Former Magazine Guy Now Cool TV Star
It doesn't seem all that long ago when Trent McGee was a young pup hired as a staff writer for our now-defunct sister magazine 4x4 Power. McGee's still a young pup, but now he's also the host of cable TV's hit show Superlift's Off-Road Adventures, which is in its fifth season on The Outdoor Channel. The show mixes 4x4 adventures with how-tos on performance parts installations. A new feature, called Weekend Warrior, offers a free set of shocks to viewers who submit the wildest home videos of off-road action. Check the Web site (www.superlifttv.com) for episode summaries and more show info.
New West Coast Land Rover School
Land Rover has opened another one of its luxe driving schools, this time in a location that's easier for left-coast owners to reach. The latest Land Rover Experience Driving School is at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, near Monterey, California. As with LR's other schools (at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello, near Montreal, Canada), participants take part in driving instruction around the grounds of the hotel (using LR3s, Range Rover Sports, and Range Rovers) and then enjoy the first-class accommodations at the resort. Classes range from one-hour sessions designed to introduce off-road driving techniques to half- and full-day programs with instruction "by a cadre of the most knowledgeable and experienced Land Rover-trained off-road driving instructors," according to LR. Ready to book your reservation? Log on to www.landroverusa.com/drivingschools, or call 800.239.0533.
Off-Road Hall of Fame Adds Six
Six pioneers of desert racing and off-road recreation were recently inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in Reno, Nevada. This year's honorees include (from left in the photo on page 28):
* Larry Minor, sand-drag-racing legend and codriver with Rod Hall when the pair won the first NORRA Mexican 1000 in 1967
* Rodney Hall, the winningest driver in off-road racing and the only racer to have competed in every Baja 1000 since its start in 1967
* Roy Spuhler, an early advocate of safety in the sand, credited with the idea of mounting flags on vehicles so they could be seen in the dunes
* Akton "Ak" Miller, pioneering hot rodder, land-speed record holder, and desert racer
* Edward Waldheim, motorcycle racer, CORVA president and tireless land-use advocate for OHVers
* Scott McKenzie (not pictured), who pioneered such now-common sand-sport fixtures as the VW-powered buggy, the single-seat buggy, and turning brakes on a buggy
Honda Tackles Baja
Hoping to quash talk that its Ridgeline pickup is not a "real" truck, Honda has commissioned a team of desert-racing experts to build and race one in the upcoming Baja 1000. It won't be a Trophy Truck; that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. No, Honda wants to run-and finish-the 1000 in SCORE's Stock Mini class, to show that the Ridgeline has the goods right off the showroom floor.
Leading the effort is Gavin Skilton (son of Jeepspeed founder Clive Skilton) and his California Race & Rally team.
Because the Stock Mini class rules are so restrictive, the Ridgeline will race with much of its stock equipment intact. The cockpit will be modified for safety equipment, the chassis and suspension beefed for durability, the ride height altered to clear 32-inch BFGs, and that's about it. The driveline remains essentially stock, as do the brakes and most of the sheetmetal. Skilton characterizes the modifications as "enhancing an already good vehicle," to help it survive Baja punishment. We'll keep you posted.
The Star-Spangled Banner (first verse)
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
-Francis Scott Key, 1814
Lyrics courtesy Information Please Database