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| Is McDreamy Also McSpeedy? Actor Patrick Dempsey Gets Your Motor Running With an Exclusive High-Octane Interview to Kick Off Daily Planet’s Speed Week |
| Posted
on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 07:51 PM |
Start your engines! Trading surgeon’s scrubs and a scalpel for a racing suit and a stick shift, Grey’s Anatomy star, Patrick Dempsey gets things off to a roaring start when Daily Planet profiles all things fast in a special November theme week devoted to speed. Buckle up and ride shotgun with Dempsey at the Miller Motorsports Park, near Salt Lake City, Utah, as the actor kicks off Daily Planet’s Speed Week.
In each episode this week, Daily Planet co-hosts Jay Ingram and Kim Jagtiani profile all things fast with an in-depth long look at some of the cutting-edge vehicles and race tracks that are setting new limits of velocity each year. From jet-powered skateboards and 74-year-old racers to see-through cars, Daily Planet gets a behind-the-scenes look at the fastest, sleekest and quirkiest ways to push the limits of speed.
Speed Week runs on Mon., Nov. 12 – Fri., Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel.
Daily Planet Speed Week episode highlights include:
Mon., Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
He certainly gets hearts racing at Seattle Grace but what does Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey do when he’s not shooting CTV’s hit television show Grey’s Anatomy? Daily Planet reveals what this busy actor loves to do in his time off – speed racing. Spend a day on the track and in a race car with Dempsey at the Miller Motorsports Park outside Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s the longest road track in North America and 45 teams are racing for the top prize in the Rolex Grand Am Series – and one of the teams has Dempsey behind the wheel! The cars are put to the test as they race for 1,000 kilometres at 250 kilometres-per-hour speeds. Can McDreamy prescribe a win for his team? Then, watch as Joel King and his jet-powered skateboard try to break the world speed record on a jet-powered street luge. Racing at 180 km/h lying horizontally above the asphalt with a small 90,000-rpm jet engine attached to the two-metre board – King puts himself and his jet-powered skateboard to the test. And, think electricity and speed don’t mix? Think again. Follow amateur bike builder Bill Dube as he tries to break the world speed record with his electric drag racer.
Tues., Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
Today on Daily Planet, watch as Terry Nish and his son Mike try to break a record they’ve been chasing for half their lives. Known for the number of land speed records set on it, the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah is the site of the Nish’s next attempt at achieving his dream. Having spent countless hours and thousands of dollars getting their one-of-a-kind streamliner ready to break 658 km/h speeds, the smallest mistake can cost them their dream. Will their efforts finally pay off? Next, travel to Battle Mountain, Nevada, the site of one of the straightest, flattest, and smoothest surfaces in the world. Cyclists from across the planet flock here each year for their chance to set new world records on their recumbent vehicles. Reaching incredible speeds with leg power alone, these cyclists race on a 1,408-metred altitude road that allows an acceleration zone of over six kilometres. This track can enable them to reach their maximum velocity before being timed over a 200-metre distance. Who will make the fastest mark on the route?
Wed., Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah is so flat you can actually see the curvature of the Earth. Droves of amateur drivers flock here every year in hopes of setting new speed records. Knitting by day and racing by night, 74-year-old Mary West is one of those hopeful record setters. West has spent her life around the racing scene, but has never driven anything this fast. With her friend Tom Bryant lending her the wheels of his “Tom Thumb Special,” watch as West hits speeds 392 km/h – a record in itself. Next, check out the eXasis: a see-through car made of a high-tech plastic called Makrolon. It’s designed to give drivers the feel of the open road including a clear view of the pavement below. As an energy efficient vehicle, the eXasis is a cutting-edge example of how automotive technologies and energy conservation practices may converge in the years to come.
Thurs., Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
The Audi R8 is a commercial vehicle that comes perilously close to resembling the winning LeMans race cars on the track. Go behind-the-scenes as Audi engineers and mechanics reveal the high-tech components in race cars that can be incorporated into commercial vehicles for use on just about any road out there.
Fri., Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
Today, Daily Planet looks at speed in animals…even the slow ones! Join researchers at Germany’s University of Jena as they put a sloth in an X-ray machine to study its movements. But this isn’t just any ordinary machine. This is one of the only X-ray machines in the world that allows experts to study locomotion with 1,000 X-rays per second. Sloths are the only land mammals that can walk upside down. How can tracking these gravity-defying – albeit slow – mammals help to create state-of-the-art robots?
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