If you are one of the few around the world who was not tuned into X Games about two hours ago you missed an amazing feat. Hot Wheels just made the world record books by pulling off the largest loop done by a car. Well, actually I should say “cars” because two drivers went head to head and both successfully completed the loop!
What you see in the picture above is “Green Driver” Greg Tracy completely upside down at the top of the loop. He got a jump on the “Yellow Driver” AKA Tanner Foust and pulled way ahead but both drivers made it out ok! Stay tuned for more on the record breaking stunt, including the post-event press conference next week.
Yesterday I made the arduous trek to downtown Los Angeles to pick up my credentials for X Games 18 this weekend. When I got there I saw two things that caught my interest. The first being a giant life-sized bright orange Hot Wheels looped track and the second was a very jet-lagged Tanner Foust who was fresh off a short break from his European Rallycross tour. I knew somewhere between the two was an interview. Since the Hot Wheels track is an inanimate object and likely would not talk back, I decided to interview Tanner instead. I talked to him about his progress in Europe, what possessed him to try this crazy Hot Wheels stunt, and what will be on his mind going into the Rallycross race this weekend at X Games. Watch below!
Mother’s Day, the release of the Avengers, the Indy 500, and my birthday all happen in the only three lettered month of the year which make’s May very, important. Today Turn 10 Studios just gave us another reason to look forward to next month as that is when the Top Gear DLC pack will be released on Xbox live! Cool right?! Unfortunately there are no two-engined limos or amphibious RVs in the 10 car pack but we do get the hopelessly fast Hennesy Venom GT and the immense awesomness of the Ford Transit Van! Yes the transit is finally coming to Forza! Can you imagine playing Top Gear soccer with that? You won’t have to imagine much longer as the Top Gear pack comes out on May 1st for 560 Microsoft Points AKA 7 bucks. Scroll below for the full car list and official trailer
Today the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach released the list of participants in this year’s Toyota Pro Celebrity Race and among the combatants is Top Gear USA host Rutledge Wood. You heard right, good ol’ Rut will take part in what some people refer to as “celebrity pinball” as television, movie, and music stars try to keep their Scion tCs (and themselves) in one piece as they run 10 laps around the grand prix street circuit. Rutledge will have to fend off other contenders such as Adrain Brody, reality star Brody Jenner, and even a few pro drivers like Fredric Aasbo from Formula Drift and USAC Champion Bryan Clauson. Will some coaching from the Stig help Rutledge take down all comers and earn a first place finish for Top Gear USA? We will have to wait until race day April 14th. I will be track side capturing the action!
This is just a quick heads up to visit your local bookstore (before it goes out of business) and buy the new Top Gear Portfolio for 2012. It is filled with amazing photography of beautiful cars as well as a few extra tidbits. If you like looking at awesome pictures of fresh cars then this will be totally worth the 20 price tag.
P.S. I was at my local Barnes & Noble when I saw this, hence the sub-par cell phone shot.
This whole month we have been suggesting things that we think should be on your gift list this year or things you should consider getting for that special someone in your life. We realize that you may have missed a few items so we are bringing you the whole list again! Just click on any of the red text to go to that item’s post. Also remember that the best gift you can get is good friends and a happy family! Happy Holidays!
If loving cars is a religon then Top Gear is our bible and James May, Richard Hammond, and Jeremy Clarkson are our three wisemen. Blasphomey aside, Top Gear really is an insitution for lovers of all things automotive. For years Captian Slow, Hamster, and Jezza have entertained us with their ridiculous stunts and got us talking with their reviews of everything from million dollar supercars to the latest econobox from Brand X car company. In return fans would love to get their hands on damn near anything with the Top Gear logo on it. Top Gear UK goods are tricky to get, mostly because they have to come from the UK but they will be an instant hit with the car lover in your life and if you are the car lover writing your list and you haven’t included any Top Gear swag in your list yet then slap yourself in the face and correct the problem. Some quick easy to get hints would be DVDs of any of the Top Gear seasons. They are easy enough to find on BestBuy.com or Amazon.com and they range between 20-50 bucks.
If you like to race you know that there is nothing worse than the times when you are NOT racing. We try to get our fix by playing games like Forza Motorsport 4 to take the edge off but even then we still can’t quite get the level of realism we want with the standard controller in our hands. Steering with your thumb on an analog stick is nice but it just is not quite the same as holding a wheel in your hands. For an added touch of realism you may want to put Fanatec’s Forza Motorsport CSR wheel on your gift list this year. With up to 900 degrees of rotation, top of the line forcefeed back motors and high resolution steering input sensors this is one of the best steering virtual steering wheels you can get right now and the $249 price tag reflects that. There is also a shifter set and aluminum pedal set available to go with your wheel as well. The full package with the wheels, shifter set, and pedals will run you about $459. While that seems like an astronomical price this set up is pretty high quality, plus there is the added bonus of Playstation 3 compatibility. Before this wheel, consumers had to buy a wheel for their Xbox 360 and a wheel for their PS3. So in a way you are actually getting two-wheels in one. If you want to see everything you get in the package check out our unboxing video. Then add this wheel to your gift list this year or consider it as a gift for the gearhead in your life!
If your one of the few gear heads on earth who does not own Forza Motorsport 4 yet then you should definitely add it to your gift list for the holidays this year. Over the years the Forza Motorsport series has really come into its own and has gone from a pretender to the Gran Turismo throne to the king of the realm. There is also so much more for players to explore in the latest chapter including Top Gear challenges and the beautiful Autovista mode, which when coupled with Microsoft Kinect lets the player take a virual walk around of a long list of beautiful supercars and other cars that are notable to the car lover culture. This game is a MUST HAVE if you love cars even just a little bit. If you do not have an Xbox 360 then go ahead and put one of those on the list too or buy one because it is worth getting the console just for this game! If you want to know exactly why we love it so much then check out our review.
We realize this is late we have finally put together our review of Forza Motorsport 4! We put together a video review so feel free to scroll down below and watch. If for some reason you’d rather read then below the video is the entire transcript of the review. If you want the quick answer: BUY THIS GAME!
By now you should have noticed one very important thing about this review. It is very, very late. This is mostly because the day after we got our review copy of the game our Xbox red-ring’d. No matter though, we still wanted to give this game its due time. So, you know why this review is late and we know why you are even watching this review in the first place. By now you already know about the overhauled graphics engine, the integration of tire data from Pirelli to improve the physics, the collaboration with Top Gear, world tour mode, and the enhanced community features like rivals mode and car clubs . The fact that you know about all of this and yet you are still watching a review can only mean one thing: despite all of that you still haven’t bought the game yet. Perhaps you need just one more opinion to put you on one side of the fence or the other? Well we are prepared to offer that to you now.
Even though it says “Forza Motorsport 4” on the cover of the game we think it should really say “Forza Motorsport 4.0.” Why? Forza Motorsport 4 is not a sequel. It does not “continue” where something else left off. It does not need a primer or a recap of the events before for you to understand what it is. What Forza 4 is, is an evolution of a concept. When the first Forza Motorsport game was released many gave it the rather mundane label of Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s Gran Turismo and that Forza would try its best to be the ultimate driving simulator. However if you are lucky enough spend more than 5 minutes talking to Turn 10 Studios creative director Dan Greenawalt you will soon learn that the real intentions for Forza Motorsport go far beyond the goal of “ultimate driving simulator”. What Turn 10 wanted when they began developing Forza was to create a virtual utopia for serious gear-heads and a gateway drug for gear-heads-to-be. They probably did not know how they were going to get Forza Motorsport to that point but their determination to get there made the “how” irrelevant.
I say this because Forza Motorsport 4 is “it”. It is where Dan and Turn 10 have been trying to get to all along. Forza Motorsport 4 has everything that was great about the iterations that came before it plus more. There is more depth, more innovation, more substance, and more incentive for lovers of all things automotive to turn on their Xboxes and be magically whisked away to a land where they can answer questions like “How fast can I go on the Top Gear test track in the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport?” or “What is it like to sit in a Lamborghini Reventon?” Answers to those types of questions are invaluable to people like us, and yet they all await us on a pair of plastic discs. Beyond the answers to epic questions Forza Motorsport 4 has tons of small nuances that keep the player coming back for more but our favorite thing about the game has to be Autovista mode. Turn 10 has literally created a new way for the casual observer to not just learn more about cars but to learn about “special cars”, the type of cars that hard-core enthusiasts discuss and argue about. A whole new generation of young people will learn the story of the DeLorean and why the Ferrari 599 GTO is terrifying. And they get to learn all this, from Jeremy Clarkson. That fact can be either magnificent or sobering depending on who you are but there it is.
We could end this review by telling you how much better Forza 4 looks compared to the previous versions, how the physics are greatly improved, how the new community features give the game more depth than before, or how Autovista mode is a revelation in automotive education. Instead we will just answer the question that was in your mind when you first clicked play to watch this review. Yes, Forza Motorsport 4 is everything that everyone says it is. Yes, this game should be on your Christmas list. Yes, you should buy an Xbox just for this game. Yes, Forza Motorsport 4 is worth the Hype.
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