Leo Parente of DRIVE channel’s Shakedown segment conducts an absolutely fascinating interview with Ken Block. They talk about the secret of motorsports marketing success and then Ken’s rally driving career in the World Rally Championship, the Global Rallycross Championship and American rally.
For the finale of their first season, Big Muscle featured a pretty awesome 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle. Chances are it doesn’t look like what you picture in your mind’s eye at the mention of “Awesome Chevelle,” but that’s what makes it cool. My philosophy is that when you buy a project car/bike/machine, it needs to speak to the essence of who you are as a person. Something about the way it’s designed, assembled and performs gives it a soul that’s compatible with yours. As with all things in life, your projects will only make you unhappy if their motivation is the impressing of other people. That’s one of the cool perks of being a gearhead. It’s your own creative expression in the form of a mechanical device. The car featured in this video is a great example of the owner picking a car that wasn’t popular and turning it into what he wanted it to be. In this case it was built to be the perfect bank robbery get away car and a tribute to his great grandfather. I especially like the fact that he upgraded the tires ans suspension first and then did mild upgrades to complement the overall balance of the car. Not your typical muscle car and it’s way better for it.
I normally don’t like to post these Shakedown videos of the guys just sitting and chatting, but this one has a lot of interesting news that’s relevant to what we’re about here at Flux Auto. This episode revolves around the 2012 Le Mans 24 hour race that just finished up. Leo talks about how the Toyota TS030 and Audi E-Tron Quattro did as well as the future of the Nissan DeltaWing which was knocked out of the race by a driver who claimed he couldn’t see it in his mirrors. There’s also news about engine restrictions, energy consumption and hybrid drive trains for the race next year. The last part is an interesting bit of news regarding Mazda’s announcement that they were producing Skyactiv diesel engines for P2 cars next year as well. I’m glad to see that the movement to develop fuel efficient performance cars in racing is so strong. Racing breeds strong innovation.
Big Muscle brings us an inside look at Ken Lingenfelter and his wonderful collection of cars. Lingenfelter Performance Engineering made it’s name in building high performance versions of the Chevrolet Corvettes and Camaros. Their success lies in their ability to create cars capable of delivering super car performance with daily car reliability. Ken Ligenfelter built this collection of cars to share with other car guys and to raise money for charity. The collection includes the Duntov Corvette, GM’s first V8 Corvette test mule that was reunited with it’s original engine after they were separated for 47 years. They also let the host of the show test drive the 610 hp 1993 Ligenfelter ZR-1 widebody.
If I was to pick up a muscle car project, it would definitely be a Mopar. My friend tells me that makes sense because I’m kind of weird. If liking this video means that I’m a little weird, then I’m definitely OK with that. Big Muscle on Drive found this amazing 1970 triple black, numbers matching 1970 Barracuda 440 six pack. The owner first rode in it over 40 years ago when his cousin owned it. He bought it from his cousin for 1000 dollars and has kept it ever since. He did a nut and bolt restoration and upgraded the original engine to output over 700 horsepower.