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Lamborghini, hearse among racersâ?? day cars
Lamborghini, hearse among racersâ?? day cars
No one likes to take their work home, but race car drivers might be an exception. From Talladega to Monaco, the world’s best-compensated drivers tend to fill their garages with collections of prized automobiles. In the slides ahead, you’ll discover which pro driver can’t drive 45 (besides Kyle Busch, who was ticketed this week for going 128 in a 45 zone) in a Mercedes SUV, and which famed racer has a thing for vintage Camaros, including the 1967 model pictured below.
But whether these famously fast drivers are affiliated with NASCAR or Formula One, their everyday rides are not always flashy and pimped. Sometimes they’re downright practical vehicles suitable for driving the kids to school, and one or two of them might even get good gas mileage.
Slideshow: Race car drivers’ day cars
The following collection runs the gamut, containing not just speedy supercars, but a healthy dose of vintage classic cars, and one distinctive off the wall novelty vehicle. Click on to discover which pro drivers make fantastical car choices, which ones are practical, and whose selections represent a little of both categories.
The first woman to win an IndyCar race, IRL/NASCAR star Danica Patrick is known to indulge her need for speed off the racetrack in a Lamborghini Gallardo and Mercedes ML 63 AMG. While driving her Mercedes in her hometown of Scottsdale, [Arizona]e|place , she picked up a speeding ticket for doing 57 in a 40 zone, along with an order to attend traffic school.
Patrick told the Daily News about her attempt to evade the long arm of the law. “I tried to pull the race car driver card, and I know he had already written the ticket, but I said, ‘I’m a race car driver. I’m not going to hurt anyone out here, I do know what I’m doing,’ and he said, ‘I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.’ But then it was on the news that night.”
NASCAR (and former Indy) driver Tony Stewart has drawn a lot of attention for one particular off-track auto choice: the 1984 Cadillac hearse he named Smoke DeVille.
But there are plenty of other cars in Stewart’s personal garage. In a 2009 video tour of his auto collection, Tony points out a 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago he says he only drove once, a 2003 Hummer equipped with an incredible seven TVs “for going out with your buddies,” a 1956 Chevy short bed pickup, a 1957 Chevy Belair, a Corvette pace car, a Shelby Series 1, a Tony Stewart Monte Carlo, a 1967 Pontiac GTO, a 1955 Chevy Nomad, and his favorite: a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird, Smokey and the Bandit edition with CB radio.
British Formula One driver and 2009 World Drivers’ Champion Jenson Button has come many laps since failing his first drivers’ test for getting too close to another car when parking.
For personal rides, Button’s been linked to Porsche Carerra GT, Ferrari Enzo, Bugatti Veyron, and a matte black Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG DR 520 – one of only 20.
He famously auctioned a much less streamlined and speedy personal vehicle, his 1970 VW camper with split windscreen. Another curious car of Jenson Button recently went up for auction: a 1978 Ferrari 512BB. Why would he part with this sleek beauty?
It was an act of kindness performed for the Ferrari’s next owner: “My F1 commitments will not enable me to enjoy the car to its fullest,” he announced when putting it up for auction.
• What do Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Schumacher, Jeff Gordon and others drive? See the full slideshow .
Check out Sports Biz with Darren Rovell .
