Listen to High Speed Stuff on iTunes

As I find myself saying nearly every Friday now, let’s get straight to it. Here’s what Ben and I have been up to on our High Speed Stuff podcast over the past week…

On Tuesday, Ben and I covered a form of racing that’s more than 70 years old, yet was unknown to both of us until very recently — tether car racing. Model race cars that can reach speeds well over 200 miles per hour! The first time you see (and hear) a tether car in motion, I guarantee you that you simply won’t believe your eyes. (Check out the “Seaford, 2008″ video clip for a quick six-minute lowdown on the hobby, by the way.) Now, I’m going to guess that there were a high percentage of High Speed Stuff listeners out there who had no idea that this type of racing even existed until they heard about it from us. And that’s not bragging either. I’m just making an assumption based on the current (and unfortunate) trend in the sport’s membership numbers. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, tether car racing was wildly popular at a certain point in history. Listen in on this episode to find out just how enthusiastic the tether car racing crowd was at one point in history and to find out where you can still go to catch a live tether car race. Who knows? You just might even decide to join the American Miniature Racing Car Association.

On Thursday, we stayed with the racing theme but gained a little altitude. Actually, we gained about 14,110 feet of altitude, to be exact. Of course, I’m talking about the always thrilling Pikes Peak International Hill Climb competition. This year’s event was run about a month ago, and if you recall, I wrote a couple of blogs posts about it, too. There was one post prior to the race and another one just after the race that told the tale of Rhys Millen’s record-breaking race to the summit. In fact, you can watch a couple of really cool videos featuring Rhys Millen if you follow the links near the bottom of that second post. Anyway, Ben and I had a really good time discussing the Pikes Peak race. There are just so many factors that make this race unique and exceptionally demanding on both man and machine. I really think you’re going to like this one.

So there it is. That’s what’s happening on the High Speed Stuff podcast this week. And I think now might be a good time for you to head over to iTunes and give it a listen — it won’t cost you anything. Just don’t forget while you’re there to take the opportunity to browse through some of our older episodes and give us a little feedback. You can also let us know what you think in the comment section below, or if you’d rather send us an e-mail, you can do that, too. Ben always reads the address at the end of each podcast.

Podcast-related stuff:
HowStuffWorks – Motorsports Library
What will race cars look like in 2025?
HowStuffWorks Videos – “Rocketships: Tether to the Moon”
Pikes Peak
How Altitude Sickness Works