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Daniel Ricciardo Speaks Texan, Y’all

Here’s Your Daniel Ricciardo Friday-In-Texas Update

“That accent cycled through so many different accents,” our own North Carolina native Collin Woodard messaged in Slack after watching the clip. Yes, Danny Ric’s Texan still needs some work, but damn if the guy doesn’t get an A+ for effort. And for dropping a “hell boogedy” in there — he’s definitely got the vocabulary down, at least to this Pennsylvanian who’s spent all of four days in Austin over the course of his life.

Anyway, Ricciardo is entering the weekend in the appropriate attire, too. Here’s the helmet he’ll be wearing, courtesy of Jens Munser Designs:

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I need a windbreaker with “McLaren Service Plus” embroidered on the breast and the back, like, yesterday. Ricciardo will of course lap COTA in The Intimidator’s 1984 No. 3 Chevy before Sunday’s race — the culmination of his bet with McLaren boss Zak Brown for nabbing a podium (ahem, race win) this year — so it all checks out.

Oh, and yesterday, this happened:

Ricciardo ended Friday’s Free Practice 1 session in 16th, 2.5 seconds off Valtteri Bottas’ lead time. His teammate Lando Norris fell eighth on the timing boards. The Aussie’s last race in Turkey was nothing to celebrate, as he finished 13th after stopping for new tires too early and lost two spots in the last two laps of the race.

I’d like to think his spiritual homefield advantage will work in his favor this weekend. After all, I’ve heard he draws his power from the clay under the track.

Here Are The Hardest Jobs That Involve Driving

Urban concrete truck drivers, specifically the ones in and around NYC and the boroughs, have one of the hardest driving jobs in the world. They have only an hour or two to get a truck full of concrete in nearby NJ or one of the boroughs to Manhattan or a denser part of one of the other boroughs. Regular rush hour and daytime traffic can often turn a 6 mile trip into a 2-3 hour journey so these trucks have to haul ass in a vehicle that is extremely wide and heavy and shoot gaps that are inches wider than the truck. I have an old friend who used to drive one of these trucks and he used to tell me stories about weaving through traffic and changing courses to make that delivery. At one point, he may have even dinged one of Vin Diesel’s side mirrors but was very cool about the whole experience.

The risk of wastage is not really about the cost, since a truck of concrete is only around $1,500 (peanuts compared to the total construction cost in the tens or hundreds of millions) but rather to the production process of the construction project. Concrete slab-pouring crews are well-oiled machines that run around the clock during working shifts and any sort of downtime, even the loss of a truck or two of concrete, can throw off their pace of work and due to the incredibly high overhead cost, cut into their profits significantly. These drivers definitely have a significant amount of pressure to deliver their goods very quickly!

Submitted by: oddseth

Why Does F1 Ace And Le Mans Champ Nico Hulkenberg Drive a Porsche GT2 RS MR?

I mean, why not?

After spending your entire life racing very quick, lightweight, and unbelievably agile vehicles, your standards rise to stratospheric levels. For that reason, it grows harder and harder to enjoy a capable road car—even a very quick one—as it usually feels incredibly lethargic in comparison to that incisive single seater or prototype. For this reason, you often see F1 and Le Man aces driving dull, everyday, practical vehicles to and from the tracks; something reasonably quick like a GT-R can’t always cut the mustard.

Thankfully, there are still a few road-going vehicles that can thrill and challenge the seasoned veteran.

In this case, it’s Nico Hulkenberg’s 991 GT2 RS which gets our attention. When the world’s most desirable free agent driver arrived at this year’s Eifel Grand Prix in his silver RS, Porschephiles took notice. If the quickest production-series Porsche can find its way into Hulkenberg’s stable, it must offer something few street cars do. Well, actually, to meet Hulk’s lofty standards, it needed a little help from a reputable Porsche racing shop: Manthey Racing.

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This “emotional” purchase didn’t remain stock for long. Spurred on by Chris Harris’ Portimao review of the Manthey-tuned GT2 RS MR, Hulk shelled out the $103,000 needed for the following modifications:

KW 3-Way Dampers
Michelin Cup 2 R tires
new brake pads
lighter wheels
TUV-compliant canards
redesigned underbody floor
aero curtains in the wheelarches
a gurney flap on the engine lid
different wing endplates
a larger wing at a steeper angle
taller wing supports
a larger rear diffuser

“When you drive and the car is really at its limits, then you smile and then you know why (you purchased it),” says Hulk. Photo credit: Manthey Racing

It’s Manthey’s motorsports-bred modifications that give the driver the ability to lean on the GT2 RS in a way the standard machine, grippy as it is, simply cannot support. With shorter braking distances, greater aerodynamic grip, a more reassuring balance, and even more turn-in grip, a seasoned veteran used to the immediacy of well-tuned throughbreds can find real reward in pushing this relatively porky and semi-practical Porsche.

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