LEO PARENTE: Today on "Shakedown," some race car
news and race car announcements and F1.
Ian, this is the first show here in the New York studio
since storm Sandy hit, right?
IAN: Yes.
LEO PARENTE: OK.
So obviously, I apologize for missing Monday's "Shakedown"
because of the weather.
But our real sentiment is our care and concern for everyone
out there who is suffering through the real tragedy,
everything going on around this storm.
We're pulling for you.
My answer was to leave New York a day early to go do
business over at SEMA out in Las Vegas.
So I know I'm getting no cries of tears and sentiment for me,
but that's OK.
At SEMA--
young kids, they see dead people.
I see race cars.
At SEMA, Specialty Equipment and Tuning,
there were race cars.
Mazda, for example, brought their 787 Le Mans car, the
sister car to the winning car.
Ford brought a throwback car, the 1963 Ford Galaxy of NASCAR
legend, Fireball Roberts.
This is a drop tank Bonneville racer, the drop tank from a
World War II fighter plane, probably a Mustang.
As well as real racing news.
Acura announced a program that they're going to do at the
Thunderhill 25 Hours.
We'll cover that when we come back.
But it was SEMA.
Lunacy prevails.
Automotive idiocy.
And Toyota seemed to step up.
They built this top fuel-powered
Toyota Sequoia SUV.
I mean really?
Seriously?
How fast do I need get the family to the Home Depot?
Come back.
We got the real news.
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LEO PARENTE: As I mentioned in the intro, I went to SEMA, the
specialty equipment show, for business.
But I came back with real racing news, starting with a
story I know will interest you.
Scion has chosen to go real road racing.
And they've chosen to compete in the Pirelli World Challenge
Series with the FRS.
They built a real race car, found a real racing team.
They're going to compete in the GTS class, which is going
to put them up against some pretty stout competition.
Mustang, Camaro, KIA's program, Volkswagen, and the
Porsche Cayman.
Well, how are they going to do that with a flat-four?
They're also going to supercharge.
TRD has built a supercharger kit for the car.
And they can compete with that because the manufacturer can
upgrade their performance, as long as they make it retail.
That supercharger kit is going to be available for anyone
driving an FRS on the street.
So at SEMA, I saw an aftermarket company offering a
turbocharger kit for the Scion and the Subaru.
And we know that Subaru has announced they're going to do
their own turbo package somewhere
down the road in 2014.
But with Scion and TRD, they're going to be able to
supercharge that car when they race it.
This is all going to start in 2013.
Now, why did the team pick GTS class?
They're a West Coast team and they wanted to
race at Long Beach.
And the Long Beach race is only for GT, where the
Cadillacs and Porsches compete, and GTS.
So here comes a supercharger boost, and we're
all going to benefit.
What other racing news?
Staying on the Asian side, Acura showed this ILX.
Now ILX is for their competition at the Thunderhill
25 Hour race.
Acura also races in World Challenge.
But this car was built by the engineers in-house, and the
engineers are taking the car to that Thunderhill
competition.
So maybe it's more than just an exercise for developing the
car and developing their engineers.
Maybe it's training ground to upgrade their
World Challenge car.
The two cars are going to compete this-- what?
December?
Staying on the Asian front still, we have Mazda.
Mazda brought more racing to SEMA than just
that 787 Le Mans car.
Mazda brought their next upgrade for the MX-5.
Super20 was the last car.
And Mike Spinelli drove that, and he's going to do a review.
But to this year's SEMA, they brought the Super25, which is
the upgraded performance car, now with an endurance kind of
tilt to it.
That explains all the headlights in the front.
Enough lighting to not only endurance race, but probably
light the blacked out downtown Manhattan.
What else we got?
Ah, yes.
Lexus.
Lexus showed the Nurburgring edition of the LFA.
And while it's a cool car, and I'm going to get some of the
facts wrong.
They had a detail sheet that explains what else an upmarket
buyer for this hyper-expensive LFA gets.
They get things like a one-year membership for track
time over at the Nurburgring.
They get specialized track instruction.
They get like a jacket and a key fob.
Nurburgring is still in default, right, Ian?
IAN: Yeah.
LEO PARENTE: You probably get the debt that goes with it, as
well, but whatever.
The car was there.
Everyone thought it was cool.
I don't understand why they do these add-ons
at that price point.
Do those type of owners really need little
incentives to buy this car?
And you know what?
There were a lot of LFAs around the display.
How many have they sold?
Yeah.
Two.
Keep going.
So it feels like all I'm talking
about is Japanese brands.
I kind of have, and I don't want to leave out Nissan.
But their news wasn't at SEMA.
It was halfway around the globe.
The Australian V8 Supercar Series, where they announced
and launched their 2013 entry, their Nissan Altima.
It's not the type of Altima you and I can buy.
Not front drive.
Race car rear drive.
Not four or six cylinder.
It's got a Nissan racing V8.
As cool as the car looks, the engine looks cool, as well.
I'm looking forward to watching Nissan compete.
They were a megaforce back in the
older days of V8 Supercars.
With the GT-Rs and such, this car is going
to perform as well.
Back to SEMA.
All of the news was not public announcements.
We've heard how Porsche is pulling back their factory
support from the Lizards.
There's been rumors on what BMW is going to do in 2013 in
the GTE class.
Some of the behind the scenes conversations we had at SEMA--
allow me to show you this picture of the Z4.
I'll let you draw the conclusion of what the hell
I'm talking about.
I'm going to show you this picture of their tires
currently on the car, and let you figure out why I may be
showing that or not showing that for 2013.
Moving on.
What have we got next?
Ah, yes.
Well Corvette showed their championship winning Corvette
with their Jake logo, the iconic representation of
Corvette racing.
But they also showed a Corvette at the SEMA show, and
it was this black and yellow striped--
ready for this?
Guy Fieri--
the cooking guy--
edition Corvette.
He drove a Corvette at the Indy 500, and I guess they
felt compelled to do a special edition for him.
Jake, the representative of Corvette racing, I thought
he'd be scary enough.
But maybe they decided we needed to kick it up a notch.
Or was that-- that's the other cook.
Who cares?
A Guy Fieri edition Corvette?
Really?
Welcome to SEMA.
The other American manufacturer that's always
there in force is Ford.
They showed a number of special edition Fords.
This is the Vaughn Gittin, the ITR Track Car.
But the Mustang that really caught my attention was from
an aftermarket tuner.
This 1965 Ford Mustang in the Martini racing stripes.
And really, that's just the beginning of the story, but
the stripes and paint job caught my attention.
But then I noticed the Lotus racing wheels, those four
spoke, knockoff type things.
You get into the car and you find out it's the horsepower
of this car that's really intriguing.
That is the 1965 Ford double overhead cam, aluminum and
magnesium engine that Ford used to race and
win at the Indy 500.
425 horsepower.
The engine that powered Jimmy Clark to that 1965
championship in that Lotus.
Connection of the wheels.
Connection of the engine.
In the Indy car, it had the bundle of snakes exhaust
coming out the top of the car.
Well they turned that around, probably turned the heads
around, made the exhaust come out the bottom of the car.
It's got a race car chassis, Lotus wheels, a Martini paint
job, and a really, really, hyper-rare magnesium and
aluminum Indy racing engine.
That was the car of choice that caught my attention.
I promised to talk F1.
We missed it on Monday.
Now is the time to talk F1.
But I can't do the predictive.
I mean, it's pretty obvious what's happening right now.
Red Bull is dominating.
They're running the technology to get P1 and 2 in qualifying.
Get Vettel to the front, and then Vettel takes
the car from there.
Those first laps are really important to break
free of the DRS zone.
Barring a mistake, I have no idea how Alonso and crew are
going to catch these guys.
Ian likes this picture of Vettel on the podium.
Here's Mark spraying him.
I like the picture for two reasons.
One, obviously, I'm thinking he's going to go to P1 again
and be on the podium.
Number two, that look.
That's not just from Webber spraying him with
champagne to blind him.
I think that's the look that Alonso wants
after he pops him.
That's the only shot he's got at a fair fight.
Back to SEMA one more time.
Global RallyCross the Series built their course right
outside the SEMA show.
That was smart business and marketing.
They got all the OEM manufacturers, all the
representatives of all the brands, to come out and see
Global RallyCross firsthand.
It was a very active sales pitch.
I got the chance to sit in the VIP tents with the
manufacturers.
And I would not be shocked if in 2013, we see brands like
Chevy and VW in Global RallyCross.
They're all fascinated, how it was young and exciting, jumps,
all that stuff.
The course is nothing new.
Really, Global RallyCross is nothing new.
I know you Europeans will tell me all about it.
In America, we've taken it to stadium racing.
That's the nothing new part of it.
We've been down this road before with the Mickey
Thompson Off Road Truck Series.
At the day, that was basically taking that bike supercross
stuff, and motocross, into the stadium,
into the major markets.
Trucks did it.
Toyota, Ford, Nissan really stepped up,
put on quite a show.
And Global RallyCross is doing the same thing.
Right now, they're racing with NASCAR, but as a stadium
thing, it may be the way to go.
I kind of got that feeling of the scale and size
they built at SEMA.
All the names were there.
Ford has their team.
Kenny Block was leading in the final.
Had a little bit of a DNF.
Brian Deegan runs this car, and definitely, it's all about
the extreme and getting the kids involved.
These headlights light while he races, so you get the red
eyes and the sharp teeth running around the racetrack.
He was fighting for the championship.
He lost to the other Ford Fiesta.
Our boy, Tanner Foust, got the job done.
Finished winning the race and won the championship.
Global RallyCross really put on quite a show.
Those 600 horsepower, little four wheel drive micro cars.
They're really fun to watch.
But here comes the question for you guys.
Is the technology in a Global RallyCross race car relevant
to real road cars?
Is it as relevant as the technology we find in F1?
That's the question.
Which is more relevant to real cars?
Global RallyCross cars or F1 race cars?
I've got an opinion, but I want to hear what you think.
Put it in the comments.
I promise I'll comment away after you do.
Thanks for tuning in.
See you next week.
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