The PS3 has awesome graphics and a growing library, the XBOX360 has the hot titles and a fantastic online experience, and the Wii has an active fun factor times 10. But what none of these systems can duplicate is the thrill of real racing. Sure, playing GranTurismo 5 and Forza 3 are a blast but they may just not be immersive enough for some folks. Even though Formula1 2009 on the Wii allows for a bit more involvement, turning a steering wheel in the air and screaming at everyone won't cut it for the real enthusiast.
 
What you need to do is man-up and cop the Cruden Hexatech IV racing simulator, a massive sit-in video game that delivers the complete exhilaration of whipping around  myriad courses at hyper-speeds. It even gives you convincing steering-wheel feedback and allows you to get a taste of actual G-Force.
 
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You knew Ken Block was going to close out 2009 with something special, and something special has cometh. The DC Shoes marketing squad has unleashed four new videos to dazzle, delight and disrupt your brain cycles. Both the Gymkhana 2 Director's Cut and Block vs Pastrana: Game of Suck Highlights are entertaining rehashes of content we've seen before, but they are just as exciting as the first go-round. While the 2008 Season Highlights video is pretty captivating, we would have liked to have seen some more recent footage, except Ken Block didn't compete too much in 2009. But the real coup d’état here is the psychedelic, tripped out ride he takes us on in the Artist Remix of Gymkhana Two. No spoilers here, but if you want to throw on the Grateful Dead and pop a tab before you hit play you won't be disappointed. There are quite a few product placements intimately woven into the 6:40 clip, along with some second rate movie special effects and enough randomness to have you scratching your head a few times, but somehow it just works. Check out all four videos out after the jump:
 
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The last couple of days have been tough for those on the east coast, with some areas getting up to 2 feet of snow in a huge storm. Getting stuck in the snow really sucks. Without someone to lend a helping axle and tug you free, your chances of escape are nil. But when others come to your aid you are at their mercy. Sometimes the savior can be a hero and sometimes turn into the villain. The following two videos are a solid reminder of how amazing the right help can be and how disastrous the wrong kind can become. Towing in snow at its finest!
 
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We wish we had something more to say than wha the title makes obvious. Basically, two dudes go all out for a crazy night after renting an Audi R8 and Ferrari California. There are hot girls, a house party, some exhilarating driving and of course the furries.
 
This is hands down the best rental car commercial we've seen. It was produced by Nick Miller on behalf of Midway Car Rental Company, a Los Angeles based operation that clearly wants to give you a taste of all of the craziness that the city offers on any given night. Anyway, check out The Fast & The Furryious after the jump:
 
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YouTube offers a strange collection of epic randomness. For the most part, the majority of self-serving home-made car videos are painful to sit through. But every now and then one bubbles to the top that is absolutely fantastic. This is one of the good ones (albeit the act is admittedly sophomoric).
 
Using only his mouth, the teenager featured in this video manages to produce all kinds of convincing engine sounds mimicking a 4-cylinder import tuner from launch, through the gears and then into some drifts. He also perfectly replicates the sounds of a 2-stroke motorbike, a stalling out VW and even a weedwacker. Check out the NSFW video after the jump.
 
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Autocar magazine recently took three of the most popular and exciting entry-level supercars and pitted them against one another at the famed Castle Combe circuit in the UK. Steve Sutcliff took the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8 V10 5.2 FSI and the Porsche 911 Turbo around the track to see which of these dynamos could produce the best lap time.
 
The 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo packs 500 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque from its newly reworked 3.8-liter flat-six engine, tipping the scales at a svelte 3,495 pounds, the lightest of the bunch. The Nissan GT-R also uses a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6, with its engine good for 480 horsepower and 434 ft-lb of torque, but is much heftier at 3,814 pounds. The Audi R8 has the most power of the three with its 5.2-liter V10 good for 525 hp and 391 lb-ft of torque. It is also pretty light at only 3,571 lbs. The 911 Turbo has a base price of $132,800, fairly close to the $146,000 (manual) price of the R8 V10. However, the Nissan GT-R is almost a fraction of the cost of both cars with an MSRP of only $81,790.
 
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To call this car a "wagon" just seems wrong. Sure, it has the shape of an Audi RS6 wagon, but with the amount of power and torque it has, I am declaring this something more. When a 10 year old takes karate, his hands are called, hands. If you study it for 30 years, your hands are lethal weapons. A 9mm Glock, that shoots a bullet, is called a gun. But when the NAVY builds something that shoots 3,000lb. shells up to 26 miles, it's called artillery. The Essing Diesel Tuning RS6 is just that; a 5-door, AWD piece of artillery.

Let me start by saying Essing Diesel Tuning is not the usual German tuner that has been stuffing big power into four-ringed grills since man learned he could pee standing up. They're in the Netherlands; land of bikes, clogs, windmills, tulips...a bit different than Germany, no? They are are also known for their tolerance, a class Germany has to re-take. A shop building this in the Netherlands is like 2 guys in an apartment in San Francisco building the world's biggest monster truck.

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We all know that the Nissan GT-R R35 is an absolute beast with 412hp and 393 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. We also know that the Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 is also no chump with a whopping 635hp and 581 lb-ft of torque. But what we didn't know was how Godzilla and the Super Snake would fare in a head's up quarter mile sprint. Stats aren't everything and real world performance is often surprising. This video has an entertaining intro with a Dharma Corp style quality, followed by the moment of truth. We won't spoil it... Just check it out after the jump!
 
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BMW's V8-powered E92 M3 is being lauded as the best one yet. It's just as at-home commuting to work as it is slicing apexes and leaving stains of dead Falkens on the ground. Modifying an M3 is just icing on the cake.  German BMW tuner ATT Autotechnik Tuning knew the M3 could only benefit from more horsepower, so they created the Thunderstorm M3. It's a 500hp hard-top convertible, turning the jack-of-all-trades M3 into a car with a Master's Degree in useable horsepower.

To get the E92's high-strung V8 into the “500+ Club” Autotechnik + Tuning fitted the car with a supercharger and new engine software; a great choice to keep the power down low. The custom exhaust system has “optimized dynamic pressure”. I don't know what that means, but I bet the car sounds incredible. Oddly, the exhaust is not mandatory for the kit, but is a $2,000 option. KW coil-overs lower the car and rein in any body roll. A set of ATT-TEC LeMans 20” wheels (8.5x20 in front and 10x20 rear) add grip and style. The interior is untouched, but they will outfit it with carbon or Swarovsky crystals if you like. It's a slick looking M3 that let's in all the sun you can handle, handles tighter than stock (hopefully), and has enough power to move up in the ranks. Altogether, that's a good combination.

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We love rally crash compilations and this is one of the best we've come across this year. This video is set deep in the forests of Finland, where crazy drivers go all out on curvy gravel and dirt roads weaving through thick brush. Finnish rally teams are always top contenders if not all out champions and now we see why - they have so much practice crashing that nothing scares these guy. They go harder and choose more treacherous and faster lines because they are fearless!
 
In any case, here is over ten minutes of amazing rally-car wreck footage from the 1990s through the present, culled from various sources on the net. Check out the video after the jump.
 
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Germany and the United states have been playing a version of “wife swap” lately. U.S. shops like Switzer and Sharkwerks have been building amazing, highly-modified Porsches faster than we can type. At the same time German tuners are creating American-built powerhouses like the Geiger Cars' recent Camaros and crazy two-tone 800hp Corvette. Well the formula appears to be working, because at the Essen Auto show there is a new American-made, German-injected powerhouse. It's by Loma Performance and called the C6 BlackforceOne.
 
If the name sounds like Obama's current mode of air travel, it's because Loma wanted it to. They say the car is “clearly reminiscent” of the President's plane. Well, they do both possess the power to kill you, but the car is far more intimidating to look at. The various cuts, points, and folds on the new body panels look more SR-71 than 747.The mean flared fenders are made from carbon fiber, as are the front and rear lips. It is only available in 3 matte-finished colors; Stealth Black, Eurofighter Grey,and White Storm. I think the black would be a perfect replacement for Bruce Wayne's crashed LP-640. From every angle, in any color, the car looks evil. This car probably brings its own thunderstorms wherever it goes to add to the already ominous arrival.
 
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As we all know, or have heard, the German autobahn is the mecca of motoring for high-performance enthusiasts. For many long stretches of road there are no speed limits with the only exceptions coming by way of junction points, construction zones or areas where noise or pollution are problematic. With a highway system where extreme speeds are the norm, a special type of patrol car is needed for law enforcement. Every year the Essen Motor Show is home to the annual Tune It Safe! program and showcases a variety of police cars jazzed up by various tuners to promote safety in the industry. This year, AC Schnitzer was commissioned by BMW to create a police car concept based on the BMW 123d Coupe.
 
The BMW 123d Coupe is an unlikely pursuit vehicle with just a small twin-turbo, 2.0 liter 4 banger putting out 204 hp. Therefore, AC Schnitzer went to work by boosting output to 241 horsepower with 354 lb-ft of torque. Styling tweaks include a front splitter, rear wing and roof spoiler, chrome tailpipes and sport mirrors along with a set of larger AC Schnitzer wheels. The BMW E82 has been dropped 30mm and rides on a new suspension system. The interior benefits from Recaro racing seats, lots of carbon fiber trim and components, a sports steering wheel and aluminum accents such as the pedal set and foot rest.
 
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Underground Racing has just unveiled their new twin-turbo Lamborghini Gallardo 'Race Version' for a client named Jonah. This heavily tuned raging bull produces 1500 WHP at 30 psi running on VP C16 racing fuel. Estimates peg crank horsepower at close to 1875 figuring in a drive-train loss of 25%. All of this power is controlled via a six-speed transmission.
 
The client was able to post sub-10 second times in the 1/4 mile hitting 160+ mph. That said, those times were posted without much practice by Jonah who hasn't been to the strip in over 10 years. We can't wait to see what kind of times this thing produces with a little more time in the driver's seat.
 
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So, in the continuing saga of the Bugatti lake crash footage that we showed the other day, new details have just emerged. In a strange twist of fate, we have learned that the driver was Andy House, who just happens to own Performance Auto Sales, a company that actually restores wrecked exotics for resale. Is this starting to sound a little too much like the Balloon Boy incident?
 
In any case, he bought the 2006 Bugatti Veyron EB for $1.25 million last month and it was fully insured. But let me ask you this... How come it only costs $8,000 per year to insure a Bugatti (according to the article) but my 7 year old Acura runs me $3,600 in the state of California? ...Sorry to digress. What's really cool is that some unenlightened motorists (who thought it was a "Lambo") caught the actual crash on their video cam. And we didn't see no stinkin' pelican. Check out the footage after the jump. Beware, due to excessive swearing it is NSFW, so turn the volume down.
 
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The famous inline six-cylinder engine from BMW has been widely exulted for years. This powerplant has provided strong and linear engines in their cars and trucks over the last several decades. However, now at the point where the company is moving away from this engine on the automotive side, BMW Motorrad is going to be transitioning this engine into its motorcycle lineup. The new BMW Concept 6 motorcycle at the EICMA Show in Milan has been unveiled to showcase this transfer of technology. 
 
Even though the BMW Motorrad Concept 6 frame is not really anything revolutionary, basically a K1300R with some extra futuristic looking components, the engine is the company's new 1.6-liter (or more), inline six, mounted at a 55 degree angle. The dead giveaways are the huge outlets jutting out of each side. Power output is expected to be in the range of 175 hp with 96 lb-ft of torque available at 2,000 RPM with a 9,000 RPM redline. Because so much power is available at any speed, the bike has no rev counter on its LED instrument panel. Instead there is a torque readout along with the essential road speed display.
 
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When a German car company releases a new vehicle in bright orange paint you have to take notice. Not because of the attention it draws but because this is always indicative that this car goes very fast. It's like a special warning of sorts. And since BMW has just created a hardcore version of their M3 in orange livery, one of the most well-balanced and able sports cars on the market today, you know its going to be absolutely wicked. The BMW M3 GTS will sport a 4.4-liter V8 engine that pumps out 450 hp. This is .4-liter and 36 hp over the standard version. The transmission is the honorable 7-speed M DKG Drivelogic gearbox.
 
Since the curb weight is a svelte 3285 pounds, almost 420 pounds less than the stock M3 Coupe, we can only imagines its acceleration times. In order to save weight, BMW had to yank the rear seats, automatic AC, nav, audio system and sound insulation. Racing buckets seats are swapped in the front and a fire extinguisher mounted between the two. A six-point harness and integrated roll-cage are in place to protect the occupants.
 
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This year's SEMA Show served as a launch pad for the Mavizen TTX02 electric motorcycle, a highly anticipated green bike that will test its mettle at the TTXGP race in May of next year. Azhar Hussain, whose name may be familiar as the founder of TTGXP, is the entrepreneur behind this race-bike. It's still a rumor but it looks like the chassis of the TTX02 is based on the KTM RC8 superbike, a solid platform well known for superior handling at high speeds. As a forgone conclusion, this new dynamo should perform quite well.
 
The Mavizen TTX02 is powered by two Agni 95 electric motors that output at total of 100 peak horsepower. Torque should be absolutely phenomenal. Three lithium-ion battery packs provide all of the juice required. No word on the mileage yet, but it will at least be capable of running the 38 miles of the TTXGP Isle of Man race course.
 
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Just can't wait for GM to release a convertible option for the new Chevrolet Camaro? Then feast your eyes on the Drop Top Customs Chevy Camaro SS Convertible. When the new Camaro came out people went nuts. Everyone loves 60's muscle cars, and the retro look has been hugely profitable for Ford. So it was only inevitable that a revitalized Camaro would emerge on the scene.
 
The old Camaros were one brand of the car that truly deserved the term “bad ass.” They just looked sinister. The new Camaro is no different. It has the same burly curves, low canopy, and headlights that seem to be on the look out. It's like the car is up to no good. As a convertible the classic Camaro was really two cars in one. With the top up, it kept the “angry” look. With it down, it was about fun, sunny days and car cruises. 
 
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Ken Block is one of the fastest growing faces of an American in motorsports today. After making it big in the skateboarding world selling sneakers and apparel, Ken quietly decided to get into rally racing. In the past few years Ken has helped bring that electric type of racing to the mainstream, winning X Games medals, performing all kinds of amazing stunts and becoming a YouTube sensation along the way. Next year he moves up to the big leagues to race in the WRC and compete against the world's best. So how does Ken relax before a big season of sliding through mud at 100mph on a road as wide as a shoelace? He drives his Subaru Impreza WRX STI to Utah for some snowboarding. You see, to Ken Block, an STI is a Swiss Army knife. It can rally, drive a snowboard park, clear 100 foot gaps and run a Gymkhana course. His probably even has a slot for tweezers.
 
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Veteran BMW driver Franz Engstler had a nice surprise when he rounded the corner outside of pit row at FIA World Touring Car Championship at Pau 2009. The safety vehicle decided to veer outside of the exit lane, cross the white line and drive directly into the path of race cars turning the bend at high speeds. Obviously, the safety car driver missed the part of the pre-race meeting where it was strongly encouraged that ALL vehicles stay within the white lines. Check out the video after the jump.
 
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