Grip Drift Motorsport Grip and Drift Blog

Something you don’t come across to often is a real thorough list of weight comparisons. The GT-R has some substantial braking hardware standard but upgrades are more substantial again. Are you packing on the pounds though or slimming down when you spend on this serious kit? You’ll know now with this handy reference thanks to Jeremy @ SpeedForSale.

Link: Brake Upgrade Weights @ SpeedForSale.com
Link: SpeedForSale.com

View Entire Article: SpeedForSale Comprehensive Brake Hardware Upgrade Weights for R35 GT-R at GTRBlog.com Originally appeared on and © GTRBlog.com. 2010. | Read comments.

NOTE: This post is from an outside source.

Grupee S posted up some pictures of the engine mounted in their R35 GT-R drift car.  They are preparing the car for the Formula Drift season.

The engine going in the car is not the VR38DETT but rather a turbocharged VQ35 from a 350Z, stroked and bored to 4.0 liters.

Gruppe S is going to be using a G-Force transmission along with the  VQ engine to make a potent, and proven combination for drifting.

Source: Gruppe S Blog via GT-R Blog

After the toughest day of the competition so far, the fate of the eight Gran Turismo® racers left in GT Academy 2010 has been decided. Jordan Tresson from France, Marco Calvo from Spain, Luca Lorenzini from Italy and Daniel Collins from Ireland will all progress to the final two days of the Silverstone ‘boot camp’. The four will keep their hopes alive of being one of two drivers that will undergo an intensive race training programme to qualify for an International C Race licence. One winner will then progress to drive a Nissan 370Z GT car in the European GT4 Cup.

Day three began with a 6.00am wakeup call for participants. They were taken to Silverstone’s off-road experience area to be put through an extreme fitness test. Three ex-marines guided them through an assault course that would be tough at any time. In temperatures of less than two degrees, with driving rain, wind, mud and lots of water it became almost unbearable for some of the competitors. Mental and physical strength were pushed to the limits but all eight hopefuls made it through.

“This was not really a test of fitness, but more one of mental stamina,” explained ex-Royal Marine Commando Ben Mason who ran the assault course. “In that respect, they all did very well. Some of the guys might not have been fit by our standards, but they pushed hard to the end in difficult conditions.”

France’s Jordan Tresson had both the physical and mental aptitude required to take first place. He was followed home by Italy’s Giacomo Cunial and Ireland’s Daniel Collins.

After a much-needed hot shower and breakfast, the competitors met with Nissan athlete Geraldine Fasnacht. The Swiss gave the racing hopefuls an insight into her life as an extreme sportswoman and what it takes to survive at the top.

Former ITV Formula 1 presenter, and ex-Jordan Grand Prix press officer, Louise Goodman then enlightened the participants in the ways of the media. She gave them a brief but impressive media training workshop to prepare them for a possible life as a racing driver.

Back at Silverstone the competitors were back on track, albeit a damp track. They continued to hone their car control with a drifting test in the rear wheel drive manual Nissan 370Z. The contestants enjoyed the pleasure of lapping Silverstone’s National Circuit in the GT-R set-up in race mode. The final, and perhaps most challenging, on-track session of the day took place in Silverstone’s single-seaters on the new Stowe Circuit. The GT Academy instructors assessed all activities to feed back to the judges.

In a packed day, there was no let-up for the competitors on their return to the hotel. They were taken straight to a class room to undertake their ARDS (basic race licence) exam before a mind-coaching session with a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) expert.

A welcome addition to the Academy judging panel today was former Formula One team owner, Eddie Jordan. The BBC F1 presenter, who counts Michael Schumacher as one of his former protégées, was impressed with the competitors: “I’m staggered by the standard,” explained the experienced Irishman. “I didn’t believe that it was possible for people from the virtual world to have that relationship with the car. They are undoubtedly the quickest and best on PlayStation 3, but to come here and display such immediate talent, speed, commitment and understanding is impressive. I underestimated them. They are racing drivers in disguise!

“It’s going to be an interesting couple of days with these four guys. If it is as difficult to get them from four to two as it was to separate this eight, it is going to be very hard for us!”

FINAL 4 ELIMINATED ON DAY 2 Luca Lorenzini, Italy (Mantova) 26 Roberto Otero, Spain (Mininos) 21 Jordan Tresson, France (Villers La Montagne) 21 Dan Holland, Australia (Brunswick West) 25 Marco Calvo Acedo, Spain (Madrid) 22 Benjamin Peron, Belgium (Hainaut) 29 Daniel Collins, Ireland (Limerick) 31 Christian Giere, Germany (Bremen) 27 John Moorby, UK (Macclesfield) 32 ELIMINATED ON DAY 3 Tony Autridge, New Zealand (Paraparaumu) 19 Filipe Barreto, Portugal (Lisbon) 32 Steffen Christein, Germany (Baiersbronn) 20 Giacomo Cunial, Italy (Treviso) 20 Alex Ingram, UK (Harrogate) 22 Oliver Simon, Switzerland (Hausen Am Albis) 27 Marko Moisio, Finland (Tampere) 25 Jeroen Kesselring, Netherlands (Rotterdam) 26 Robert Wawrzyniak, Austria (Salzburg) 25 The GT Academy 2010 continues tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday with the on-track action intensifying. The judges will be scrutinising all four competitors before a final decision on the two winning drivers is taken on Tuesday night. Check out all the photos from the day on the GT Academy Flickr Photostream.

NOTE: This post is from GT Planet.

As the story breaks today at Drifting.com it appears the 2009 rookie Jeff Jones will be upgrading to a FD Mazda Rx-7. For his rookie season he campaigned a S13 Nissan 240sx with CX Racing and Cooper Tires that you can see below.

He is now partnered with Rotary Works along with CX Racing to run this new FD Rx-7 progress.The car will feature a 20b turbocharged engine and should be an interesting change from his S13. He started with the rotary and is headed back to his roots of drifting. It looks like if we cannot call 2010 the year of the V8 engine it will be the year of the rotary motor.

Source: Drifting.com

NOTE: This post is from an outside source.

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Motorcycle, Racing

It's only been a few months since Harley-Davidson officially announced the demise of Buell, but the gang at Erik Buell Racing weren't comfortable hanging up their leathers just yet. In fact, the newly-released 1190RR may be the first time we get to see the team really show off without any higher-ups to please.

Reading the specs, it clear that you won't run into this Buell at a Riders Edge event. A new version of the Rotax-built V-twin will displace 1190cc and spit out 185 rear-wheel horsepower. EBR claims that through use of high-quality chassis components and good diet and exercise, they were able to reach a fighting weight of 360 pounds (before the 4.6 U.S. gallons of fuel are added to the frame).

The trick race-bred features keep coming, like a full titanium exhaust and valvetrain, multi-plate slipper clutch and straight-cut gear six-speed tranny. Chassis and suspension take the "tune to the moon" approach, with fully-adjustable Showa race suspension, variable rake and, therefore, variable wheelbase. Just off its championship victory in the 2009 AMA Daytona Sportbike series, Buell shows no sign of bowing out gracefully anytime soon. Click past the break to view the full specifications of the 1190RR.

[Source: Hell For Leather]Continue reading Most powerful Buell ever: Staying in the race with the new 1190RR

Most powerful Buell ever: Staying in the race with the new 1190RR originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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here are the pics from yesterday event great turn out:

Difficult conditions greeted the 18 at Silverstone today (Saturday). But despite some heavy rain during the day, all driving activities went ahead as planned. A sprint competition in the 370Zs was followed by 3 separate activities in the afternoon – a head-to-head, parallel course time-trial in the awesome Nissan GT-R, drifting and car control in the 370Z, and lapping Stowe circuit in the 370Zs with an instructor assessing their progress.

At the end of the day, the competitors undertook a teamwork challenge. Split into two teams, they were timed to undertake a full ‘pit-stop’ on the new 370Z GT4 race car, delivered to the circuit by their potential new boss, Bob Neville of RJN Motorsport.

Back at the GT Academy’s hotel base, the judges, armed with the competitors’ times and scores supplied by Silverstone’s experienced team of instructors, deliberated on the fate of the 18 hopeful gamers. After less than an hour, the decision was taken as follows…

The Final 8:

• Jordan Tresson – GT_driver_BMW (FR)
• Oliver Simon – GTNDC_czsimo (CH)
• Daniel Collins – DarkEnergyForce (IE)
• Jeroen Kesselring – Oenta (NL)
• Marco Calvo – MakaayX (ES)
• Filipe Baretto – Hunter_4_6 (ES)
• Luca Lorenzini – Giagua (IT)
• Giacomo Cunial (IT)

Formula One and Le Mans 24 Hour winner Johnny Herbert felt that most of the decisions were relatively clear cut: “I would say that the standard is fairly similar to that of GT Academy 2008 at this stage,” he explained. “However, the eight that we have chosen are close, compatible and very competitive. There was probably a bit more of a difference between the last eight in the first Academy. You have the impression that these guys are really going to push each other, but in a positive way.

“Obviously we feel we have got the best eight, but it was a hard decision. There were a couple of guys that were close and we had to weigh up all the factors and make that tough decision based on who can realistically progress to be the full racing package. That means being fast and consistent on the track, but also being able to communicate well with your team and the media. In the end, it may have been some of those ‘softer’ elements that made the difference of one guy over the next.”

The GT Academy continues on Sunday. A 7.00am start of a gruelling assault course awaits the competitors, followed by more intensive race instruction and challenges in the GT-Rs, 370Zs and some single seaters. In the classroom, the eight competitors will sit their written ARDS (race licence) test. Joining the judging panel on Sunday will be former Formula One team owner, Eddie Jordan.

NOTE: This post is from GT Planet.

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, Safety, Mercedes-Benz, Specialty, Racing

Sometimes, speed equals safety. Perhaps nowhere else is that more true than on a racetrack when you're piloting the so-called safety car and you've got a pack of Formula One cars riding up your tailpipe. Good thing, then, that the newest safety car to be used for F1 duty is the 571-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Interestingly, that tailpipe is the only mechanical change made to the SLS AMG to bring it up to Official F1 Safety Car specs. Mercedes-Benz left everything else on the car, including the engine, suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes, stock. Not that you won't be able to tell the difference between the Safety Car and a standard Gullwing - a new carbon fiber hood with front-mounted camera, rear number plate with a camera and 700 LEDs and an "aerodynamically optimised roof light bar" (for the first time using all LEDs) ensure nobody can miss this particular SLS AMG.

For what it's worth, the SLS AMG replaces the SL63 AMG, which had been the Official Safety Car for the previous two seasons. Again, the F1 Safety Car will be piloted by former DTM driver Bernd Mayländer. Also, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Estate (that's wagon to us Americans) will serve as the Official F1 Medical Car. Let's hope that one doesn't see too much track time, eh? Click past the break for the official press release.

Gallery: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG F1 Safety Car

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]Continue reading Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG F1 Safety Car unveiled

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG F1 Safety Car unveiled originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I stopped into Dan Greenawalt’s office today to ask him a question and he gave me this spent look of satisfaction and resignation, exhaling “Dude, there’s so much stuff happening right now!” It’s funny because while we work on different parts of the Forza franchise, I knew exactly what he was talking about. There are a ton of initiatives sprouting at Turn 10 – enough to keep a large studio like Turn 10 very very busy. Which is why I’ve hired the first new member of our community team to help me manage our biggest fan base yet: Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Jube! He joins us from the snowy East Coast and will work with Fred to propel the Forza community to new heights in 2010. Many of you have already seen Jube on various forums, including Forzamotorsport.net and NeoGAF, as he’s best known for his various and fantastic work on liveries in FM3. Jube is also going to really step in and take ownership of posting on our blog, forums, and even start writing some of these weekly Pitpass Reports.

Image by HLR RayRay - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

The goal here is, of course, to establish better communication with our fans and be sure that we’re able to disseminate the info we need to effectively for all Forza players. That said, as I’ve already detailed on our Twitter page (http://twitter.com/turn10studios), I’m still looking for a community manager! I’ve already gotten lots of very interesting cover letters and resumes (please email them to forzafb@microsoft.com) and I’ll start reaching out to qualified individuals soon. Qualified folks will have the following skills: PR, marketing, and gaming industry experience, fun and capable writer, passion for cars and video games (in that order). If you think you’ve got what it takes to take the Forza community and franchise to the next level (don’t all job ads have this phrase nowadays?) please send email to the above alias.

Last week my blog here came under fire from certain readers for being an “epic fail”, among other descriptions (seriously, can we ban that cliché already?) because I did not mention any updates about the FM3 patch that we’re currently working on. While I understand why some of you are anxious to hear about the patch, being a jerk about it in the comments section isn’t going to make the information any more forthcoming. The main reason why I avoided talking about the patch last week was mostly because I didn’t want to jump the gun. We’re in the middle of things and I wanted to make sure I got my facts straight before I go out there with info. I also wanted to devote an entire entry on the DICE awards because it was an important milestone for Turn 10.

Image by super snake199 - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

So what’s up with the patch? There are a list of things we’re adding and addressing in the game, but the biggest of these is Team Racing, a new mode added to multiplayer matchmaking (aka “the hoppers”). What this effectively brings to FM3 public multiplayer is the ability to have teams of cars competing in a race, allowing for new strategies – especially when you introduce multi-class cars within the same track to the equation. With this new mode comes new game types such as Cat and Mouse and tag. Other hopper changes include team balancing and the addition of AI cars to team racing. My team will also have the ability to scale the XP earned in multiplayer hopper races so that certain hoppers will get you more XP per race. The other big additions involve our drag mode: Players will now have the ability to control their revs during the 3-2-1 countdown if they use manual transmission with clutch, and other tweaks influenced by feedback from the drag racing community (you know who you are).

There are also a couple fixes going into the patch: The 6th gear speed exploit and the transmission swap exploit – both of which allowed cheaters to go faster on leaderboards. Since we’ll be doing a partial wipe of the leaderboards after this patch is released, I’ll put this warning out now for would-be leaderboard cheaters -- use of these exploits is against the FM3 terms of use. We’ll offer amnesty to those who didn’t know better (yeah right) up to this point and used these exploits, but going forward, any use of these in FM3 will result in a permanent ban from our servers. You have been warned.

Image by Instant Foam - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

We don’t have a date on the patch yet but I’ll let you guys know as soon as T10’s taskmaster Brian Lockhart tells me. Meanwhile, you guys can look forward to the official reveal of the March DLC next week. Officially called the Jalopnik Car Pack, we will be lifting the layers on 10 mystery cars in spyshot fashion over at Jalopnik.com. Before I’m out for the weekend, I want to put this question out there to everyone in the community: Should we raise the Storefront price cap from 50,000 credits to 100,000 credits? Let us know right here in our blog comments section or give us a shout on Twitter. For now, I’ll let Fred take over and tell you about some cool things we’re doing for VIPs this week, including gift cars, an exclusive time trial, and weekly car gift voting!

This week in the Forza Motorsport 3 Community!

It has been a busy week out here at Turn 10, between showing the new guy the ropes, getting a new set of painted cars done and putting together a few new things for all of our FM3 VIPs, we are looking forward to the weekend. If you have not noticed this week has been about the FM3 VIPs and we are continuing that love with some more things going today.

First up is the Toy Soldiers VIP car, early this week we sat down with the folks from Signal Studios and worked up a plan to do a car based on their upcoming game and a special Toy Soldiers Time Trial. What is special about this time trial? Well it is your chance to get your hands on a download code for the upcoming release of the Toy Soldiers Xbox Live Arcade game. There are ten download codes on the line for this Time Trial, while the top five drivers will receive a download code there will also be five drivers randomly selected from everyone who posts a time on the Toy Soldiers Time Trial. The only restriction to this event is that you must be a FM3 VIP in order to be able to run a time on the track.

Toy Soldier Time Trial

What: Special VIP only Time Trial

When: Now until Friday March 5th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Sedona Raceway Park Club – 2009 Ford #1 TeamVodafone FG Falcon

Special Prizing: Top five drivers and five randomly selected participates will win a download code for the new Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Toy Soldiers.

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to Toy Soldier TT and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

We have also started the VIP Gift Car Battle, our first battle has come to completion today. The winning car, Ferrari 330 P4, will be gifted out later day and should be arriving, if it has not already, to the garages of all VIPs by Saturday. There will be two battles a week where the community will decide which cars the VIPs will be getting that week. The new battle is already up, the poll will close on Tuesday so you have the weekend to decide between the 1970 Nissan Datsun 510 and 1971 Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R.

Image by X SEUROBERTS X - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

The doors have also opened on the FM3 Hall of Fame Galleries, the HOF is the place for the winners of our official comps to show off their work. There are currently only two galleries but you can expect more in the future as the HOF will be hosting the photographers, painters and tuners who win our competitions.

Finally, before we move into the community listings, we have some more Community Ambassadors to award.

Tchak: He has gone out of his way in creating a great site for all the racers and hot lappers to track their stats. Tchak has continued to develop and improve his Forzastats site since he first started in FM2..

DamMe: As a longtime member of the forums, you can often find DamMe in the fantasy section helping many of our new users, whether it is in answering questions or pointing someone in the right direction, DamMe is often the first person offering assistance.

We would like to thank these individuals for their support and contributions to the Forza community by offering them a gift car of their choosing.

Image by Teemu1337 - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

Week 7 Time Trial - Caddie on Sebring

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday March 5th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Sebring Club – 2009 Cadillac CTS-V

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to Caddie on Sebring and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Takata Contest has ended: The Takata Time Attack 2010 Livery contest has come to a close today! Quite possibly the coolest thing that can happen to any Forza painter is having their design realized in the real world. Finalists will be chosen tonight and announced tomorrow so keep your eyes open on the boards or over at our twitter (twitter.com/turn10studios) to see what painters take one step closer to that reality. Check out the Takata thread here.

Lego Indiana Jones: What do you get when you combine Forza, Indiana Jones, Legos, a BMW and some creativity? Well in this case you get an Indiana Jones Lego themed M5. This group effort will definitely put a smile on your inner-child’s face. Check it out!

Image by FranticMunky - See this and more in the Community Gallery.

Weekly Photomode Competition: The community run “Weekly Photomode competition #1” winners have been announced! Great submissions from the community, you can view the winners here.

Drift Replica/Fantasy Paint Comp Submission: Week 11 in this popular competition kicks off today. Competition ends Wednesday, good luck!

Name A Shop Contest?: Sixx’s team is in need of a name and is offering 2.5 million credits to whoever comes up with the group’s new moniker. View the thread here.

Follow us on Twitter! If you have twitter check out us @turn10studios, it’s a great place to get daily tidbits on all things Forza. For more info click here.

NOTE: This post is from Forza Motorsport.

Part three of our series where we stalk the Gruppe-S guys building their Hankook Dynamic Autosports drift GT-R. This time we’ve got our first official pics of the VQ35 motor and G-Force 4-Speed dog box manual transmission bolted into the R35 chassis. The VQ35 is smaller all round versus the VR38 so all that extra space will be filled with larger piping for a bigger turbo. Yes singular.

This VQ35 ain’t stock though in case you’re wondering. It’s stroked to 4.0 – 4.1 liters so should be able to put out some respectable numbers when all said and done. It’s bolted in by way of some custom solid engine mounts.

The guys promise the GT-R will be ready for round one of Formula D action at the Streets of Long Beach in California on the 9th – 10th of April! Sweet!

Link: Gruppe-S Blog

View Entire Article: Dynamic Autosports Hankook Gruppe-S Drift GT-R Project Update: Part III at GTRBlog.com Originally appeared on and © GTRBlog.com. 2010. | Read comments.

NOTE: This post is from an outside source.