The Official UCP Video Thread

[Frank Uhlig]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt11_iD5q5I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt11_iD5q5I[/ame]

the last Porsche 935K3 was build in Cologne for the LeMans 24h race in 1981. Driven by the three Whittington Brothers the race ends after 2hours with a engine failure.
Later driven by "John Winter" in the DRM and Rolf Stommelen in the Endurance World Championship. in 1982 the car comes back to LeMans with Edgar Dören, Antonio Contreras and Billy Sprowls.
But they did not see the checkered flag, the race ends without fuel.
in August 2011 the car was testet on the Nurburgring GP-Track for the next race during the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix. Drivers are Chris Stahl and Klaus Ludwig.

[Cyco]

How to drill a square hole:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n9kFqfmwoU&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n9kFqfmwoU&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

[pimento]

That.. I.. I WANT THAT.

I've no use for it, but I wants it.

[csl177]

Eccentrics for tooling square, hexagonal and triangular holes have been machinist staples for decades. When I was doing design
work for a defense contractor years ago, a quote in an industrial trade magazine had all the shop guys laughing their asses off:

"If you have the right tool, anyone can make a high quality hole".

We printed T shirts.

[RacingManiac]

Gymkhana 4:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btViXvIDsi0&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btViXvIDsi0&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

Probably the least car oriented one....also most commercialized. But entertaining regardless....

[NSXType-R]

I think Ken Block is overrated.

[csl177]

I think Ken Block is overrated.

No doubt. He's fine as a trick driver, which unfortunately many people think is enough to be a race car driver.

So far in WRC he's had his ass handed to him. Got that Monster money, though.

[Ferrer]

So far in WRC he's had his ass handed to him. Got that Monster money, though.

That was to be exepcted. Even today being a pale shadow of its former self rallying demands respect. You can't expect to win straight out of the box if you know how to slide about a car...

[Matra et Alpine]

Usually tho' they dont "win out of the box" because they are in inferior cars or teams with limited budgets. Block has had ait all handed on a plate because he can do tricks.
Russ Swift has done the tricks Ken does for the last 30 years.
It's all too much bling over substance and I do think he has been shown up to know how to make a car go sideways but NOT make it go fast on loose/uneven surfaces.
Even on tarmac he's not been that impressive
Anyone can drift sideways through an air craft hangar if they practice that move often enough - eg Russ Swift. Same with the rest of his moves.
BUt as a "driver" he just doens't ahve the skill or reactions to think out, plan and execute a WRC rally stage. Annoys me there are VERY good and proven drivers in JWRC who coudl do better with his seat in competition.

BUT Ken gets the advertisers their pound of flesh so for that he's a winner

[RacingManiac]

Its all about how you sell yourself and move products. And he is popular with the skateboarder set and X-Game crowd, which is the key demographic for a lot of products, for energy drinks, for Ford, for his own company DC Shoes..... unfortunately racing being fully commercialized as it is, money trumps talent in the end....

Fun to watch I guess....

[Ferrer]

Its all about how you sell yourself and move products. And he is popular with the skateboarder set and X-Game crowd, which is the key demographic for a lot of products, for energy drinks, for Ford, for his own company DC Shoes..... unfortunately racing being fully commercialized as it is, money trumps talent in the end....

You've just listed pretty much everything that's wrong with rallying...

Fun to watch I guess....

...but at least rallying can still sort of fight back.

[Frank Uhlig]

Oldtimer Grand Prix Nurburgring, last week

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ244OYjYvE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ244OYjYvE[/ame]

[RacingManiac]

Is it as bad like that in EU as it is in US? Granted, people like Travis Pastrana and Block have moved Rallying in US in to the lime light, and Pastrana can drive pretty well. But the X-Game-set-turned-rally-driver brought along their own groupie and have changed the demographic for rallying....on top of the video game set now are marketing to that market, and turned something like Colin McRae series to what it is now(so more people are attracted to the sport from that angle...granted the late McRae himself was selling himself to that crowd too once he was out of WRC.). In the end though I guess is it brings more money into it, more TV coverage, then it has to be good no?

[Ferrer]

To be brutally honest I don't follow rallying to closely these days, but AFAIK his results are pretty dismal leading to the thoughts Matra echoes in his post (his may better be in the hands of a proper rally driver).

As for rallying itself, the spectator-friendly rally already exists, it's called Rallycross. Proper rallying will never truly spectator-friendly because it involves getting up very early, walk a lot, staying in the wild for hours and seeing cars for little time, amongst other things. So in the end Average Joes don't really embrace it and anoraks are upset with it. So in the end nobody's happy....

[NSXType-R]

No doubt. He's fine as a trick driver, which unfortunately many people think is enough to be a race car driver.

So far in WRC he's had his ass handed to him. Got that Monster money, though.

His first Gymkhana was sort of fun, but that was in his Subaru days. I feel like he enjoys parading around with his drifting crap. I mean yeah, drifting like that takes a lot of practice, but when he has the money like that and the sponsorship, it's not that hard to practice a lot.

I couldn't get through his second Gymkhana, it's just boring now.

Besides, drifting is popular for all the wrong reasons, with people chopping up perfectly fine Civics for stupid fartcans.