The image confirms much of what we already know – the HUMMER H3T will have a four door configuration and a five foot bed. A slant-back rear bed cover, reminiscent of the old HUMVEE configuration, was shown sporting a spare tire. Don’t expect to see the slant-back as a factory option anytime soon – but it sure does look cool! Autoblog’s sources say that the vehicle will come with an optional hard tonneau cover. They also gave some insight into some interesting new features we haven’t heard about before. (more…)
I like to think that given a choice in rides, God would occasionally take the ole HUMMER H2 out for a romp around the off-road trails in Heaven (Surely there’s off-roading in Heaven…). I’m just not so sure that he was on the East Coast the other night.
A Maryland man was arrested after trying to steal a HUMMER H2, but told authorities it was alright since he was, in fact, God. He said he doesn’t need to steal, but a voice in his head told him the HUMMER was his. This was also after he told the same authorities he had smoked some “tainted marijuana.”
He was sentenced to one year in jail and mandatory counseling.
“Right outta the box the H3 Alpha is an outstanding building platform and it’s super capable. Our plan is to take it to the next level. In a world where many Hummer products undergo a nauseating pimpification that strangles their inherent offroadability, our plan is to go the totally opposite route. We’re going to enhance the H3s function without sacrificing reliability and we’re going to give it a rugged look that’s unlike any other H3. Stay tuned.”
We’re pumped to see what the Four Wheeler team will come up with in the next few weeks and months! We’re also wondering if we name the H3 “Four Wheeler of the Year” as Four Wheeler Magazine did, HUMMER will give us a vehicle to customize too! Probably not…but a test drive in the completed Four Wheeler truck would work for us!
HUMMER’s newest commercial focuses on a group that many people may not know about. HUMMER HOPE (Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies) is an organization of specially trained volunteers that assist the American Red Cross during disasters. HOPE members use their vehicles to carry critical personnel and supplies to areas that may be difficult to reach after severe weather events. HUMMER’s critics, who will never be pleased no matter the humanitarian effort, criticize the new commercial on You Tube comment area. (To my knowledge, this is the only place to find the video – my apologies for the ad for a criticism site at the end). As a HOPE member, I find it upsetting to see so much criticism for a group that uses their own resources to become qualified volunteers, and possibly put themselves and their HUMMERs in harms way to help others in times of need. Kudos to HUMMER for focusing on a greaet organization in their newest commercial!
2007 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Baja 1000 off-road race, and two H3s from Team HUMMER were the first two stock class vehicles to cross the finish line. Both H3s, however, took first place in their respective classes (stock full and stock mini). The stock class requires vehicles use stock frames, stock suspension designs, and production-based engines.
Chad Hall piloted the newest addition to Team HUMMER, the #863 stock class H3 Alpha, which finished first in the stock full class (full-sized production vehicles) beating entries that included a Toyota Tundra, several Dodge Ram 2500s, Toyota Land Cruiser and a Ford F-250. The H3 Alpha was the first stock class vehicle to cross the finish line.
Celebrating the 40th aniversary of the Baja, and his 40th running , Team HUMMER owner Rod Hall piloted the #760 H3 which finished first in the stock mini class (midsize production vehicles). The H3 beat entries that included a Toyota FJ Cruiser, Mitsubishi Raider, Honda Ridgeline, Ford Ranger and Toyota 4-Runner. The #763 H3 was the second stock class vehicle to cross the finish line, behind the H3 Alpha.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 40-years of racing Baja, than to partner with Josh and Chad to sweep the stock classes with our H3s,” said Rod Hall. “The capability and reliability of the H3 definitely gave us an advantage over the competition in this year’s race.”
The Hall family continues to be the leader in Baja 1000 wins – 19 for Rod, 4 for Josh, and 6 for Chad. For the seventh straight year, a member of the Hall family has been the driver of record on the winning team in the Baja 1000.
HUMMER is only surpassed by Lexus in new buyer satisfaction according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates. The survey records new car buyers’ perceptions on dealership facilities, their sales consultant, finance process, delivery process, and vehicle price. HUMMER improved 21 points from the previous study in 2006, and improved mainly in finance and vehicle price categories. Industry-wide satisfaction scores are up – the average is up 5 points from last year.
Last year’s winner Jaguar dropped 19 points, dropping the brand to a third place finish in 2007. Margin of error for the industry average is at one point, but individual brands have margins calculated on the number of responses. Lexus has a margin of error of 5 points, and HUMMER’s margin of error was not released. Only edging out HUMMER by 2 points and having a 5 point margin of error, Lexus can be in the headlines as “Number 1,” but “Maybe Number 1,” is more accurate – but what kind of a sensational headline would that be?
The “Texas Auto Writers” recently held their annual truck rodeo, where this year they gathered 50 members of the media to judge over 60 different trucks. Among the numerous awards to GM, the Hummer H3 Alpha fared pretty well – It won the category of “Mid Size SUV,” beating out the Nissan Pathfinder and Jeep Liberty Sport 4×4 who placed 2nd and 3rd respectively. The H3 Alpha also placed third in the overall “SUV of Texas” category behind the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid and Toyota Landcruiser.
This year was GMs strongest showing at the truck rodeo, receiving first place finishes in both the SUV of Texas (Tahoe Hybrid) and Truck Line of Texas (GM), and placed either 2nd or 3rd in all other major categories. In all categories entered, GM placed in the top 3 in all but one category – not bad! The results are below – and is anyone else surprised that under “best feature” the Ford’s tailgate step beat out the Tahoe’s new 2 mode Hybrid system? God Bless Texas…
TRUCK OF TEXAS (Pickup Truck Category)
1st: Ford F-250 Harley-Davidson
2nd: Chevrolet Silverado 1500
3rd: GMC Sierra Denali
SUV OF TEXAS
1st: Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
2nd: Toyota Land Cruiser 3rd: Hummer H3 Alpha
TRUCK LINE OF TEXAS
1st: General Motors
2nd: Ford
3rd: Toyota
FULL-SIZE SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE
1st: Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
2nd: Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD
3rd: Toyota Land Cruiser
MID-SIZE SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE 1st: Hummer H3 Alpha
2nd: Nissan Pathfinder
3rd: Jeep Liberty Sport 4×4
FULL-SIZE LUXURY SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE
1st: Cadillac Escalade AWD
2nd: Lincoln Navigator
3rd: Toyota Land Cruiser
The start of the Baja 1000 is now just a day away, and in the last couple weeks, Hummer has been putting the finishing touches on two new race trucks.
The new Hummer H3 and Hummer H2 SUT race trucks started out like any other production trucks, then shipped off to GM’s Desert Proving Grounds to undergo some heavy modification. But not too much – these vehicles are competing in the stock class – where major components like the engine, transmission, and frame must remain unchanged.
Special shocks from Fox Racing Shox(one of the few changes allowed in the stock-class), and new fuel cells were installed. The new design and location of the cells allows the crew to add fuel using 10 gallon ‘dump cans’ during race pit stops. The team also added race navigation units that help navigators communicate upcoming turns and obstacles, as well as improve night driving capabilities. Finally, the two race trucks were sent to Cumming Fabworks for their new paint schemes.
Almost complete, the Hummer race trucks were taken to Parker, AZ for a testing session. Now, some fine tuning and the addition of Hella off-road lamps are all that stand between these Hummer race trucks and the start of the Baja 1000 this Tuesday.
Fans can keep up with Team Hummer starting Tomorrow, November 13, 12:30 pm PST at rodhallracing.com. The vehicle race numbers to follow are:
863 - 2008 H3 Alpha, piloted by Chad Hall and Sam Edgar.
866 - 2008 H2 SUT, piloted by Josh Hall, with navigators Sam Cothrun, Thad Stump and Sean Holman, Four Wheeler technical editor
760 - 2006 H3, piloted by Rod Hall and Mike Winkel, with navigators Jake Povey, John Chapman and Rick Pewe, 4-Wheel and Off-Road editor.
Team Hummer should be able to capture some great video of the event, thanks to their partnership with Micron, who’s providing image sensors and other advanced technology to help document Rod Hall’s 40th running of the Baja 1000.
“This is a special race for the Hall’s and Team HUMMER,” said Martin Walsh, HUMMER General Manager. “We’re honored that Rod Hall Racing has been competing and winning in stock-class HUMMER vehicles since 1993, and are proud to have the opportunity to partner with Micron Technology to document Rod’s 40th running of the race.”
If all goes to plan, it should take team Hummer approximately 40 straight hours of driving to complete the 1300 mile race from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas.
Every aspect of SAE Energy’s new project Hummer H3 is groundbreaking – and put them all together, and it’s unheard of. Johnathan Goodwin, Co-Founder of SAE, is putting a 60,000 RPM, turbine, jet engine into an H3. Sounds impressive doesn’t it? But that’s not all. The new engine will run on either biodiesel or discarded vegetable oil – and charge a set of super capacitors in a matter of seconds. “It’ll get 60 miles to the gallon. With 2,000 foot-pounds of torque. You’ll be able to smoke the tires. And it’s going to be super efficient,” says Goodwin.
Sound too good to be true? I’d normally agree and say I’ll believe it when I see it. But keep in mind, this is the same company that built an 800HP biodiesel Impala that beat a Lamborghini in the quarter mile (see below) as part of Pimp My Ride’s Earth Day special.
Last week at SEMA we went to the Mile Marker booth only to find out Team Hummer captain and off-road racing legend Rod Hall had left a day earlier. We still lucked into some autographed posters, but it would have been great to meet him in person. Even though we didn’t get a chance to ask him any questions – General Motors recently did – and the transcript is below. Enjoy!
Q. How did you get involved with off-road racing?
A. It’s how I’ve done everything in my life – it’s not according to plan, it’s just by accident. I guess the way it started was when I bought my first four-wheel-drive vehicle in 1956. There was no such thing as off-road racing then. I bought a Jeep; a little CJ-5. It was worn out because that was all I could afford so I quickly learned to become a mechanic. I joined the Hemet (Calif.) Jeep club, and eventually – by default – I became the president.
One of the things I did with the club was probably put on the first off-road race in California in either 1961 or ’62. We had a very large four-wheel-drive trip that we did out around Barstow (Calif.) and I think there was close to 300 Jeeps out there. We set up a course which wasn’t much more than a 17-mile track that just went around this mountain. Very basic, it had a few arrows and stakes to guide people with. Nobody had helmets or roll bars on the Jeeps. Seat belts were about all we had in terms of safety.
Then we did little events where we went up to Colorado Springs or Golden (Colo.) and drove back to Truth or Consequences (N.M.) which were actually the beginning of off-road racing. I would go and do these events, which we called gymkhanas for insurance reasons. But they were still timed events so that’s where it started.
In 1967 we went to Pismo Beach, (Calif.), to put on the Association of Four-Wheel-Drive Clubs’ annual August event. We had hill-climbs, drag races and an obstacle course. We heard about the Baja 1000 coming up in October of that year and my co-driver Larry Minor and I got all excited about it. I went out and bought a brand-new Jeep and we ran the race. I liked it so much I continued to do that every year. Talk about a guy being in a rut – every November I go out and do the Baja 1000…
Q. There aren’t too many 70-year-olds out there racing cars. What keeps you motivated?
A. I think there are a number of reasons. Most importantly, I really enjoy what I’m doing. Off-road racing is a hobby for me and I’m very serious about my hobby. It’s my golf game. Really, I like it a lot and it’s all I really know.
Another big reason is that it’s something I do with my family. My sons, Chad and Josh, race HUMMERS too. If it was just me on my own and I had to do all the prep work and the organization, I would probably consider retiring. It’s a lot of work. We’re taking about 40 to 50 people to Baja with us and somebody’s got to organize and plan everything. But with my boys involved, it’s a lot easier for me to keep going. Plus it’s something we can do together.
Third, off-road racing also enhances my business. We’ve created a decent business with the military, enhancing the suspensions of heavy armored vehicles. The military Humvees have so much armor on them that technically, they are overloaded. The trucks are graded at 10,500 lbs and with armor, they become loaded up to almost 15,000 lbs. That negatively affects suspension components and subsequently the handling of the vehicles. With our 13 or 14 years of experience racing the H1, we were able to offer the military enhanced suspensions for the H1, and it’s led to work on other vehicles as well, such as armored ATVs. I’m a HUMMER dealer as well – I have a dealership in Reno (Nev.) – and the off-road credentials set us apart from other dealers.
Q. What was your most memorable race?
A. That’s hard to really say. I have really fond memories of so many. I get asked the question ‘what is your favorite race’ quite often and all I can think to say, usually, is ‘the next one’. Whether it’s 200 miles or 1300 (this year’s Baja 1000 will run 1300 miles), it doesn’t matter. Of course the Baja 1000 has a special meaning to me because it was my first race.
Q. The ‘premier’ classes in off-road racing are usually the Trophy Trucks. Why did you not pursue that route and stick with stock classes instead?
A. Before I joined HUMMER in 1994, our team was headed in the direction of Trophy Trucks and I was actually thinking about quitting. My expertise was racing production cars and I like that.
Q. So what drew you to HUMMER?
A. Well, I actually didn’t even know what a HUMMER was in 1992. Looking back, I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of that. Back then, a friend of mine told me that the military-only HUMMER was going to come out with a civilian vehicle and they were interested in running the Baja 1000. That friend had some dealings with HUMMER so he set up a meeting for me with Bill Thompson, who was the head of AM General’s civilian division. We met and got along very well – he was a low key guy and we had that in common, or at least I think we did – and he wanted to race a stock car. Dodge, who we were with at the time, was headed in the direction of Trophy Trucks and we parted company very amicably. I just wanted to stick with production cars so the timing was perfect.
Q. How demanding is off-road racing on production cars and how do the HUMMERs handle it?
“Well, people claim the desert is so fragile, but I doubt they’ve been out there pounding through rock washes and hitting tree stumps. There’s nothing fragile about that stuff and it’s really tough on a vehicle. When you race production cars, you first have to understand how much punishment your vehicle can take for a certain amount of miles. Then you drive it accordingly. If someone wants to go running by you in their Ridgeline pickup truck, you just let them go because you know your vehicle can only stand so much. And then you see them working on theirs not much farther ahead. It takes a lot of discipline to race production cars.
All of the HUMMERs – and I don’t care who I’m talking to or who I’m racing for – in my opinion, they are the toughest off-road vehicles off the showroom floor. I’m happy to be racing them.
Q. What is it like racing with your sons?
A. It’s really a pleasure. I didn’t ask them to get involved with me business-wise nor race-wise. I didn’t want to talk them into anything; I wanted it to be their choice and it all worked out really well.
Out of high school, Chad went to college and started flying jets for the Air National Guard and Josh went into the Marines and was shipped to Okinawa. One day Chad came home for the weekend and he went for a ride with me in my truck. And he told me it was more fun than flying jets and asked for a race car. That’s how he got involved. Now he races the H1 Alpha but for the Baja 1000 and beyond, he’ll be fielding an H3 Alpha V8.
Josh was married and had a family and he was pretty busy with his own life. He got out of the military, worked for his father-in-law for a while and after he went racing with us, decided he wanted to do this too. So we built him a car too and became a racing trio. Josh races the H2 at the moment and will switch to the H2 SUT pickup for the 1000 and next year.
Q. Describe the Baja 1000 and the events leading up to it, such as pre-running:
A. It’s going to be 1300 miles this year and that’s without stopping. If the guys want to pass you early in your class, let them go. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that using yourself up in the first six or eight hours is not what you want to do.
Parnelli Jones gave the best description of the race that I’ve ever heard. He said it’s like a plane crash that lasts all day. Well, it’s not really that bad. But it can get rough.
For pre-running, we have an H2 at our dealership that we fixed up as a pre-runner. It’s got roll bars, big shocks and GPS fitted to it so it’s more or less a race car. Mike Winkle, my partner in the HUMMER business and I will be pre-running in that. Josh and Thad Stump will be in an H2 from the GM Proving Grounds in Mesa, Ariz. And Chad will be in an H2, also from the Proving Grounds. We’ll leave Ensenada, Mexico on Sunday morning and end up in Cabo San Lucas on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 26. Hopefully we cover enough ground where we can cover some of the sections twice down there. I’ll do some more pre-running after the SEMA show, but won’t go down that far again until the actual race.
Q. How physically demanding is the race?
A. For people that are not used to it, it’s very difficult. It’s strenuous, dirty and hot. You get beat up and used up. I’m used to it; I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m not even sore when I get out of the car anymore.
Q. Do you have a chiropractor?
A. Actually, no. One of the secrets is, as I look back over the history of my racing over 40 years, about the time I say ‘you know what, I’ve just about had it with this stuff,’ we build a new car. The new car rides better and you think ‘I guess I’m okay for a while’. At my age, one of the reasons why I keep racing is that my HUMMER H3 really gives me a comfortable ride. It doesn’t beat me up so I’m able to sit in it for hour after hour, mile after mile and still be in reasonably good shape when you get to the finish line.
Q. Any special preparation for a race?
A. Nothing too major. My ritual is that I really rest up for a couple days before the event. I don’t try to get worked up over anything that’s going on with the team. I spend quite a bit of time by myself and get into the mood of what I’m going to be doing. I think about the race course and I think about the different types of situations we’re going to be in. The day before, I eat properly and try to bulk up a little bit. Pastas, foods with carbohydrates are good for that. I have a really good breakfast before I leave and then during the race, I eat energy bars, bananas and cups of coffee. That sustains me throughout the race.
Q. What do you do to stay in shape?
A. I do some daily exercises – 40 to 50 push-ups every day. I walk a lot. When I travel, I try to stay on the sixth floor in hotels and use only the stairs. Exercise needs to be something that’s continuous, not full-bore for a week and then take a week off. I don’t go to gyms, but I eat right and keep my weight right. I keep my muscles toned and I don’t smoke or drink.
