Thursday, November 23, 2017

Legal Detroit Drag Racing - New Detroit Motorsports Venue?


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Legal Drag Racing in Detroit


When the “No Holds Barred” Motor City Showdown legal drag race at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport was finally legitimized and given an official date, all Detroit and surrounding area car enthusiasts were ecstatic, to say the least. With the two closest drag strips to the Detroit area being long traffic crammed drives away, this gave illegal street racers a place to show off what they had without the worry of authorities or traffic intervening and with safety personnel on hand.
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The event went off without a hitch and everyone seemed to have a blast. Detroit Police Chief James Craig kicked off the event with a parade of many classic-looking roadsters and hot rods. After the short but glamorous parade, the competition began. Drag racers and their cars from all across the Metropolitan area made many quarter-mile passes giving the jam-packed crowd and their cameras just what they wanted - smoky burnouts, wheelstands and side-by-side action-packed drag racing.


Now that the event has come and gone with such success, many racers and fans are wondering if it’s going to be an annual event or even better, will the washed-up airport be
turned into a complete Motorsports venue. This thought has been tossed around at many city council meetings. Current Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is accepting proposals for what to do with the airport with a drag racing venue being just one of many other proposals. Other proposals include an update and revamp to the airport, an area designated for techno dance clubs, and others that haven’t been publicly announced yet.

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Although the Detroit airport is still in use it has not had regular service from commercial airliners in 15 years and is on pace for a $1.3 million loss for the 2017 fiscal year. With Detroit still trying to recover from its most recent major economic decline, the job opportunities a Motorsports venue will create would be ideal. And just like with Detroit’s professional sporting events, concerts, auto shows, and the many other activities that Detroit puts on every year, it will only help bring business to a city that desperately needs it. There is also talk about moving the very profitable Detroit Grand Prix to the new Motorsports venue if it gets built. This would help with some of the conflicts that Detroit has been having with the Grand Prix in the last few years.

So what’s the verdict? Mayor Mike Durgan just recently got re-elected, and from what everyone seems to understand is that he likes the Motorsports venue idea and is eager to do something profitable with the airport. We also have two major problems in the city - drugs and illegal drag racing. With a place nearby to drag race legally, that would definitely help combat the drag racing problems (Detroit has always had a bad one), and adding techno dance clubs to the city would probably help promote more opportunities for drug use and drug distribution. To me, it sounds like a Motorsports venue would be a win-win for the city of Detroit.  

Brian Olatunji and his group Leadfoot Events LLC. are the ones that came up with the idea for the “No Holds Barred” Motor City Showdown. Brian is a native of the city and a professional drag racer. He says, “We hope that this will bring tourism and highlight the city no different than other major events such as the Thanksgiving parade and the auto show”

It could do just that. With the right amount of big names behind a state-of-the-art Motorsports venue, getting big money IHRA and NHRA events to Detroit might be something the city could end up seeing. With Kalitta Flying Services located next to the Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti about 50 miles outside of Detroit - the owners of the mega-aviation business are some of NHRA Top/Fuel drag racing’s biggest faces - and that could really help way in on a decision to bring another professional race event to the Motor City.

As far as a permanent answer, Detroit should have one for the second annual “No Holds Barred” Motor City Showdown by spring of 2018, with more information on more permanent plans for the airport by the fall of next year.


Saturday, November 11, 2017

Electric Corvette Ready To Go Into Production

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Electric Corvette


Would you feel comfortable in a Corvette that doesn’t rumble like America’s most iconic sports car? The guys at Genovation Cars believe that this will be the future for all cars including cars like Challengers, Camaros, Mustangs, etc. So to see if this generation is ready for that type of technology, Genovation Cars will put an all-electric sports car into production that is based on the seventh-generation Corvette Z06.   


The Genovation GXE Corvette is the fastest electric car in the world breaking its previous record of 205.6-mph with a top speed of 289.481-mph. The current Corvette we have been seeing in videos breaking these records was based on the six-generation Z06 whereas the Corvette that will be going into production will be based on the seventh-generation.





Making this move to production all possible is the Genovation’s decision to team up with two very tech-driven companies. The first partnership that the Genovation team formed is with the Michigan-based Prefix Corporation. Prefix will be in charge of vehicle prototyping, engineering, integration and vehicle production planning. The other partnership that Genovation has created is with a California-based corporation called Stafl Systems. This well-respected team of engineers will be responsible for the electrical systems, battery-pack integration, powertrain refinement and performance.


“We’re thrilled to have begun the next evolution of the GXE with these two world-class partners,” Andrew Saul, CEO of Genovation Cars, Inc. says. “We’re a driven team that is focused on offering the highest performing street-legal electric car in the world.”


The development of the prototypes for the seventh-generation Genovation GXE Corvette is on the way at the Prefix Corporation's headquarters. You can expect to see a debut of these electric sports cars at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early next year. When Genovation starts taking orders for the Corvettes, how much can you expect to pay? Well, the number that comes up the most is around $750,000. So yes, these cars are not being produced for the average Corvette enthusiast.  

Monday, November 6, 2017

2018 Chevrolet Camaro 50th Anniversary Hot Wheels Edition

2018 Chevrolet Camaro 50th Anniversary Hot Wheels Edition



2018 Hot Wheels Edition Camaro 


Back in 2013, Camaro offered up a Hot Wheels Special Edition Camaro that came with a Kinetic Blue Metallic paint job. For 2018, Camaro will be offering another Hot Wheels Edition to celebrate Hot Wheels' 50th Anniversary. This time the Camaro will be dressed up with a Crush Orange paint job. Although some might think that the Camaro color is the famous Camaro Hugger Orange, it’s not. The Crush orange is actually a tribute to Hot Wheels' iconic orange race tracks they produced for many years.

Stretched across the center of the Camaro, running from bumper-to-bumper, are a set of Satin Graphite racing stripes with Ice Metallic accents. Along with the 2018 Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition package comes Satin Graphite ground effects, blacked-out bowtie badges, 50th Anniversary Hot Wheels fender emblems, darker tail lights, and orange brake calipers. Hot Wheels-inspired 20-inch wheels with Chevrolet center caps round out the bold but sleek-looking special edition exterior looks.

2018 Chevrolet Camaro 50th Anniversary Hot Wheels Edition



The interior has its own set of goodies. Special Hot Wheels Edition door sills pop right out at you when you open up the door. The gorgeous Jet Black interior is trimmed with Crush Orange stitching and other orange inserts like knee pads, door panel inserts, custom-made seats, and more. You’ll even find a Hot Wheels logo on your steering wheel for a constant reminder of your special edition purchase.

These 2018 Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition packages can be ordered on the 2018 2LT and 2SS Camaros for $4,995.00. At the 2017 SEMA Show Chevrolet introduced the new 2018 COPO Camaro Hot Wheels Edition with an updated 302 small block race engine. Most of the special accented parts and accessories that you receive on the Hot Wheels 2SS and 2LT trim models are the same on the COPO with two big exceptions. The wheels and tires are different and beefier to accommodate competition racing, and on the doors and quarter panels of the COPO is a pretty good-sized Hot Wheels 50th-anniversary decal that is a little lighter shade of orange than the Crush Orange. So although a pretty big decal, it’s not intrusive to the exterior look.

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The 2018 Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels Edition can be ordered both with the coupe and the convertible. These are going to be limited edition Camaros, and orders have already been being processed with delivery dates sometime in the spring of 2018.