How unfortunate … Paul Frére recently passed at the age of 91.

You should know who Paul Frére is. Not only did he win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1960 driving a Ferrari with the great Olivier Gendebien, but he was a very well respected author and auto journalist.

One of Mr. Frére’s best books is Porsche 911 Story, considered by many to be the definitive book on the gestation and development of the most iconic Porsche there is.

Paul Frére is also responsible for one of my favorite, and funniest, Enzo Ferrari stories.

It seems that speaking with Il Commendatore after his victory at Le Mans, he mentioned, ‘We have to do something about the cars aerodynamics. The windscreen is too crude and fouls the air flow too much. The big Jags are able to easily pass us down the Mulsanne.’

‘Frére, don’t worry. Aerodynamics are for people who who cannot build a proper engine.’

Monsieur Frére, vous serez manqué.

Rumoured for days, it seems that, for once, those rumors are true.

Last Friday, Tony George, IMS & the Champ Car principles (Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe) put out a press release saying that as of the 2008 season, there will be a single North American open wheel racing series.

This is, with out a doubt, very good news for race fans in the US (as well as Canada, given both series popularity and participation amongst Canadians). A unified series, with all open wheel talent focused on one goal, as well as all that talent running in The Indy 500 makes for a better package for everyone concerned: teams, drivers, track owners, fans, and, most importantly, sponsors.

With an undiluted focus, the sponsor money will now flow more freely.

With a freer flow of money, more attention will be focused on the now single series, with more cars, trying for grid positions … meaning that for each race, and for The 500 particularly, qualifying will become harder and harder to do.

Even during the lowest points of the split, The Indy 500 would pull crowds in the 300,000 range for race day. Compare that to this year’s Daytona 500, where attendance was officially 125,000.

Pre-split, 125,000 would have been an abysmally low figure for pole day qualifying at Indy, and race day totals would usually approach half a million people.

Indy is, and will continue to be, the biggest single race in the world. Continue Reading…

Ford recently launched a new viral marketing campaign at BFTRules.com. It’s a spoof on the TV show COPS, except the “cops” in this case are members of “BFT” - or Built Ford Tough. They have 10 rules that Ford truck owners have to follow:

1) NO ROLLER LUGGAGE
2) NO SCOOTERS
3) NO PUNY DOGS
4) NO MEAT SUBSTITUTES
5) NO PINK SHIRTS
6) NO FANCY COFFEE
7) NO FANNY PACKS
8) NO CUTESY CELL PHONE RINGS
9) NO MANICURES
10) NO HAIR PRODUCTS

They’ve created videos for “No Manicures”, “No Pink Shirts” and “No Fancy Coffee”, and they’re actually pretty funny: Continue Reading…

Logitech has been working with Polyphony Digital for a whole number of go-rounds of the GT series, and they’re at it again for the up coming Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. GT 5 Prologue, by the way, is launching on April 17th.

To me, having a wheel and peddle controller for driving sims is simply something you MUST have (and yeah, I know, the GT series isn’t really a sim). This latest wheel from Logitech seems to have a number of useful bells and whistles, although the inclusion of a horn seems like a waste to me. Another nice detail: it’s backwards compatible with Gran Turismo 3 and 4 on the PS2. Logitech’s new wheel will list for $150.

I have no hands on experience with the wheel, since I don’t have a PS3 (although if Chris, our fearless leader here at Automoblog, could get me one as a press deal, I’d gladly accept it) (really, I would), but I still have the wheel & peddles for GT 4, and for the money, Logitech did a real good job.

But, to digress from talking about GT 5, if you want to get serious about wheel and peddle controllers, why not get the very best: Hyperstimulator.

Now, I DO have first hand experience with the Hyper unit, having owned one for many years, and I haven’t come across anything that even comes close. Not in build quality, not in controller feel, not in any parameter you want to measure. Of course, a Hyperstimulator IS for computer-based sims, not for PS or xBox’es (although you might be able to do a work around via USB), so comparing it to what you hook up to a game console is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, but they are very, very good.

Oh man … how bitchin’ is this?!

Seriously, if I was 8 instead of 48, my car/Lego oriented brain would be frying on something like this.

Yeah, I know, it’s a kit, or something, so using specialized parts is kind of, well, cheating to a Lego purist. And I got to say, I’m not all that hot on the overall brown color - I guess he was going for a primer red (probably not an available brick color).

The more stuff I see like this, the better I feel.

Look, I got nothing against a bunch of 17 year olds pouring (way too much) money into Civics and Evos and what not. In the first place, at least they’re into cars. And in the second, maybe they’ll branch out into more, er, interesting forms of motorpsorts and cars than drag racing and hatchbacks. But my biggest gripe with that end of things is dropping multiple tens of thousands into a 13 second car sure seems like a waste.

You give that kind of budget to any bracket racer when I was a kid, and you’d be getting to the end of that quarter a LOT faster then the 13s kid. I mean a lot.

But when I see guys in their early 20s building and racing rat rods; guys that know who Von Dutch is (and if you think that’s a clothing line for hipsters, then I feel very, very sorry for you my friend); guys who not only know what chop, channel and French means, but can go out and DO IT … THAT gives me hope.

Oh, and nitrous is cheating and lazy.

More pix here.

Over at Neatorama there’s a really cool bit about the evolution of car company logos over time.

They look at the logos for Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi (and Auto Union), BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Fiat, Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Renault, Saab and Volkswagen.

For a lot, there’s a nice through-line from where the company started, and where they are now. Alfa, Aston & BMW are notable examples of this. Although Neatorama, says the symbology dates to the house of Visconti, I always heard that the logo is a graphic representation of St. George fighting his legendary dragon.

On the other end of the spectrum, Buick and Mazda seem at a loss for some sort continuity.

Mazda is sadly known for trying to come up with a new logo every 2 years or so … and the winner seemed to be picked from a random sampling of designs submitted by 12 year olds. Continue Reading…