By Jason H. Harper – Mar 04, 2010
Tim O’Neil appears to be either out of control or simply insane.
He’s sliding a 2010 Mitsubishi Evolution sedan sideways down an ice-slicked woodland road. Turning the wheel, he flies the $44,000 car off a snowy crest and lands downhill, about 16 inches from a massive tree.
I’m in the passenger seat.
A flick of the wheel and a stab on the gas and we slide the other way, averting disaster. I knew what I was getting myself into. Even so, my adrenaline is pulsing.
O’Neil, 50, is a five-time champion American rally driver and the owner of Team O’Neil Rally School & Car Control Center. His facility is 600 acres of closed dirt roads in the deep woods of northern New Hampshire. (more…)
Room with a View: From our Planet Hollywood perch
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — “Viva Las Vegas,” “Showgirls,” “Very Bad Things,” “The Hangover,” “Leaving Las Vegas.” All classic movies about Sin City and a fair representation of the Boys Weekend three friends and I had before the Christmas holidays.
It’s a ritual we have every year in a different place and it was a fait accompli, both unoriginal and inevitable, that it would eventually come to Vegas. Besides, with the incredible volume of hotel rooms — more than 145,000 — and friendly prices to fill them, 2009 was especially enticing.
Discounts are even better in the so-called shoulder seasons including January and February, when fewer tourists hit Vegas, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Last year, hotel occupancy fell in every month from the prior year through October, the latest month for which statistics have been published, including a 13 percent decline in January from the same month in 2008. (more…)
By Jason H. Harper – Feb 04, 2010 (Bloomberg News)
A car with 'tude: Be sure you can handle it.
Thundering down a highway in a smoking-hot BMW M6, I flick on my blinker and slide into the left lane to pass slower vehicles. Immediately a minivan swings in front of me, throws on his brakes and sticks there at a steady 50 miles per hour, boxing me in.
Ah, the dreaded BMW hater, intent on taking the arrogant jerk in his Bimmer down a notch.
One of the fascinating things about testing cars for a living is seeing how other drivers react to you, for good or for bad. A vehicle is your personality on wheels, and once behind the wheel of a silver Rolls-Royce Phantom or a yellow Hummer, you may also find yourself taking on aspects of that persona.
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April 30 (Bloomberg) — Driving half blind, my helmet visor coated with greasy black water, I floor it to beat the racer inches to my right as we scream into a tight, narrow turn. One of us is going to eat it.
Unfortunately, it’s me. Tires kiss as we kamikaze into the bend — crack! My car thuds into the wall and then spins like a top on the wet track. Two other cars barrel around the corner just as I roll to a stop. I brace for the impact.
While head-on collisions are best avoided, the outcome is less than deadly. We’re on an indoor track, piloting 6.5- horsepower go-karts with a top speed of 40 miles per hour. The racing is real enough, the carnage is minimal. [To read on Bloomberg News, click here] (more…)
