Category: Because race car

The Grand Tour [opening sequence] from Daniel Siegling on Vimeo.

The breathtaking opening scene.

We got the privilege of being part of the opening scene for the first episode of The Grand Tour, shot in Lucerne Valley on the Rabbit Playa back in late September. I helped them source a handful of mutant vehicles from Burning Man and, with Lucas Hand’s help, got Snoddy’s awesome rat rod and hauler out there. I believe that’s a Cobra Daytona next to us and the white tent in the background is where they hosted the 2,000 contest winners until they were needed for the shoot. I can now say I’ve been in the vicinity of two of the three greatest hypercars of all time – the Porsche 918 and the McLaren P1. Doubt I’ll ever see a Ferrari The Ferrari.

Here’s a very tall Jeremy Clarkson looking at the car next to us. The opening scene included a full stage where the Hot House Flowers were playing, close to 100 of the most exotic cars on the planet and the aforementioned 2,000 contest winners jamming out as Clarkson, Hammond and May (and a bunch more cars) drive in out of the desert.

Gil explains the finer points of our winch to Richard Hammond and James May.

We sort of snuck out and parked probably where we shouldn’t have been, but it was right next to this $1.3 million Pagani Huayra. I actually had the guys lift up 1107 and move it over a few inches so our passenger door wouldn’t bang it when you opened it.

This is what the interior of a $1.3 million car looks like.

Crusty admires one of the two Porsches that ran the 24 Hours of LeMans earlier in the year.

Snoddy’s rat rod truck is so bad ass I can’t stand it.

Some aerialists who set up next to us asked to have their picture taken with the car. We were probably the only group that allowed fans to climb into the car and have their picture taken.

I might have been one of the few people who asked for a selfie with Andy Wilman, executive producer of the Grand Tour. He did a hilarious interview with the Master Class series. The part at the beginning where they meet with Amazon executives (“Don’t talk about the tent”) is great.

Jalopnik did a nice write up on us and here’s a gallery of all the shots from the event.

Actual spy photo of them loading the car.

I couldn’t make it to the LeMons Rally, but my good friend and rally co-driver Steve Harrell, who I’ve never met before, sounded me out on borrowing Chase 1 to do it with Jalopnik editor Stef Schrader.

The trip is taking them to such garden spots as Fallon, Vegas and Bakersfield and then back to Monterey.

You can follow everyone on Twitter at #LemonsRally and Instagram @24hoursoflemons .

VW rolled out the new Dune Beetle today at the LA Auto Show and I woke up to a text from a friend at Jalopnik “Hey Jim, is that your car back there?”

Yep! 1107B has a walk on role in the rollout, appearing in one of the press photos for the Dune Beetle

Here’s some of the coverage:

Jalopnik: “The 2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Is Real And It’s Coming To America”

I know most people compare these to Baja Bugs (like what our own Raph likes to roll) but visually they seem closer to the near-stock Class 11 Beetles that race at Baja. Which is why it’s appropriate to see a Class 11 in the top image up there, and more exciting to see that I think that’s Jim Graham’s ‘69 Class 11 Beetle from Desert Dingo Racing.

In fact, I know it’s the Desert Dingo Beetle, not just think, because I’m talking to Jim as I’m typing this. Just for the record, I’m pretty sure that old ‘69 could kick the crap out of the brand-new Dune off-road. Just much less comfortably.

I’m smyzing.

A whole bunch of us spent three days in Beatty and Valley of Fire, Nevada, shooting video for a thing we can’t talk about yet, but which will be pretty cool. And I think we get to announce it when we’re down in Mexico, winning the Baja 1000.

We finally got to meet 1107B, which made the trip out from GFP Motorsports in Virginia. Thank you Cyrus Roohi.

Crusty in repose.

Between flash floods and a fire at a nuclear waste storage facility aptly named U.S. Ecology, we weren’t able to film at our first location and used a fallback over by the start of the Vegas to Reno race.

Romy did a lot of powersliding.

From there it was an eight hour death march (rerouted because of radiation fire and flashfloods) south to Valley of Fire State Park for another day of driving through a wash that looks like it came straight out of Mars.

We raked away all our ruts when we were done.

I headed out after day three, but the rest of the film crew was at it through the rest of the week. Can’t wait to see the final piece.

So many uses for drones.

You can see all the photos from the shoot here. Onward to packing for the 1000.

Crusty was celebrating the 10th anniversary of him having a stroke and invited a bunch of us over to his place for a little party. This was the first time most of us have been together since the Mint 400 and it sort of had the feeling of a band getting together for the first time after taking some time off after a long tour.

1107 is now in Carson City and Romy, Jenn and Crusty are taking the lead on getting a few things done that we’ve been meaning to do for years. We’re shooting for Vegas to Reno but our main goal for this year is the 1000.

Got something interesting in the works. Should be able to announce it in a few days.

I think we might also be getting a cameo in the Sunday, July 12 coverage of the Mint 400 on NBC – 11:30 a.m. Pacific / 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.

It’s amazing the stuff you find around Crusty’s cabin.