Don Knowles: "Now"

Don Knowles: "When"

Nobody asked me, but . . .

Dear Don,

I’m not sure how to respond to the news about you being named the recipient of the 2011 Bob Akin Award by the Road Racing Drivers Club.  You’ve managed to parlay a 30-year a career in “government work” at the private sector’s expense by pretending to represent both the Department of Interior and the US Senate Appropriations Committee.  This has provided you with both the interior motives and the funding to support a covert career in motor sports at taxpayer expense.  And I suppose all those “race weekends” never included Fridays.  Oh, I get it . . . in Washington DC, Fridays are just the first day of the weekend.  And if by some chance, a weekend stretched into a Monday, well, one of your annual 85 days of vacation time would suffice.

(more…)

This article was originally published on July 4, 2007 in my “In Gear” column for SouthCoast Auto Today

It could have been Rainier Blue, Verde Green or one of 17 other authentic paint colors that Buick used on its 1941 vehicles. But one handsomely restored ’41 Buick “woodie” station wagon that made its way through the west end of New Bedford last week is finished with a shade the automaker officially described that year as Royal Maroon.

Owned by Yarmouth Port’s Bill Bergstrom, a man who knows the palette of official Buick colors like most people know their children, this mammoth vehicle dubbed the Estate Wagon by Buick wears its spiffy maroon fenders as if they were pants that had just been put on for the first time.

Bill has meticulously restored the car to be as authentic as possible. That’s no small task considering that once you get past the front fenders, the remaining three quarters of the body is made of wood.

That’s right. They don’t call these wagons woodies because of a splash of wood on the dash or side panels. There’s fine northern white ash and laminated mahogany inside and out from the windshield to the tailgate. The entire roof is made of wooden slats running front to rear.

You would think a car like this hardly ever saw pavement or a chance of rain anymore. But Bill has a different mind set about what he wants to enjoy now about this Buick.

“I’ve got all my awards,” he said. “I’m just enjoying driving it now.”

A few dark thunder clouds that loomed nearby to the northwest that night did not send Bill scrambling for cover.

Bill spent 15 years restoring the car. Who’s to argue if he wants to drive it around a bit.

“It’s soon going to turn over 50,000 miles since I restored it,” he said.

Most classic Buick owners will tell you that their cars were made to be driven. Get one on the highway and it’ll go forever.

“I’ve driven it to California,” added Bill.

While traveling cross country may not seem like such a big deal to most of us anymore, there are not too many people who can say they’ve done it in a car like this. There were only 838 of these Buicks made and precious few are still in existence.

The classic woodie station wagon earned its name in two ways. The woodie part is obvious. But the station wagon part is a little more obscure.

According to Bill, the name came about because big wagons like these were the vehicle of choice to make passenger and luggage runs to the train station.

Later in the ’60s, when many of these wagons from the ’40s were nearly ready for the junkyard, surfers scooped them up because they were big enough to load in their surfboards.

If one finds a woodie these days that hasn’t already been restored, chances are it’ll need a lot of care. It’s the rare aficionado like Bill who’s willing to take on the task of bringing one back to its true glory.

“It was just a body and a frame,” explained Bill. “Now it’s just a matter of maintaining it.”

Lift the tailgate on his woodie and you’ll see two buckets. One has spare parts, the other has an assortment of body polishing products.

Autodromo has a collection of the coolest watches we’ve ever seen for the motoring enthusiast. These watches capture the essence of Italian cars and truly are “instruments for motoring”. Check out the collection on their website here.

Here is a link to a blog I originally posted on Blogspot in March, 2009.

richingear

At the time, many of the big automakers seemed headed for destruction. In the two years since, they seem to have come back from the brink. Even so, the central question of the blog remains relevant.

Have a read and let me know what you think. Perhaps it’s time for a followup.

The full text is below:

3/03/09

We’ve come a long way in a short 100 years with the automobile. Out of the minds of a few lone inventors and a handful of small bicycle shops and carriage manufacturers, emerged an automobile industry that has developed into a powerhouse of production and employment whose survival now seems inexorably linked to the success of world economies.
But as the big players in this industry stumble in the current mess of financial woes, one wonders if the playing field could fast be redefined by smaller start-up companies.
If so, will these new players need to make a gigantic leap across the entire last century of industrial growth in one jump? Or, will they be something that functions completely different?
Will Detroit’s automakers need to redefine their manufacturing model? Can corporations so massively industrialized become agile enough to rapidly alter production in the face of sudden changes in demand?
Each year, automakers offer consumers improvements and new features in their product lines. The evolution of the automobile into today’s lineup of vehicles has shown remarkable progress in safety, performance, function and durability.
But there’s a difference between what’s new and what’s really new. A new feature does not fundamentally change the concept of a vehicle; a new model doesn’t necessarily mean a totally new automotive entity. A new design is not a new way of bringing cars to market.
When Honda introduced North America to its first production gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle, the Insight, a decade ago, that was something really new. In both design and means of propulsion, the Insight defied convention. Toyota wasted no time in bringing out its hybrid, the Prius, soon afterwards.
The original two-seater Insight was in production until 2006 and is making its way back to market this April as a 2010 five-passenger model. Meanwhile, Toyota has launched a redesigned Prius that is bigger and more powerful.
American automakers were slow to respond to the hybrid challenge and have been playing catch-up since. At times, there were indications that they might not even embrace the technology at all.
Times have changed.
Ford tiptoed into the hybrid market (the first domestic automaker to do so) with a version of the 2006 Escape SUV. Now, it is set to go gangbusters with the Fusion Hybrid – a more mainstream type of automobile that will be in showrooms this spring. Looks like Ford wants a share of the Toyota Camry Hybrid market.
Bob Bancroft, owner of Ashley Ford in New Bedford, Massachusetts described the new Fusion Hybrid as the highest mileage hybrid made in America – chalking up a mileage rating of 41 mpg.
High-mileage is the new mantra.
“Ford’s CEO (Alan Mulally) has made a promise that every vehicle will get better fuel economy than the vehicle it replaces,” noted Mr. Bancroft. “That’s the big story.”
Good news for sure. Ford is showing good effort to change the perception that big automakers are not making the cars people want.
But big automakers worldwide may soon find their foundations being rattled by an innovative start-up company, Local Motors, located in Wareham, Massachusetts. The company describes itself as “the first disruptive entrant in the US automotive industry in decades.”
Local Motors is not looking to mass produce vehicles. If they can build 2,000 vehicles per year at each of eventually 25 locations, that would please company founder Jay Rogers. It will be proof that their idea of “challenging the paradigm of highly centralized manufacturing, embattled dealerships and dispersed service locations,” is the way to go.
Ultimately, it could change the way consumers buy (and think about buying) their vehicles.
“The world changes faster than we develop cars,” observed Mr. Rogers. “It doesn’t need to be that way.”
He expects to turn heads by demonstrating that there is a different and faster way to get the cars people actually want out to market than the way it is currently being done.
But comparing Local Motors to the small manufacturers at the dawn of the auto age is hardly accurate according to Mr. Rogers. There’s a lot of automotive infrastructure that’s developed and capable of producing high quality, off-the-shelf parts and supplies most of which is now going to non-OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) purchasers. This is what Local Motors plans to tap into instead of manufacturing automotive parts themselves.
“You can stand on the shoulders of product development,” explained Mr. Rogers.
Easy access to everything from engines to brakes is an advantage previous start-ups like the ill-fated DeLorean Motor Company did not have thirty years ago.
Aiming to produce lower-weight vehicles that are designed by an online consensus of car enthusiasts (a internet savvy technique called crowd-sourcing), built from off-the-shelf parts and marketed to specific geographic regions, Local Motors’ business model completely redefines the way cars get to market.
But how will selling 50,000 cars shake up the Detroit automotive establishment that looks at sales in the millions per year.
“We hope to be a tipping point,” said Mr. Rogers.
He’s not alone in that wish.
Dean Kamen, the inventive creator of the Segway personal transporter is busy developing an electric vehicle called the Revolt which utilizes his version of a type of external combustion engine called the Stirling (after Robert Stirling, its 19th century inventor) to provide an electrical assist to the vehicle’s batteries.
Even though Kamen’s DEKA Research & Development Corp. hopes to have a production version of the vehicle on the market in 2 years, his goal may be less that of becoming an automaker and more of becoming the inventor that paves the way for other automakers to use the technology.
The Revolt design is based on the Ford Think which was cancelled in 2002. Ford sold its stock in the company and ultimately the Think brand wound up in Norway and today is producing electric cars for the European market.
Think describes its vehicles as, “emission free and three times as energy efficient as the cars used today.” The Think City model is designed to muster 62 mph with a range of 126 miles on a charge.
But Jim Lutz, president of Alden Buick Pontiac GMC Truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts is not holding out hope that these new smaller companies will last.
“If you look at the history of startups, it’s dismally bad,” he observed. “Even craft businesses have gone by the wayside.”
For him, the car industry, in terms of its business sophistication, ranks just below the aircraft industry. Starting a car-making business from scratch may be just too formidable a challenge to succeed.
“The development costs are so high, they create such a barrier to entry,” he said.
But faced with the economic battering they are experiencing, the big automakers are taking their hour of despair and looking differently at how they do business.
“At GM, they’ve really put all their focus on the electric hybrid,” noted Mr. Lutz referencing the hulky new Yukon Hybrid.
Although the 20 city/20 highway mpg ratings show the vehicle to have improved fuel efficiency, the numbers themselves seem to come up short of startling. But Mr. Lutz put that into perspective given the size of the vehicle and what consumers could expect in this type of vehicle not so long ago.
“It’s a very interesting technological progression to get to mileage unthinkable 20 years ago,” he said. “This is starting to show the advantage of electric power.”
On both ends of the car making spectrum, at big and small companies, long-established businesses and fresh startups, everyone is using the word change in new hopeful tones. That’s good. A change in perspective is at the heart of innovation.

Lotus Motorsport’s IndyCar driver Takuma Sato and 1996 Champ Car winner, Jimmy Vasser have also given extensive feedback having driven the Evora Cup/GT4 at the legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca race circuit (pictured here in the middle of the famed “Corkscrew” turn) in early August 2010, giving Lotus’ newest race car a most diverse and comprehensive pedigree. Image Credit: Lotus Motorsport

Lotus Cup Comes To North America
Popular Lotus Cup Race Series gets a global makeover

Over the years, the Lotus Cup Race Series has developed into one of the most successful enthusiasts race series brands in the world. Races feature capacity grids of Elise, Exige, 2-Eleven and Europa race cars racing and jostling for position. Previously operated exclusively from several countries in Europe and Japan, the Lotus Cup has now expanded considerably to include the USA, UK and Eastern Europe.

For 2011, not only has the Lotus Cup grown in size, the organization of the series has been consolidated. For the first time this year, drivers will now race to one set of rules, regulations and formats in championships around the world including:

• Lotus Cup UK
• Lotus Cup Europe
• Lotus Cup Italy
• Lotus Cup USA (West Coast) • Lotus Cup USA (East Coast)
• Lotus Cup Eastern Europe
• Lotus Cup Japan
(new for 2011 in BOLD)

Director of Lotus Motorsport Claudio Berro said: “Lotus sports car racing is one of the most popular forms of accessible motorsport in the world, both at a spectator and participant level. Now is the time to bring these championships under the Lotus umbrella, to ensure consistent look and feel to the competition. This will have obvious benefits to the current drivers and encourage new racers, ensuring that the cars and components remain good value and the competition retains its accessibility.”

Lotus will provide increased support and investment for these race series and will also ensure that the new Cup Championships retain the community feel and friendliness that an enthusiast based race series needs.

The Lotus Cup Championships will receive a new identity, logos, branding, website and Corporate Identity which are aligned closely to Lotus’ new motorsport strategy and initiatives announced over the last few months and consolidated at the Autosport show last weekend.

The excitement and race heritage design of Lotus will be zipping by at a North American track in 2011 at the following venues!

Lotus Cup USA 2011 – West Coast Schedule
(subject to change)

5th -6th March
Willow Springs Raceway, Rosamond , CA

9th – 10th April
Firebird International Raceway, Pheonix, AZ

28th – 29th May
Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA

25th – 29th June
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, CA

27th – 28th August
Miller Motorsports Park , Salt Lake City, UT

24th – 25th September
Buttonwillow Raceway, Buttonwillow, CA

15th – 16th October
Spring Mountain Raceway, Pahrump, NV

5th – 6th November
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas , NV

—-

Lotus Cup USA 2011 – East Coast Schedule

9th – 10th May
Watkins Glen International Raceway, Watkins Glen, NY

11th – 12th July
Virginia International Raceway, Alton, VA

24th – 25th September
Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham . AL

The only schedule conflict for the inaugural 2011 North American campaign participant would happen on September 24th – 25th. If one wanted to race “bi-coastal”, the campaigner would have to choose between Buttonwillow Raceway, Buttonwillow, California about a two hour drive North on the 5 artery into the central valley from Los Angeles, or the latest rising star dedicated road racing track on the North American racing scene (which hosts the IZOD IndyCar Series – April 10, 2011), Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama.

The series rules may exclude a “bi-coastal” desire to race in all scheduled inaugural Lotus Cup Series races in North America … but this does present an interesting proposition for the first time Lotus Cup Race Series participant.

For further information regarding the Lotus Cup, please contact Lotus Motorsport: motorsport@lotuscars.com

… notes from The EDJE

Nobody asked me, but  . . .

NASA has just published its report on Toyota unintended acceleration.  I haven’t seen the full report, but the summary I have read has a familiar ring.  And I predict that lunatics and skeptics are going to be far more likely to believe the space agency actually landed Americans on the moon than they will be willing to accept NASA’s findings that almost all cases of unintended acceleration, starting in the 1980s with Audi and now two and a half decades later with Toyota, are the result of pedal error.

Whether it was mangling Audi transmissions to induce UA or, more recently, crossing wires that are impossible to cross to cause Toyota engines to zoom out of control, the legal profession’s eagerness to mimic the tactics of Middle Age witch hunters and the willingness of some less than scrupulous engineers to sell-out their profession are appalling.

These lawyers and their engineer /scientist collaborators are running in circles chasing non-existent electronic ghosts.  It’s time to let these ghosts rest in peace.

By the way, what has happened to complaints about unintended acceleration?  Attorneys and pundits might say Toyota has swept them under the carpet.  But they seem to have disappeared about as quickly as they surfaced.  Were they simply an example of mass hysteria, psychosis or hypnosis?  Or maybe the ghosts moved on to a parallel universe, leaving the Los Angeles Times scrambling to fill another black hole with its biased reporting.

Toyota is not completely blameless here.  There were incidents with faulty pedals and throttles sticking as a result of tolerance stack-up under carpets.

But this ain’t rocket science.

And it’s about time to let Toyota get back to doing what it does best: selling high-quality products to appreciative customers around the world.

Nobody asked me, but . . .

Recently, Mazda invited a bunch of enthusiasts to their technical center in Irvine, California to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the MX-5 Miata.  Yup, the Miata is 20 years old . . .

I was Editor in Chief of R&T at the time the car was introduced, and we named that first 1990 Miata as one of the five “World’s Best Cars.”   And the accolades have never stopped. (more…)

Nobody asked me, but  . . .

There’s a new race track in town . . . okay, so it’s not exactly “in town.” But nobody gets permission to build a race track in town these days so let’s just say it’s freeway close.  And just so we don’t get hung up on semantics, let’s say that this new track, Chuckwalla Valley Raceway (CVR), is located in Desert Center, California.  For those of you not familiar with California or the desert, grab a map of the Southwest showing California and Arizona.  Locate Los Angeles and Phoenix and draw a straight line between them.  That line will be Interstate 10.  Chuckwalla Valley Raceway is 175 miles from LA, 200 miles from Phoenix, 208 miles from San Diego and 230 miles from Las Vegas.  This means it is centrally located in the middle of nowhere.  Actually that’s not quite true.  It’s about 25 miles east of Chiraco Summit and far enough away from any urban or suburban development to assure that it will not be crowded out by urban sprawl during at least the next 100 years.  The 1100-acre raceway facility is located right next to a 4200-foot runway (5-23 for you pilots in the audience) with tie downs for 30 aircraft.  So the Roger Penskes and the Rick Hendricks of the racing world have a place to land the smaller of their corporate aircraft. (more…)

JD Power recently released the results of its 2010 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study, and for the second year in a row, Kia tops the list, with Honda and Acrua coming in second and third. In the press release from jdpower.com, Arianne Walker highlighted the strong points of the top finishers: (more…)