Remembering Great Drivers

Happy Memorial Day to Readers here in the US! While we at the Kicker want to celebrate and remember our military community ever chance we get, today we thought we’d do a tribute to great drivers–past and present.

Clearly this is the most subjective of subjects. When you sit down to write a post like this you need to set some perameters to even know where to begin–there are so many great drivers! How does one define greatness?

While our theme is memorial day, we didn’t limit ourselves to drivers who’ve died. It’s enough if they’ve ended their career. Other than that, we wanted to veer away from rehashing a list of winningest racecar driver and try to shine a light on some names you may not recognize right away. But lets start with some well known names and list the greatest based on popularity.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

NASCAR actually asks their fans which drivers they like best. It would be hard to not notice Dale Earnhardt Jr. with his impressive win fifteen times in a row (2003 to 2017). In 2016 Dale Jr. missed 18 races due to injury and still won the fan vote.

People love him. But the reason for his popularity is probably because he wins a lot of races–Busch Series Champion twice (’98 & ’99), Daytona 500 winner twice (2004 & 2014), Budweiser Shootout winner twice (2003 & 2008), five-time Can-Am Dual winner, four straight wins at Talladega, five-time winner of Xfinity Series Champion Owner, and so many more. Dale was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021 & was named to the NASCAR 75 Greatest Driver List in 2023.

Speaking of the NASCAR Greatest Driver List… The list has been done twice. Inspired by the NBA’s list of top 50 players, NASCAR put together a top 50 list in 1998, and it’s only fair we pick one of the increadible drivers from that list.

Greg Biffle

Nicknamed “the Biff“, Gregory Jack Biffle makes this list because he comes from Vancouver, Washington (where The Kicker also began). Okay he did win some races to qualify for the title as well. 2002 Busch Series Champ, 2000 Craftsman Truck Series Champ, two time Southern 500 winner, and two time Sprint Showdown winner. In the Cup Series, Biff has 19 wins, 175 top tens, and 13 Poles. Xfinity series he has 20 wins, 149 top tens, and 14 poles. His awards include Rookie of the Year for Busch Series AND Craftsmen Truck Series. Biff is now semi-retired, driving a mic in the comentary booth part of the time and owning part of a racetrack–and a cool, race themed bar in Vancouver, WA.

Formula

But there’s more to racing than NASCAR. There are so many great Formula Drivers to choose from and so many reasons to pick each one. From Jackie Stewart who was not only a winning driver (27 career wins) but who famously boycotted tracks that he deemed unsafe until the organizers made improvements. Jackie was instrumental getting safety improvements in cars–like seat belts.

Or Nigal Mansell, who broke his neck in a junior race and came back for 31 win career. In 1984 Dallas Grand Prix Nigal’s gearbox failed in his last lap so he jumped out of the cockpit and pushed his car toward the finish line until the Texas sun made him colaps from heat exhaustion. If that isn’t great, what is?

Well, when all else fails, who won the most races?

Lewis Hamilton

With an impressive list of wins, in fact as the only person to have more than 100 pole positions AND over 100 wins we can’t leave Lewis Hamilton offa list of greats to remember. One of the aspect that catch a fans attention is that Hamilton followed a 94 win career by Micheal Schumacher that everyone assumed would stand for decades. Schumacher drove Ferrarris, which at the time were clearly superior to all comers. That’s not to say he didn’t excell at wringing every pound of torque out of them. However, Schumacher had some controversies around his dominance as well.

Lewis Hamilton maintained a pretty clean reputation as a driver and as a human being. Hamilton was born to race. As a teenager he raced remote control Karts, defeating adults with more experience–before he could drive a real car. Will Hamilton’s record stand, or will newcomers like Max Verstappen race past him? Only time will tell.

Stunt Driving

Now race car drivers aren’t the only ones who do amazing things in a drivers seat.

Buddy Joe Hooker

We can’t talk stunt drivers without talking about Buddy Joe Hooker. His is the name that pops up first when Hollywood thinks about the “second unit.” Buddy Joe actually started out as a child actor with rolls in Gunsmoke, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver. He also appeared on the dating game where he was sellected by Farah Fawcett.

His transition to stunt work came when he doubled Rock Hudson on the movie, “Tobruk.” He soon added stunt coordinating to his career, doing shows like “To Live and Die in LA,” “The Outsiders,” and “God Father III.”

In 1977, Burt Reynold’s stared in a movie called, “Hooper,” loosely based on Hooker’s life. Ironically, Buddy Joe did stunts for both stars on the film, Burt and Jan Micheal Vincent–breaking records in a rocket-powered car jump.

His most famous stunt, as a coordinator and as a stunt driver, came in the movie “Death Proof,” where Director Quinton Tarantino asked for a head-on collision between a 1970 Nova and a Honda Civic at 120km/hour causing a flip and roll (150 meters) at night. No problem.

Adam Kirely

Speaking of rolling a car. Adam Kirley was hired to roll an Aston Martin for the James Bond flick, “Casino Royal.” The problem came when DBS Aston Martin provided for the film wouldn’t roll. He hit a ramp designed to launch the car, at 110km/hr and unlike similar sized BMW practice cars, the DBS settled back onto it’s wheels. Kirley had to resort to a stuntman’s friend–an aircannon, which takes perfect timing. Kirley got the car to roll and even set a new record by rolling it one more time than had ever been done before. Adam Kirly is fine BTW, his only coment after coming out of the destroyed car was, “That was a fairly violent ride.”

Loren ‘Bumps’ Willard

Speaking of Bond Film Stunts…one of the most impressive stunts in cinema history comes to us from one of the least exciting Bond films, “the Man with the Golden Gun.” In complete reverse of the fancy Aston Martin from Casino Royal, Bond mastermind Cubby Broccoli decided to use an AMC Hornet. Yes, a Hornet! You read it right.

Action fans everywhere watched in dismay as our slick spy barrol rolled a car they kind of wished would crash, artfully over a dinky creek and back onto it’s tires–to the accompaniment of a slide whistle. Imagine the most expensive steak served to your cold with catchup on it. So amazing, yet so undersold.

It felt like a last minute sub for a more impossible stunt they decided against doing, but no they meant to do this. They even consulted computers, in the 1970’s, to model the stunt repeatedly until they were sure they could do it without killing anyone.

The most remarkable thing about this stunt is that the original driver had to fly home for a family emergency so, a mechanic on set named Bumps Willard volunteered to do it. He did it perfectly the first time and was rewarded with a wad of $100 bills by Cubby Broccoli.

Jophrey Brown

In terms of unusual stunts we give the great driving award to Joseph Brown for his work in the movie, “Speed.” He took on the job of jumping the bus. Not jumping it with a motorcylce, but flying all 40,000 pounds of it at 65 mph off a ramp so it would soar roughly 35 meters to it’s landing…and utter distruction.

A little known side effect of most cars that jump in film is that they’re frames break. Despite driving away unscratched in the film version, the real car stops pretty quickly and pretty perminently. That’s nothing compared to the bus which essentially flew apart. It was the opposite of the elegant GMC Hornets barrel roll, but it was much more entertaining.

Anything Outside the Box?

Well, yes. We’ve just posted an entire series on the topic of drifting in Japan. Covering legends like Kuni-San, and outlaw Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya. We also covered the crazy film, “Pluspy” (+P) Option Magazine did of Seiichi on the mountain roads, called “Touge.” The film was very illegal, which gave the technique of drifting it’s “outlaw” reputation and popularized it with street racers everywhere.

At the Kicker, we try not to glorify street racing, but as a matter of history we should note that “Pluspy” wasn’t the only truely amazing underground street race to be filmed. In Paris, a man called Claude LeLouch, produced a film called “C’était un Rendezvous.” In it, someone drives a Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 through the streets of Paris from one side to the other in about 8.5 minutes.

The feat was done at 5am and reaches speeds over 230km/hour, running redlights and flying through blind intersections. There’s no edits in the film, but the sound track wasn’t throaty enough so the filmmaker dubbed sound from his Ferrari 275 GTB over the top. Most likely this means, the potentially disasterous run was undertaken a second time–once with the Ferrari for the sound and again with the Merc for a more stable camera platform.

The driver was reported to be an undisclosed F1 driver, but it’s commonly believed to be LeLouch himself. He deserves our respect for his driving skills…and some jail time for his bad judgement.

Slicing Through Turns: The Kings of Drift Driving (Part 2–Iconic Drivers)

Originators and Icons of Drifting

We started covering the best drift drivers in part 2 of the series and it lead to a crazy wild goose chase that deserves its own post.

While drifting is currently an entire class of racing, movies have made most of us aware that it has it’s origins in illegal street racing. But did you know, before it was on the streets, it was actually on the racetrack?

Kunimitsu Takahashi

Born January 29, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan. His racing career lasted from 1958 to 1999. Nicknamed “Kuni-san“, he is known as the “father of drifting.” Lets explain why.

“Kuni-Sun” started out as a motorcycle racer in the 1950’s. Got a spot on the Honda Factory Team. His top award as a motorcyclist was becoming the first Japanese rider to win the German National Grand Prix in 1961.

In 1962 he attempted the Isle of Mann TT a time trial which builds its course out of closed streets. This course was well known to kill riders—150 and counting. Perhaps because it has 219 turns. An accident there cause him to rethink Motorcycles.

Nissan offered him a spot on its factory team so he made the switch to four wheels. There he set time track records in the Nissan R380, R381, and R382. However, his real reputation with fans came in a Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R. In the 1970s tire technology was far behind motor technology. No one could keep from spinning out. Kuni-San came from two-wheel racing and wasn’t afraid of sliding around a corner. So instead of jamming the breaks to take off speed before a turn and then trying to gain it back through acceleration, he just pointed his front wheels at the direction they needed to be when he exited the turn and waited for the tires to get the grip to bring him around. The result was a four-wheel slide.

Kuni-San would become widely popular for his driving which looked like he was completely out of control. His final victory as a driver in 1999 came at the age of 59 and he passed the 16th of March 2022 (aged 82).

Keiichi Tsuchiya

Born, 1956, Tomi Japan. Close to winding roads called “Touge.” Usui Pass was a popular “street race” spot—7.5 miles of winding bridges, tunnels, and drop-offs. The drivers who raced there were called “Hashiriya.”

While Keiichi is known as the creator of Drift Racing he credits a race driver called Kunimitsu Takahashi with giving him the idea. Because Keiichiya once rode his motorcyle over 100 miles to see Kuni-San race and fell in love the idea of powersliding around corners.

Keiichi could tell there was a technique behind the seemingly wind driving. He saved up to buy a car so he could try sliding through the curves on the mountain roads near his town. In honor of Kumi-Sun’s popularity, Nisson released their KPGC110 car—this is one of the rarest cars Japan has ever made (only 191 ever made). Tsuchiya claims this was his first car. It’s more likely it was a Nissan Sunny B110. Keiichi spent four years practicing his technique on farmland on the weekends before taking his skills to the mountain. All that time he refused to compete, not wanting his competitive nature to push him into something foolish before he’d learned the skills.

When he started racing the mountain, Keiichi defeated all comers and was deemed “King of the Mountain.” With his reputation firmly established, in 1977 he made the leap to racetracks—where he started at the bottom—Fuji Freshman Racing Series.

Fuji Freshman Racing Series

In this league, you pay for everything yourself and everyone uses fun, inexpensive cars, typically Toyota Starlights and Nissan Sunnys, cars with less than 100 horsepower. Keiichi was able to get sponsors, but when he asked for enough money to buy a faster car they told him he needed to win the entire championship first. He did.

The 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS became his new ride and while it’s still not an exciting supercar, or even close to one, it became his home. This was the 1980’s and Toyota saw an opportunity to capitalize on the blurred line between road and track drifting offered. It helped them promote an affordable sports car when they weren’t known at the time for the power of their street cars.

Corolla AE86

Fuel economy was king in the 80’s and only luxury cars sold well while countering that trend. Economy sports cars were almost gone until the Miata brought it back. The only exception was the Corolla AE86. Toyota created two, nearly identical models, an affordable one that competed with the Honda Civic and other low HP front wheel drive economy cars, and another rear wheel drive 1.6L engine with racing suspension. Keiichi loved tight mountain roads where top end mattered less than technique. He was the perfect spokesperson for this strategy from Toyota. He traded turbochargers for responsive handling. This led to 6 championships in the Fuji Freshman Series against much more powerful cars.

Outlaw at Heart

With that much domination in his field and the heart of a street racer, Seiichi began to show off, which annoyed competitors and triggered an investigation for cheating. As his antics got bigger, officials threatened to take his license, but crowds loved him. They called him “Doriken,” or Drift King.

This inspired Option Magazine to send a film crew to follow him around for a few weeks and record Eiichi drifting on the mountain roads. This is crude film by today’s standards, and not well edited together but it captured the primal elegance of drifting. It also attracted the attention of Japanese authorities. Option Magazine released a film called “Pluspy” which gained a cult following.

Founding a Sport: Almost on Purpose

The more the government cracked down on Pluspy, the more it developed an underground following, which is the exact recipe for creating a sub-culture. Keiichi and Option Magazine started hosting racing meets (Ikaten) for drifting which allowed amateurs to try their skills on a real racecourse. While these meets were very tongue in cheek and not serious, the sport grew from there and leagues were finally born in Y2K, the D1GP.

Keiichi did continue to drive racing cars throughout the 80’s until he achieved a dream and became co-pilot of the man who had inspired him—Kumi-Sun. This was a winning dynamic duo and after they won a championship, Honda courted them for their new NSX GT2 car built special for the Le Mans. This NSX -R had been rebuilt to 400 horsepower. They won that Lamons, and began trying all kinds of racing in all sorts of cars, although none were seriously successful.

Back at Le Mans they took 2^nd place. He continued to race inside Japan, ultimately retiring in 2003.

What made Keiichi so iconic and such a fan favorite was his use of drifting in races not designed for drifting and the way he showed off and pushed the limits. He also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he also made a cameo appearance.

Vertical Climbing Vehicles

Can you get a car to climb a vertical face, well yes! It’s not easy, especially when you’re dealing with crumbling textures and falling rock. You’re not exactly going against physics but you’re going damned close.

Speed alone won’t get you up a vertical surface. It is important that the surface you’re climbing is completely dry. You also need to give your vehicle a thorough inspection prior to attempting the climb. There are significant pressures placed on a vehicle when it attempts to make such a climb. Additionally, you want to be sure that everything in and on the vehicle is secured, the vehicle may be able to maintain a tenuous grasp when going vertical, but the stuff in your cup holder probably won’t.

Speed isn’t the answer to the problem of a vertical climb, it’s power. Welcome to the world of rock crawler buggies where tires need to be especially low and the center of gravity for the bodywork must be low as well. The engine cannot be close to the tires so typically it requires an electronic drive.

The tires must have a strong grip in them but there’s difficulty here too. Under normal circumstances, gravity is pushing down on the car and the tires – we’re moving into aerodynamics again here by the way – but now we can’t use gravity. So how does the vehicle get grip?

The solution is a paddled tire using the vertical force itself to grip it to the wall. With the center of gravity at the front of the vehicle and also as near to the cliff as possible it ensures the car is kept as stable as possible. Were this not the case the car would flip back and fall off the cliff. The best length of car, when you calculate it, is about 11.5ft (3.5m).

Another variable is weight. The engines need to be kept as light as possible. This goes against conventional thinking associated with off-roaders. One might think of a vehicle like an SUV or Land Rover, but these are no good for scaling heights.

A climber needs to be able to reach 60mph in 1.5 seconds and can only weigh up to about 575lbs (260Kg).

How does it reach the required angle? Before the car can travel up a 90-degree surface it must first climb a 70-degree surface, an impossible angle for most cars. For this reason, you need a strong stunt driver as it’s quite a scary angle and may involve some sliding backwards before reaching the cliff itself.

This is unfortunately just speculation as no car has yet been able to scale up a 90-degree cliff, even though a Jeep was reported climbing up the Sand Hollow State cliff in Utah. It doesn’t seem to hold that much water though. For one thing, a Jeep is too heavy a vehicle to confidently climb a vertical cliff. Secondly, the Jeep seems to be at a jaunty angle as if it’s not exactly climbing. Thirdly, the car is shown at the top of a cliff (perhaps winched down from the horizontal surface?) not halfway down where the aerodynamics could be seen at the fullest effect. Don’t believe all you read on social media!