Lewis Hamilton laying down "off the hook" tracks for his own album? [w/videos]

Formula One racecar driver Sebastian Vettel is diversifying his resume by becoming the Director of Performance for Infiniti, and it also sounds like his rival Lewis Hamilton is also dabbling in some extracurriculars. According to Yahoo!, the 28-year-old Hamilton has apparently been stealing away time in a recording studio to record his own pop music album over the last year. The report, which quotes singer/songwriter Angel, indicates that Hamilton might have a second career waiting for him after racing.

So far, Hamilton and Angel have written about 12 songs across various music genres, and another interesting element to his involvement in the music industry is that his girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger (above), is the lead singer for the Pussycat Dolls as well as a former judge for the reality singing contest, X-Factor. For those who are interested, it doesn't sound like he's ready to put out an album just yet. For the moment, it appears Hamilton's duties in Austin, Texas will be limited to lapping the Circuit of the Americas rather than the performing on the local music scene.

Us? We're just hoping for an eventual duet with fellow F1 racer and musical hopeful Jacques Villeneuve. Yeah, we went there. In the meantime, we'll have to keep hope alive by watching Hamilton and friends sing Wonderwall by Oasis in one of the videos below.

GRAND-AM, IMSA announce deal to bring DTM racing to US

It won't be until 2015 at the earliest, but the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), Grand-Am and the Internationale Tourenwagen-Rennen have agreed to a licensing and cooperation deal that could bring a version of Germany's DTM series to the US.

When the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am are officially combined next year, the resulting body will be called United SportsCar Racing (USCR). IMSA will be the sanctioning body for that series, and DTM races could be run as support events. It was also suggested by an ALMS chief that DTM races could be standalone or join NASCAR and IndyCar weekends.

With the so-called DTM America finally agreed to, there is now a way for manufacturers to run the same DTM-type cars in Europe, the US and Japan last year Japan's Super GT series agreed to adopt "the basic technical regulations" of DTM for the GT500 class, the top class in the series. That already puts six manufacturers in play: Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW that run in Germany's DTM and Honda, Nissan and Lexus that run in Super GT. The DTM oversight body has invited American brands to Germany for the opening round of the 2013 season, and will begin actively courting their participation in the US series. Check out the press release from Audi with comments on the deal below.

Chevy offering Camaro rolling chassis for drag racers

There sure has been plenty of drag racing machinery to report about lately from the Chevrolet COPO Camaro to the Ford Mustang Cobra Jet, but General Motors has another quarter-mile racer up its sleeve with a new rolling chassis version of the Camaro. While the COPO is a turn-key racecar with a price tag pushing six figures, Chevrolet announced that it is also going to start offering a factory-built Camaro drag car similar to the COPO but stripped of most of the drivetrain components.

With a starting price of $55,000, the Camaro rolling chassis (click above to enlarge) will feature a complete body, race-ready interior including a rollcage, a solid rear axle (without the gearing), racing wheels and Hoosier drag tires, and it will be built at the same Detroit area facility where the COPO Camaro is assembled using mostly production parts. The owner will need to provide an engine (and wiring harness), transmission, driveshaft and rear differential gears (the "third member"), which is all available through the Chevrolet Racing parts catalog.

Chevy will build a limited number of the Camaro rolling chassis, but it isn't clear if production will be as limited as the COPO Camaro's 69-unit run. Scroll down for the official press release.

Hennessey Ford GT sets 267.6-MPH record at Texas Mile [w/videos]

The record-setting Hennessey-powered camouflage Ford GT we showed you at this time last year headed back to the Texas Mile and managed to bring home yet another record. As you may recollect, last year saw Mark Heidraker's machine sprint to a record 257.7 mph thanks to propulsion from its twin-turbo 5.7-liter V8. The big mill sucks down race gas, and this year the creation pulled off a 267.6-mph run over the weekend. That feat set a new record for the event. Something tells us neither Heidraker nor Hennessey are done squeezing more thrust from this machine.

This particular Ford GT has already gone through a number of permutations. Hennessey started by tweaking the factory supercharger set up before abandoning the blower in favor of two turbos. Since then, the crew has poked and prodded it to coerce as much grunt as possible out of the car. We expect Hennessey will probably come out with a video of the record-setting run shortly, but in the meantime, you can see a couple of videos of the car's runs in Texas below (one of which actually captures the record run). Enjoy.

Alpine unveils N36 LMP2 car that will race in 24 Hours of Le Mans

This is the Alpine LMP2 competitor you'll see contesting European endurance races this year, including The 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Parent company Renault showed off the N36 racer at its atelier in Paris, the blue and orange a switch from the yellow, black and white livery Alpine wore last time it was seen in Le Mans way back in 1978 when it won the race.

The team will be run by Signatech-Nissan and the chassis will be powered by a Nissan engine. Nelson Panciatici and Pierre Ragues will contest World Endurance Championship rounds throughout the year, they'll be joined by endurance and IndyCar veteran Tristan Gommendy for Le Mans and Paul-Loup Chatin as the team's reserve driver.

The Alpine N36 will get into its first test this week at Paul Ricard, then experience its first racing miles at the European Le Mans Series round at Silverstone on April 13. The press release below has the full scoop, the photos above have the past and present in high-res glory.

Watch how Corvette Racing's new collision-avoidance radar system works

When it comes to technology used in racecars, we generally expect it to trickle down to production cars, not the other way around. Well, Pratt & Miller has developed a new rear-facing radar that operates in a similar fashion to what we're used to in modern blind spot detection systems, only it is also capable of tracking cars as they approach and relaying vital information to the driver via a large display screen.

The innovative radar system debuted at last weekend's 12 Hours of Sebring for Corvette Racing, and this system makes perfect sense for endurance races like this since the cars sometimes have to drive through the night and in poor weather conditions.

The radar can detect cars even with poor visibility, and uses easy-to-distinguish symbols for the driver to identify.

"The system uses a rear-facing radar sensor to track up to 32 objects, and runs on a custom-built Linux PC with a Core i3 CPU," said Chris Hammond, Embedded Systems Engineer for Pratt & Miller. "With a momentary glance the driver knows how many cars are following, how far back each one is, their closing speeds, and whether or not they are probably a faster class."

Displayed in the image above, the radar can detect cars even with poor visibility, and uses easy-to-distinguish symbols for the driver to identify. The solid green marker indicates a car has been detected at a safe distance, while the yellow marker shows a car that is even closer; the line through this symbol means that the car is approaching at a higher rate of speed, which could indicate a faster class of car such as when a Prototype passes a GT car in the American Le Mans Series. The symbols turn red when the car is very close, and a large arrow flashes to either side when the car is being overtaken. There is also a line graph at the side of the screen to give an estimate of how many seconds back the cars are.

Currently, Hammond says that Pratt & Miller is the only company to have a system like this used for racing, and it plans on selling the technology to other teams in the future although a price has not been set.

There are a couple videos posted below showing the system in action. The first one is a shot purely from the radar (so it has no audio) but shows a detailed look at how it all works. The second video is a point-of-view shot from Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner, and it shows how the driver uses the system in real time.

2014 Ford Cobra Jet announced with new colors, parachute mount

Ford's drag-strip-ready Mustang Cobra Jet is back for 2014, and it's sporting a few changes to make it even better both in competition and while sitting still. Rolling off the assembly line ready for duty in the NHRA Stock or Super Stock classes, production of the 2014 Cobra Jet is limited to just 50 units.

Racing upgrades for 2014 include the addition of a new three-speed transmission and a parachute mount, and while these will make the car better in the quarter mile, the Cobra Jet's new colors will make it look better tearing down the track. Buyers can now get their racecars painted up in Gotta Have-It Green or a custom, Cobra Jet-exclusive matte black hue. Ford and Ford Racing have already teamed up to make this an incredible factory drag racer with a full rollcage, massive Hoosier slicks, a race-tuned suspension setup and a supercharged 5.0-liter V8. Now, if only wheelie bars came standard...

Unlike the confusing third-party ordering system announced for the COPO Camaro, all you need to snatch up a 2014 Cobra Jet is $97,990 and good timing (as the cars will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis). Ordering opens up next month with production commencing in July. Check out the press release below.