Steve Parker, Motoring Journalist

PLANES CRASH; MORE LOSS FOR KALITTA FAMILY, AND CALLS FOR FAA ACTION

(Doug Kalitta, cousin of Scott Kalitta, takes-on the traditional 1/4-mile-long race course in a Top Fuel NHRA race car, an 8,000-horsepower monster which can cover the 1,320 foot track at over 320 miles per hour and in less than 4.5 seconds).

Incredibly, bad news keeps coming for the Kalitta family. Drag racer Scott Kalitta died on June 22, killed when his Funny Car exploded and crashed into a retaining wall at an estimated speed of over 200-miles-per-hour during the National Hot Rod Association's annual event at Englishtown, New Jersey's Raceway Park. Almost a month before his death, one of the B747 freighters owned by his father's charter company, Kalitta Air, broke into pieces on a taxiway in Belgium. Now the news is worse for Kalitta Air, with another B747 crashing this past weekend in Colombia, killing two people on the ground. And another huge jet freighter, not one of Kalitta's, crashed in Mexico this past weekend, also, but all three planes have something in common, something which might lead to answers for all of these air accidents.

Three different airplanes owned by two different private companies. Two crash, one in Colombia, another in Mexico, and one falls apart, literally, on a European airport taxiway, all in the span of less than two months. These are huge jet freighters, B747s and a DC-9-15 which regularly fly the globe, carrying everything from flowers to car parts to soldiers, weaponry and secret diplomatic materiel and, possibly, more dangerous items, such as radioactive waste. In fact, the US announced just this past week that the moving of 550 metric tons of radioactive, enhanced yellow cake uranium from Iraq to Canada has been completed --- and on one leg of that trip, aircraft were used to fly this sinister payload, though officials say military, not privately-owned, planes were used. (Scott Kalitta in his Funny Car; these cars are often both faster and quicker than their Top Fuel relations).

Here's what all three privately-owned freighters had in common: They were all based at an  industrial airport just outside Detroit called Willow Run Airport. Located between Ypsilanti and Belleville, Michigan, the Willow Run Plant was built during World War II by Ford Motor Company for production of B-24 Liberator aircraft. The site of the plant was a farm owned by Henry Ford. Ford, like virtually all of the United States' industrial companies, directed its manufacturing output during World War II for Allied war production. The firm developed the Willow Run site to include an airfield and aircraft assembly facility. At its peak, in August 1944, Willow Run produced 428 B-24 aircraft, or almost 14 planes for each calendar day.

The airfield continues to operate as Willow Run Airport to this day. After the war, ownership of the assembly plant passed to Kaiser Motors and then to General Motors, which still owns and operates part of the facility. The airfield is primarily used by cargo, charter, private and corporate general aviation aircraft. When the government "gave" the plant to Henry Kaiser following WW II, he assumed ownership for a king's ransom price of $1.00. The area around the airport is dotted with car- and parts-making operations and other heavy equipment manufacturers, both in the US and nearby Canada (which is, interestingly, actually south of Detroit).

We think the Federal Aviation Administration has some very serious questions to ask about the maintenance facilities and the people working at them at Willow Run.

On June 22nd, the NHRA's Kalitta family suffered tragedy of the worst kind with the death of second-generation drag racer Scott Kalitta, The Kalitta family patriarch, Connie, was one of the sport's first champions who worked hard to help popularize professional drag racing nationally and worldwide. (One of Kalitta Air's 18 B747 freighters lies in pieces after breaking apart while awaiting take-off at a Brussels, Belgium Airport on May 25, 2008).

But there have been two other tragedies which befell the Kalitta family and others, just before and after Scott's death. And they involve sadly, unfortunate deaths.

The family business, Kalitta Air, is a Michigan Limited Liability Company owned 100% by Conrad "Connie" Kalitta. Kalitta Air began service in November 2000 with three Boeing 747 aircraft and the fleet has grown to a present total of eighteen B747 freighters. Capable of air express delivery of virtually any type of freight, the company provides scheduled or on-demand charter service for customers in the United States and around the world.

Click below for more on these events and what some think might possibly be a cause.

NHRA SHORTENS RACES TO 1,000' --- IS THE 1/4-MILE GONE?

Following the death of two Funny Car drivers and the near-crippling of the sport's most-popular figure in just over a one-year period, the National Hot Rod Association has determined that shortening the traditional length of drag racing's 1/4-mile track is one answer to these troubling problems.

Is racing made safer by making the race track shorter?

If most of the serious crashes in the Indy 500 are found, after study, to occur in the final 10% of the race, or the last 50 miles, does that mean running the Indy 450 every Memorial Day weekend would result in fewer serious, injurious and even deadly wrecks? Or maybe changing the length of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the world's first-ever purpose-built auto racing track, from 2.5 to, say, 1.5-miles would make for safer events and a better show for the fans. (Scott Kalitta's Funny Car leaves the line for a 1/4-mile drag race; Below, Scott's cousin Doug Kalitta in his Top Fuel racer).

These are just some of the questions, both serious and foolish, which the National Hot Rod Association, NHRA, is going to have to publicly answer as they have, in one fell swoop, changed the sport in a way some thought improbable, if not impossible.

Between March, 2007 and today, NHRA saw an over $120 million purchase offer for much of the organization fall through at the last minute, a driver on John Force's Funny Car race team, Eric Medlen, was killed in a testing session and Force himself, drag racing's best-known and most popular driver, was nearly killed in a racing wreck which has left him with injuries he'll carry through his lifetime. And Scott Kalitta, a member of one of the founding families of the sport, died in yet another Funny Car accident. The popular sport now finds itself in a bind: NASCAR, following the death on live television of its most important driver, Dale Earnhardt, in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500, went on a crusade to develop safer cars and equipment for its drivers, so, must NHRA go a similar route?

In the wake of the death of long-time NHRA star racer Scott Kalitta at Englishtown, New Jersey on June 22, NHRA has made a surprising decision which on one hand seems reasonable enough, but on the other --- is going to stir-up strong emotions on every side of the issue. And there are at least two sides to every issue in auto racing.

The 57-year old sanctioning body has unilaterally decided to shorten the races in the sport's two fastest professional classes, Top Fuel and Funny Car, from the traditional 1/4-mile, or 1,320', to 1,000' even. The reasoning can be found below in NHRA's official notification and statement on this change, what most fans, racers and observers would probably call the single biggest change in the history of professional drag racing. (Ashley Force's Funny Car seen from above; Below, Angie McBride pilots a Pro Stock motorcycle).

Only those two classes of NHRA race cars use nitromethane and other toxic, highly-explosive chemicals as fuel, producing incredible speed from the cars and an in-person experience as visceral as, some say, being on-scene for the 1960s-era Saturn 5 rocket launch of an Apollo moon rocket. Top Fuel cars are known to some as rail dragsters; a long, low body with small bicycle-like tires up front, the driver to the rear and the massive engine behind. Funny Cars are basically the same as Top Fuel racers, but with fiberglass and carbon fiber bodies on top of them to give something of an appearance of a road-going car. NHRA's fans love the Top Fuel cars; NHRA sponsors love the Funny Cars (because they have more space for their corporate logos and names).

Their engines make somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 horsepower, and that's only an estimate because there's no way of measuring such high horsepower figures from a V8 engine, no engine or chassis dynomometer built for the job. Seeing an NHRA event in person is something not easily forgotten; the chemicals used in the fuels sting the eyes, nose and throat and the engines, when fired, suck the breath right out of your lungs. A visit to the races creates either a lifelong fan or a person feeling as if they're witnessing the end of the world. And Top Fuel and Funny Car races are over barely 5 seconds after they've begun with the cars now regularly hitting speeds over 300 miles per hour.

Will changing the length of the races, in reality adding another 320' to the run-off, or slow down, area  allowed the cars in both lanes, solve whatever NHRA perceives to be the "problem?" With the investigation into the Kalitta crash and his death still near its beginning, with very few hard facts known and at least two organizations, the NHRA itself and the New Jersey State Police conducting their own inquiries, why make drastic changes to the sport before the facts are in hand? But, on the other hand, if those in the NHRA hierarchy have considered tracks with too-short run-off areas as being a systemic problem throughout the sport, why have they waited until the death of a favorite driver to make the change?

For the NHRA's statement on the topic and other opinions on these sudden and surprising changes to the sport, click below.

HOW NHRA's $120-MILLION SALE FELL THROUGH

In mid-2007, things were looking up for the National Hot Rod Association, the NHRA, for over 50 years the nation's premier promoter and sanctioning body for amateur and professional drag racing. HD Acquisition Partners seemed a money-flush suitor, and described themselves thusly on their website: "HD Partners Acquisition Corporation is a special purpose acquisition company formed in 2005 for the purpose of effecting merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition or other similar business combination, with one or more domestic or international operating businesses, in the media, entertainment or telecommunications industries." HD Partners Chairman Eddy Hartenstein, founder of DirecTV, led the charge on buying NHRA. (Angie McBride leaves the line on a Pro Stock Motorcycle, below, Ashley Force is a top Funny Car driver; NHRA has always welcomed women in the sport as fans, team members, owners, sponsors and racers, well-ahead of all other motorsports in the US).

And this group was offering around $120 million for the NHRA, lock, stock and Wally Trophies. Though there was a lot of snickering by long-time NHRA followers and some of the sport's more savvy businesspeople, feeling that HD was getting away with buying NHRA for much less than it was worth, as things worked out, everyone, in a sense, became a loser.

In January, 2008, months after HD's purchase of NHRA had been trumpeted worldwide while fans and participants hoped for the best, HD Partners decided against the deal, and in fact, in April of this year, HD Acquisition Partners was itself dissolved, liquidated, they were, as Mel Brooks might have said, ka-put.

Bruton Smith, a wealthy and successful drag racing strip and NASCAR track owner and promoter, might be waiting in the wings to make a new attempt to take over NHRA.

The episode left NHRA and its top officers looking foolish, to say the least, with the final drama happening just days before the running of NHRA's annual season-opener, the Winternationals, at Pomona, CA. Quietly, though, many of the sports' biggest promoters and sponsors and racers were happy with the outcome, glad with NHRA continuing as the sport's biggest sanctioning body. And all involved knew that if another buyer was to be found, $120 million would be the minimum, the starting bid, as it were.

Here's how Jim Peltz in the LOS ANGELES TIMES wrote about it in February of this year:

“I felt like someone punched me in the stomach,” NHRA driver Ron Capps said shortly after shareholders  of HD Partners Acquisition Corp. rejected the deal. HD Partners executives did not comment on the failed deal. The Santa Monica company would have paid $121 million for NHRA’s Glendora headquarters building, four race tracks and its Powerade Drag Racing Series. NHRA planned to use the money to finance its popular amateur racing program, and HD Partners hoped to run the Powerade series as a for-profit business.

Some drag racing industry insiders believe that the deal fell apart because of the troubled financial markets. Others suspect that savvy investors were leery of investing in a lesser-known racing circuit that lagged far behind the popular NASCAR series.

“I think the real bean counters on Wall Street looked at [HD Partners] and said, ‘What are you thinking?’ ” said Jeff Burk, publisher of DragRacingOnline.com. “I think they started to wonder, ‘Where’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?’ ”

Longtime drivers and team owners were stunned last May (2007) when NHRA announced plans to sell most of its assets, including its pro racing circuit. “In years past, the NHRA said that selling anything was pretty much a closed issue,” said longtime racer and team owner Don Prudhomme. “Then, lo and behold, someone figured out how to sell it.” (End of TIMES story excerpt). (NHRA's top personality, John Force, drives a classic Mustang while Carroll Shelby waves at a Ford Motor Company event; Force has suffered through the death of a team member and his own near-death crash in the past year, and he now says he is committed to leaving a legacy of safety in the sport).

Another factor which might have affected how the NHRA looked to HD was the non-profit status of NHRA. Formed in 1951 as a group dedicated to traffic safety, taking drag racing hot rods off the streets of America and putting it on professionally-run race tracks, the group has remained a non-profit to this day. This status affected how NHRA could handle their own money made from TV rights and other ventures.

When I interviewed several Top Fuel an Funny Car drivers in the 1990s for a British TV show, all of them said that NHRA had, for lack of a better term, put its claws into each of them, trying to control every aspect of the products each driver could sell at their own souvenir trailers at the races or by mail or internet sales. One of them told me that NHRA "allowed" the drivers to "keep" just 10% of monies they made selling items with their own image or name on them, giving 90% to NHRA. "And we signed those contracts if we wanted to race," she said. (Wally Parks, in suit on right, and his wife Barbara, seated, talk to young racing fans about the NHRA at a Los Angeles event in the 1950s).

Many teams and drivers feel that the non-profit status might have made sense when NHRA began, but as  time has gone on, more and more of the organization should have been made a for-profit business. This way, even while its non-profit status could have been sustained, but relegated to a separate foundation, such as the NHRA Museum in Pomona, CA, and other appropriate uses, it would free-up other cash for needed track repairs and other high-cost maintenance jobs. Such a plan might have been able to achieve everything NHRA was trying to do, remaining a sort-of home-town safety-oriented group, but allowing whatever growth the market would bear as far as its four best-known and professional classes (Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel).

In the meantime, though, while some in the NHRA's executive suites might be looking out their Glendora, CA, office windows, looking for Bruton Smith bringing baskets of cash down the smoggy 210 Freeway to lay at their feet, unfortunately NHRA has been going through one of the most tumultuous periods in its 57-year existence, none of it doing with the HD acquisition. With founder Wally Parks having passed away in September, 2007 at age 94 and many of its early personalities long gone from the scene, a fourth generation of well-financed teams and racers are taking the sport into the 21st century, having to deal with serious questions of safety which need to be handled realistically, professionally and transparently.

The fans, racers and sponsors demand and, more importantly, deserve, no less than that.

MOSLEY BEATS HIS NAZI RAP! FIA MEMBERS SAY THEY NEED THEIR MAX!

We really hate to bother you with this, because we are definitely sick of reading about it, but it's news and you need to see this, so here it is: Remember how the FIA, F1 racing's governing board, scheduled a big meeting in Paris of all their member clubs, over 150 of them (just three from the USA),  at the start of June, to ask the member groups if the FIA's long-time president, Max Mosley, should be fired for being video'd with several prostitutes, all of them dressed in Nazi S&M garb and playing to the camera, and having it make all the worldwide media. (Would you buy a used car from this man? He's got 'em! And who-knows-what-else he's got! Chlamydia, maybe? Below, Is that Herve Villachez on the left? No, maybe that Verne Troyer guy who plays Mini Me in that porn film? Wait ... I got it! On the left is Bernie Ecclestone, the world-famous Clown Prince of F1 and the racing world's single greatest embarrassment, and apparently he's on Max Mosley's knee ... Notice how well Mosley talks out of two mouths at the same time! Simply amazing!)

And then we told you how Mosley's father was the leader of the Nazi-themed party in the UK, was jailed during the war, and Hitler had been at his parents' wedding, which had been held at Josef Goebbel's house in Berlin? Remember all that? Well, he WON! Yeah, he friggin' WON! They DIDN'T fire him! All the American member clubs voted to fire Mosley, but he WON. He's retiring anyway but given the chance to act like men, or at least tough women, or even human, the FIA pulled off their knickers and ran off into the brush, waiting to service the next group of idiots (like all of us, for even putting up with shit like this and still paying to see the races). (Below, Mosley's dad is front-and-center in this UK Nazi-party group photo; mom became a Guinness' heiress by marrying and then leaving one of those brewery guys for her very own Nazi, her Oswald).

Now there's the usual crap about Mosley and F1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone having a tiff and a "renegade, breakaway F1" series is being planned by one or both of them and of course don't forget about the "F1 drivers' strike" which gets talked-about this time of year ... And which we've heard every year since we've been following the sport (about 1971) and it's all done to scare the sponsors into re-signing for the next season ... and do it quick, too. And just one more thing: The F1 schedule for 2009 is out and the US GP at Indy is NOT on it. Well, to that we say: Good riddance to No Good Euro Rubbish! They can have their fairy-dancing Nazis ... Click on this line for a NY TIMES review of a book written about Mosley's dear old Nazi mum, and more ...

Here are the numbers from the FIA's big-deal June 3 meeting:The FIA membership voted as follows:

For the motion (to censure Mosley):  103
Against the motion:  55
Abstentions:   7
Invalid votes   4

We guess 103 wasn't enough ... Maybe they need a 2/3s vote to pass anything ...

AND HERE'S A BONUS ... ELVIS COSTELLO'S BACK-HANDED "TRIBUTE" TO MAX MOSLEY'S DAD, "LESS THAN ZERO:"

Less Than Zero

Calling Mister Oswald with the swastika tattoo,
there is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo,
carving "v" for vandal on the guilty boy's head.
When he's had enough of that maybe you'll take him to bed
to teach him he's alive before he wishes he was dead.
Turn up the TV. No one listening will suspect,
even your mother won't detect it,
no your father won't know.
they think that I've got no respect
but everything means less than zero.
Hey, ooh hey, hey, ooh hey.

Oswald and his sister are doing it again.
They've got the finest home movies that you have ever seen.
They've got a thousand variations: every service with a smile.
They're gonna take a little break, and they'll be back after a while.
Well I hear that South America is coming into style.

chorus

A pistol was still smoking, a man lay on the floor.
Mister Oswald said he had an understanding with the law.
He said he heard about a couple living in the USA.
He said they traded in their baby for a Chevrolet.
Let's talk about the future now we've put the past away.

chorus

(Wasn't that fun! No, little boy, it's okay ... Come to your uncle Max! Come on, now ... Be a good boy! Just don't tell your mommy!)

FERRARI ENGINES WILL AGAIN POWER A1GP ... AND FERRARI/FIAT'S CHIEF IS AN EXCEPTIONAL PERSONALITY...

Anything having to do with Ferrari is, well, cool.

More than any other car-maker, Ferrari alone remains above the fray, unwilling to lower or even mediate their own in-house standards due to what "the competition" might be trotting out of their stables. Frankly, they don't care what the competition might do. Which is why Ferrari (like Porsche and Lotus) makes a huge part of their black ink not only from creating and selling some of the world's greatest cars, but also by performing highly-secretive Research and Development for other car-makers, and other companies of all kinds, worldwide. (World's most expensive Ferrari ever sold at auction; this 1961 Ferrari California Spyder sold for $10,894,900, after auction fees, at RM Auction's second annual "Ferrari Leggenda e Passione" auction in Maranello, Italy, in May, 2008, and the buyer was British radio host Chris Evans, so apparently I'm still owed some big bucks by radio stations I've worked for; below, a classic shot of a modern F1 Ferrari).

Understanding this so well, Ferrari's marketing people make certain that be it cell phones, computers, luggage ... anything bearing the Ferrari name is recognized and appreciated worldwide and must be, simply, the best. Ferrari's name alone sets the standard for which all the other fountain pens, watches, shoes or any other product bearing an automotive-related name must reach, not to mention cars. The company was begun by a racer/engineer and through the years perhaps other companies have enjoyed more victories in certain types of racing, but there is no race car driver in the world who would turn-down a position which would put him/her in the cockpit of a Ferrari with the assignment of taking-on the rest of the world.

Which brings up a quick personal tale: Last week, on the Charlie Rose TV program on the US' Public Broadcasting System, the best nightly interview show in the country, his guest for the "entire hour," as Rose likes to emphasize at the start of his show when he feels he indeed has a guest worthy of the show's full 60 minutes, was Luca di Montezemolo, head of both Ferrari (and Ferrari F1 for years) and parent company Fiat, and being seriously discussed as a future Prime Minister of Italy (which would make him about the 123rd-or-so since WWII's end). (Seven-time F1 World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher exults with his boss, Luca di Montezemolo, in an always-fashionable pressed white shirt, after scoring yet another victory ... Schumacher's wearing red ... so tacky!).

Montezemolo is cool. People standing near him get about as close as they ever will to the true essence of cool ... I know because I've had the opportunity to interview him on TV and radio and, yes, sit with him at a meal or two. I've also sat on a folding stage while the Jefferson Starship played a free concert at NYC's Central Park for 300,000 fans and ridden in Secret Service motorcades with presidential candidates ... It might all be in "the book," but take it from me ... I know from cool.

Montezemolo is the kind of guy who, at least whenever I saw him, always had two or three supermodel-types draped not just on his arms, but all over his upper body, sometimes impeding his forward motion, yet he waxes romantically, and quite believably, about his wife and family when asked about his personal life. Of course I witnessed all this in the US, and not Italy. And this is no doubt part of the great Italian tradition of every local Catholic priest in every village of the nation having a mistress, and everyone knowing about it and not caring one wit. Not a terrible way to run a country, especially one that holds within it, as a separate entity, the Vatican. Our own American christianists could learn a thing or two. (It's good to be the boss. Especially when you're the boss of Ferrari. Here, introducing a new model, of Ferrari, we mean, Montezemolo is seen behind the wheel, entertaining supermodel Dji Dieng and probably making dinner plans for later that evening ... Can you IMAGINE the cachet of an opening line like, "Hey, babe ... I'm the head of Formula One racing for Ferrari, president of Ferrari and chairman of Fiat ... So, ah, what is it you do? And who's that jerk you walked in with?").

Here's how Wikipedia describes him: Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (born August 31, 1947) is an Italian  businessman with an estimated net worth of 400 million dollars, president of Ferrari and chairman of FIAT; he was also president of Italian Confindustria from 2004 to 2008 and of FIEG. He cames from an old aristocratic family of Piedmont, and he's related to Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, who became a cardinal in 2006.

I'm guessing this means a cardinal of the Catholic Church, and not a member of the baseball team. And this guy is just seven years older than me ... and maybe you, too. How's THAT make ya feel, buddy?

When I had him on live TV once in Los Angeles, we displayed and discussed a Ferrari which was making an anniversary "Round the World" trip to demonstrate the brand's reliability and dependability. I even got to "autograph" the car with a marking pen, as did a few score other journos worldwide, and that car is somewhere in the Ferrari Museum, and one day I will see it.

When I asked Montezemolo about the car's audio system, which the Ferrari media kit was making a big deal out of, Montezemolo said, "Who needs-a de radio? In'a Ferrari, de engine make-a da music!"

He cooled me right out of the car. I promised him I'd never forget that point. And I won't; be there when I die and I'll prove it.

And on Charlie Rose's TV show, he did the same to his host, cooling him for an hour. I didn't know if Rose wanted to ask him another question or take him out on a "night on the town" in NYC. He looks almost exactly as he did the last time I spoke with him, about 8 years ago, and appeared to have added no weight to his frame, which means he still weighs about 80 pounds, wet. It's the $5,000 hand-made Italian suits which fill him out in photos, apparently.

Click below for the REAL Ferrari news about their 2008/2009 season participation as official engine supplier in the great, still-new A1 Grand Prix series ...

HOW THEY DO IT ON THE 1/4 IN THE OZ ...

Drag racing is definitely not limited to America. My old friend Jim "Godfather of the Pontiac GTO" Wangers has been to Australia, of all places, two or three times, all-expenses paid, just to hang with the street racing crowd, share his stories and visit a track or two. And he always comes back to the US amazed at how many Goats are down-under, modified to RIGHT-HAND drive, which is the law there ... No right hand drive, no registration allowed in Oz.  (Toyota's TRD Aurion Pro-FX entry makes some smoke Down Under).

And Wangers has the stories; they began, sort-of officially, when he was a kid and had a photo taken by a newspaper shooter of him "driving" the first Oldsmobile with the Hydra-Matic automatic transmission (a US industry first), all at the 1938 Chicago Auto Show, even then one of the world's biggest. (A magazine ad for the GTO Judge and, lower, a nice example of Tri-Power, 3 two-barrel Rochester carburetors atop Pontiac's 1964 389 cubic inch V8 ... That's about 6.374 liters ... We'll use any excuse to show cool GTO photos; the "new" and already-gone-from-the-US-market 2004 Pontiac GTO was actually from Australia, where it's known as the Holden Monaro, and GM's Bob Lutz thought it'd be a really great idea to export it to the US ... Keep on dreamin', Bob-o!).

So we're happy to present this information about Toyota's Aurion at an Australia test session blowing the doors off, so to speak, the competition. The Aurion is essentially a seventh-generation Camry with revised front- and rear-end treatments, along with some interior changes. The Camry-based Aurion is also sold in the majority of East and Southeast Asia as the Toyota Camry, with the original version of the Camry sold alongside the Aurion in the Middle East and Australasia; and in those last two markets, the car replaced the Avalon model, which can trace its roots back to the early 1990s (and you thought selling cars in different countries was an easy gig, huh?). Avalon is also built and sold in the US and is essentially a Camry with about four more inches of legroom for rear seat passengers, and is still what we've always called "the best Lexus you can get for the money".

The following release comes from Tokyo and Japan's Toyota PR staff:

THE ULTIMATE TRD AURION

Toyota unveiled the TRD Aurion Pro-Factory Xtreme (Pro-FX) drag car at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland today ahead of its debut outing at the biggest event in Australian drag racing, the 2008 Winter nationals.

Run by former Australian champion Tony Wedlock and his Ultimate Motorsport team, the TRD Aurion Pro- FX has a top speed of more than 350km/h (about 220-mph).

Powered by a turbocharged six-cylinder Toyota engine, the TRD Aurion Pro-FX produces 1300kW (about 1,750 horsepower, we think) and launches from 0-100km/h (0 to 62-mph) in less than one second (and that conversion we're pretty darn sure of).

Wedlock will debut the car at this weekend's Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Winternationals - the headline event of the 2008 Australian season.

Toyota Australia motorsport manager Todd Connolly said the TRD Aurion Pro-FX perfectly complemented Toyota Australia's new range of performance-bred TRD-branded road cars.

"Toyota is synonymous with quality, durability and reliability, while TRD has added style, passion and performance to our line-up," Connolly said.

"Today's unveiling of the Ultimate Motorsport TRD Aurion Pro-FX takes us to a whole new level - this car has performance and excitement by the bucket-load.

"We are excited to have Tony Wedlock and the Ultimate Motorsport TRD Aurion Pro-FX spearheading our new drag racing program."  (Photo - We have no idea who these two guys are; we guess they're the ones named in the release).

Wedlock (Ed. note - Interesting name, eh?), a former Australian Pro Stock Champion, said the car has been designed and built specifically to run in the new Pro-Factory Xtreme (Pro-FX) category, a class aimed at high-performance six-cylinder vehicles.

The experienced national champion said he was looking forward to debuting the TRD Aurion Pro-FX at Australian drag racing's biggest event.

"We are eager to show that as well as good looks, our Ultimate Motorsports TRD Aurion Pro-FX has performance to match," Wedlock said.

"We are looking to push the performance envelope this weekend."

To celebrate the launch of the TRD Aurion Pro-FX, Willowbank is holding the Toyota Drag Racing Legends Race for Charity that will see four legends of the sport face-off in TRD Aurion road cars.

Run over two heats and a final, the event will showcase the credentials of the TRD Aurion over the quarter-mile, while also raising money for the winner's chosen charity. (End Toyota press release).

Click below for more on the Toyota TRD Aurion ...

FLYWHEELS ON 2009 FORMULA 1 RACE CARS ... AND SOON YOUR CAR, TOO

You know what a flywheel is?

Remember those little metal toy cars which you'd rub against the floor, wheels down, then put them back on the floor and they'd take off, aimed for the nearest wall or your big brother's sneakers? Well, a flywheel inside that toy car made all that fun possible, and without any batteries.

Flywheels have been used in automatic transmissions since they were first mass-produced (started by Oldsmobile with their Hydra-Matic Drive transmission, displayed to the public at the 1938 Chicago World's Fair and they went on-sale in 1940). (Photo - Sebastien Bourdais in the F1 season-opener in Australia).

Flywheels are mechanical energy storage devices, much as batteries are electronic energy storage devices. Rechargeable batteries allow us to put energy into the battery and then access it at a later time, when it's needed.

A flywheel is even easier to understand; basically, it's a wind-able spring which, when turned in one direction, stores energy. When the operator desires (or when an automatic mechanism of some sort calls for it), this energy can be accessed as the wound-spring unwinds. (Photo - Flywheel energy storage device being developed by Xtrac for F1 and possible street car use by Jaguar).

Some of you might remember winding the stem on your wristwatch ... same principle. As it was wound, energy was stored by a flywheel inside the watch, and it was dissipated at a steady, pre-determined rate to operate the watch's time-keeping mechanism, which was displayed by hands on the watch face.

And starting next season, Formula 1, no less, the Most Holy of Holies when it comes to motor racing (just ask them) will be allowing kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) on F1 race cars.

Transmission technology specialist Xtrac, located in Indianapolis, IN, says the flywheel KERS systems currently being developed for Formula One could be applied to road vehicles in a number of ways.

Xtrac forms part of a consortium supported by the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board, which recently announced funding of £23 million for 16 innovative low carbon vehicle development projects. (Photo - Two-time F1 World Driving Champion Fernando Alonso in his Renault).

The flywheel hybrid project will involve the design and development of a mechanical KERS system for use in a premium segment passenger car as an alternative solution to other hybrid systems and to prove its effectiveness and viability for production.

Jaguar is leading the project, which will be carried out by a consortium made up of Flybrid Systems, Ford, Prodrive, Ricardo, Torotrak and Xtrac.

F1 says on their website, "KERS technology stores kinetic energy generated under braking that would otherwise be dissipated. Williams (F1 team, used as an example) is exploring a number of energy storage options, with the Williams Hybrid Power system based on a flywheel rotating at speeds of up to 100,000-rpm that would capture this energy for later release".

100,000-rpm? Well, when F1 cars carried turbochargers, they spun at speeds estimated to be over 150,000 revolutions per minute, so fast-spinning mechanical parts are nothing new to the sport. Heck, today's F1 car engines idle at 10,000-rpm and run best in a powerband between 19,000- and 21,000-rpm. (Artwork - Flybrid System diagram of a flywheel device fitted into a typical F1 drive system).

You might have noted that the KERS F1 systems will be "wound" by the "kinetic energy generated under braking that would otherwise be dissipated". Today's gasoline/hybrid cars and trucks, and other high-mileage vehicles, such as those using hydrogen fuel cells, do much the same thing, instead storing that energy generated under braking (mostly heat) in the hybrid system's batteries.

F1 rules now call for the sport to put an emphasis on various hybrid technologies between the 2009 and 2013 seasons; by the time 2014 rolls along we might all be using other energy-saving and mileage-improving gadgets in our new cars which have been optimized for passenger car use by F1 race cars.

NASCAR SUED FOR DISCRIMINATION --- YET AGAIN

Sports, like so many things done as a "group" in society, depends very much, in fact, almost entirely, on the "atmosphere" which is created by those in positions of authority. That's why there has been so much consternation, and rightly so, about the NBA referee who was apparently "bought", and the same with the steroid scandal in baseball; the very people involved in it don't "get" it. They don't understand why their use of these chemicals, many of which can kill you if abused, goes against everything we're told as youngsters in this country: That baseball is sacrosanct and that the Hall of Fame is Hallowed Ground (even if the sport's biggest racist, "Cap" Anson, is enshrined there). But, you get the idea; we ALL get the idea. (Photo - NASCAR's Hall of Fame being built in Charlotte, NC).

That's why the powers-that-be in NASCAR are so concerned about a lawsuit filed not by an angry fan, not by someone who felt they didn't get "their" chance at being a driver and not filed by a person who wanted a job and didn't get one.

No, this lawsuit is filed by a former NASCAR employee who says she "was subjected to racial and sexual discrimination in her two years as an employee" of NASCAR.

This is not the first such suit filed against NASCAR. Last year, an employee of one race team, an African American, filed a lawsuit saying that white members of his own team had "joked" with him about the Ku Klux Klan and had even "dressed-up" in white robes and engaged in other disgusting, stupid behavior aimed at their fellow team employee. Honestly, we don't know what happened with that lawsuit, but this time around, the complainant being a former NASCAR employee, not a team member or a worker for a third-party vendor, there might be more public notice.

Here's the newswire story on the topic:

"A former racing official has sued NASCAR, saying she was subjected to racial and sexual discrimination in her two years as an employee.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists 23 incidents of sexual harassment and 34 incidents of racial and gender discrimination beginning in January 2005 and ending when she was fired in October 2007.

Mauricia Grant, 32, who is black, said in an interview that co-workers called her by racially insensitive nicknames and that male colleagues made sexual advances. She is seeking $225 million. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said NASCAR had yet to review the suit." (Photo - Every armed service of the US, our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard spend many, many millions on the sport ... And all that money comes from where? Our taxes, which come from ... ALL of us).

Here's the same old problem, yet again, for NASCAR: In their drive to become a true national sport, not just a regional sport which occasionally goes out of their "home territory," NASCAR has not done nearly enough to integrate their sport to the point where Americans in general will respect the organization as they do the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NFL, NHL, etc.

Which is why we said what we did about "groups" at the start of this posting. The leaders of any group create the atmosphere which pervades that organization, no matter if it's a sport, a private company or even a nation.

NASCAR can go on and on about their Drive for Diversity and their Diversity Internship Program and other in-house efforts they've made, they say, to open the sport to all Americans at every level of NASCAR, from fans to drivers to officials to executives. But the result is yet to be seen on the tracks, in the grandstands nor in the sport's executive suites. The sport's much-promoted Diversity Internship Program which began in 2000 has seen only 150 students go through it. That's about 20 a year; a shockingly low number for any organization which claims to be doing all within their power to promote their sport in and for every strata of our society.

In the past few years, NASCAR has been turned-down in New York City, the Portland and Seattle areas and elsewhere outside of the sport's traditional Southeast stronghold in their attempts to build new race tracks. Apparently, NASCAR officials do not see at least one of the roots of these continual refusals; that NASCAR, even with all its success, is still considered by many, maybe most Americans to be a rowdy, red-neck sport which revels in and eagerly promotes the boot-legging tradition where the sport supposedly began. The sport also continues to allow the use of "rebel" flags at their events; taking a hard-line stance against that one thing alone would go a long way to helping NASCAR rebut their "Johnny Reb" image. Strangely, and a bit off-topic, NASCAR has no alcohol- or drug-screening programs within the sport and in fact has come out publicly against implementing them, even in the face of a NASCAR driver admitting to being high on heroin DURING a race last year. (Photo - NASCAR's roots are in boot-legged liquor, and the "hopped-up" cars which boot-leggers built to outrun federal revenue agents; these days, the sport welcomes with wide-open arms hard-liquor sponsorships, in a sport aimed as much at children as anyone else).

How long is this going to take them? Some question whether NASCAR, making plenty of money for everyone involved, even cares about this facet of their sport; perhaps some concerned Americans should take another look at doing business with the many companies which spend millions of dollars, dollars made from every American, on the sport.

We'll watch this case closely and report its conclusions to you.

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AUDI USING BIODIESEL FUEL AT LEMANS

When a lot of people think of "biodiesel," what comes to their mind's eye is a diesel-engined 1970s-era Volkswagen camper/van which spends each night being driven to fast food outlets so the VW owner can empty all the used cooking oil into barrels, take it home, and mix-up another batch of biodiesel for use the next day. (Photo - Audi has built a concept using their R8 sports car equipped with their V12 turbo-diesel racing engine; it's named "R8 V12 TDI Concept").

That image is about to change, and in a big way. Audi has announced they will be using biodiesel as a portion of the fuel mixture to be used in their R10 race cars at the upcoming LeMans endurance race. (Photo - Audi's turbo-diesel R10 dominated and won the 2007 Sebring 12 Hour race).

With the sports car endurance racing season about to get underway the weekend of June 14th with the '24 Hours of LeMans,' Audi, for the first time in two years, has some tough competition. For Peugeot, it was a case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," so Peugeot has developed their own version of the V12, 5.5-liter 650-horsepower turbo-diesel engine which has powered Audi's R10 racers to victories the past two LeMans races in a row.

Actually, Audi has won the previous four LeMans, with their R8 winning in 2004 and '05, using standard racing-grade gasoline fuel, but they startled the world of racing, especially in the USA, by driving diesel-powered cars to victories in both '06 and 2007.

Now Audi reveals another racing "first" ... That their diesel racers at LeMans will be fueled, in part, by biodiesel. No word yet from Peugeot if they'll join Audi in using the biodiesel.

Europeans are already well-aware of diesel's positives; and now, with over 60% of all cars and light trucks sold in Europe already being diesel-powered, Audi and Peugeot, and the other Euro car-makers, are interested in changing the mind-set of American car-buyers, trying to convince them that diesel-powered vehicles are not only reliable and fast, they are also superior in many ways to the gasoline-powered cars and trucks Americans have been driving for over 100 years.

New diesel technologies will become available in many showrooms in the US later this summer, with Audi and Volkswagen bringing their 'TDI' diesels and Mercedes-Benz importing their 'Bluetec' diesel cars and trucks to America. Other manufacturers, including the Detroit Three, will follow suit, utilizing all-new technologies developed over the past several years and shared among many, if not most, car-makers. (Photos - Below, this Audi R10 turbo-diesel will run the '24 Hours of Lemans' using, in part, biodiesel fuel; Bottom, the company's R8 V12 TDI Concept as seen from above).

Audi's R10 diesel racers have been successful at Daytona, LeMans, Sebring, Miller Motorsports Park in Utah and elsewhere over the past two years and we hope Peugeot can give them a literal 'run for their money,' because it will result in even better and more-improved diesel vehicles becoming available at dealerships. Racing still does improve the breed.

Mazda won the LeMans event in 1991, the first time a Japanese car-maker had won that august event and the first time a Wankel rotary engine was victorious in that race. For inexplicable reasons, probably due to a lack of money, Mazda did not blow their own horn at all in their marketing or advertising after that amazing victory. Admit it; until you just read it here, you probably didn't know about that victory or forgot about it a long time ago.

Audi has been advertising their victories, especially to the racing fan of America, the 'influencers,' the person on the block who is thought of by their neighbors as the local Car Nut. Their entry into endurance racing with their diesel engines, and Peugeot's, too, has not been cheap. It's costing them certainly tens of millions, and probably a couple of hundred millions, of dollars. Even using the diesel fuel at these many race tracks adds huge costs to the team's budget.

Just using LeMans as an example, Audi had to pay for the construction and underground installation of fuel tanks built just for diesel. The tanks can never be used for any other type of fuel; perhaps this year Audi can share some of those hard costs having to do with the various race tracks with competitor Peugeot.

Here's more information from the Audi press release announcing their team's use of biodiesel:

Click below to read Audi's press release about their first-ever use of biodiesel in a modern-day race car.

'RUSTY' WALLACE: TOYOTA CHEATING?

Well, 'Rusty' Wallace, in the announcers' booth for today's Nationwide Series "Heluva Good! 200," (nice family-sensitive name, that) carried on ESPN2, couldn't hold it in anymore, giving very public voice to the good ol' American xenophobia which can be found in many NASCAR garages, with Wallace almost challenging NASCAR to "level the playing field" between Toyota and its Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge competitors.

It'd been a great week, so far, for NASCAR, with TV ratings for the "Coca-Cola 600" beating-out those for the Indianapolis 500, and Formula 1 refugee Scott Speed, who was the only American driver in F1 in the past several years, winning Dover's "AAA Insurance 200" Craftsman Truck Race in only his sixth start.  (Photos --- Above, Denny Hamlin does burnouts after winning the Dover Nationwide race in his Joe Gobbs Toyota Camry; Below, Rusty Wallace, who apparently has "issues" with Toyota engines).

Maybe it was the three-hour rain delay before starting the Nationwide race making for a longer-than-normal-lunch among the announcers, but with wild cards like Wallace in the booth, you know something silly might be said, you just can't predict when and how bad it will be. But Wallace did deliver, and how, with comments so insipid and uncalled-for that he made NASCAR's semi-official Toyota-hater, Jack Roush, sound like the General Director of the UN.

With fewer than 10 laps left in the Nationwide event at Dover, in the middle of one of Wallace's ongoing, never-ending monologues about how great any team associated with the Wallace name is doing, Wallace broke open his personal dam of anti-Toyota feeling.

With Denny Hamlin leading the race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry, Wallace chimed in with (and we admittedly paraphrase, waiting for the official transcript), "These Toyotas are making so much horsepower ... When you put them on the engine dynos after the race, well, a lot of people just ... I wonder if NASCAR is going to do anything to level the playing field with them" and then his tirade ended, with absolutely no comment or response of any kind from his more experienced, more professional colleagues in the booth. They knew Rusty had just put his foot in it, and they weren't about to help him scrape any of it off. These are the times in "show biz" when you really find out who your friends are --- and the answer is, almost always, "Nobody". (Photo --- Scott Speed exults with crew after winning Dover's Craftsman Truck event in only his sixth start ... By the way, he was driving a Toyota).

We hope NASCAR and Wallace both realize the serious problems with what he said; there are NASCAR announcers who still sound as if they purposely mis-pronounce the Toyota name (something Lee Iacocca used to enjoy doing with both the names "Toyota" and "Mitsubishi").

With Jack Roush, who has used Fords for his teams since dirt was young, having not let-up in his criticism of Toyota from the day they announced their entry into Sprint Cup racing, today's comments by Wallace, heard around the world, question not only if Toyota "plays by the rules," but unnecessarily throws gasoline onto the anti-Japanese fire which already burns too brightly not only in the sport but, judging by visits to NASCAR-oriented blog sites, among too many of its fans, too.

SHE'S THE MAN! DANICA PATRICK WINS "HONDA 300" AT TWIN RING MOTEGI, JAPAN