Petrolheads from across the globe have waited for this latest installment from The Fast and the Furious franchise, where street racing and car chases became the epitome of the hit action thriller saga. For the eighth installment, everything is about to change for Dom's crew as this latest chapter takes on a dark, gruesome, turn of events where new and familiar faces collide to topple a common foe and it's not what you think.
The Fate of the Furious
The Fate of the Furious signals the start of the franchise's finale trilogy, which will be followed with the ninth as well as the tenth (the final chapter of the Fast and Furious saga) by the next couple of years. Set after the dramatic events of Furious 7, Dom's crew are now living in a normal life until a mysterious femme fatale, named Cipher (played by Charlize Theron), seduced Dom to betray his only crew he called family and commit terrorism. With Dom now became a renegade, the crew have been summoned by a mysterious government operative called Mr. Nobody (played by Kurt Russell) and joining forces with battle-scarred federal agent Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and notorious criminal mastermind as seen from Furious 7, Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), the crew will criss-cross round the world to hunt down the man who made them a family.
With an all-star ensemble such as Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dame Helen Mirren, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky, Scott Eastwood, and many others, The Fate of the Furious really is an ice-breaker in the world of action thrillers, literally. Mentioned the word "ice-breaker" on it because there's the part where the crew driving on the arctic until they got hounded by a submarine? Anyway, while this film's short on racing, more on car chases, this latest installment still has enough racing fuel to ignite longtime fans and newcomers alike with its signature FF thrills that will keep them hanging up to the very end where everyone will start guessing what happens next until the second part of the FF finale trilogy comes out soon.
Amazingly, the cars in the film can overshadow the cast of characters in F8 and while we might be seeing a wild roster of muscle cars and exotics, this film sees the debut of the "fastest car ever", the all-new 840HP Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. Not bad for a product placement, huh? But this film will be better if these star cars will do the action more than the actors themselves. I mean, this is why this franchise was made for the love of fast cars?
Although this is no longer our average Fast and Furious flick we remembered since the beginning, The Fate of the Furious is the most exhilarating action thriller flick ever ignited for the spring season and like I said, this film is a real ice-breaker because it knows when and where this film will break the ice to deliver the high-octane boost this film needs.
Over the Easter Weekend, and while in a middle of celebrating Porsche's return to the world of Forza, got this ultra-rare Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 during the Easter weekend Forzathon event and even though today's 911 GT3 RS is a real corker for a track toy, this manual tranny-powered 997 GT3 RS remains a real corker for the purists everywhere and I couldn't disagree more.
Limited to 600 units worldwide, the ultimate GT3 RS is powered by a 4.0L flat-six engine producing 500HP of power, making this the most powerful naturally-aspirated flat-six engine ever made. It was powered by a 6-speed manual gearbox to keep the purists happy to drive wherever they go but it's not just the performance the 911 GT3 RS 4.0 is aftering, it's the track-honed precision that stands out from the rest and with the extensive use of lightweight materials as well as stripping out unnecessary materials such as the rear seat, it weighs 1,360kg with a full tank fo fuel, resulting to its power-to-weight ratio of 3kg/HP. It was the first production Porsche to come with front air deflection vanes, which adds downforce on the front axle and with the combination of the large fixed rear wing as well as other aerodynamic upgrades, it can exert an additional 190kg of force.
No time to chat more about this car because I am eager enough to try this rare Porsche out for a spin!
Nothing said it's as sweet as a Kinder Egg Surprise. He he he... Speaking of which, there are more Porsche cars waiting on future Forzathon events this month. Stay tuned.
- President Rodrigo Duterte's "Build, Build, Build" Team inspects the NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10, an elevated expressway directly connecting the port area of Manila and Northern provinces of Luzon through NLEX.
- 16 people are reportedly injured during the twin blasts at Tacurong last Monday night. Two suspects were arrested by the police after being the last persons to be seen in the area. Authorities also recovered grenades from each of the suspect.
- The top advisers of US President Donald Trump will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to recommend that he withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, a White House official said on Monday. A White House official said Trump’s aides would “discuss the options, with the goal of providing a recommendation to the president about the path forward.”
- Meanwhile, Trump is seeking changes in the visa program to encourage companies to hire only Americans. Two senior officials said Trump will also use the “buy American and hire American” order to seek changes in government procurement practices to increase the purchase of American products in federal contracts.
- Following the UAL passenger incident last week, an Illinois lawmaker introduced a bill to ban the forcible removal of travelers from flights by state or local government employees.
- South Korea will downgrade its bird flue alert level by one notch from the highest level starting this Wednesday as no new cases have been reported for about two weeks.
- Acting Brazilian president, Michel Temer, said that some of his ministers undergoing investigation are likely to resign following the corruption scandal.
- As announced at last week's Star Wars Celebration, the upcoming fourth season of Disney XD's hit TV series, Star Wars Rebels, will be its last season. Also, Warwick Davis will guest star in the upcoming season for the show.
- A studio executive confirms whether a footage of the late Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher will be featured in the ninth and final installment of the Star Wars ennealogy, due in 2019.
- The Jaguar F-Pace is named 2017 World Car of the Year.
- McLaren-Honda's Fernando Alonso will not be racing at the Monaco GP and instead, join Andretti Autosport for the upcoming 2017 Indy500 race.
In case you never know, Porsche returns to the world of Forza and with their new six-year partnership agreement, looks like we'll be seeing Porsches in future installments and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since Porsche was freed from EA exclusivity, most games are willing and able to feature Stuttgart's finest not just for action racing but for racing simulation to demonstrate Porsche's true capabilities and for the Forza franchise, this is a welcoming feat.
The opening salvo of Porsche's return to Forza is the latest 911 (991) GT3 RS, as seen on Forza Horizon 3's Porsche Car Pack of April. This is known to be one of the fastest track cars Porsche ever made and finally, the 911 everyone wants to get on the groove, especially in the Land Down Under.
The GT3 is the stripped-out model that took Porsche decades of German engineering that brought into this and like its normal model, the 911 GT3 provides some stylish design and spartan driving manners with its organic bodywork, "mild" driving feel, and a decade-old philosophy. The GT3 RS model pushes the GT3 to the extreme by dropping 10kg of weight from the normal GT3, increase the flat-6 engine's size from 3.8 to four liters, and feature unique aerodynamics that makes the track weapon more potent on the racetrack and because it lapped the Nurburgring in under seven minutes and 20 seconds, it's surprisingly faster than the Porsche Carrera GT supercar of 2003.
I miss the 991 911 Turbo from the previous installments but to me, the handling is a bit harsh and mild for a high-powered 911 and now, with the 911 GT3 RS, although it's not as powerful as the Turbo, the handling is really magic to me and finally, some "himmel mancheese" to get our mouth on. This is definitely the 911 everyone's wanting for, although the PDK is out of context for the track toy, and driving the 991 911 GT3 RS is by no means the actual representation of a childhood memory where someone is playing Ridge Racer V and their favorite car was the Himmel EO. This is like that RRV favorite because like that, its stylish design and spartan driving manners makes them very hard to resist such temptation and who can blame them?
Speaking of which, this car got featured in The Grand Tour where Jeremy Clarkson compares it with this...
This is the BMW M4 GTS which I found this on FH3's Alpinestars Car Pack. Like the GT3 RS, this is a stripped-out version of the BMW M4 that rids of everything that doesn't help with driving such as a radio of course and some rear seats, add some unique aerodynamics inspired from its DTM racing champion, and to top it all, arm the six-cylinder in-line turbo engine with water injection to deliver 500HP of power. All sounds great but it's about eight seconds slower than the 911 GT3 RS on the Nurburgring and in The Grand Tour's Eboladrome, two seconds slower than the GT3 RS as well.
Hey, since these two are featured in the show and compared, how about I can compare these two at the only place in Byron Bay I know? How about, you guessed it, The Grand Tour Sprint? Yep, the sprint track with the words "Grand Tour" on it. Sounds catchy but let's get on with it.
Hey, The Grand Tour is right about the M4 GTS slower than the GT3 RS. Although I like the way BMW made their response against the track-focused Porsche, they really made a hash of it and there's a metaphor for this one but I don't know what that is.
Feeling pleased about the 911 GT3 RS, I did something special for this Porsche and yes, you get the point. With the design ready, the 911 GT3 RS is ready to take on other 911 drivers in the city for a little cars, coffee, and a race.
Although it lost the comparo, the M4 GTS doesn't want to be left behind so I made a little familiar design for this car and while the 911 GT3 RS is busy wowing the other 911 cars, the M4 GTS will have to hang out with the other city delinquents. Poor girl...
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what you called the Himmel Mancheese.
South Korean prosecutors charged ousted leader Park Geun-hye and Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin with bribery in the latest twist to a corruption scandal that rocked the nation for months.
The probe has already convulsed the biggest conglomerate, Samsung Group, with its chief Jay Y. Lee under arrest for bribing Park and her friend, Choi Soon-sil. All three are being held at detention centres.
Prosecutors accused Park of colluding with Choi to receive 7 billion won from Lotte for favours, they said in a statement. Park was also charged with abuse of power and coercion by pressuring big businesses to contribute funds to non-profit foundations, the prosecutors said.
Lotte denied the allegations as well as the Park, Lee, Choi and Samsung Group.
- According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf Group beheaded another hostage during the Holy Week exodus. The hostage was identified as Noel Besconde, a 45 year old crew member of the fishing boat that the terrorist group ambushed last December 2016 in Celebes Sea.
- President Rodrigo Duterte sponsored the baby of the OFW from Saudi Arabia. The OFW named Jobelyn Tayad is one of the 150 OFWs who went home to the Philippines following Duterte's Middle East visit. The Saudi Government gave amnesty to these undocumented OFWs.
- The Philippine National Police CIDG filed a case against two security aids of drug suspect Jun No who escaped last Saturday while confined at the East Avenue Medical Center.
- In case you missed it, US President Donald Trump blocked the White House visitor list to the public, sparking security concerns.
The Easter Holidays are nearing its end and the Formula 1 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix really ends the Easter Holidays with a bang, although Easter is not unusually present in the Middle East (well...almost), especially in Bahrain.
As sparks literally fly on the best drivers in the Bahrain Grand Prix, there are some trouble occurred during the heated nighttime race such as Kevin Magnussen from HAAS faced mechanical failure from his car that sent him out from the race, as well as Red Bull's Max Verstappen, William's Lance Stroll, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz, among many others.
Behind the misfortune, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel crushed both the Mercedes-AMG drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to snag his second win of this season. Not bad for a German plotting for a comeback.
After three races this season, Sebastian Vettel's leading with 68 points while Hamilton's seven points behind Vettel, and Bottas' in 3rd place with 38 points.
The next race is on Sochi, Russia, on the 30th of April.
