Tag Archives: Apex Video

Unexpected Hero: Watch This Vortech YSi Blown Porsche 928 Make 1,1113hp To The Wheels – Porsche Powered!


Unexpected Hero: Watch This Vortech YSi Blown Porsche 928 Make 1,1113hp To The Wheels – Porsche Powered!

Want to talk about daring to be different? How about making four digit horsepower at the wheels with a Porsche 928 V8 engine! Carl Fausett owns this car and he is the guy who not only has developed the engine package you see here but he’s also the guy that races the thing incessantly. The car with this blower setup is in Bonneville trim as we see it here but it gets road raced and generally abused as well.

The Porsche 928 was powered by a succession of V8 engines that ranged in the 5.0L to 5.4L zone. At the last iteration the engines were making about 350hp from the factory. A good piece and certainly a fun car to drive but that was not good enough for Fausett. He and his 928 Motorsports team developed a package to stroke one of these things to 6.5L. These are dual overhead camshaft, four valve per cylinder engines. They breathe pretty well from the factory and they really love the extra stroke that come with the longer armed crank, they like cylinder sleeves that provide more bore and they certainly appear to love boost by looking at what this thing makes with the YSi

We do not think that car did all that much at Bonneville this year because, well, no one did. The salt was garbage and wet so we’re hoping Gary will be heading back in his blown gas altered Porsche because with the power this thing makes, we are fascinated by the possibilities of performance.

For now, sit back relax and listen to an unsung hero V8 put in work on the rollers!

Press play below to see a Porsche V8 put 1,113hp to the wheels!

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Into The Mind Of The Master: This Look Back On Smokey Yunick Is Awesome!


Into The Mind Of The Master: This Look Back On Smokey Yunick Is Awesome!

What if you had a sport controlled by a family? What if that sport had a legacy that included one of the most colorful people in motorsports history? What if the family hated that guy so much that they seemingly decided that his everlasting punishment would be a longtime banishment from their official tellings of the sport’s history and entrance into places like the sport’s hall of fame? Seems like something right out of the movies?

Nah, it’s the France family and Smokey Yunick. A man who’s forward thinking and innovative brain drove some of the most interesting developments in NASCAR history is persona non grata in the hall of fame as of yet. BUT, you cant deny things that actually happened, right? That’s the beauty of Smokey. Not only did he exist, there’s evidence in the form of the cars, the old films, and the written history. They can keep his spirit at bay for a while but eventually they’ll come around. He’ll wear them down from the grave like he did on the track.

This is a show made by FS1 that tells some awesome stories about the Daytona 500 and the first eight minutes are dedicated to Smokey Yunick. You’ll see vintage race footage, vintage interviews, and modern interviews with NASCAR legends that were there when he was there. The story about opening day at the speedway and Bill France is amazing. It’s also one of a million reasons that Bill France wanted to wring Yunick’s neck most of the time.

Press play below to see this awesome footage of Smokey Yunick and his past –

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Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense


Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense

We’re guessing someone lost their job for this one. You are going to watch this 1970s Chevrolet parts film which stars Evel Knivel and makes literally no sense at all. The theme of the film is “conflict” and it is illustrated by a series of scenes where animals eat other animals, black and white movies are shown, and Evel Knievel jumps stuff on his motorcycle, sometimes crashing, sometimes not. Throw in a dose of 1970s Anchoman-level hilarity with a bikini-clad woman, and you have yourself one of the most singular odd things we have ever seen.

Make no mistake, Knievel would never turn down a gig, especially one with Chevrolet that likely was a great payday for reading some cue-cards. The company definitely did not hire him for his suave acting ability because this dude is straight up stiff while narrating the action. By action, we mean the bizarre things we are shown on screen.

Oddly, while Chevrolet parts are mentioned a handful of times there’s barely (if ever) a Chevrolet car shown as a prop in the film. This whole thing is some weirdo theater of the mind that was likely schemed up by an executive’s kid. “Hey Johnson, get my son a job in the media department and let him run wild!”

Obviously, Knievel was majorly famous at this point and his star only grew bigger. Note that he mentions that someday, “I’ll jump a mile….” we all know how that quest ended.

You have to see this one to believe it.

Press play to see the weirdest Chevrolet Parts video ever made, starring Evel Knievel!

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Hot Hatch History: This Look Back At The Hot Hatches Of The 1970s Is Great – No, The Golf GTI Was Not First


Hot Hatch History: This Look Back At The Hot Hatches Of The 1970s Is Great – No, The Golf GTI Was Not First

The idea of a “hot hatchback” has been part of the automotive landscape from the birth of the Mini-Cooper and this video from the fine folks at Goodwood which outlines the history of the concept and all the foundational models of the 1970s is spectacular. There’s something fun about a fast little hatchback car and buyers have bought millions and millions of them over the years. The Golf GTI is absolutely the most famous hot hatch of the early days but it was not the first one out. Companies like Simca, Renault, and others threw into the concept of the sports minded small car before the Germans definitively defined the genre of car.

We look at the automotive landscape today and so few of what we look at has any sort of sensical relationship to things that were made in the 1970s but the hot hatch backs still have the same DNA they always did and they are better in so many was than they ever were.

As a guy who spent a few years in college racing a hotted up VW Rabbit with my friends in the SCCA, perhaps my opinion is biased to the value and entertainment of these little things but the video below tells a really cool story in a very well laid out, researched, and appealing delivery.

Automotive history is the best history.

Press play below to see this cool video on the history of the hot hatchback!

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It Could Be You: This 1949 Chevrolet Film Explained The National Car Shortage And How They Were Fixing It


It Could Be You: This 1949 Chevrolet Film Explained The National Car Shortage And How They Were Fixing It

This is a pretty amazing thing to watch and something that seems incomprehensible to put into the modern context. As we have talked about before, by the late 1940s car companies were in a really bad spot. People wanted cars that they simply could not make. After the nation transformed itself into an armory and car production basically stopped in the early 1940s, a massive swell of demand for new cars built over the ensuing years. That well broke over top of the industry once the war was over and there was not a single company that could keep up. This film by Chevrolet attempts to explain the situation, mitigate the situation, and let people know that they are doing the best they can to get things patched up.

Just think about the fact that basically every supplier that was making parts for Chevrolet was then making parts for the war. The place that was making door handles was likely making something else so when Chevy needed door handles, they couldn’t get them. Master cylinders, headlight bezels, etc. It was not because they weren’t willing to build cars, they literally could not get the parts.

This is a really interesting educational strategy that was employed by Chevrolet. Rather than simply tell everyone to hang on a second, they went the extra mile to show people what the concerns and issues were and how they were going to remedy them. Just an interesting moment in automotive history.

Press play below to see this 1949 Chevrolet film, “It Could Be You” –

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Classic YouTube: Watch As This VW Golf Monsters Hillclimbs At Full Chat!


Classic YouTube: Watch As This VW Golf Monsters Hillclimbs At Full Chat!

If there is one truth to racing, it’s that you never half-ass anything you do. If you can’t be bothered to give it your all, don’t bother showing up. That goes for any form of racing out there. But what does 100% look like? Full-on maximum attack, where you wonder if insanity has overridden the survival instinct, that’s what. It’s the difference between pedaling out of a bad situation on the strip versus hanging the hell on and crossing the stripe a tenth faster. It’s moderating a trail versus flying over every fourth little incline to keep up momentum in a rally. And in a hillclimb…well, here’s your lesson’s subject of the day. The driver is Daniel Wittwer, and his early VW Golf is the car. The Golf is only pushing out about 25o horsepower from a 16V 2.0L four, but you’d swear that there’s more the way that Wittwer is pushing this little VW. We are pretty sure that he used the Armco barrier as a ricochet device, bouncing the car back onto the asphalt. We’re almost proof-positive that at one point he was two tires off on the shoulder besides one glaringly obvious moment. We are pretty sure that the rear tires are worn a quarter less than the fronts, given how much hang time they got in corners. And the cover photo speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Maybe not as much as Wittwer’s celebration after the run…we’d be happy to be alive, too, after a hell ride like that!

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(Courtesy: Car Throttle)


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A Legend In His Own Words: This Feature On Smokey Yunick Is So Awesome As He’s The One Telling The Stories


A Legend In His Own Words: This Feature On Smokey Yunick Is So Awesome As He’s The One Telling The Stories

There’s few things more awesome than seeing old video of a legend telling their own stories. Yes, this is a relatively short clip, lasting a total of about five minutes but it’s fantastic as we get to hear Smokey Yunick talk about his racing career and accomplishments. We’re pretty sure that this video comes from the old show, “The Exciting World of Speed and Beauty” which was Sunday morning must see TV back when we were kids.

Heck, we might have watch this show when it first came out but we definitely did not understand or appreciate the man who’s featured here back then. How could we? You have to know the guy’s story a little, know the guy’s attitude a little, and know the guys’s brilliance a little to really be enthralled with Smokey Yunick. It’s one of the funny things about being a racing legend, right? Outside the walls of the race track your life is pretty obscure. Inside the walls of the race track, you are a rock star of epic proportions.

Make sure you watch this one to the end because when Smokey starts showing off the engines, you’ll be as impressed as we were that he actually kept all this stuff! An amazing five minutes with one of the most awesome racing legends in American history –

Press play below to see this awesome short feature on Smokey Yunick in his own words

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