The Brown & DSR Teams are ready!

Brown and Matco Tools team flash championship form as 2014 testing wraps up at PRO Winter Warm-up in South Florida

JUPITER, Fla. (Jan. 18, 2014) - Antron Brown is often found flaunting a bright smile and that certainly was the case Saturday at Palm Beach International Raceway as the Matco Tools driver flashed the form that saw the popular racer win the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel crown.

The 41-time NHRA winner made four laps at 3.770-seconds or quicker behind the wheel of his Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald-tuned Matco rail. Brown's 3.737-second pass was the quickest on Saturday as the Matco Tools car was trucking along at more than 290 mph at half-track. Brown ran 3.735 on Friday evening.

"Our Matco Tools team feels great; we had a great test session here at PBIR," Brown said. "We got a lot accomplished after Wednesday once the track came around. I'm very proud of our whole team.

"We're definitely on point right now. We're real excited to go to Pomona in a few weeks. We're ready to get the 2014 NHRA season kicked off. The competition is going to be steep as you saw from what those Al-Anabi boys were throwing down this weekend, but this Matco Tools team is ready to contend."

The other DSR dragsters also looked like championship contenders as seven-time champion Tony Schumacher posted a best lap of 3.765 seconds for the U.S. Army, while 14-time winner Spencer Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team carded three of four PRO Winter Warm-up laps in the 3.7-second range.

Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T earned the quickest lap of the two-day PRO Winter Warm-up at 4.003 on Friday. DSR's Matt Hagan, who narrowly missed his second NHRA championship in three years last fall, was next best for the Team DSR Funny Cars at 4.041 at a blistering 321.81 mph flying the Rocky Boots Dodge body. Hagan owns the NHRA national speed mark at 320.66 mph. Jack Beckman and new crew chief Rob Flynn finished testing with a best elapsed time of 4.061, while Tommy Johnson Jr. continued to get reacquainted with a nitro Funny Car and went 4.134 for his testing best.

"Dickie (Venables) and Mike (Knudsen) are making some serious horsepower, 321 is getting it done," Hagan said after posting the fastest speed of the PRO Winter Warm-up. "It's great to end on a good note after a real struggle for most of the week. The track and the teams worked their tails off getting it right and we got some data to work off. It's been pretty productive. We put on a great show for the fans and at the end of the day we're here to entertain the fans."

2014 Camaro Z28 Priced at $75,000

It’s been nearly nine months since GM pulled back the covers at the New York Auto Show, surprising the world with an all-new Camaro Z/28 to go along with the redesigned look of the 2014 model. In that time we’ve learned all about the Z/28’s magnetic ride control, 505 horsepower LS7 engine, and just about every other aspect of this track-ready, bowtie-wearing muscle car.
Everything, except the price. And now we know why. GM announced that the 2014 Camaro Z/28 will set back buyers a whopping $75,000, nearly 50% more than the all-new, 2014 Corvette Stingray’s base price.
While the pricing includes the $995 destination fee, as well as the hefty gas-guzzler tax, it is still a considerable price to pay for an upgraded version of a car with a base price of less than $25,000. But then again, the 7.0 liter V8, limited-slip differential, and aggressively aerodynamic bodykit have all been sculpted out of lessons Chevy engineers learned on the racetrack. Development costs aren’t cheap, and the Camaro Z/28 is essentially a race car from front to back.
The only option buyers can check off at ordering time is a six-speaker stereo system and air conditioning. GM didn’t even want to add a single speaker to the Camaro, but was forced to by safety regulations – it’s there to provide the turn signal click, if you can believe it. It really is as close to a street-legal race car as you can get, with 15.5-inch Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes and ultra-wide Pirelli rubber that’s similar to what real race cars use. If you ask us, it’s worth every penny.
by Chris Demorro on January 6, 2014 

Enterprise customer billed $47k for Mustang stolen from rental lot.

 

By  Jeffrey N. Ross RSS feed Google+

Posted Jan 5th 2014 3:19PM

Comments298

"A weekend rental of a Ford Mustang GT Convertible sounds like a nice, relaxing way to burn some gas, but one Nova Scotia woman's two-day rental is turning into a months-long headache. In early October, Kristen Cockerill picked up the Mustang from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and she returned it the following day as stipulated by the rental contract. Unfortunately, she dropped the car off on a Sunday – a day on which the particular Enterprise office is closed – and the car ended up being stolen overnight.

Now, two months later, CBC reports that Cockerill received a bill from Enterprise for the full replacement of the car totaling $47,271 (a base 2014 Mustang GT Convertible currently costs $40,349 in Canada). As it turns out, the fine print in the contract says that the renter is responsible for cars dropped off after hours until it can be inspected the next business day – this is also reflected on the key drop seen in the news report video, which states "vehicles returned after hours are the responsibility of the renter until inspected on the next business day."

It's not clear how much, if any, of that amount Cockerhill will be responsible for once her insurance company gets involved, but if the insurance company refuses to pay, Enterprise will bill the amount to the credit card she provided during her rental. While this ordeal is far from over for Cockerhill, it's a good reminder for the rest of us to always read the fine print."

 I have returned many rentals to a rental lot after hours, as many drag racers do when renting out of town, and I had never read the "fine print" concerning my liability if it is stolen.  A $47,000 dollar lesson for all of us.