Saturday

Lamborghini Aventador Roadster Art Car by Duaiv


Some folks really like art. Others, including us, really like cars. Well, the two worlds can sometimes come together with dramatic results. Take for example the Lamborghini dealership in Miami, Florida and their collaboration with the world-renowned artist Duaiv. Together, the two have fashioned this, the Aventador Roadster known as ?Project Duaiv.?

The $400,000 Italian supercar is wrapped in the same swirly colors and patterns as the original painting, seen perched atop an easel beside the roadster. Apparently, Duaiv has a thing for fast cars as he reportedly showed up to Lamborghini Miami in a similarly wrapped Ferrari. The report from the DuPont Registry says Duaiv has always wanted an Aventador, and now, has finally gotten his dream car wrapped in his own self-titled artwork.

With purple hair, a flowery shirt, skinny jeans, and purple combat boots, Duaiv strikes a pose next to his new ride. But things haven?t always been so flashy for the Frenchman. Born in 1952, he traveled the world in past days as a classical musician. His painting side also grew during that time. He?s known for using unique techniques to paint his masterpieces.

Besides the bespoke wrap, the Duaiv?s 2015 Aventador also sports a Novitec rear spoiler. The spoiler?s thin supports sort of mirror the thin black lines in the wrapped bodywork and almost continue the look past the sloping rear deck of the Lambo. Everything else remains stock, including the 6.5-liter V-12 making a respectable 690 horsepower and 507 pound-feet of torque.

Click past the jump to read more about the Lamborghini Aventador Roadster.

Lamborghini Aventador Roadster Art Car by Duaiv originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 25 July 2014 14:00 EST.

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Source: http://feeds.topspeed.com/~r/topspeed/~3/BnycUMdw0aU/2014-lamborghini-aventador-roadster-art-car-by-duaiv-ar164581.html

Richard Attwood Manny Ayulo Luca Badoer Giancarlo Baghetti

Friday

Nissan Versa Note Review - Driven


The Nissan Versa Note is the smallest and cheapest hatch you can get from Nissan. It was built to provide the highest level of space and equipment for the lowest possible price. The car has been a solid seller for Nissan in the past, but for 2014 it is all-new. A new exterior shape comes to the car, along with a fresh interior design and new gadgets that have been pulled from some of the much more expensive cars in the Nissan family.

With a new design, revised equipment levels, improved interior space and the promise even better fuel economy, the Versa Note is offering a lot. Has Nissan had to cut corners on build quality and refinement to hit a price target? Will the increased fuel economy come at the cost of driving fun?

I was handed the keys to a top-level model with every bell and whistle Nissan could throw at it. Would the cheap five-door win me over, or did Nissan drop the ball with its reinvented people mover?

Read on to see what we thought about the 2014 Nissan Versa Note.

Nissan Versa Note Review - Driven originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 24 July 2014 17:00 EST.

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Source: http://feeds.topspeed.com/~r/topspeed/~3/KtWF0gy8Jtw/2014-nissan-versa-note-reviewdriven-ar164539.html

Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever

Thursday

Don't worry, Sprint Cup drivers complain about commercials in NASCAR broadcasts too

If you get annoyed by the seemingly frequent commercial breaks during NASCAR races, you're not alone. Sprint Cup drivers do too.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski were watching the Fox Sports 1 broadcast of Saturday night's Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway and noted the number of commercials.

And as a quick side note, we're personally glad Junior shares our views about Fox's gyro cam.

While it'd be great if the comments of three of NASCAR's biggest stars would change something about the race broadcasts, we're not naive and expecting a change. With the new $4 billion-plus television contract kicking in next year, broadcasters will be looking for ways to profit off their investment in the face of stagnant at best television ratings. Commercials aren't going anywhere, especially in live sports.

And as you know, NASCAR is a tough spot for commercials. Banking on cautions for only commercials is tough given that the number of cautions can fluctuate from race to race and advertisers are unwilling to pay full-screen prices for split-screen commercials throughout the entire race to allow fans to not miss a second of green flag action.

The race broadcast format is far from perfect, and some broadcasts look downright uninformative when contrasted with the amount of information available on Twitter. At the very least, it's good to see that NASCAR drivers can get frustrated at commercials too. You're not alone.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/don-t-worry--sprint-cup-drivers-complain-about-commercials-in-nascar-broadcasts-too-163733433.html

Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain

Tuesday

Kevin Harvick wins pole at Michigan, Jeff Gordon second

It was a day for Hendrick engines on Friday at Michigan.

Kevin Harvick grabbed his third pole of the season as five cars with Hendrick engines qualified in the top 10. Harvick's lap of over 204 MPH is also a track record.

Jeff Gordon qualified second while 2012 Michigan-winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third and Jimmie Johnson was was seventh. The other Hendrick engine in the top 10 was Kurt Busch in eighth.

And yes, that means Brad Keselowski didn't qualify on the front row. He was sixth, while teammate Joey Logano was ninth.

44 cars attempted to qualify for the race, and Ryan Truex was the only one to miss.

Harvick's speed wasn't surprising; he was one of the fastest cars throughout Friday's practice, just like he was last week at Pocono, where he was the dominant car before the race and started fourth. However, after a flat tire issue, he ended up 17th.

Now that he's starting first and unfortunately for Harvick, he only has one place to go: down. And given the issues that have (relatively) slowed the team so far through 2014, a dominating win or a fluky circumstance to derail a good run seem equally as likely.

We'll find out Sunday.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/kevin-harvick-wins-pole-at-michigan--jeff-gordon-second-205541156.html

Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert Eugene Chaboud

Monday

2014 NASCAR World Cup: Can McMurray challenge Busch and Harvick in Group B?

Throughout the summer we're running our second NASCAR World Cup. Will Carl Edwards repeat? Or will someone else take the title? Click here for a NASCAR World Cup explanation and a list of all the groups.

Group B: Kyle Busch (6th in points, 1 win), Kevin Harvick (12th, 2), Jamie McMurray (21st, 0), Casey Mears (25th, 0)

Michigan Matchups: Busch vs. Mears, Harvick vs. McMurray

Sonoma Matchups: Busch vs. Harvick, McMurray vs. Mears

Kentucky Matchups: Busch vs. McMurray, Harvick vs. Mears

The inconsistency of Harvick and McMurray means this group is extremely unpredictable. Sure, your first reaction is to consider Busch and Harvick the two clear choices to advance from the group, and they may very well do so. However, the issues that Harvick has had with mistakes and issues ruining good runs makes him an incredibly risky pick. It wouldn't surprising to see him win the whole tournament or go out in the group stage. Heck, you could say the same for Busch, right?

And while McMurray has had the speed to capitalize on any potential misfortune of Busch and Harvick, he's had some bad finishes too. He has eight top-15 finishes, but three of 38th or worse. This is going to be a very close group and we think it may come down to finish differential. Yes, that means that while Mears has shown much more speed in 2014 than he did in 2013, we believe he's heading for a winless group stage.

Projected standings: Busch 2-1, Harvick 2-1, McMurray 2-1, Mears 0-3

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2014-nascar-world-cup--can-mcmurray-challenge-busch-and-harvick-in-group-b-153144110.html

Mбrio de Araъjo Cabral Frank Armi Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux

Singapore swing hands Vettel the initiative

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/in_singapore_lewis_hamilton_cu.html

David Clapham Jim Clark† Kevin Cogan Peter Collins

Sunday

All about FRIC

There is a bit of a buzz going around today regarding FRIC suspension systems. These have been used in F1 since around 2008 when the system was first tried by Renault F1 (now Lotus F1 Team). FRIC is an acronym derived from the description of a suspension system that is “front-to-rear-inter-connected”. In practical terms this […]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/all-about-fric/

Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers

Saturday

Jimmie Johnson gets second straight win with Dover domination

Jimmie Johnson had two late caution flags to deal with, but neither got in the way of his customary Dover excellence as he pulled away from Brad Keselowski on a restart with four laps to go to win his ninth race in 25 tries at Dover.

Oh, and it's his second straight win of the season. Told you that any "winless streak" chatter was a bunch of bunk.

After starting fourth, Johnson was never far from the front of the field and was the clear driver to beat after polesitter Kyle Busch retired because of a crash. From then on, while drivers like Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth spent some time at the front of the field, no one had a consistently good car like Johnson did.

It was a new car too, and one that crew chief Chad Knaus had faith in.

"He told me I'd love the car, and sure enough, we unloaded and he was right," Johnson said.

The only thing that might have gotten in his way was a Dover pothole. But instead of claiming Johnson, the chunk of concrete took out the front splitter of Jamie McMurray's car and stopped the race for over 20 minutes as track workers had to patch the hole.

Johnson was driving away from the field when a caution came out for debris with 35 laps to go. Johnson took four tires and restarted second behind Clint Bowyer, but made short work of him and ran away from the field once again.

When debris from a shredded tire from Casey Mears' car brought out the final caution, the drivers behind Johnson had yet another shot at him. But while it looked like Johnson glided through the final four laps, Keselowski pushed hard to no avail. He couldn't get close enough to the No. 48 to make a pass.

At one point in the second half of the race, all four of the Hendrick Motorsports cars were in the top five. However, Johnson was the only one to finish there. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ninth, Jeff Gordon was 14th and Kasey Kahne was 19th.

Because of Gordon's finish, Kenseth, who finished third, takes over the points lead, two ahead of Gordon.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/jimmie-johnson-gets-second-straight-win-with-dover-domination-212822073.html

John Cannon Eitel Cantoni Bill Cantrell Ivan Capelli

Friday

2014 NASCAR World Cup: It's Earnhardt Jr. and who else in Group C?

Throughout the summer we're running our second NASCAR World Cup. Will Carl Edwards repeat? Or will someone else take the title? Click here for a NASCAR World Cup explanation and a list of all the groups.

Group C: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3rd in points, 2 wins), Austin Dillon (15, 0), Martin Truex Jr. (24, 0), Michael Annett (30, 0)

Michigan Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Truex Jr., Dillon vs. Annett

Sonoma Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Dillon, Truex Jr. vs. Annett

Kentucky Matchups: Earnhardt Jr. vs. Annett, Dillon vs. Truex Jr.

With the way Junior's season has gone, this is his group to lose. However, the presence of Sonoma could cloud that up just a bit. Junior's not the biggest fan of road racing and his career numbers at Sonoma aren't very good. In 14 career starts he has an average finish of 21.5 and no top 10s, though he's finished 11th-13th six different times. It may be a good thing that he avoids Truex, the defending champion of the race, in week 2.

If we assume Junior makes it in, it's a tossup at this point between Dillon and Truex for the second spot despite the nine-place difference in the standings. Dillon has made his points this season avoiding bad finishes; he's finished between 15th and 20th in each of the last five races. Since being in 30th five races into the season, Truex has moved up six spots and two spots after two-straight top 10 finishes in the past two weeks. If he keeps the improvement up, Kentucky may set up as a win-and-advance week.

Projected standings: Earnhardt Jr. 3-0, Truex Jr. 2-1, Dillon 1-2, Annett 0-3

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/2014-nascar-world-cup--it-s-earnhardt-jr--and-who-else-in-group-c-183710897.html

Roberto Bussinello Jenson Button Tommy Byrne Giulio Cabianca

Tuesday

Greg Biffle says no deal is done for an extension at Roush Fenway Racing

Greg Biffle said a contract extension with Roush Fenway Racing is not finalized.

Earlier in June, the Charlotte Observer reported that Biffle would sign a contract extension with the team and an official announcement could come as early as the week after the June 8 report. That hasn't obviously happened.

Biffle spoke about his contract with the AP on Friday at Sonoma.

Roush President Steve Newmark alo said that the two parties hadn't agreed to anything officially yet.

If Biffle stays at Roush Fenway, sponsor 3M is expected to stay with the team too.The team has Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. signed for next season in the Cup Series, but the contracts of Biffle and Carl Edwards are up after the season. Edwards has given no indication of his future plans.

After winning titles in the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series, Biffle moved up to the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2003 and Roush is the only team he's driven for. He has 19 Cup Series wins, though he hasn't been very close this season. While Biffle has been consistent in 2014, Roush has lacked speed. Through 15 races, he has just four top-10 finishes.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/greg-biffle-says-no-deal-is-done-for-an-extension-at-roush-fenway-racing-202523551.html

Kevin Cogan Peter Collins Bernard Collomb Alberto Colombo

Monday

Thank you Barney!

I grew up listening to Barney Hall on MRN, and just wanted to say thank you! An iconic voice that will be missed every week. For more on Barney’s retirement, click here. (MRN Photo) TheNASCARInsiders.com Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

TheNASCARInsiders.com

Follow the Insiders on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNascarInsiders/~3/HC2iiim2YK0/

Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi

Sunday

Clint Bowyer is chasing a win, but knows that points matter too

Finding the right balance of weighting wins and points in the Sprint Cup Series has been hard at times. While ultimately, wins do matter when it comes to Chase qualification, points are pretty important too. Through 15 races, 10 drivers have a race win. That means six drivers are currently going to qualify for the Chase based off their points position.

Could more drivers win? Sure. At the current rate, it's possible that more than 16 drivers could have wins. But given the pattern of repeat winners in the Cup Series ? the last four races have been won by drivers already with a win�? it's unlikely to happen.

Clint Bowyer knows the importance of points. He also knows the importance of wins. He wants a win to get into the Chase, but wins certainly aren't everything.

?I wasn?t one of the ones that was saying, ?It?s all about winning, it?s all about winning,?" Bowyer said Friday at Kentucky. "Common sense tells you to look at the past history and the math shows you that points are always going to prevail. He who has the most points is always going to win the championship. You?ve always been able to race your way into the Chase and I think it still will today, but right now we need a win.� We?re at the point in our program with our 5-Hour Energy Toyota that we?re desperately in need of a win and we need to throw it all out there and go for it and try to get ourselves a win somewhere. We were definitely in the hunt and after one in Sonoma.� We had a lot of confidence going in out there and we had a fast race car and by all means we were chasing a win big time.?

Right now, Bowyer is in the Chase. He's one of the six winless drivers who would make the Chase at this point, but he's not in comfortably. He's fifth of those six and 23 points ahead of Kasey Kahne and 25 points ahead of Tony Stewart. If he was in the top 10 in points, a win may not be as big of a priority. But Bowyer is 14th.

Both Stewart and Kahne are powered by Hendrick equipment, engines that Bowyer also acknowledged have been far superior to the rest of the Sprint Cup Series field. For non-Hendrick cars to currently catch up, it's all about finding the right balance.

(And no, there aren't 37 Hendrick-powered cars, Bowyer was having some fun. There are 11, and five of them are ahead of him in the standings.)

?Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick split me going down the front straightaway at Michigan and cleared me and raced each other�? had a heck of a race getting into (turn) one afterwards. I guess that?s my best way to explain superior. Once I got in the corner I could join the battle again and it was a lot of fun.� You have to enjoy that because it always comes full circle and in all fairness to the sport and everything that we do�? the engines are something that we all get to enjoy from time to time and right now that Hendrick camp, which there is like 37 of them anymore seem like they are enjoying it quite a bit.?

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/clint-bowyer-is-chasing-a-win--but-knows-that-points-matter-too-172834430.html

Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick

Thursday

The better part of valor: Conway recuses himself from INDYCAR finale

Source: http://www.popoffvalve.com/2012/9/13/3328582/the-better-part-of-valor-conway-recuses-himself-from-indycar-finale

Menato Boffa Bob Bondurant Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier

Dani Pedrosa Signs For Two More Years With Repsol Honda

As expected, Dani Pedrosa has signed on for another two years with HRC, and will remain in the factory Repsol Honda team until the end of 2016. Reports from Spain suggested that a deal was close to completion at Assen, and the details have now been finalized. The deal means that the Repsol Honda team will remain unchanged for a further two years, with Pedrosa lining up alongside 2013 world champion Marc Marquez until the end of the 2016 season.

The deal between Pedrosa and Honda had taken a little while to complete, with Pedrosa briefly flirting with Suzuki, who are set to make a return to MotoGP in 2015. That flirtation was never completely serious, and given the salary Pedrosa was rumored to be demanding to ride for Suzuki - said to be 8 million euros - Pedrosa was not keen to leave Honda. Staying at Honda does come at a price, however. Rumors in the Spanish media suggest that Pedrosa was forced to take a cut in base salary, with compensation coming in the form of performance-based bonuses. The veracity of such claims is hard to test, as HRC did not disclose any of the details of the contract with Pedrosa. Keeping salaries secret is common practice in MotoGP, teams and factories fearing it could unleash a bidding war.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MotoGPMatters/~3/YHt0lkmQTtU/dani_pedrosa_signs_for_two_more_years_wi.html

John Barber Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello