Tag Archives: F40

The Top 10 Sports Car Music Videos

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If there ever was a single invention that advanced the fine art of procrastination like nothing before it (yeah, like we needed that…), it’s got to be YouTube. I’m sure you’ve all been there – somebody links up a video on your Facebook, you click it, watch it and then notice something else that looks interesting in the ‘recommended videos’ section to the right. One crazy Japanese guy drifting Ebisu while eating a hamburger video after another and suddenly it’s 1am and the whole evening is gone.

With that in mind, I thought I’d gather a collection of the 10 (give or take) best sports car related music videos that I know of. Music has always had a way of contextualising the feelings we experience when driving, seeing or being around the cars we like, and call me weird but the proper placement of the right car, the right song and the right artistic direction holds a power and gives a mood that almost nothing else can. But of course this list is purely my subjective opinion, and I obviously haven’t seen every music video out there. Do you have anything else that really should make this list?

Nero – This Must Be The Feeling

Directed by Warren Fu, Nero’s latest video is set in a future imagined by somebody in the early 1980′s. It’s an Orwellian world much as described in his book ’1984′, a world where renegade agents take on the establishment in a DeTomaso Pantera.

Jamiroquai – White Knuckle Ride

I really don’t want to sound like I have a man-crush, but Jamiroquai front man Jay Kay has to be just about the coolest human being alive. A modern day McQueen, the guy has the same passions and tastes as we do except he has the means to live out his fantasies. In this video, Jay Kay flies a helicopter and chases a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS along a whole lot of twisty roads in the California desert. It gets a whole lot cooler when the Porsche hits the gravel and gets covered in dust, still driving flat out. Jay Kay is actually doing the aerobatics in the helicopter too. Apparently he recently got his pilots license, and filmed this video just because he’s always wanted to fly a helicopter in a music video. Say no more.


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Off track action at the Australian Grand Prix

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Obviously the main attraction at the Australian Grand Prix was Formula 1, however there was also a lot of other fascinating displays happening off track. This is a bit of a random grab bag of the interesting things that stood out to me at Albert Park.

The trip for us started as soon as the clock at work ticked 430pm on Friday afternoon. Racing out the door and straight into the Miata, we hit the road and arrived in Melbourne at about 130am.

It was pretty dark out there at midnight in the middle of nowhere. I swear we didn’t imagine that… Continue reading →

2012 Australian Grand Prix

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I originally wrote this article for VeloceToday.com, and it can be found here on their website. I extend my utmost thanks to them for allowing me to re-post it here on anygivenreason.com.

Formula 1 has always been the holy grail of motorsport. It doesn’t matter if you’re a driver, an engineer, an official or even just a spectator, the FIA’s premiere category has an attraction that no true motor racing fan can deny. It was this magnetic-like pull that brought me to Melbourne for the opening round of the 2012 season. Being there live is a world class experience. No matter how many cameras are used to televise the event, no TV coverage can match. In many respects, TV does a very poor job of portraying what actually makes Formula 1 so special. Continue reading →

A visit to Maranello Motorsport

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I had a few spare hours in Melbourne the other day so I decided to head down to Maranello Motorsport in Richmond for a look around.

Maranello Motorsport (MM) is just a 10 minute train ride from Flinders Street Station. From the Richmond stop it’s just a five minute walk down the funky and arty Cremorne Street. It’s quite a surreal walk – the street is very quiet, you pass a whole collection of small designer furniture stores and boutique legal practises and then Bam, there’s an F40 sitting right there.

Mark Coffey, Managing Director of MM, is surely living every car enthusiasts dream. MM are primarily Ferrari race preparation specialists. They are responsible for most of the Ferrari’s you see racing in the Australian GT Championship and field their own entry for regular driver Alan Simonsen and a host of other drivers who are lucky enough to be partnered alongside him. Their bread and butter is preparing 360 Modena and F430 GT3′s for GT racing and private track days, and they also offer a complete arrive and drive race or track day service. They have a showroom where they sell high end Ferrari’s and offer scheduled servicing and repairs for Ferrari road cars. Continue reading →

Glen Osmond Road – Ferrari F40 (yes….)

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Okay, so this is a legit F40 sighting in Adelaide – although it was back in 2006 during the Classic Adelaide rally.

I was going through some of my old photos when I stumbled upon these ones. This was my first ever rally as a course car official and I was revelling in the thrill of being on the ‘inside’ of such a high profile event for the first time. I was meant to spend the event in the cleanup ute, but due to somebody else’s sickness I’d just been bumped up and had spent the day co-driving in a Mitsubishi 380 (those were the days when closed roads at pretty much road speeds were still exciting!), and here we were following a Ferrari F40 back into the city for the Gouger Street Party. I couldn’t believe it.

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Top Gear Live – The Supercars

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The best part of Top Gear Live was what they called ‘The Stig’s Garage’, a segment where they just parked a whole lot of desirable cars in a line and walked around talking about them for a while. It was the usual assortment of high end exotica, but there were two standouts….

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Top Gear Live – The Prototype Tour. Burswood dome, Perth.

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Back in the early 90′s Top Gear was just another scarcely watched program that fitted the BBC’s mantra of servicing the telivision needs of the many people. It was cheap to make and nobody watched it, but that was alright because the BBC could sit back and say that they were catering for the desires of the British motoring public.

Fast forward another decade and some chap named Jeremy Clarkson has waltzed onto the scene. Along with his cohorts James May and Richard Hammond, Clarkson has spearheaded Top Gear’s rise to the top as a general entertainment program. So much so that Top Gear is now the most watched television program in the world – and I know that’s true because Tony Iffland, general manager of BBC Worldwide Australia, told me over dinner before the show.

So the problem you’ve got now is that your television show has been syndicated around the world, and the clothing and knick-knack market is now saturated with your merchandise. Bookstores are full of your branded paperbacks. But you still have the nagging feeling that you could extract even more cash out of your concept. Ah, a worldwide tour of live shows! That’ll raise those extra dollars!

So when Top Gear came to Australia, albeit 3,500km away on the other side of the country, we just had to be there! For those that didn’t go, this is what the show looked like…. Continue reading →