As good as Roger's is (and I must admit to having blinked a couple of times
until I realized he was getting a bit strident even for REJ[o]), the best
one I saw this year goes to a story in National Speed Sport News. Headline:
"Mercedes-Benz going NASCAR in '02"
You gotta appreciate the total setup. The story is at the top of Page 3,
which is usually the spot for one of the most important stories of the week
(Often where the Winston Cup might go; it was right underneath this time. Or
where major industry stories are placed). Then it began with an editor's
note that the story was taken by permission from the Mercedes-Benz house
organ, "The Star."
The story cited a DaimlerChrysler desire to have a Winston Cup entry badged
as a Mercedes, and cited the withdrawal from CART as a preliminary move
toward directing the company energies to that goal. It made reference to an
abandoned Ford feeler to put a Jaguar into Winston Cup, and a GM look at
entering an Opel-based Catera, which was dropped for the same financial
reasons that affected its LeMans program for Cadillac. See, so all the Big 3
have these Euro entities that are involved in motorsport and also involved
in Winston Cup.
Now it gets better, as the story discusses a NASCAR move to cut motors to 5
liters to hold down speeds on its fastest tracks, which falls into the M-B
hands nicely. But M-B does not have a pushrod engine. No problemo. Turn to
Ilmore, which built the Indy engine, and comment that a pushrod conversion
of the 4-cam Indy engine was a reasonable variant. It even discussed in some
technical detail how that would be accomplished, with computer testing
revealing horsepower in the 700 to 720 range. Transmissions from Penske
South. Michelin's Greenville, SC facility developing tires. Junior Johnson
and Jake Elder mentioned as possible owners. A new facility being built near
Ray Evernham's Dodge shop. Dave Marcis and Darrell Waltrip to do some of the
development driving (Marcis still a valued IROC development driver, Waltrip
just retired). Michael Schumacher said to be curiously interested, after
seeing the massive crowd at Indy (but first, Schuey says, he has to beat
Prost's record of 51 Grand Prix wins).
The detail, the name-dropping, carry you right through the potential sponsor
list including Mercedes-Benz Credit Corp and Freightliner, plus M-B sponsors
ranging from DeBeers Diamonds to Hair Club for Men, and then... Happy April
Fool's Day. It had me right to the last paragraph! :-D
--Rocky
-----Original Message-----
From: Ayer, John K <John.Ayer@PSS.Boeing.com>
To: 'team.net' <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Monday, April 02, 2001 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: Sometimes they just jump into the boat...
>Ain't it the truth... :)
>
>And the EWEie (Say you-wee) for best instantaneous fall into a LirpaLoof
trap goes to Chris H. for taking the bait in less time than it took most of
us to even read Roger's post (10 min 40 sec)...
>
>First Runner Up, Mike Hood, was a distant 13.5 minutes back.
>
>Special Mention goes to MD Fool, because I can't even tell if he was
serious... :)
>
>(Other worthy WWW stunt: Someone slipped a WRX discussion forum onto the
VW-Vortex bulletin board. A Masterful Hack, or an inside job? who knows...)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 21:27:30 -0500
>From: "Chris Hammond" <pylon@pylon.cc>
>
>Roger,
>What is your proof ...
>
>The link to the petition doesn't work. What is the petition going to do?
>Make them not release the movie?
>
>- -Chris Hammond
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 21:51:34 -0500
>From: "Mike Hood" <mhood@busprod.com>
>
>it's www.thefastandthefurious.com
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 06:35:42 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Meatier Driving Fool <ford_sucks_1@yahoo.com>
>
>Man talk about Paranoid old Farts!!!!!!! Just cause
>you see some Guys under the age of 35 hanging out its
>a "Gang". ...
>Flame all you want now.
|