Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

What a phenomenal stunt by my favorite TV-show - ever - about cars: Top Gear. This Sunday they started their 13th season with a great publicity stunt. They finally 'revealed' who the infamous "Stig" is. After driving a Ferrari FXX supercar around the track in the best time ever (1.10.7), the Stig came into the studio and took of his white helmet, showing the world his face for the first time. And no - it wasn't Susan Boyle. It was Michael Schumachers face.

But before you run out the house and start shouting "I see dumb people" because you "knew it al along", think again. It doesn't take long to know it was just a stunt. There is no way that Schumacher could do all the test driving because he simply didn't have the time for that. The real reason why he was on the show was simply because the real Stig wasn't allowed to drive the new Ferrari FXX.

Yes, you read that right. There was a good reason for that: simply because the FFX in question is the 30th made and is actually owned by - you guessed it - Michael Shumacher. It's the only black one without a stripe (see this Youtube video for proof).

Strictly speaking and according to Top Gear's own "Power Lap" rules, the record time does not really count! Top Gear always said that in order for a lap time to count, the car needs to be a 'production car' (which the FXX is) and not a one off, also it needs to be able to go over a speed bump and it needs to be street legal - which it isn't. The Ferrari FXX can not be driven on the road!

Yes you can buy this +1 million Euro car, but you can't park it in your garage. You can go over to Italy or somewhere else, but only if Ferrari allows it! The car is not street legal! The car that recorded the fastest lap time on the Top Gear track was the Renault F1 car, at fifty nine seconds (0:59.00), although it was disqualified on the speed-bump rule. As of the end of the twelfth series, the fastest road legal car that met the requirements was the Gumpert Apollo S in a time of 1:17.1.

In fact, there is a separate - unofficial board - of times for non-production cars, such as the Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans racer.

Anyway: enjoy the video below: chances are it will be down soon because of copy infringement - claimed by the BBC.

Queen's Day 2009 has ended in a tragedy. At 11:50am some crazy person drove a Suzuki Swift straight into the crowd when he tried to ram the bus carrying the royal family and Queen Beatrix in it. So far it seems that 14 people have been wounded and 1-4 people possibly died. The driver of the car has survived the crash and has been taken from wreck to be questioned by police. A witness has declared that the car was following the trail of the bus, so it seems it was no accident. News is sketchy at the moment, but this is a national tragedy.

I am so shocked. I can not believe that some mindless asshole had the guts to do this. There have never been any incidents of this kind during the 29 years we are celebrating Queen's Day. The worst thing that happened in the past was someone throwing an egg or holding some dumb sign.

As a result almost all Queen's day festivities in the Netherlands are cancelled.



Queen's Day always was one big national party. It will never be the same now :-(

Breaking news:
Around 11:50 in the morning, just before the bus with the royal family made its last turn towards the Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, a black older model Suzuki Swift crashed through the audience and came to rest against a monument, just missing the bus carrying the royal family. It's still unknown whether this was an accident or a genuine attack on the Royal Family. Fourteen people, including the driver of the car, are reported injured and are rushed to the hospital. Two people are reported dead.

The driver, a male, who was rescued by the Fire Department was arrested. The car was examined by the anti-terrorist department and the local police. This search was conducted with live TV viewing.
At 12:15 the National Holiday program was cancelled in light of the tragedy. The TV central mentioned at 12:52 that there was a possible fatality by the incident because a sheet had been placed over a victim and there was a medical examiner's van parked close by. At 13:30 the Dutch National Television announced there were 2 fatalities from this incident. Also, Queen Beatrix has expressed her condolences to the family and victims.

All festivities in Apeldoorn were canceled. A press conference will be held at 15:45 GMT+1

Argh! This is one of those (Mon)days! I just tried to drive to work but I had to turn around after literally covering only 500 meteres in 40 minutes! There was a big storm in Holland this weekend (I woke up at 3am Saturday morning from the most frightening thunderstorm I have ever seen!) and it obliterated a big tent that was pitched over the A6 highway that goes from Almere (A6) to Amsterdam (A1). They used the tent so the roadworkers (reconstructing the "Hollandse Brug") could keep working in bad weather. The result was that this morning they still had problems on the bridge. It's just ridiculous! Oh well, I'll just have to sit it out and do my email and other stuff from home. I'm sure it won't be the last time I get stuck. But it's sure one heck of a way to start the week!

If you ask people what their most favourite car brand is, chances are you will hear the usual suspects such as Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Porsche and so on. But all real car lovers out there know there is only one (super)car that tops them all: the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4. Although the Veyron no longer holds the title for fastest street-legal production car in the world (the American built SSC Ultimate Aero TT now holds that title with a top-speed of 412 km/u or 256mph) it is a very well build supercar that is pretty reliable as well. Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson called the car 'utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant'. And I wholehartedly agree. If I ever have 1.2 million Euro to spend, I will most definately buy this car.

Even though it is the de facto most expensive production car in the world, there are always people who think 'excellent' isn't 'good' enough for them. So this Russian oil guy Ukranian project developer who happens to permanently live in the 7-star Burj al Arab hotel in the UAE (United Arbab Emirates), had his Veyron 'pimped' and turned into a "Bugatti Veyron Pegaso". But that's not all: according to rumour (off course unconfirmed) the car's 1001hp has been upped to 1200hp. The car was spotted outside the hotel by a German guy who had the day of his life.

Oh, for those 'purist' among drivers: Bugatti has also launched a special version of the Veyron: the Bugatti Veyron "Pur Sang" edition. It has no finishing (just carbon fibre and aluminium) and is priced at a mere 1.4million Euro. The bad news: all 5 have been sold already.



More about this stunning car: Forum E46 Fanatics

Finally! Today my new car arrived. It is exactly the model and colour as on the photo next to this article. Some way to start the week and my first day back from vacation. I like it. It arrived a bit later then they told me it would, but at least it did get here with 45 kilometres on the dial. I love the smell of a new car ;-) I hope I will make a lot of safe trips with it. It's loaded with cool options that I have to familiarize myself with I guess. I will write a 'review' soon...