Automotive racing began, as a speed competition to see which make of car was the fastest. It was a powerful marketing tool for automotive manufacturers as the one with a winning car could expect dramatic increases in sales. Later, however, another form of motor sport developed, the endurance race. It differed from earlier events in that it was designed to test not just speed, but also the dependability of the machine. This competition would determine many factors about a car. Could it hold together when driven continuously at high speeds? Could it do this over public roads? And could it do this in both nighttime and daytime? The one important difference between endurance racing and other motor sports is the requirement for driving at night.

The first endurance competition was held in England as the first event on the newly completed closed circuit track, Brooklands. The race was sparked by Selwyn Edge, a British Napier dealer, who publicly announced that he and his team would drive continuously around the track for twenty-four hours at sixty miles per hour without a rest stop. Edge was able to accomplish this. However, his achievement aroused the anger of the residents living near the court. The result was the innovation of The Double Twelve. In this event, drivers would race on one day from eight in the morning until eight at night. The cars would then be locked in for the night to be sure there would be no attempts at maintenance. They would race the following day, again from eight until eight.

In 1923, the Automobile Club of Sarthe in France established the first 24 hours of LeMans. It began on May 26, 1923 at four in the afternoon and ended at the same time on the following day. This competition differed from Brooklands in that part of the race was on public roads. Supposedly the desire to establish the dependability of headlights played a leading part in the organization of the event. While headlights, like many other accessories are taken for granted today, they were in their babyhood back then. With the exception of the World War II years and 1936, this is now an annual event. However, when LeMans was the scene of one of motor sports’ worst accidents in 1955, some regulations were changed and new ones implemented to improve safety.

The United States also organized endurance races, notably the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Over the years, these two races together with the 24 Hours of LeMans have come to be recognized as the most challenging of all and have earned the designation of ‘The Triple Crown.’ A Porsche 962 was the last car to win it in 1986. However, in 2003, Daytona made significant changes in the regulations and it is now impossible, because of the new car rules, for one racing car to claim the Crown. However, a driver can still win all three events and the first one to do this was the famous American racer, A. J. Foyt.

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Sit an influential child in front of the television on a Sunday afternoon to watch yet another exciting leg of the Formula One championship and there’s every chance that they’ll soon want to be sat behind the wheel of the latest Ferrari or McLaren themselves.

Pop the child into the palatial confines of the Recaro young sport car seat and they’ll feel within a whisker of the latest grand prix!

The Recaro brand is amongst the finest in its field and has been producing car seats for adults for over 100 years. Their deserved reputation for outstanding quality and design is epitomised by this particular design. The seat itself is for groups 1, 2 and 3 and can be used from the age of just one year old all the way up to twelve. Not only has it been built with safety in mind, but the plush fabric and stylish contoured design makes the Recaro young sport car seat a superbly comfortable experience as well.

Although slightly more expensive than other car seats, the Recaro young sport car seat has been built to grow along with your child. It incorporates a novel 5-point harness system that automatically fits to the safest position as the backrest is adjusted in size. Because of the inspired design of the seat, it is almost impossible to misadjust the harness in error

As the child grows, this harness can be replaced with the 3-point harness and will continue to deliver optimum protection for many more years.

The Recaro young sport car seat is designed with large area side protection and is covered by high quality microfibre materials. These are removable and can be machine washed. The EPS foam that sits around the head and shoulder area is an excellent energy absorbing option that adds to an already impressive list of safety design features.

Safety and comfort are again considered with the seats centrally located harness adjustment system and patented belt tensioner.

The seat is safely secured into the vehicle using its own 3-point seatbelt and is fitted with a practical carry handle. The seat also has a reclining option that can be operated single-handedly.

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You may well have thought that the Mercury Cougar auto that the origins of the Mercury Cougar auto were nothing more than a whale sized version of simple Ford Thunderbird car. Yet many are surprised that the history and development of this classic American sportscar rather was that of the NASCAR legendary Mercury “Pony Car”, which kicked nothing but but “Butt” on the Trans-Am Automobile racing circuit.

Originally Lincoln- Mercury (considered at the time to be the luxury end of Ford Motor Corporation), had devised the idea of developing, designing and marketing a small sized sports car. The germ of this idea had started as early as February 1963 with the idea in the works of this smaller sports type vehicle to be sold within the North American automobile market.

But it was the success of the Ford Mustang product that finally put the pedal to the metal (or the design and marketing staff’s ok and budgeting of departmental project funding). It is said that nothing drives a project the automobile industry than the potential of excellent sales figures and profitability’s. Even the name of the vehicle product “Cougar” is not totally unique. Cougar is in the same vein as “Mustang” – both being sleek fast racing animals.

Although the Cougar was also built on a 111 inch wheelbase similar to the mustang auto sports car, the Cougar was rather three inches and half inches shorter than its cousin – the Thunderbird. Underneath the elegant sheet metal of the Cougar was a Mustang, so to speak. In actuality the Cougar shared with its cousins – the sporty Mustang, and the dourer family vehicle – the Ford Falcon (which was also known in the Canadian market as the Ford Frontenac product. The Ford Mustang had the greatest fortune of being born from the Ford Falcon product line. Mustang enthusiasts owe a great debt of gratitude to a so called compact “Family” car. The Ford Falcon allowed both the Mustang car project as well as the Cougar car product a quick to develop, cheap to produce as well as a proven and durable base platform. Even the dash of the early Mustangs was a direct copy of the Falcons.

Underneath all of the glitter of its elegant sheet metal the Cougar car was all Mustang, using the exact same Falcon front suspension and a solid rear axle with four-leaf springs. A base 289 cubic inch V-8 made 200 bhp (gross), but the real action came in the guise of a 390 cubic inch V-8 that made 320 bhp. A GT option included a performance handling package and power disc brakes that replaced more standard front brake drums. Finally special GT wheels rounded out the package.

It has been said that Lincoln Mercury’s chief designer had envisioned the Cougar as an elegant European sports car, along the lines of the Jaguar Mark 2. How was it that the Cougar went racing?

In 1967 Lincoln Mercury turned to Bud Moore to be the point man for a shot at the SCCA Trans-Am Championship. Team Cougar made up of drivers, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Formula 1 driver Peter Revson and NASCAR driver Dave Pearson came in second in Ford Mustang’s team. In 1968 then under the aegis of Moore, driver DeWayne “Tiny” Lund went on to capture the NASCAR Grand Touring Championship.

So where and how did the Cougar go wrong and in the end become a rather non defined wishy washy bloated luxo sort of sports car by the end of its automobile production lifetime? What proved to be this product and projects undoing was the lack of true comprehension from the direct Mercury as well as Ford staff and executives as to what this car’s clear and distinct market was. It may be said that at the best they were disinterested and at the worst clueless and greedy. This lack of market focus, as well as not knowing and perceiving the needs and desires of the potential Cougar customer market proved to be the Cougar’s undoing. By the 1969 product introduction the Cougar was a little longer and a little wider. From then on it was only a short decent into landau roofs as well as the opera window type styling and options of the day. Once started this downward trend and spiral of the Cougar was inevitable. The halcyon years of the early Cougar – specifically the early Cougar model years of 1967 – 70 remain a time when the Cougar’s roar boomed out of dual exhausts and the sign of a car that had some bite to it.

Terry E. Voster
Wpg Auto Com
http://www.wpgauto.com

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One of the most popular sports cars from the 1960s is the Jaguar E-type, which was manufactured in between the years 1961 and 1974. The car, which is sometimes known as the Jaguar XK-E, has ranked high on many sports car lists, because it was unique, powerful, and certainly ahead of its time. The cars were sold for over 14 years, and coupled with a low price, this lead to over 70,000 E-types sold.

Over the years there were three different versions of the car released. In the beginning, the car was designed to be a race car. However, it gradually turned into a sports car and was first shown to the public in Switzerland in 1961 as a car for long trips and as a convertible. The public immediately enjoyed the car, most likely due to its shape. The aerodynamic shape of the car was unique for its time and highly influenced other sports cars that came after it.

When the car was introduced in the United States, it was shown in its gold color and was accompanied by a popular actress named Marilyn Hanold.

For a car released in 1961, the power was also unheard of. There were four wheel disc brakes, which was only found on race cars at the time, a double overhead cam engine, and completely independent rear suspension. The price at the time was only $5,600, which proved the Jaguar E-type to be a great deal.

In 1969, the second version of the car was released. New features included open headlights without glass covers and a better cooling system. The car now offered an air conditioning and power steering options, while the car seats were designed to be more comfortable. The interior and dashboard also experienced a redesign, as new American health and safety regulations had to be met. The second series of the E-type lasted on three years, but that was because the third version was released in 1971.

An upgraded Jaguar V12 engine was used in the third design of the car. This also came with better brakes and standard power steering. The third series of the Jaguar E-type also had its own unique look, with a front grill and a V12 badge on the rear. The car’s wheel arches were also different. This was the last series of the E-type, as the Jaguar XJ-S attempted to replace the car in 1975. Most can agree that the car did not pass the legendary status of the Jaguar E-type.

To this day, the Jaguar E-type is considered to be one of the best sports car ever built. It’s truly a popular coupe, as it is still shown on the cover of some car magazines. The car hasn’t slowed down in recent years either, as many E-types are sold online, ranging in price from $10,000 to $60,000. Fans of the original might even be interested in the current Jaguar model, the XK8, which is regarded by many fans as being the spiritual successor to the legendary sports car.

Michael Russell

Your Independent Sports Car guide.

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We have all had the same dream of driving an exotic sports car, the wind blowing out hair making us the envy of everyone that sees us driving. Now in reality not everyone can afford to drive a sports car. So how do you make you the envy of the open road, the answer is a sports car rental.

This is a feeling like no other, and there are hundreds of places across the us that will rent you a spots car. Now of course this will cost a little more than if you was to rent a normal car like a Taurus, or another economy sized car. But with looking like you are something there is a price and that price is well worth it in the end when you can make your friends jealous and your neighbors curious as to what exactly is going on.

So you may be asking yourself exactly what your options as far as what you can drive when it comes to a sports car rental are. Well the answer is simple the options are wide open, there really is no limit as to what kind of car you can drive. Almost every major city has at least one place that deals with sports car rentals. These places have a wide range of cars that are often times available to people who want to rent them.

Now sit back and imagine yourself cruising around the streets of your city making people take a second look at the car that you are driving. If you are single then a sports car rental is almost a guarantee way to get a womans attention, now how long the love affair goes on after she discovers that you are driving a rental I can’t tell you. The important thing to remember is that this will give you even if it’s just temporary a status symbol that will make people take notice.

Of course a sports car rental also has other perks like it being delivered right to your door at either the airport or your place of current residence. Think about the possibility of impressing that client that you have been trying to land for the longest time. Nothing will get them to sign with you then to be driven around the city in a sports car rental.

Now of course all of this luxury does come with a price. You can expect to pay a nice weekly or daily rate for your temporary status symbol. In addition you also can expect that there will be more restrictions about renting than with an ordinary rental car. These restrictions are just a small price to pay for the looks and attention that you will receive when you are driving your new sports car rental.

In the end it all comes down to you, do you really want to pay that price for just a few days of making people jealous of you or can you achive the same results with another means that will give you the same satisfaction as a sports car rental.

For more great information about cheap rental cars, visit our new website http://www.carrentalsonlinenow.com today.

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Typically, when you have a sports car, you expect to have high costing premiums with your car insurance. That does not have to be the case. You can still obtain cheap sport car insurance, no matter what type of hot rod you are driving. You just might need to take some extra steps to help your insurance company lower the price of your premiums.

What steps are these? Well, talk with your insurance agent, he or she will be able to tell you how you can best lower your costs. Some steps might include: