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Kevin Kewley and his friends like adventure. So, to follow up their off-road parasailing experience why not compete in the grueling Baja 1000 race? Unfortunately, that race is a little pricey, so instead they tried to cross the same distance for $1,000. Here's their story. —Ed. More »
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The lack of defined boundaries for spectators and photographers only contributes to the outlaw lore that surrounds the Baja 1000. Although spectator deaths certainly occur on and around the course, they are not usually a result of people lying in the middle of the course. As you can see from this video footage, that is exactly what one amateur photographer decided to do at this year's race. More »
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Last week we learned how Kent Kroeker and his Baja race team used their Marine Corps emergency training to save the life of an American missionary struck by another driver in the Mexican wilderness. Here, finally, is the full story. More »
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The Baja 1000 rightly claims the title of North America's toughest race. But one race team faced their biggest challenge before the race began: Saving the life of a Mexican man whose vehicle collided head-on with another Baja racer. More »
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Sadly, the dreams of Baja glory by Bill Caswell, Jalopnik's $500 Craigslist rally driver, are finished. After ripping the steering rack off his homemade Baja Bimmer and limping to the latest checkpoint, he's announced defeat. More »
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Once, Bill Caswell took a $500 BMW from Craigslist and turned it into a rally racer. Now, after much sweat, late nights and help from a few friends, Caswell's Baja Bimmer has passed inspection and will race the Baja 1000. More »
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We dropped by Bill Caswell's outpost at SEMA, where he's building a Baja truck from a BMW E30 at the Miller Electric Manufacturing booth. Only two weeks before the race, and the car's still a bare frame, but who's worried? More »
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Bill Caswell and his $500 Craigslist rally car have a new challenge: the Baja 1000. Caswell's heading to SEMA, welding together a Baja E30, then heading to Mexico. He took a break from construction to share his plans with Jalopnik. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5674807&view=rss&microfeed=true Baja legend Ivan Stewart gives up racing to sell electric motorcycles. Good luck, Ironman! [SDTribune] More »
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Toyota built a 2010 4Runner for last month's Baja 1000. The truck finished second in the Stock Mini class, and the Big T brought it to L.A. still covered in Mexican dirt. Amen. More »
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Rod Hall, 72, and his son Chad Hall won their respective classes racing Hummer H3 Alphas in the 2009 SCORE International Baja 1000, marking the 20th and 21st victories for Team Hall in the event's 42nd year. More »
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VW launched into another class of Baja today as it released it's Touareg Baja Racer at the LA Auto Show. Racing along the same 630 miles of desert peninsula as the ever popular Baja Bug class, this Trophy Truck packs a 542 HP 5.5 liter V12 turbodiesel powerhouse motivating only the rear wheels to kick up some thick, dusty awesome. A tubular chassis only retains the visual dimensions of a Touareg - It's actually 10% larger than the production model. Full press release below the jump. More »
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The recently-exhumed Lancia Scorpion takes the win over the electrical-system-challenged Merkur XR4Ti by a 60/40 ratio in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, preserving Italy's status- for now- as a PCH Superpower. And, speaking of PCH Superpowers, we have some unfinished business from Wednesday; it seems that a German car managed to beat a French one (albeit by a margin thinner than a typical Hell Project owner's wallet), which casts some doubt on France's status as the world's lone PCH Omnipower. Was it a fluke, caused by the Peugeot's Chevy running gear? Let's see how another Peugeot-VW matchup plays out today, with a couple of sand-in-your-teeth desert heroes vying for your vote! More »
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Despite our best laid plans conceived in March, we never quite make it to the Baja Peninsula in November for the most testis-outward off-road race on this continent. It's the Baja 1000, a thousand-mile-plus jaunt from Ensenada, Mexico down to the rich-gringo playground of Cabo San Lucas. It's largely an affair of the unlimited-class trucks, buggies and motorcycles into which most corporate dollars pour, though anyone with a Volkswagen and a dream can attempt the combination of searing heat, talcum-grade dust, quicksand, blazing speed and free beer that is the Baja (see the brilliant Dust to Glory for more). Yesterday, the first finishers crossed the line, and Baja watchers know them as the somewhat usual unlimited-class suspects. In the TrophyTruck class (the pickups), it was Riviera Racing's Mark Post, Rob MacCachren and Carl Renezeder in a modified Ford F-150; in motorcycles it was the Honda factory team of Robby Bell, Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld and Kendall Norman. Next year, we're going for sure. Click through for current results (ends Friday). (Photo: Getty Images) More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=323018&view=rss&microfeed=true Unlike me, this guy actually understands the Baja 1000 and the importance of the two new Dodge Ram pickups. Plus, his pictures are better than ours. [PickupTruck.com] More »
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The Baja 1000 off-road burn down that westernmost peninsula is in its 40th year. In honor, Van Nuys-based TLC is rolling out the SCORE Baja 1000 Limited Edition Icon. That's the company's repro Toyota Land Cruiser. The company's retro off-roaders start at $84,000, and the Baja edition will cost $145,000 as a turnkey Cruiser. It's powered by a hand-built LS6 V8 producing 450 horsepower, and sports a hand-brushed aluminum body with "black crocodile" trim, TLC coil suspension, five-point harnesses and Racepack instruments. All of that sits on 17-inch BFGoodrich Mud Terrain tires, though hardcore off-roaders can get non-street-legal 35-inch Baja meats. And there's more than just an arbitrary connection with the big race; a Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser won its first Baja in 1973. We'll see it in person at the SEMA show in Las Vegas later this month. [via Edmunds] More »
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We just got a tip from our guy Skiny (above), idea man and Audi Avant road-rallyist. His latest project involves a ragtag group of diesel engineers, celebrities and related cohorts. Their mission is to field a 100% biodiesel team to run the Tecate Baja 1000 in November. Heavyweights Bosch and Gale Banks Engineering are reportedly on board to work up three stock truggies (those are the half truck, half dune buggies Baja types use for their intradesert runs). And there's talk of biodiesel proponent and driver of a veggie El Camino Daryl Hannah, and Hayden "That Anakin Guy" Christensen, being involved in some capacity. More details to come when Skiny decides to spill the whole thing. No word on whether the bio juice will come from corn or cactus hooch. – Mike Spinelli More »
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Gottlieb Daimler. Henry Ford. The Dodge Brothers. George Barris. Jim and Mike Julson. It takes a special breed of gearhead to take a passion for building cars and turn it into something more than a backyard or hole-in-the-wall industry. Jim Julson started Jimco back in the 1970s, building off-road buggies as a hobby. In 1980, his son Mike came to work for him and ultimately turned the company into a multimillion dollar operation, building Baja 1000-winning buggies and becoming known as the buggy chassis builder. The San Diego Union-Tribune's got a fairly lengthy profile of the Julsons in anticipation of this week's slog down the Baja Peninsula. Check it. More »
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