s...
This Turbo-Compound Radial Was Cutting-Edge 70 Years Ago, Is Still Amazing
Remember the 1980s when turbocharging first became prevalent in cars? Manufacturers—many of whom were not even building cars—were quick to slap “Turbo” on anything that was supposed to be an...
A Brief History of the Short-Lived Chicago Motor Speedway
The American open-wheel split still has a number of unhealed scars among fans who felt slighted, but the upshot was a number of weird little nuggets of recent racing history. Among those is that of...
Andy Bozell Sets 3/8-Mile Oval Record With Insane 9.465-Second Lap
That’s a staggering headline, isn’t it? And yet as part of Kalamazoo Speedway’s “Call of the Wild” event on September 3, Andy Bozell’s highly modified Super Late Model car smashed the...
IndyCar Returns to Watkins Glen and Scott Dixon Rewrites the Lap Speed Record Books
When IndyCar axed the ill-fated Grand Prix of Boston earlier this year, the series suddenly had a void to fill on the calendar. With a few options on the table, IndyCar settled on a date at historic...
NASCAR Truck Race Ends With Motorsport Dumpster Fire, Driver Tackling Rival
While IndyCar was busy setting an absurd pace at Watkins Glen International and a clean win for Scott Dixon last weekend, just across the New York-Canada border, the NASCAR Camping World Trucks...
SCORE Series Gives You Some Tips and Good Info On Picking Out a Driver’s Suit
SCORE International, the series that holds the Baja 1000 along with a series of similar shorter off-road races, has assembled a great series of primers on the various aspects of off-road racing that...
Rumor: Ecclestone Says Liberty Media to Buy Formula One for $8.5B
American communications company Liberty Media is set to acquire the world’s largest racing series Formula One, Formula One Management (FOM) President and CEO Bernie Ecclestone has told German...
How Not to Endurance Race: This Driver Somehow Avoids a Crazy First-Lap Crash in a 24-Hour Race
The annual 24-hour race at the Nurburgring might just be the most grueling and daunting motor race. The massive track winds through the Eiffel Mountains in Germany and when it gets dark around the...
Pink Floyd Drummer’s Daughter Races a Pink Vintage Austin Named Floyd
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is well-known for his automotive enthusiasm. The rock star owns an impressive collection of priceless cars and even race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times during his...
No Cheese With This Whine: The Blower On This Top Diesel Engine Sounds Extra Nasty
Not all superchargers are created equal and when you’ve got your blower sitting atop a diesel drag-racing engine, you really ought to make sure that it sounds capable of reversing the earth’s...
Hate it or Louvre It: This 1978 Dodge Aspen Super Coupe Checks All the Malaise Era Boxes
The life of Chrysler’s F-Body was short-lived. With emissions and fuel consumption pressures changing the nature of the auto industry in the mid-to-late 1970s, Chrysler downsized from the...