Rumble down under

Welcome to Murray Country from Bandit Films on Vimeo.

Very cool video from our friends in Australia featuring an American car collector and his 1970 Plymouth Superbird. 

Could you paint a Car-A-Day?

The collective artistic skill of Zsports Cars would hardly equal the pinky toe of Picasso, which is why we are duly impressed with Rob Ijbema's website called Car-A-Day. Rob began the site about a year and a half ago painting and publishing one work per day of cars in various forms of motorsport. He continued at this pace for over a year, but has since slowed down a bit, but the sheer size of his catalogue is still staggeringly impressive. As you can see in our gallery of favorites, Rob has pretty much all of the well known brands of motorsports covered with paintings of race cars from LeMans, Formula One, the WRC, DTM, vintage racers and even NASCAR! His style might best be described as Impressionist with, as he explains, a focus on movement and atmosphere rather than detail, which would take much longer to reproduce on canvas. Most of Rob's work could go for hundreds if not thousands of dollars in a gallery somewhere, but for him they're all in a single day's work. Each one is for sale, just email Rob for a price. Check out our faves in the gallery below, and be sure to visit Car-A-Day yourself and peruse his archives, as well as subscribe to Rob's RSS feed for updates on when he publishes a new painting.

Here's the link ---> http://www.car-a-day.blogspot.com/

Breaking News: Acting and Racing Legend Paul Newman dead at 83

Few can claim the great success that Paul Newman was able to gain in 83 years. A 50 year marriage, a successful food line with all proceeds going to charity, acclaimed Oscar winning actor, philanthropist, and avid race car driver and enthusiast.

Paul Newman lived life to it's fullest. He retired from acting in 2006. And had quietly battled with cancer for the last few years.

Newman became an avid race enthusiast after staring in 1969's "Winning". Throughout the 1970s he raced at many races including a 2nd place finish at the 24 hours of LeMans. And became the oldest member of a winning team at age 70 at the 1995 24 hours of Daytona.


In 1983 he went on to partner with Carl Haas and Michael Lanigan to form Newman, Haas, Lanigan Racing. And competed in the Champ Car Series.


Last month Lime Rock Park was closed for a few hours so that Newman could take a few final laps in his GT1 Chevrolet Corvette race car.

Newman is survived by his wife of 50s years Joanne Woodward, two daughters, and eight grand children. His son Scott passed away in 1978.

Words fail to capture what Paul Newman was able to do. But his impact on the world will live on forever. God Speed Paul.

Daytona 500 50th Aniversary: Corvette announced as pace car

Come February 08. The Daytona 500 will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Over the year last 50 years we have seen many different cars from the big 3 be chosen to be the pace car. The Chevrolet Corvette has to have been chosen as the pace car more than any other car for this prestigious race. This year we will again see the Corvette pacing the Daytona 500.

The Central Florida International Auto Show, was official debut of the 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Pace Car. It is the fifth consecutive year that Chevrolet has chosen the Corvette to pace the Daytona race. The 505-horsepower Z06’s special anniversary gold paint is accented by hues of gold, red, blue and white. The graphics scheme is accented with unique, gold iridescent-coated wheels. This is one of the best looking pace cars yet!

From left, Daytona Speedway President Robin Braig, NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick, Mayor Rich Crotty and Chevrolet's Jeff Chew.

Chevrolet will help celebrate the 50th running of the Daytona 500 by providing 50 race fans, selected from all 50 states, a weekend experience at the Daytona 500, on Feb. 17, 2008. Ten of those fans will also win a 2008 Chevy Impala. Now, through Dec. 3, fans can visit Chevy.com/Daytona500 to enter.

Source: Orlando Sentinel