Category: Video

Harris drives the 1987 Porsche 962

Post author By Liam
Post date 3 October, 2012
3 Comments on Harris drives the 1987 Porsche 962

Porsche 962

Driving is better than talking. So, as much as we love the 918 Spyder, we prefer last week’s Chris Harris video where he was lucky enough to drive the legendary Porsche 962, which we’re belatedly sharing with you now. That said, there is some awesome discussion in this clip with Norbert Singer, the brainchild behind the ground effects aerodynamics on the Le Mans winning 962.

We also quite like Harris’ own intro to this clip on YouTube:

This car belongs to the Porsche Museum. It is worth millions of dollars. And they let me spank it at their Weissach test track. Good times.

Porsche Video

Harris rides shotgun in the Porsche 918 Spyder

Post author By Liam
Post date 3 October, 2012
2 Comments on Harris rides shotgun in the Porsche 918 Spyder

Chris Harris doesn’t like doing ride stories. That’s fair enough, driving a car for oneself is always more satisfying. But he’s made an exception for the exceptional Porsche 918 Spyder.

Truth be told, there’s not a lot of excitement in this clip. But if the technical aspects of marrying a 3.4 litre V8, which traces its roots to the RS Spyder racecar, to a bit of 21st century electric voodoo kit appeals then you’ll really enjoy what Harris has to offer.

Mercedes-Benz Video

Sideways in the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake

Post author By Liam
Post date 20 September, 2012

Chris Harris has celebrated the imminent arrival of Mercedes-Benz into the V8 Supercars category by power sliding his way through a review of the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake.

His sub-140 character review on twitter makes for a good introduction: “AMG Shooting Brake concept perfect for a bloke with several children, a dog and a healthy addiction to velocity. Me. Want.”

Ferrari Video

Chris Harris, you did what?!

Post author By Liam
Post date 24 August, 2012
2 Comments on Chris Harris, you did what?!

For his weekly Drive video Chris Harris shares with us his latest car purchase, a Ferrari 599. Awesome! We do think it’s an extreme measure to take so that he can, once again, get behind the wheel of a Ferrari. And we’re sad to report the Fezza came at a cost. We’ll let Harris explain with this comment from YouTube:

The finance payments were too much, someone offered me good money for it, so I sold the Porsche. 599 values have hit the skids in the UK, Ferrari won’t let me drive its cars any more, and I miss driving them so I bought, a 599. It’s fast.

Toyota Video

Be careful what you wish for

Post author By Liam
Post date 24 August, 2012
3 Comments on Be careful what you wish for

Toyota has just launched a brand new Auris hatchback, we’ll know it down under as the eleventh-generation Corolla. To help promote the new Auris, Toyota is running this ad in Japan (available below) that’s sure to generate some attention.

Put it this way, we’d not be running a Corolla story on AUSmotive if Toyota weren’t so willing to deceive.

Still, at least it’s a change from the equally questionable clutter of cats!

BMW Video

Kid rock

Post author By Liam
Post date 23 August, 2012
7 Comments on Kid rock

“Aaaaaaaargh! Oh my God!”

Some more schadenfreude for you today with this video of a 19-year-old punting an E46 M3 into the rocks near Phoenix, Arizona. Sure, at that age, we’ve probably all been guilty of doing stupid stuff on the roads that we’re not proud of. But owning up to it and sharing the video with the world?!

Fair play to the kid, though, who has had this quote attributed to him via YouTube: “Well it happened at South Mountain park in Phoenix AZ. One of my buddies and I were out just having fun and driving until I came up on a deceptive corner, misjudged it and it happened. No injuries. The car was a total loss. Misjudgment of the road caused the accident.”

[Source: The Car Addict | Thanks to Pierre for the tip]

Motorsports Video

VIDEO: Yikes Peak!

That wreckage used to be a 1400hp open wheeler. It was driven by Paul Dallenbach at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, an event he has won six times. Amazingly, despite thinking to himself, “This is it. I’m dead,” Dallenbach escaped with little more than a few stitches and a fair bit of bruising.

Speaking to The Aspen Times, the 45-year-old elaborated: “I consider myself blessed, lucky. I’ve been bombarded with phone calls and messages from people who can’t believe I’m alive. Even people in racing can’t believe I made it.

“My throttle got stuck wide open. At that moment, you’re thinking, â€˜How am I going to get out of this? What should I do?’ I tried to hit the brakes, but nothing was happening. The front ones locked up. The thing I needed to have was a kill switch, but I don’t know if I would’ve had enough time to be able to use it.

â€œThat’s when I ducked my head and closed my eyes.â€

Dallenbach is now a living example promoting the benefits of the HANS device. â€œThankfully, the head-and-neck-restraint system worked. If I didn’t have that, I would’ve broken my neck,â€ he said.

It’s the second lucky escape we’ve brought you from the 2012 PPIHC and while the first crash was more spectacular you always felt the crew should be okay. With this one, though, there’s not too many other thoughts that cross your mind after watching a car hit a tree at 200km/h+ than fatal ones. Thankfully, there was a safe ending to this story.

[Thanks to Stu for the tip]

Nissan Porsche Toyota Video

Chris Harris, the Toyota GT86 and friends

Post author By Liam
Post date 16 August, 2012
3 Comments on Chris Harris, the Toyota GT86 and friends

Chris Harris is back this week to entertain us with the it car of the moment, the Toyota 86. He’s taken a bit of an armchair critic’s position, in that he’s attempting to answer some of the questions asked by motoring forums the world over.

Questions like, is the Toyota too under powered, or why don’t you spend a bit more and get a 370Z, or even a used Cayman S?

It’s worth noting that, for once, we Australians are not the butt of a pricing joke. In relative terms, it’s an extra AU$5â€“7K to pick up a new 86 in the UK. Although, that’s offset by the fact you can buy a decent used Cayman S for under AU$25K.

To be expected, Harris is in his element here and we think he sums up the Toybaru quite well when he states: “we need to get back to a stage where we’re enjoying performance because of its nature, not because of its quantity.”

Tags Toybaru, Toyota 86

Mitsubishi Motorsports Video

WTAC 2012: Warren Luff talks Project Nemo

Post author By Liam
Post date 14 August, 2012

In this video Warren Luff talks about his winning 1:25.02 lap record from last weekend’s World Time Attack. Also interviewed is Chris Eaton, owner and builder of the Project Nemo Evo VII.

Eaton reveals the inspiration for finding Nemo was the hope that his son could one day drive his dad’s car in the Gran Turismo Playstation game. Luff also lets in on the corner speed through Sydney Motor Sport Park’s Turn 1; let’s just say it’s pretty damn quick!

We’re still yet to see onboard footage of the winning lap, which is a very tidy 3.8 seconds faster than the 2011 WTAC winner. We’re guessing that’s being saved for the YouTube channel of the event’s sponsor and will update you when it comes to hand.

Motorsports Video

VIDEO: Alright, we’ll call it a draw

Post author By Liam
Post date 3 August, 2012

We saw a little while back that deer and motorsports in West Virginia don’t mix. It seems that the deer are slow to get the message as the above screen grab shows. However, in the best traditions of Monty Python, both deer and motorcyclist simply got up, dusted themselves off and carried on.

The incident happened during Rally West Virginia, a closed road event for cars and bikes. Seems like West Virginia is the place to be if you want to hit a deer.

[Source: Autoblog]

Safety Issues Video

It’s just the luck of the draw

Post author By Liam
Post date 26 July, 2012
3 Comments on It’s just the luck of the draw

Metal safety barriers separating dual carriageways are supposed to be safe, right? Sometimes things can go wrong, as this video from Russia shows. And when things are out of your control, sometimes all that separates you from life and death is nothing more than dumb luck.

This rather frightening video shows two accidents. We can’t say what the outcome of the first impact was, but we can say, despite the graphic brutality of what happened in the second incident, that nobody was hurt. That’s just down to luck; half a metre either way and the occupants of this Golf Plus would have ended up a statistic.

[Source: Carscoop]

Porsche Video

11 seconds in 18 minutes

For his latest Drive video Chris Harris got behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT2 RS and took on a Ducati 1199 Panigale. The location for this duel? A quarter mile of sticky tarmac at the Santa Pod Raceway. In his piece for PistonHeads Harris paints the picture:

Personally, I think drag races are slightly less interesting than boiled rice. So I needed to do something that would stop me falling asleep. Ducati has recently launched this remarkable new bike called an 1199 Panigale, and I quite fancied watching a bloke who could ride it properly: step forward Ben Cope from www.VisorDown.com.

Despite the actual action taking 11 seconds, more or less, the vid goes for 18 minutes plus. We didn’t lose interest at any stage, though, and we don’t think you will either.