Drifting lessons w/ Professor Tiff

Tiff Needell is a former racing driver and TV show presenter who has taken his time off to teach everyone how to get started with drifting. Don't try this at home, kids. To be honest, don't even try this unless you were actually on a giant vacant lot/airfield.



Don't know what to say about Tiff. He is almost too good of a driver to be a good teacher. Although he is filled w/ words of encouragement, I think he simplifies the complex maneuvers a bit too much. For one thing, Don't try these moves in a transit van. Just look at what Richard Hammond from top gear did when he busted out his Scandinavian flick on his van:



Moral of the story: Things with a high center of gravity, don't drift well. oh, and try to find an empty airfield to practice drifting.

The Stig's Spring Break

What do you do when you are a tamed racing driver with no supercars to drive? You go on vacation! Our friendly neighborhood Stig, from Top Gear, has been seeing the sights and sounds around Englandland. Whats been totally awesome is that Google street view has captured some of his vacation. Here he is at Legoland (map). If you tour through the area you and wander around you might find more snapshots of him. Here we see him driving a camel and in front of a giant lego pharaoh. For the lazy way of finding him, Final Gear has done the wheres waldo search for you and provided more pics and maps:
Stig's Legoland Part 3.
Legoland Part 2
Legoland Part 1

Unfortunately, Google eventually blurs him out due to privacy concerns or something to that nature. He is already blurred out in the Part 1 photos (camel and pharaoh).

His first appearance on Google Street view was when he visited Loch Ness Lake back in January. He was standing arms cross and facing toward the road. I guess he is just magnetically attracted to roads or something since the lake was behind him. Eventually he was blurred out. I tried to get back to the same location, but google maps wont even let you see his blurred image anymore. It just skips that section of the road now. Check out the postfrom Final Gear: Stig's Loch ness visit.


Hopefully, we will see a few more Street view photos of the Stig before the next series begins. Some say he is a world traveler...

Mulholland Drift Session

Tanner Foust is just got promoted to my hero list. Sorry, Ghandi, you had a good run, but you never drifted through public roads like my buddy, Tanner, does. In what basically is a TRD Nascar cloaked in a Scion tc costume, Tanner Foust drifts through a 2 mile section of the famous Mulholland Hwy. Cameras are strategically placed to capture him outlining the road w/ two lines of rubber and a helicopter chases him too. Pretty sweet stuff but my favorite camera shots are the ones under the car, filming the suspension travel and smoke spewing tires.



For those who don't know, Tanner Foust is a former race car driver who has become a TV host for a few shows on speed channel and may possibly be one of the hosts on Top Gear US. He was one of the three who filmed the original US pilot before the show got canned. However, since then, his co-presenter, Adam Corolla (perfect name for a car show host), has leaked that TG US will be picked up after all and he was in process of filming it. Hopefully Mr. Foust will be part of the cast. I would like to see more of his driving antics.

Automotive application to life #61

On the track and in life: smooth feedback and quick responses will bring you efficiency and success. too many "ummm"s and "uhhh"s at the sign of an obstacle will probably result in you upside down, in a ditch, and on fire.

Do you park like an Asshole?

Have you ever returned to your parked car only to find an oversized SUV parked so close to you that you have to climb in through the trunk to get into your car? Or an inconsiderate douchebag hogging up two spaces in a crowded parking structure so no one can park next to him/her?

Now there is help!

Print out a few of these handy “tickets” and tuck them under their wiper as you key >=( into their hood. Or just the leave the ticket. If I could, I would put one of these on every car in the parking garage at work. Escalades and Navigators are NOT compact! For now:

http://youparklikeanasshole.com/