BMX is an acronym for bicycle motocross. That makes sense because motocross that was the source of inspiration for the young daredevil kids in Californian kids in the 70’s that started the phenomenon.

Coming a long way since then BMX is now a legitimate Olympic sport having debuted in 2008 Beijing Olympics. The inclusion into the Olympic realm has since swayed public attention of the sport with newcomers fast partaking in the sport.

BMX is both the bike and the sport and covers both racing and freestyle.

There are six domains of the freestyle BMX: dirt, flatland, park, vert, street and a newer discipline of big air. The latter is usually contested in a stadium using a large drop-in ramp. Apart from vert, these all imply the type of surface used for jumps and tricks. Vert BMX uses a ramp, such as a half pipe or quarter pipe to make large jumps called aerials.

BMX dirt racing is held on non-paved circuits of around 350 metres in length with man made obstacles like ramps, jumps and banked. Usually races are short and sweet but as each rider is obviously there competing against the other they’re geared up for a good amount of action.

Flatland BMX focuses on balance and smoothness of execution of complex tricks.

Park BMX is performed in a closed of area with multiple types of ramps and rails.

Street BMX sees the rider using readily available obstacles on the street, such as handrails, buildings, kerbs and banking, to pull stunts.

So, there’s a huge amount of scope for you to get into BMX, depending on your area of interest.

It’s a Kiwi-built supercar slayer named after Bruce McLaren’s right-hand man, Denny Hulme, which makes this car the only car that will bear the name of a Formula 1 champion (McLaren, if you remember, was only CanAm champion).

Its F1-inspired design and historic McLaren-themed CanAm orange hue sets this apart from supercars like the new McLaren MP4-12C, which looks derivative of a great many supercars.

But you’ll need £220,000 (CanAm) and up to £350,000 (‘F1’ model with launch control and creature comforts) to pilot one. Read the rest of this entry »

Drifting: it’s harder than it looks, so before you set out to give it a go (on a race track of course!), here are some tips.

Drifting is a term used in driving as well as a racing technique taken as an event in its own right in the motorsport world. In general terms, drifting is the sliding motion that happens as a result of lost traction in the rear wheels during a turn. In motorsport, more specifically, it refers to the level of technique the driver displays while purposely oversteering to lose the traction through turns all while keeping the vehicle controlled for high exit speed when coming out of the turn.

In technical terms, the rear slip angle will be greater than the front slip angle prior to the corner apex, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (as in if the car is turning right, the wheels are pointed left or vice versa), and the driver is controlling these factors.

The first thing you have to do is get yourself a rear wheel drive car. Don’t even bother with a front-wheel drive car because you’ll look like a moron. There are several ways to initiate a drift. Here’s how you get into a basic handbrake drift.

• Approach the corner at a reasonable speed.

• Simultaneously take your foot off the gas, hold the clutch in and pull the handbrake just enough to upset the rear end while turning towards the corner – this action should be quite rapid.
• Give it some gas and let go of the clutch at the same time – this will set the rear wheels spinning and the rear end will break away further
• Control the drift all the way, by counter-steering (turning the steering wheel in the direction you want the car to go) and modulating the throttle. Too much gas and you’ll spin; too little and the rear end will grip too much possibly sending you into a tank-slapper or a spin in the other direction.

Happy drifting.

Learning to Fly.. If there’s anything out there that’s gonna kick you blindside out of your comfort zone and push you to your limits parkour is it. It’s so extreme that it has its own ethos of overcoming all existing obstacles in your path. Just check out these clips. Parkour is the ultimate urban pursuit, and those that partake are confined by nothing; climbing, jumping, and scaling walls with ease.

Parkour is still new and young but growing extremely fast – even being incorporated into the US Military training programme in the last couple of years. The attractions being that its innovative and extreme nature with no equipment needed but a good pair of shoes that are going to cushion your feet from the impact of the jumps.

Emerging somewhere around 1997, David Belle and Sebastian Foucon are the pioneers of the sport. Parkour is often confused for varying degrees of martial arts, urban free dance and gymnastics. Though you really have to see it to understand it.

The basic objective is that it is efficiency of movement. The aim is simple: get from one place to the other using only your body and the environment as it stands around you. Introduced to David by his father, a Vietnamese soldier who used to practice it, Belle describes parkour as made of the equal elements of “escape” and “reach”.

The progressive development of agility in fluidity of movement and improvisation and efficiency gets the traceur (practitioner of parkour) out of difficult situations and the ability to get anywhere that one desires. You’ll definitely pick up the element of escape watching the traceurs perform runs akin to a superhero chasing a villain.

The there’s free running. Controversy exists as to whether free running is just another term for parkour or whether it’s a different discipline altogether. Parkour is more focused on pure efficiency in its movement where free running incorporates more showboating. David Belle has made the distinction between the two clear in his statement; “You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you’ll know what is parkour and what is not.”

While it’s got more of a following in over populated urban cities such as London and New York, there is a small Kiwi following taking off with forums on a few websites existing with the purpose of getting those new to parkour people to train with: http://parkour.meetup.com/cities/nz/auckland/.

Parkour can be dangerous to those that are untrained so to develop your skill it is important to train with an experienced traceur and never be dared to go too far. Experienced traceurs have no patience for show ponies who only want to show off to their mates and will tell you if you’re not experienced enough to try a move – make sure you listen or you probably won’t be invited to train with them again!

A young man is being chased by a chicken, and when a chicken gets mad in this neighbourhood, it will chase you down! No, he cannot fool the chicken. Or can he?

Never heard of it before? You’re not the only one.

While it may be familiar among the more adventurous of us, base BASE jumping is a phenomenon more commonly known to parachutists, skydivers and action movie addicts. However, it’s considerably more dangerous. In 2002, its death toll was estimated to be one in 60. Definitely a good one to sort the men from the boys, it’s considered by many in the extreme sport world as being on the fringe of a sport and more like a stunt.

The acronym ’BASE’ lists the objects that a jumper has to jump at least once from in each category to attain a revered BASE number. These categories consist of buildings, antennae (or uninhabited tower such as an aerial mast), span (an arch or more commonly a bridge), and earth (usually a cliff or other natural structure).

BASE numbers are assigned consecutively to each jumper who applies for and is awarded one. Each BASE jumper has their own individual number. Base-1 was awarded to Phil Smith of Houston, Texas in 1981. There are well over 1000 registered BASE jumpers worldwide. Not all of them are still alive!

The catalyst for modern day BASE jumping originates in the free loving days of the ‘70s. In 1978, filmmaker Carl Boenish filmed the first BASE jump as a stunt for his movie El Capital in Yosemite National Park. From this start, the majority of BASE jumps were done using standard skydiving equipment. By the time the ‘90s rolled around more specialised equipment and techniques had been developed specifically for BASE jumping as a stand alone sport – fringe or not.

If you’re thinking of giving it a try you’re going to need the right equipment. You’ll also need the know-how in getting permission to jump off your BASE as well as the area you’re going to need for landing. Unfortunately, most owners of  appropriately massive buildings are generally reluctant to have people jumping to their possible death off of them. These small details can generally pose a regular hassle for most daredevil jumpers. As you can imagine, a lot of jumps are covert. Getting caught jumping off a BASE that you haven’t received permission to do so off can lead to charges such as vandalism, breaking and entering, reckless endangerment, and trespassing to name a few. These charges are also likely to be given to those who accompany the jumper such as the ground crew.

If you’ve just had a read all this and you’re still keen to give BASE jumping a try, just don’t say you haven’t been warned…

Image credit: www.wikipedia.org

Some of the most extreme crashes in drag racing history.

Watch as this beast of a 4×4 powers it up glacial till in Iceland

Hot girls in cowboy hats, boots and very short skirts. Give us more.

David Gauldie in Super Gas loses the engine then goes for the ride of his life at the 1993 Australian Grand Finals at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney