Inspirational.

"...there has not been a day in my life where something has not hurt..."

Yes, if Lewis Hamilton had not been his brother he would never have gotten Vodafone as a sponsor in UK Clio Cup or had Mclaren prepare his car but you got to take your helmet off to Nic.  Well done man!

Take the 50 or minutes or so and have a look at this BBC piece about Nic Hamilton quest to go racing despite his disability.


Not sure how I feel about Anthony Hamilton, at the very least he's redefining tough love there... Who knows maybe he's a sweetheart under all that.

Today's Axis moment of woah!.

Thanks to Axis reader Omar Baksh for this... check out the full video on YouTube HERE. A little hot hatch can book around the twisty parts of the 'Ring and Stee, that's about an 8:40 BTG lap. we are expected to have that pace with the Alfas next week end!



PS It always struck me as silly to ride in a car without a helmet when the other person is wearing a lid. Chances that you'll bump heads are actually pretty decent...

22,000 miles the hard way

This is a little bit different for these pages but if you hang with it you will see that it actually makes perfect sense!

As you know, we like good photography here at the Axis and try to feature as much as we can of ours and of others (and if you would like your picture featured on here, please send it to us) , today we have a special treat.

A few years back, through my involvement with the International Center of Photography's education committee I had the chance to meet Time photographer Christoph Bangert when he showed, along with Chris Morris, some of his work from Iraq. Powerful material and a great eye from this young German, please take a look at the work on his web site, it's quite striking. Also, don't miss this online multimedia presentation for the New York Times about his work in Iraq, it won a POYi Award of Excellence.


What does this have to do with a motorsport blog? During a dinner I moved the conversation with Christoph away from scary tales of reality in the war zone to the more mundane subject of what I do with my free time. Turned out that Bangert was not only into cars but had some rally experience. Cool, ...mental note made at the time.

Recently I thought about him when I saw his byline and e-mailed him a link to the Axis of Oversteer, distraction from reality of hard places I figured. He loved the site and thought it amusing that there was so much devoted to the Nürburgring because he grew up at the track with his house only a half hour away in Daun!
He further proved he had all the right credentials by mentioning his his "year round pass" ticket but especially that his car was the legendary ( and CG's and my cult favorite) Renault Clio Williams: "...140hp and no weight..." he recalls.

Christoph's other thing is doing solo overland drives. In 2002 he had his old Land Rover shipped from Germany to Buenos Aires and proceeded to drive it for 22,000 miles to New York City! He made a travelogue from the experience, Travel Notes was just published this year.

This year he decided to further punish his Land Rover by traveling from Germany to Cape Town and that's where we find Christoph now: you can follow his progress on his travel blog. He was kind enough to send from Mauritania a few pictures of his trusted green can in action.

Happy trails Christoph!

Clio Williams... CG will get nostalgic.

I know from looking at the logs for this blog that we do get a sizable amount or readers from outside of the US so this post will be for you.

Here in the US Renault is probably second only to FIAT as a symbol of all that can be wrong with european econoboxes but who can blame americans: the last Renaults sold here were the LeCar and the Alliance, two truly turgid 4 wheel offerings.

But elsewhere on the planet the Renault Clio was an automotive staple, I would dare to say it was the 90's equivalent of the Mini, a small cheap car that had the potential to handle extremely well. GC is from Bogotá and I am from Milano, we both know the guilty pleasure of throwing around light simple cars like these...and I'm pretty sure CG is responsible for the demise of a few himself so I hope he can add his comments to this post.

I guess the closest here in the US would be the Honda Civic and the equivalent of the Civic typeR would be the Clio Williams edition. This was a car that came out at the same time as Williams-Renaults were creaming the competition in F1 and it made for a pretty cool little car, light and tossable with no electronic nannies.

I found this period review of the car, notice the, shall we say, aggressive beating the reviewer gives the car on the track. Contrast that with the milquetoast reviews one sees these days on car programs on US tv.... That's an Axis style test drive if I've ever seen one!


click to download

For the real hardcore (and CG) there is this long movie about the Clio group A and Clio Maxi rally cars. It features Clio legend Jean Ragnotti and while admittedly could use some editing there are some ASTOUNDING bits of driving( there are many but check out @ 19:11 for one...). Ragnotti sums up the Clios well: "they handle and brake very well, are easy to drive and reliable".


click to download