GAINSCO 2012 Corvette Daytona Prototype

Texas based GAINSCO has been testing it’s new 2012 Corvette Daytona Prototype racecar for the coming Grand-Am series.

Check out their photos and page on facebook!

Austin F1 - Circuit of the Americas

That’s right. All the news we are getting now confirms that the track in Austin and the race will happen.

If you have been following along, construction of the 3.4-mile track was halted when the Texas comptroller’s office refused to put up the $25 million it pledged to pay for the F1 sanctioning fee. It seems now that an agreement between F1 and Texas and the date has been set for the Austin race next year.

So construction continues and we hope to he having a big F1 party next year! Keep up to date with more from Austin and the track right here.

txGarage on the infield track at Texas Motor Speedway for the SRT Track Experience

Last week, we were invited to come out and experience the SRT Track Experience put on by the SRT division of Chrysler and the Richard Petty Driving School. This is a member’s only experience, hence to be involved, you must first purchase a SRT product. None of the staff at txGarage own any SRT products, but luckily, it’s more about who you know.

Let us first talk about what SRT stands for. SRT stands for Street and Racing Technology and is the high-performance divisions of Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge. When you purchase any of these SRT products, this SRT Track Experience is included into the price; so if you don’t attend one of these events after buying your car, you’re definitely missing out.

The run down:

[SinglePic not found] The event is held at Texas Motor Speedway. We pulled up following the long road that leads underneath the massive track and parked just to the left of the infield track where we’ll get the opportunity to run some SRT products to their potential. To our left was the Media Center building in the middle of the oval. Checking in with the SRT guys, they handed me a badge with an attached flash drive. Each car is equipped with a camera system to record the driver and out the front of the car. All you have to do is pop in your flash drive and it records strait to it. It’s a pretty slick setup and the video turns out pretty good.

Next, the instructors come out to welcome everyone, get us all familiar with the concept of what we’ll be doing, and lay out some short ground rules. As quick as that, we’re splitting into teams and heading to the infield track. The lineup of SRT products we were able to drive was unfortunately mostly the 2010 lineup. They did have some 2011 Charger R/T’s and the 2011 392 Challengers on hand. Nonetheless, walking out to that track seeing a large group of high performance V8 cars just waiting to be thrashed around the track was a great feeling.

[SinglePic not found] As you could imagine, the lineup isn’t that massive. The SRT brand is pretty exclusive for Chrysler with only a hand full of vehicles making the cut. Lined up on pit-row was a group of 2011 Charger R/T’s, 2010 Chrysler 300 SRT8, 2010 Challenger SRT8, and the 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Now we’ve driven the 2011 Charger R/T and the 2011 Challenger 392 out on this same track before during the Texas Auto Roundup. This time though, we’ll be following in the tire tracks of professional drivers. If you want, or need a little more help, you can ride shotgun with one of the instructors at anytime to get some quick tips on what you should be doing.

You start off running 2 laps at a slow pace getting comfortable with the lines and braking zones of the track. Hop out of whatever car you were just in, hop in another SRT and back out. This time for 2 more laps running a little faster and a little harder on braking and exit speeds. Do another car switch and back out. The pace has increased even more and you’re now doing some hard turning, hard braking, and turning 3 laps now instead of 2.

I easily made it through the entire lineup and even got the chance to make two passes in the SRT8 Grand Cherokee. I also had time to run a few laps sitting shotgun with one of the instructors. Everyone out there was extremely nice and willing to talk and help where they were needed.

[SinglePic not found] Just as we finished up on the infield track, we crossed the street and headed to a parking lot full of cones. This was a time-attack event using the SRT8 Challenger. We got our instructions and pep talk; this was a competition event versus the other team by the way. I was first up for our team and was already nervous knowing there was no way I could keep that big, heavy car from smothering every cone on the course. I jumped in, got a few more words of encouragement from the SRT team leader and off I went. Smash the peddle to the floor and spinning the tires off the line with just enough time to get right back on the brakes hard for the first corner. After coming to a screeching halt back in the box, my time was 35.something seconds with 2 cones knocked down. Not a great time but I get to make another pass. My second pass was a little better, running in the low 34-second range, but I made it through the course without hitting any cones so I was pretty happy with myself. After everyone had their 2 passes in the Challenger, we had the chance to redeem ourselves taking on the same course with the Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was insane to think about taking this same tight track with this bigger SUV, but the AWD was now working in our favor. My time in the Jeep was about the same as my second run and amazingly I hit no cones!

Next was lunch and more time to talk with the SRT staff. This is a great bunch of guys that are dedicated to what they do and travel the U.S. for most of the year to bring these events to a town near you. After lunch, it was back out to the infield track for more fast running, taking the lessons we learned in the first 2 events and applying them back to track driving.

[SinglePic not found] The last event we were in was another competition event called head-to-head. Back out in the parking lot full of cones, they had 2 identical tracks laid out where 2 competitors could run against each other to see who was the fastest and more importantly who was the most accurate. All 4 of my runs in this head-to-head challenge I managed to hit no cones and not accrue any penalties. I was undefeated in my first 3 runs then lost my last run, being a little slower than my competitor who also hit no cones.

After this last challenge, we were all feeling good about our skills and accomplishments throughout the day. As a parting gift, we went once again to the infield track to ride shotgun with the instructors doing what they do best. With no one else on the track but professional drivers, the instructors were unleashed to run all out and really show us what these cars were made of. The distance in skill from what we were running and what these professionals can do is always nice to experience.

All in all, it was a great event and I’m extremely appreciative to the team at SRT for giving me the opportunity to take it on. These events are a great way to really experience what your car can do without having to thrash your car around these tracks. It also helps people develop their skills so they know how to handle their car and get the opportunity to feel the balance and weight shifting of the car. In my mind, all manufacturers should offer something along these lines included in the price of buying a performance car. Even non-performance cars can surprise you when you get it on a track in the hands of a skilled driver. We look forward with working further with the SRT team, Chrysler, Fiat, Dodge, and Jeep in the future and seeing what great products they have for us in the future.

Winners 1, 2, and 3

2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302

I wasn’t alive in the 60’s and 70’s, a time that most call the golden era of American motorsports. I never had the opportunity to watch the original Boss 302 race in the Trans-Am series and win, yet it’s a car I’ve heard of many times as this American classic certainly has a reputation that precedes it..

It’s been a long time since the Boss 302 rose to glory, and the Mustang has gone through many changes. When I first heard that Ford was considering bringing the Boss back, I was actually worried. Would it just be another dressed up Mustang with a graphics package and fancy wheels? The only real track worthy Mustang to date has been those branded with a Roush badge, so would this be more of the same?

Ford’s VP of global marketing, Jim Farley, made a pretty bold statement that made me hope for the best. He said “My dream for the car was that it would make a lot of money for a guy street racing. It should be a car that winds up on YouTube doing something illegal. I’ve been waiting 20-plus years to launch a car like this.” Now you see why this statement gave me hope!

Not a nostalgic machine:

On the outside, the Boss is basically a 2012 Mustang. The front grill sports the Mustang pony badge with red, white, and blue stripes behind it. It has a more aggressive and race-inspired front splitter. The graphics are all nostalgia with the iconic C-stripe on each side and black on the hood come straight from the ’69 Boss 302.

We all really liked the overall styling of the Boss. It wasn’t overdone; it’s pretty straight forward and race inspired. We couldn’t agree though on the best color scheme. The Boss only comes in five colors including the Performance White, Race Red, Competition Orange, Kona Blue Metallic, and Yellow Blaze Metallic. I really like the White/Black car we were reviewing while Toby thought the Orange/Black was a better fit. Actually I like pretty much every color scheme I’ve seen on the Boss.

Inside The Beast:

There isn’t much as far as options in the Boss, and that’s a good thing. You can’t get a sat-nav with SYNC and you can’t get heated/electric/leather seats. The option that is available, and you’ll want to get, are the Recoro seats. These are heavily bolstered, but incredibly comfortable!

The rest of the interior is your basic Mustang, which isn’t as bad as it used to be. A few track-themed items are scattered around you including an Alcantara steering-wheel, a retro cue-ball shifter, black gauges with a tach that stretches to 9,000 rpm, and some “Powered by Ford” door plates.

It’s a basic, business only interior and we loved it!

Powering the Boss:

The Boss 302 carries around the 5.0 liter engine like the current GT Mustang. For those of you hearing nostalgic numbers, that’s 302 cubic inches. It’s the same engine, yet it’s been tweaked and reworked to push out 32 more horses. This was done with an all new intake manifold with runners resembling velocity stacks, new cylinder heads with stronger alloy, camshafts increased lift, the intake valves grew larger, and the bearings are replaced with race-spec bearings. All this jargon equates to 444 horsepower at 7500 rpm. Yes, that’s 7500 rpm on a Mustang.

Revving the Boss up to 7500 takes a little getting used to. If you are familiar with driving Mustangs, you don’t expect to keep your foot on the throttle that long, but it keeps going. This car doesn’t just push you back in the seat, it rockets you seamlessly to where you need to be. With over a 100 hp disadvantage to the GT500, the Boss is only 0.2 seconds slower 0-60.
The horsepower numbers aren’t the big kicker with the Boss, though. It goes without saying that a 32 hp gain isn’t that substantial, but there’s so much more to this engine and car than peak horsepower.

On the track and on the street:

No matter if you’re on the track or on the street, when you hit a corner, it’s time for this Mustang to shine. One of the first things I noticed when I got behind the wheel of the Boss is how different the steering felt compared to other Mustangs. It was lighter, but not in a bad way. It felt very direct, but made the car feel lighter on it’s feet and much more nimble. The chassis feels overwhelmingly balanced as you don’t get the feeling of a heavy front end like you do in the GT500. This, in turn, inspires confidence in the turns.

To step up the Boss’ suspension, Ford gave it stiffer springs, a fatter stabilizer bar, 5 way adjustable shocks, and new bushings. You ride on top of 19-inch Pirelli P Zero tires which are 9.5-inches wide in the rear. The tires alone give you so much grip that it inspires you even more so.

Getting ready to stop this bad boy are some 4-piston Brembo brakes resting on 14-inch rotors, vented for better cooling. The pads tucked in these Brembos are close to race-spec compound, but give minimal squeal.

Everything about this car came to life once we got it out on the track at Texas Motorsport Ranch. The track is full of elevation changes and tight cornering. The Boss just took it all in and spit it all out. I’ve been out on a few tracks in a few different cars, but this track and this car were definitely the peak of my track driving experience.

Yes, how much:

The price of the Boss isn’t that outrageous. In terms of power and performance, on paper, the Boss falls nicely in between the Mustang GT and the GT500. The price is no different. You can get a base Boss 302 tor $40,995; throw in the Racaro seats and Torsen limited-slip differential and only add another $1,995 to that price. If you are worried about fuel cost, it is a high-performance track-ready car, well don’t be. We easily averaged in the mid 20 mpg range throughout our week of everyday driving. For a weekend racer as competent on the track as the Boss is, that’s quite a bargain. Ford will be producing only 3250 Boss 302s and 750 Laguna Seca editions totalling out at 4000 total examples.

We had this car out at Texas Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas for almost the entire day. The day before they actually delivered a Boss 302 Laguna Seca S to a customer from Houston to this very track. Ford brought the car to the MSR track and had the Ford engineering team tune it and fit it to the driver. While we were there in our review car, we not only received many looks but were told on many occasions how much people loved this car. Those came from Porsche owners and even a guy who just purchased a new GT500 who told us he should have waited and bought one of these. I can see why this car is so popular at the track. It really is more than just a Mustang, it’s a great track car. It’s a Boss 302 through and through.

Video on YouTube:

Check out the full photo gallery of the 2012 Boss 302 on Facebook or Google!

Laguna Seca:

Just a little extra about the Laguna Seca edition. We had the chance to do a Quick Drive review of this car a few months back, but we were not able to get it for a full review. As I stated above, the Laguna Seca is a special edition of the Boss 302 that Ford will only produce 750 examples of total. What makes this better than the standard Boss 302? The Laguna Seca implements the “less is more” attitude. No rear seats, just a fancy tubular-steel X-brace where the seat should be. The front end has an even more aggressive front splitter that looks like it’s taken strait off a Grand-Am car. The springs are refitted with an even higher-rate. The rear wheels are up from 9.5 to 10-inches wide in the rear. You get brake-cooling ducts, an
under-body air scoop, a rear anti-sway bar, and inside the cabin you get extra gauges for oil-pressure and water-temperature. The R-compound Pirelli’s fitted to the Laguna Seca are so slick and track ready that it’s not really advised to drive it in the wet. If you are serious about trackday driving, you can’t go wrong with this car and at a $6995 premium over the standard Boss, the Laguna Seca still comes in way under any other trackday dedicated car out there.

Laguna Seca Photos

Audi R18 TDI Le Mans Race Car

There have been many rumors circulating that Audi would be jumping into Formula 1. To set the record straight, Audi has come out to say that it isn’t, and won’t be considering such a move. According to the company’s motorsport boss, F1 bears “no relevance to the road.” The point has been made that in one 24 hour race, one car can cover as many miles as a car doing an entire F1 season. Le Mans, it seems, is the place to be for really developing technology for road cars in Audi’s eyes, and we don’t disagree. Not to mention that Audi is pretty dominant in La Mans racing.

[source: autoblog]

Hennessey Venom GT

The Goodwood festival of speed is an annual celebration of cars and speed that attracts gearheads from around the world. Because of its roots in Europe, it’s not often that American cars make big news. But this year we are! Not just an American company, but a Texas company, Hennessey. That’s right! The Hennessy Venom GT will be at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Check out more form Hennessey and the Venom GT HERE.

2012 Dodge Grand Caravan RT Red Dirt Rodz

At the Texas Auto Roundup, we had the chance to put many different cars through many different driving experiences. We never got our shot at Dodge’s new 2012 Grand Caravan R/T, dubbed the “Man Van” by Dodge, but our friends at Red Dirt Rodz not only had the opportunity to put this van on the track, they proved it did quite well.
Check out their video here, then go check out there site! RedDirtRodz.com

We were surprised to say the least when Hyundai debuted the Veloster with its 3 door configuration and sport looks. Shortly after showing the Veloster, Hyundai gave us a peak of whats to come with the Veloster Rally car. 
It’s been only a little over a month since this car was on stage at the Chicago Auto show, but now has already made it’s competition debut at the Global Rally Championship this past week.

Check out more on autoblog.com

3/25 Texas Mile March 2011

3/26 Hinson Supercars Turbo C5

3/27 Texas Mile March 2011 Photos

3/28 Hinson Supercars 230mph Crash at Texas Mile

3/28 Texas Mile to Relocate

[source: pictures by autospotters.com]

Viper Challenge

Founder and CEO of Apex Driving Academy, located at Texas Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas, took 1st place in Race 1 at the Dodge Viper Cup. The race was one of two held at the legendary Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. The second round winner was none other than Ben Keating owner of VperExhange.com, also a Texas native.

Keep up with this great series at viperheadquarters.com. With 4 of the top Viper drivers coming from Texas, you can’t go wrong!