Drive Wire: January 15, 2016
Honda recall, BMW packages, new NASCAR bodies, a GPS watch, and snow biking.
Hey guys, it’s Christina Thompson and this is Drive Wire for Friday, January 15th.
We kick off the day with important motorcycling news – Honda has announced a recall on 2010 to 2016 VT750 shadow motorcycles. According to Honda, engine vibration could cause wear and tear on crucial wiring, which in turn could lead to engine stalls. No one has been hurt, but owners are cautioned to put their bikes away until the dealer recall starts in late February. Since it’s below freezing in half the US, this is pretty good recall timing. Be safe, shadow owners.
If you’re considering a new M3 or M4, but are worried it’s just not quite fast or bad-ass looking enough, BMW has you covered. For about an extra $5,000 you can order the Competition Package, which bumps horsepower from 425 to 444 and includes some tasteful blackout trim touches. The package also includes a bunch of other running-gear goodies, like reconfigured driving modes, a roll bar set for the adaptive “M” suspension, and of course a wheel and tire upgrade. BMW’s competition package will be on sale this spring.
In American racing news, NASCAR has announced it will use the new Ford Fusion design for its Ford race car bodies. While NASCAR is a spec series, meaning many of the dimensions of the race car are determined by regulations, the front end design of Ford sponsored team cars will change enough to offer slightly improved aerodynamics and frankly, better looks, if you ask us. We’re also holding out for a NASCAR-inspired two-door Fusion with the 325-horsepower engine Ford introduced last week, but we’ll probably have to dream on that one.
Turning to gear, today’s obsession is the Garmin Tactix Bravo GPS watch. It does all the normal smartwatch notification stuff, but its high-sensitivity GPS can store 1,000 waypoints, allowing you to stay off the grid, get back to the grid, or even make your own grid. It’s even got a Night Vision mode to use while wearing your night-vision goggles. We don’t just want this watch, we want to be the kind of people who need this watch.
In today’s ridiculous video, we bring you the little known but awesome sport of snow biking. Freerider Ronnie Renner is rocking a motocross bike fitted with a snowmobile track and a front ski around the mountains of Idaho. Ronnie and his team show off the new sport by tearing through the Idaho snow. Something tells us snow biking might just catch on.
That’s it for today’s edition of Drive Wire. For more, be sure to come back to thedrive.com, and follow us @thedrive on all your favorite social media platforms.
