midgets

Quarter Midget Racing!

Yesterday we took a look at USAC midget car racing. If you thought that was fun, get ready for Quarter Midget racing!

While the United States Auto Club is arguably the foremost promoter of Quarter Midget racing, there are many national and regional promotions who host events for these cars that are literally about a 1/4 the size of regular midget cars. Partially because of the minute size of these cars, Quarter Midget racing is typically reserved for children 5-16 years of age. The Quarter Midgets, while resembling motorized go-karts, typically reach speeds of up to 45 mph, and … Read more

This week: A look at USAC Racing

The weekend of my birthday, I read some unfortunate news online about the death of Chad McDaniel, a USAC midget car driver who died of neck and head injuries sustained during a race at Knoxvile Raceway in Iowa. McDaniel was just 34 years old, and was having one of the most successful years of his career. Also, McDaniel was liked and loved by his fellow competitors and of course his family. I thought of maybe doing a video blog tribute to McDaniel, but I feared that some people might view this as exploitative and in general bad taste. So instead, … Read more

So small, even a caveman could parallel-park it

If you ever thought the Mini Cooper wasn't mini enough, listen up. Last year, DaimlerChrysler announced that they'd be making the Smart ForTwo, the uber-compact car that it's been selling in Europe for years (and more recently Canada), available to U.S. customers by 2008. Looks like they're still on track for that. Now, us Yanks can put our names in the hat for a $99 reservation.

The "Pure" basic model of the car sells for $12,000. There's also a "Passion" version with a souped-up stereo system (and more) for $… Read more