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.

I have to admit it: I always wanted to buy myself a big US car (in particular the Lincoln Continental Mark V), but driving home from work today in my friends convertible (a Mazda MX5 or 'Miata' as it's known in the US) is making me rethink this. I was impressed with how smooth a ride it is. You can clearly hear us talking and even the radio playing in the background. Can't imagine a more relaxed way to travel home: blue skies, sunny and a nice warm Friday afternoon.

Here is a fun trivia question: how many people can you stuff into a Opel Vectra? Four? Six? Maybe eight? Not if you're from Romania, because then you can stuff 14 people in a car. Today the German police stopped this Opel Vectra because it was doing just 40 km/h on the highway (roughly 25mph). Curious to find out if the driver had some mechanic problem, they pulled him over. To their surprise the car was filled up with people: in the two front seats there where the driver and his friend sitting there quite comfortable. In the backseat: their wives, each having two kids on their laps and one kid stuck in between: all on all 9 people. But that was not all: when the police opened the trunk of the car they discovered yet another 5 kids there, totalling the occupants of the car at 14!

I tell you: some people just have a peanut size brain.

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!

Whoa, slap me silly and call me Sally: It's back to the future guys and girls! If you're about my age and some 25 years (!) ago you used to watch those cheesy US sitcoms like the A-team, Airwolf and MacGyver you must have watched "Knightrider" as well. Well, just like The Bionic Woman, TV-studio NBC has resurrected the TV-series and the first episode aired two days ago on Feb. 17th. To be exact: it was actually a television movie that probably is going to become a TV-series (if ratings are positive).

David Hasselhoff has only a cameo in the pilot (as the father of the lead character) and the Pontiac Trans Am is replaced by a 2008 Ford Mustang GT500KR. What has stayed is the cheesy LED light behind the grille (man, did I see many dumb-asses trying to replicate the old Trans Am LED back in the days) and the sarcasm of KITT (The Knight Industries Three Thousand: an upgrade to The Knight Industries Two Thousand) this time with the voice of actor Val Kilmer (WTF?).

I'm about to download this movie in HD format from usenet and am looking forward to see if after 25 years this is still as funny as it was back then. I'll keep you posted.