Pit Notes

SEMA has launched a new web site: www.RASR.org. The goal of RASR is to educate drivers about the dangers of street racing and aggressive driving stunts that put them — and others — at risk of serious injury and death. The new site features tools that evoke engagement from site visitors. It also provides individuals with a resource to locate professionally controlled environments in which today’s performance and speed enthusiasts can participate in automotive-related events throughout the United States.

David Bull Publishing is celebrating The International Media Awards selection of Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed as the best of all 2009 entries, including magazines, newspapers, internet, radio and television as well as books, by offering special deals on it as well as two other Donahue-related books: the previously published 2005 IMA award-winning biography of Donahue mentor: Walt Hansgen His Life and the History of Post-War American Road Racing, and the newly published, Donahue, His Life In Photographs contains an additional 250 color and black and white photographs culled by author Michael Argetsinger from the thousands he collected while researching the two earlier books. The new volume provides an informal look at Mark’s life, friends, teammates and fellow racers as well as the many cars he raced. With captions and text by Artgetsinger, it is a nostalgic retrospect of the Donahue years for those who were a part of them and an excellent introduction to them for those who were not. Contact: dbull@bullpublishing.com

Not as sentimental but penetrating with an underlying affection for the auto world, is a collection of 40 years of writing by the soul of AutoWeek, the late Leon Mandel. The Jaundiced Eye, published in April by 671Press in association with AutoWeek it has earned high praise and is available through www.AutoWeek.com at $21.95. . . . Still another look back is being assembled by Harry Pallenberg whose credits include 800 shows for PBS in Los Angeles, and documentaries: “Shotgun Freeway, Drives Through Lost L.A.” and “Women In Boxes: A documentary on Magic’s Better Half.” His new project is, “Where They Raced”, a definitive documentary film on the history of auto racing in Los Angeles. All he needs to complete it, at this writing, is $13,000 which he is soliciting in small donations at www.wheretheyraced.com. Trailers for the film can be seen there.

Motorbooks Publishing has a list of titles out this fall and is willing to make copies available to journalists who can publish reviews. Contact Nichole Schiele Senior Marketing Manager Motorbooks, Quayside Publishing Group, nschiele@mbipublishing.com. . . . Belated congratulations to Anne Profitt who won three first-place awards from AAWRBA at its annual Indianapolis 500 Breakfast: one for her magazine article: Speedway Power another for an internet piece, It’s All In the Brakes, and a third for her photo of Dario Franchitti in Sonoma. . . . Last, for those who have not seen it, click here for the perfect way to roll a car, if you must.

“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is a” – caustic colleague. When Toronto’s Globe and Mail auto writer Peter Cheney recounted in 2300 words and 10 photos how a $180,000 Porsche 970 Turbo test car burst through the garage door at his home with his 14-year-old son behind the wheel, he probably thought he had squelched the journo gossip mill and did all he could to make amends with Porsche. But, he didn’t count on The Truth About Cars’ Jack Baruth. He found misstatements in the story that made him question Cheney’s auto writing credentials, his truthfulness and once again sound TTAC’s alarm about the cozy relationship of car makers with mainstream auto journalists. According to Cheney, when he offered to pay the $10,000 deductible on Porsche’s insurance, the company’s press fleet manager, said, “Stuff happens” and that Porsche would absorb the cost.

Good thing it wasn’t the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic that allegedly sold recently for $40,000,000 and will be displayed at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif., according to Peter Aylett of Car Art, Inc. It was being driven cross-country to the museum despite the findings of a recent GMAC survey reported by Tanya Irwin in Marketing Daily that, if tested today, 38 million or 20% of U.S. drivers would not pass a written driver’s exam. 

In case you missed it, James Saulsbury of the National Transportation Research Center released a list of the top ten misconceptions about fuel economy as determined by the EPA at www.fueleconomy.gov. Among them “… modern computer-controlled, fuel-injected engines regulate the air-fuel mixture so well that a dirty air filter does not decrease fuel economy and using premium fuels improves your economy.” Saulsbury also released two lists (EPA and Real-World) of the top ten fuel sippers www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/topten.jsp. . . .Another list, this one from Google’s AdPlanner reveals that no U.S, automotive site is among the globe’s top 1,000 web sites, as measured by unique users. China has the top five in the category, starting at 205 overall. All five have around 10,000,000 unique visitors.

On his 94th birthday George Spaulding, noting that he was closing in on 1200 columns, offered Charleston Post and Courier readers a retrospect of important auto events since he resumed his journalism career 23 years ago after retiring from General Motors with 35 years of service. . . Speaking of old, a complete compendium of Throttle, the “earliest hot rod magazine published,” begun in 1941 and ended by the start of WW II, 12 issues in all, is being offered by The Rodder’s Journal at customerservice@roddersjournal.com for $32.00. . . . Stretching not that far back is Miller Time, a new 304-page book with about 200 photos that recounts the memoirs of Roger Penske’s “long time prime associate in auto racing,” Don Miller. Author Jim Donnelly of Hemmings describes Miller as, “the founder of Penske Racing South, and the guy who discovered both Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman before making them both into stars. It’s way beyond the typical racing bio. Don is a very ethical guy with enormous empathy for others and some very specific ideas on how to motivate and manage them, which to me, at least, is the foundation of the book.” Price is $29.95; all proceeds go toward the prevention of child abuse through SCAN of Iredell County, North Carolina. Order from www.coastal181.com or the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame, www.ncarhof.com.

There’s still time to enter Kelley Blue Book’s video car review contest that closes June 15. Top prize is $10,000. Rules are at www.KBB.com/contest.  . . .And, you can celebrate “Collector Car Appreciation Day” on July 9 as designated by the U.S. Senate thanks to the efforts of SEMA.  . . .For Father’s Day and beyond, David Bull will absorb the shipping cost of The Ferrari Phenomenon written by Matt Stone and Luca Del Monte. With lots of new material and photos, you can see and hear Jay Leno reviewing it with Stone at: www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/book-club/jays-book-club-the-ferrari-phenomenon 9’ x11’, 160 pages, hardcover, 159 photos. $39.95, www.bullpublishing.com

Some one picked the wrong Ann Job to job with a fake message using her name and email address to appeal for urgently needed funds because she and her family had been robbed at gun point in London and were stranded there without cash or credit cards to get them home.  The giveaway was the poor grammar. The well-regarded AP journalist would consider that a crime in and of itself.

A recipient of the plea checked it out and in a series of email exchanges was given a location where the money could be delivered. In the meantime, Ann was at her desk in the States, busily assuring the many friends, colleagues and associates who phoned that she was aware of the scam, had shut down the email address and was calling every authority she could think of to bring the “perps” to justice.

She had no time to speculate or investigate how her email was infiltrated but Kurt Opsahl writes in his DeepLinks Blog for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those (privacy) controls. Instead, it’s slowly but surely helped itself — and its advertising and business partners — to more and more of its users’ information, while limiting the users’ options to control their own information.”

Laurie Sullivan, writing for Social Media Daily, summarizes a Consumers Reports survey and recommendations for better securing personal information on the Internet: 1) do not list full birth date, 2) use a strong password, 3) do not overlook privacy controls, 4)leave off contact information, 5) do not identify kids in photos, 6) do not say when you will be away from home.

Ted West reports that he is “more than a little amazed” that his first novel, Closing Speed, has been published and is available through http://www.demontrevillepress.com/, Amazon or online brick and mortar. The novel, West says, brings back to life “one of the headiest experiences of my long career.”  It is a fictionalized remembrance of the 1970 World Manufacturer’s Championship he covered in Europe for Road & Track. . . . Melissa Preddy alerted her Detroit News readers recently to the Internet Movie Car Database (imcdb.com) where car fans can quickly verify makes and models of cars used in Hollywood films.

BMW‘s “Historic Workshop in Germany, once reserved for company-owned vehicles now takes in customer cars. Two other similar company-run Classic Car centers have been opened in Europe and a Classic Center will be opened in the U.S. States as soon as a suitable partner can be found,” according to Ralf Vierlein, head of sales and aftersales for BMW Group. He said, “We have the theoretical knowledge of the vehicles, the technical know-how, the original BMW parts and the necessary infrastructure to connect everything up systematically.”

Tom Kelley recommends WWW.Bringatrailer.com because it is all about Barn finds, rally cars, and needles in the haystack, thereby saving collectors and cherry-pickers a lot of time otherwise spent in searching through catalogs and the Internet. . . . Jeff Mohr advises that removing the ball hitch on your vehicle can reduce the chance of whiplash by 22 per cent. He can be reached at: superbumper@quwestoffice.net. Another site that might be helpful is www.RealWorldAutomotive.com. It endeavors to answer the arcane as well as the mundane auto questions.

Car Art, Inc. is now partnering with the Vintage Racing League — the world’s leading community for people that love racing and cars. . . . Gale Banks Engineering is pleading with the State of California to get its California Air Resources Board off the dime and issue new diesel smog test standards. He and other diesel product manufacturers have been in limbo for eight years, unable to have their products tested and certified because no new tests have been developed.

At the risk of setting a precedent we can’t always honor down the road, AWCom passes along Dan Kahn’s enthusiasm that his www.KahnMedia.com has been hired for PR services by HRE Wheels. . . . Having written and read news releases for more than 30 years, John Dinkel found it difficult to write one that didn’t seem like the real thing. So his spoof announcement of his appointment to a non-existent NHTSA post brought consternation as well as congratulations among its recipients – and required a follow-up acknowledging it had been an April 1 prank. . . . The new regional auto writers group in Georgia, GAAMA, manifested itself at this year’s Atlanta Auto Show by selecting Jaguar XJL as the runaway winner of the GAAMA Peach Award. GAMMA vice president Ryan Rees also passed along monthly meeting topics for May and June (see Calendar). . . . And last, Michael Lamm passes along this link if you want to “turn your Kia into a car”.

Appropriate to the Easter season, Motor Trend Classic has been reborn. Source Interlink has re-launched the previously bimonthly magazine as a quarterly to the delight of many fans who thought it was the death knell for the up market title when it was shuttered three years ago . . . . Also re-launched, Wooden Horse News reports, is Canada’s Driver Magazine. It has gone from a regional to a bimonthly national magazine covering the gamut of consumer automotive concerns.

SpeedReaders.info has changed owners. Launched just four months ago by Kevin Clemens and Helen V. Hutchings, to present carefully considered reviews of transportation books, videos and DVDs, the site has published more than 100 reviews. The new owner and site administrator is Sabu Advani. He has been editor of the Rolls Royce owner’s club magazine, The Flying Lady, since 1998. Clemens will pursue his academic career while Hutchings has been offered new opportunities, although both will contribute reviews periodically.

Prolific freelance writer Rex Roy has added TV scriptwriter and show host to his resume. He has done 10 DIY Garage shows sponsored by Auto Zone, for AOL Autos.com They are in the can and rolling onto to the web site as we write. . . . Writing for HuffPost Social News, Bill Lucey offers some concrete suggestions (too many to list here) in his piece, How Do Laid Off Journalists Reinvent Themselves? . . . AutoWeek has joined Coyne Communications’ campaign to discourage driving while distracted. Specifically, the magazine urges you and your readers to sign a pledge to not drive while distracted. For more information about the campaign and how you can participate contact: Annec@coyne-net.com or go to www.autoweek.com/distracteddriving.

Speaking of AutoWeek, the publication is launching a two-day Virtual Green Car Show that promises a look “at everything you need to learn about green, virtually.” It starts live on Sept. 22-23. To participate you must pre-register at www.autoweekvirtualgreencarshow.com . . . If you want a current update on Ethanol, The Auto Channel recently completed a 30-minute Road Trip episode focused on the subject with Ed Begley, Jr. and David Blume, author of “Alcohol Can Be A Gas.” The show can be seen at: http://www.theautochannel.com/F/news/2010/02/18/466262.html. Read the rest of this entry »