Autoblog

Over the weekend, Dylan Weiss from Cry Havoc Productions, Inc. let us know that his latest motorcycle-specific documentary went live at Discovery's Turbo online site. We've spent some time watching the footage, and we think it's awesome. Focusing in on Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, Ducati, MV Agusta and Bimota, the crew took plenty of footage home with them and managed to ride some of the greatest modern sportbikes ever created along the way. Best of all, over four hours of video is available online for free at their mini-site, broken down into 50 segments.

The whole shebang was shot in High Definition, so we have some serious hopes that it will air on The Discovery Channel, be offered on DVD or both. It's extremely entertaining and we definitely recommend checking it out. Thanks for the tip, Dylan!

[Source: Cry Havoc Productions, Discovery Turbo]

Among our top three Christmas gifts from last year was Speed, Style and Beauty, a masterwork of images and text that details some of the many vehicles owned by fashion mogul and car guy-extraordinaire Ralph Lauren. It's proved to be our defacto time-waster when there's nothing on the tube and little to report on the site. While static shots of one of the most comprehensive collections is all well and good, Discovery will be upping the ante this Saturday at 8PM EST/PST when it premiers Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection. Those of you wired for HD will be particularly enthralled, as the whole show was shot in High Definition... lucky bastards.

Included in the collection is a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 prepped for the Mille Miglia, a 1930 M-B SSK, 1955 Jaguar XKD, a '96 McLaren F1 and the coup de coupe, a 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. All delectable, and all highly sought after. But then, what would you expect from a man like Lauren?

[Source: Discovery Channel via Winding Road]

To help rectify a relative lack of automotive content in the world of TV documentaries, General Motors and the Discovery Channel are teaming up to bring a four-part series to the small screen in 2007. The new series will follow eight interns as they each take a vehicle - based on GM's hydrogen fuel cell technology - from the drawing board through the design process. The series promises a "rare look" at several aspects of automotive industry and product development process, such as the sprawling engineering centers and proving grounds where cars are born and put to the test.

Given the number of vehicles being followed and the relatively short length of the series, we're a bit concerned that several aspects of the development process will be glossed-over; however, considering that it's currently easier to find documentaries on the making of Little Debbie swiss-cake rolls than it is to find anything on the passenger car design process, we'll take what we can get.

[Source: GM; the full press release is posted after the jump]

We all noticed the conspicuous absence of Top Gear on the Discovery Channel after the show enjoyed a short stint on the channel. According to a recent article in the last issue of Top Gear, the show’s disappearance was due in large part to the fact that DC began shooting a pilot for an American version of Top Gear. The U.S. version differs from the original U.K. in a few areas, including three new hosts, a studio in which to film and a proper track around which to punish autos. The always affable and enigmatic Stig, however, was flown in to conduct Power Laps for the show with a CLS55, Charger and Mustang.

It’s great that DC thinks enough of Top Gear, as we all do, to go ahead with a project like this, but we fear there are many pitfalls on the way to pulling it off and we could wind up with horribly over-produced version of the original. (American Iron Chefs, anyone?) We were pleased just fine with the U.K. version we got, even if they did haul Jeremy, Richard and James into the sound booth to re-record bits of audio to make the show less insulting to Americans.

Whatever, if you’re down with torrenting you can find nearly every episode of the show at this page over at FinalGear.com. Enjoy.

On MTV, anyway. West Coast Customs and MTV have decided to file for divorce, amicably ending a relationship that debuted as “Pimp My Ride” with host Xzibit in 2004.

WCC boss Ryan Friedlinghause cites his company’s image as the reason behind the decision, and announced that he will be moving his operations to Corona, Calif., to new digs that will become the set of a new show WCC will do with the Discovery Channel and the producers of “American Chopper” and "American Hot Rod."

The reason WCC is bailing on MTV was no secret, particularly after the shop’s Sean Mahaney (or a very convincing impersonator) dropped in on a thread on the Beyond car forums to say, “Most of the MTV people are not real car guys... They pay us to build the cars, so we do what they want even if it sucks.”

WCC’s show on the Discovery Channel is as-of-yet unnamed, but it will likely extend outside merely the high-end automotive world to profile WCC’s work on private jets, helicopters and tour buses.