Indy Car racer Danica Patrick's Lamborghini Gallardo - with no cup holders. Photo by Klaus Nahr.
Ever wonder what your favorite racecar driver drives off track? Personal automobiles of the world’s top drivers range from the extravagant to the surprisingly sensible to the just plain strange. E3 Spark Plugs shares a few favorites:
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a bonafide Chevy Camaro guy. The third generation racer built a racing Camaro with his late father in 1967 and boasts a special edition Dale Earnhardt, Sr. “Intimidator SS” Camaro. He also owns a ’67 model (pictured) with an SBC engine with a 5-speed transition and a ’72 with a GM LS2 engine and 6-speed transmission.
Danica Patrick famously landed a speeding ticket and an order to attend driving school while driving her Mercedes ML 63 AMG 57mph in a 40 zone. “I tried to pull the race car driver card… I said, ‘I’m a race car driver. I’m not going to hurt anyone out here. I know what I’m doing,’” the Indy Car racer told reporters. “He said, ‘I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.’ But then it was on the news that night.”
Patrick also tools around town in her Lamborghini Gallardo which, as she told reporters recently, has no cup holders.
“So while it seems like a luxury car, it’s not really about luxury,” she says.
Tony Stewart has a cadre of enviable rides including a 1955 Chevy Nomad, a 2005 Lamborghini Murcielago that he told reporters he’s only driven once, a 2003 Hummer with seven-count ‘em-seven TVs, and a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird, Smokey and the Bandit edition with CB radio – reportedly his favorite. But the ride that gets the most attention is Stewart’s 1984 Cadillac hearse dubbed Smoke DeVille.
Sebastian Vettel, the 23-year-old German Formula One world champion (and the youngest to earn that title) has a collection of cars almost as interesting as his names for them: Luscious Liz, Randy Mandy and Kinky Kylie. BMWs dot his collection, per his ambassadorship for the brand. But his most driven personal ride is an Infiniti FX50. Infiniti has a partnership with Vettel’s Red Bull Racing Team.
