2010 turned out to be the biggest and most exciting year for Ken Block’s rally career. Becoming the first American to enter the World Rally Championship, Block took the motorsport world by storm by adding a full Rally America season, filming Gymkhana THREE, the Gymkhana GRID series, and more to his plate.

It wasn’t easy road, with a year full of mechanical issues and other setbacks. But Block filled it with enough win to make his name known – dropping into the history books of rally racing, and having one hell of a good time doing it.

Check out the video HERE

Turner Motorsports provides an update on their new Rolex GT M3 build for next season’s Grand-Am series. This video was taken in the weeks leading up to the ROAR before the Rolex 24 earlier this month.
Check out this awesome time lapse video HERE

This is how the finished product looks like, but a lot of hard work goes into setting up the shot. This is a behind the scenes video of the FreeStyle Rides photoshoot for Peter Fitzpatrick’s 1959 Holden FC that won the Meguiar’s Superstars “Champion of the Decade” Best of Breed: Street Machine, at Meguiar’s MotorEx 2010. Check out the video of the photoshoot HERE

If you want to see the full feature on Peter Fitzpatrick’s 1959 Honden FC, you can purchase a copy of FreeStyle Rides Volume 10 HERE

BURNOUTS, BABES AND BLOWERS – IT’S WHAT SUMMERNATS IS ALL ABOUT!

Story by Owen Webb. Photography by John Churchill.

After a few years of uncertainty, Summernats 24 was shaping up really well with increased entries and a lot of positive talk. Crowd figures were reported up a little on last year, which is positive but the real difference was in the cars and quality. There are always great cars there but this being the 3 year cycle we unveiled 9 cars and had the best top 60 ever. I stated before the Elite presentation that the top 20 would be the best ever and would be defined by the cars that missed out. Cars like last years Grand Champion, 2 hot rods that made Meguiars Superstars at MotorEx 2010 and several other top elite cars. Although these cars missed the top 20 the majority embraced the new successful cars.

There were several trends this year from orange / tangerine paint, more streetable cars and several father son teams building cars. There was 3 second generation cars in the top 20, Wayne Gima’s 56 Chev, Aaron Fitzpatrick’s Datsun and Nick Bartrop’s HQ Monaro. This is great for the custom car industry and shows a real coming of age and acceptance.

This is such a huge festival with so many events happening each day. As I’ve already stated the elite cars were awesome, judging going on over 3 days with Peter Fitpatrick’s Trilogy FC Holden taking out top Engine Bay, Custom Paint, Pro Street, Peoples choice and Top Judged car overall. With all that Peter decided to compete in the driving events which he place highly in and took out the Grand Champion Sword as well. From my recollection that is the most successful car ever at Summernats. There were also some other great cars with Sam Caruana unveiling his Cinnamon HJ sedan, taking several trophies, Wayne Grima’s teal and black 56 chev, King Kong Cuda was back along with heaps of new and older cars. The street section was well attended too with A awesome red LJ Torana with a 350 chev taking the top gong.

Another feature event was the increased focus and prize money on the Liqui Moly Burnout Masters. Liqui Moly Oil and Additives have got behind the Burnout and Go Whoa diving events at Summernats where 20 cars qualify throughout the year at events and the top 5 from eliminations at Summernats qualify for the masters. The run offs are Saturday with the 5 finalists closing the Summernats on Sunday. What a shootout with the King Gary Myers claiming the inaugural Burnout Master with an awesome burnout and receiving a $15, 000 cheque. Check out the video of one of Gary Myers burnouts HERE

Summernats will always be about the cars but there were some good stories this year with people going out of their way to make the event. A guy brought 2 cars from Cairns, going 2000 klms out of his way to miss the floods, another guy left Mackay 2 days earlier so he could get through, we unveiled a car where the owner lost his son only 2 days before Christmas, another couple had a mishap on the way down, the battery caught fire, burnt the rear ¼ panel but still made it down and the car made the top 20.

Bernt Karlsson, the spraypainter from Boyd Coddington’s American Hot Rod also visited the Summernats. He had a stand where he was signing posters of the cars he painted at Boyd’s, Hes choice was Wayne Grima’s 56 Chev and Tom Keves bare metal HQ holden. This is the car being built by Chad Ackland the winner of the Troy Trepanier Scholarship, it will be a top car when finished and Bernt could see the potential. He also went for a ride in several cars including Victor Bray’s Burnout machine and said to me this is the greatest car event he has ever attended anywhere in the world and it should be called Summernuts!!

Tuff street was well supported again this year with some real tuff cars, the Supercruise went off well ending with a great fireworks display and then the Angels rocked the place till close. Summernats caters for so many different tribes, it truly is a unique event and hopefully will remain strong for many years to come.

Click the small photos below to enlarge them

See more of the LIQUI-MOLY Burnout Masters from Summernats 24 HERE

Ferrari has released their new FF, but what exactly does the FF stand for? Final Fantasy, Family Friendly, FreeStyle Ferrari!

Well, the FF stands for “Ferrari Four” (Four seats, Four wheel-drive). Ferrari has not only taken a stroll down family lane with this three door hatchback, featuring four-wheel-drive and enough room for four adults and their luggage; they’ve also broken some records with its 6.2-litre V-8, capable of 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, and a top speed of 334 kph.

The 6.2-litre powerplant is the star of the show, featuring 651 horsepower, and 504 lb-ft of torque. A dual-clutch F1 gearbox puts the power in your hands, delivering it to all four wheels through an electronic controlled 4RM system, which weighs 50 percent less than the conventional AWD system. The FF maintains a perfect 53 percent weight distribution over the rear axle.

To ensure stability, Ferrari has added a magnetorheological damping system (SCM3), which monitors the road for changes, making adjustments as necessary. It also gets an intelligent, predictive torque distribution system, and a set of Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes for the ultimate in stopping power.

The car will officially make its debut at the Geneva Auto Show in March, and will be released for sale to the public sometime in 2012 for the hefty price tag of around $700,000. Check out the video HERE

So what happens when you drop a 5.7L V8 in a tiny Suzuki Mighty Boy? Instant clouds, Summernats style!
Check out the video HERE
See more of the videos from the LIQUI-MOLY Rubbery Home video competition HERE

Just watched this cool video of a stretched 05 Kawasaki ZX10 piloted by Nick “Apex” Brocha vs. a Corvette-Powered RX7 driven by Jim Guthrie in a high speed drifting battle. Check out the video HERE

30 supercars. 60 people. 5 days. Over 1600 kilometres

As a major sponsor of Australia’s own luxury lifestyle rally event, Team MotorActive was out in force to experience exactly what Auzrun is all about. Modeled of the internationally known Cannonball, or of late, the Gumball 3000, Auzrun steps up for the rally down under and I can tell you first hand, it was one truly memorable moment in my life.

Check out the video HERE
For more information on this year’s AUZRUN click HERE

A short film about custom motorcycle engineer Shinya Kimura @ Chabott Engineering, directed by Henrik Hansen.

Check out the film HERE

The Sydney Telstra 500 is set to take off this weekend (December 3-5, 2010), and skateboarding legend, Tony Hawk, has been invited to perform in honor of the event.

“I can’t wait to skate the Monster Vert Ramp as part of the Sydney Telstra 500 V8 Supercar race at Sydney Olympic Park,” said Hawk to media members. “It is one of the biggest ramps in the world and its unique design makes for great demo skating.”

Little does Tony know at the time, there is a special surprise for when he gets here. A 630 horsepower skateboard. “We’re going to see if he’ll jump on it and have a crack (not literally, we hope)” said one of its builders.

“We haven’t built too many safety features apart from the big red button and the ability to run away from it,” said another builder. “(But) we think it might actually work.”

Should be interesting! Check out the video HERE