Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

PHIL HILL, FIRST AMERICAN "WORLD CHAMPION OF DRIVING," 81

America's first and still only US-born Formula One world champion, Phil Hill, died August 28th in a Salinas, CA, hospital as a result of respiratory problems complicated by Parkinson's disease. He was 81. (Hill driving his Ferrari to victory in the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix, the season he won the World Championship of Driving).

Hill passed on during one of his many annual globe-trotting pilgrimages from his home of over 70 years in Santa Monica, CA. This last trip was to the vintage sports car races  at Laguna Seca Raceway and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the world’s greatest and most spectacular collector car show, both on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Hill occasionally drove in the vintage car races there and was a much-respected Rolls-Royce and Ferrari judge at the Concours for decades.

Hill won the Formula One title for Ferrari in 1961. Other highlights in his career include winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times, the 12 Hours of Sebring three times, the Argentine 1000 Km three times, the Grand Prix of Italy twice and the Belgian Grand Prix. Hill's 1961 season stands as a monument to racing victories of the kind, for many reasons, we will not see again. (Phil Hill and wife Alma in 1975 at the Laguna Seca vintage races; the car is an Alfa-Romeo built in 1937 and is the very car which Hill drove to a win in the then-prestigious Del Monte Trophy Race, near Pebble Beach, in 1951)

Mario Andretti, America's only other Formula One world champion (1978), and who was born in Italy, said,  according to Automotive News: "It's just terrible. One of those things you don't want to see happen. You want him to be around forever. He's one of those individuals who will leave a tremendous void in our way of appreciating the sport."

American driver Dan Gurney, a near-contemporary of Hill, just a few years younger and still building race cars and the Alligator motorcycle, and who also competed overseas, said Hill will always be remembered as America's first Formula One world champion. "I think in his heart, he was always very pleased about that -- justifiably. That's a terrific thing." Gurney remains the only person to have won a Formula One race in a car of his own design, the Eagle (1967, Belgian Grand Prix).

Hill was also a longtime columnist for Road & Track magazine, covering events and people and, of course, cars. Two other notable racing figures from Europe, Paul Frere and Innes Ireland, both of whom pre-deceased Hill, also wrote for that same magazine, and through their writings many American readers had their first taste of F1 racing and other motoring events “on the continent.” They learned they were not alone in their love of motorsports, and there was more to life than the Indy 500 and NASCAR.

Hill was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, MI, as the sole sports cars driver in the inaugural 1989 class.

He began racing cars at an early age, going to England as a Jaguar trainee in 1949 and signing with Enzo Ferrari’s team in 1956. He made his debut in the French Grand Prix at Rheims France in 1958, driving a Maserati.

(Two American racing legends, Jim Hall, creator of the Chaparral race car, left, and Phil Hill taking a break between driving stints at a 1961 event).

Click below for more photos and much more on Phil Hill's amazing and charmed life and career.

$50 BILLION FOR THE DETROIT THREE? YEA OR NAY?

(Barack Obama says "Stop!" the sorrowful state of the Detroit Three!)

The Detroit News reports today (8-27) that long-time US Senator Carl Levin (D - MI) has gone on-record at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, telling reporters there he is working to win passage of a roughly $50 billion package of government-issued loans to assist the Detroit Three automakers. That's right, Fifty Billion Dollars. As the late Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen was purported to have said, "A billion here and a billion there ... Pretty soon you're talking about some serious money."

If the funds are government-issued loans, the Detroit Three would be able to borrow the money at the lowest possible interest rates, something their sub-investment  grade credit standings would not allow in the open market. These direct loans would be payable over 20 years and the government could opt to defer all payments on the loans for five years. The favorable interest rates will save them $100 million on every $1 billion they borrow.

But the day after Levin's talk with reporters, GM's executive in charge of North American product, Bob Lutz, said his company would welcome "loan guarantees," similar to the ones which saved Chrysler in 1979.

I spoke with Jesse Snyder, a long-time reporter and Online Community Editor for Crain's Automotive News weekly, and he told me that there's "a fine haze over the entire question (of whether the funds, if any, would be direct loans or loan guarantees). Levin has proposed $50 billion in direct loans from the government. I think of it as the opening bid."These days, that’s an offer they literally can’t refuse.

The proposal has been backed by Barack Obama. It would cost taxpayers $7.5 billion to guarantee the loans. (Robby Gordon has successfully raced this Hummer off-road truck in endurance events like the Baja 500; Gordon told us that this particular Hummer is worth north of $2 million)

The pain of high gas and diesel prices is most acute at the Detroit Three, but even mighty Toyota is affected. The soaring cost of steel has that company considering raising prices in Japan without a model makeover for the first time in three decades, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday. Speculation has been that Toyota will be forced to announce higher prices in Japan - a move even Toyota acknowledges could be critically damaging for an already sluggish Japanese market. Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has hinted he is waiting for its bigger rival, Toyota, to take the lead to make it easier for others to follow suit.

Jack Hoogendyk, a Michigan state lawmaker from Kalamazoo, and Levin’s Republican competition for his senate seat, supports a program authorized in last year's energy bill which OK'd up to $25 billion in loans to the automakers over five years -- a program that would cost the public $3.75 billion. But Congress has yet to provide any money to actually fund the program and the White House hasn't said if it would back the effort. (Ford just sold-off Jaguar, whose short-lived Formula One team didn't fare much better than its parent company is doing now)

These loans differ from the government help given Chrysler in 1979, when the company seemed destined for bankruptcy. What saved Chrysler was not an infusion of government money, as Levin is now working for, but $1.2 billion in loan guarantees provided by the federal government – so successful was that timely injection of cash that the company paid all their loans back, and early. Because of that success, the program to save Chrysler didn't cost taxpayers a penny.

That kind of luxury doesn’t exist for the Detroit Three today.

Click below for much, much more on a possible $50 billion tax-payer-backed program to save the Detroit Three.

CAR-MAKERS WANT US TO ALL BE "ECODRIVERS" - SO WHAT'S THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN?

If you think car-makers, especially the Detroit Three, aren’t interested in life out here in the real world, rest easy. A press release from a car-maker industry group demonstrates that they are indeed paying attention to the rest of us. While saying little to nothing about the future product they’re trying to design, build and market, they do offer some tips for we poor plebeians in a press release, something they’ve dubbed “EcoDriving.” Among their tips to drivers are knowing which oil to use in your car and don’t tailgate. And no, I’m not kidding. More on EcoDriving later.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) is a trade (read: lobby) association of 10 car and light truck manufacturers including BMW Group, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen. For more information, visit the

Alliance

website at www.autoalliance.org or www.ecodrivingusa.com . (Above, that's the engine for the Chevrolet Corvette, drawn by David Kimball; the latest, supercharged version of this powerplant produces over 600 horsepower. Pretty to look at, but not exactly a high-mileage model; Below, Las Vegas and other resort destinations across the country are seeing drops in their number of visitors, much of it due to high gas prices).

Never heard of the group? Possibly, but oh, you know it's leader.

From 1993 to 1998, Andrew Card (President George W. Bush’s ex-Chief of Staff) was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association(AAMA), the Americans-only car-maker lobbying group whose first, and only members, were Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. So to speak with one voice, and under pressure from overseas car-makers, the AAMA dissolved in December, 1998, then quickly reformed and returned to welcome all car-makers as the AAM.

This week, AAM has announced a new program called EcoDriving. What is EcoDriving? “A comprehensive, nationwide effort to save consumers money at the gas pump, reduce fuel use and cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Click below to read the release on EcoDriving ... and our opinions about it.

DETROIT THREE GO GREEN; NISSAN, TOYOTA TOO

(Bob Lutz intro's the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid concept at an auto show).

We’ve written about the European car-makers being the first to bring the new “clean diesel” technology to the US in another post. Now, a look at the near-future of the Detroit Three and Japan’s two biggest car-makers, Toyota and Nissan.

Ford has announced a new strategy for selling small cars profitably in the United States, relying on improved quality, comfort and new cutting-edge technologies and not so much on trucks. Ford’s small Ka, very popular in Europe, is being shown in US TV spots from Ford. Ford’s all-new 2009 F-series trucks will come to market two months later than planned. Alan Mulally, the executive brought in from Boeing to run Ford, now says the company will remain unprofitable through 2009. Ford has announced a new division to manage the development of cutting-edge electronics technologies in a bid to win over younger car buyers.

Ford also said this week it will sell up to $500 million worth of new shares of stock to buy bonds from Ford Motor Credit. (2008 Jeep Commander).

At privately-held Chrysler, its next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee in 2010 will be a unibody platform with  a new fuel-efficient V6 engine codenamed Phoenix. This makes sense for a great crossover, but serious 4x4 users will balk at the use of unibody technology for the most off-road-worthy vehicle available at a reasonable price. And don't even get me started on the Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot and Dodge Caliber ... All on the same platform, and all sorely needing separate personalities; haven't they learned anything from GM's 30-year experience selling the same cars and trucks under different names? Bulletin: It doesn't work anymore.

Click below for more on the Detroit Three's attempt to Get Green and news from Nissan and Toyota.

Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance This Weekend in Carmel, California

Motoring fans and automobile collectors (mostly the richest ones) from around the world will be converging on the famed 18th Hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Course to inspect some of the world's finest collector cars on Sunday, August 18, 2008, all the while drinking too much champagne and paying exorbitant amounts for a box lunch.

And don't forget to hit the vintage races at the Laguna Seca race track, just a few miles from the Concours itself. It's where the world's vintage racing craze was begun more than 20 years ago, thanks to the pioneering work of Steve Earle and his many (mostly rich) friends.

We'll have complete results from the event soon, so check back with us.  (Download the (18" x 24" Concours' poster by clicking here, right mouse click and "Save As" onto your computer.)

The 58th annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008 at The Lodge at Pebble Beach™, will showcase the historic Italian marque Lancia, Italian super sports car Lamborghini and celebrate the General Motors centennial. The full field of 175 collector cars will also include several special classes.

“Fantastic styling, an impressive race history and innovative engineering are earmarks of Lancia’s more than 100 years of automotive manufacturing,” says Sandra Kasky Button, chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours. “Lamborghini, the ‘bad boy’ from Italy, is less than half the age of Lancia, but the brand has captured the heart of auto connoisseurs worldwide and has ‘A-plus’ collect ability.

“And then there’s GM, the world’s largest auto company. Their history, achievements and multitude of vehicles built during the last century are legendary, so we can only focus on a few highlights. In particular, we’re concentrating on the engineering, styling and forward-thinking of the GM Motorama road show, the striking, high-powered Cadillac V-16, the GM Woodies and GM-powered sports cars.”

Click below for more on the Concours, and cars being shown there this weekend including Lancia, Lamborghini and many important General Motors products on the company's 100th Anniversary.

THE CLEAN DIESELS ARE COMING -- ACTUALLY, THEY'RE ALREADY HERE

Sometimes, it’s the incongruities which make covering the auto industry as interesting and exciting as it is.

For many Americans, maybe the majority of car-buyers, cars coming with a “clean diesel” or a “diesel/electric hybrid” engine might not make sense, at first. But they’re going on sale this summer, and as summer rolls into the traditional new car introductions of the fall (and remember how fun those were?), several Euro car-makers have a good chance of dominating the sales of vehicles with these new clean diesel powerplants.  (Above, Audi has won the 24 Hours of Lemans the past three years with turbodiesel power; two R10 Audis with V12 5.5 liter engines are shown at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Below, That engine, which makes over 600-horsepower, is seen below).

GM’s use of diesels in Oldsmobile from 1977 to 1985, were a low point for the company and their customers. GM thought that using a standard V-8 engine block and  modifying its top end to run on diesel would be a neat trick. Unfortunately it was a terrible failure almost from its start, and GM had to replace a lot of diesel engines with the company’s standard gasoline V-8s.

These new clean diesels have been approved for sale in California, the state with the toughest (and best) emissions laws. Until now, and since October, 1998, diesel engines were essentially banned in cars and light trucks in the state. California accounts for nearly 15% of all car and truck sales in the country, so not being able to sell diesels in California forced all major car-makers to stop selling diesels nationally.

But these new clean diesels, which run correctly only on the low sulfur diesel fuels now available nationally (and more expensive than gasoline), are cleared for registration in all 50 states.

Click below for more on which European models are selling clean diesels in the US.

STURGIS, HARLEY, MV AGUSTA AND THE NEW V-ROD

“Welcome to Sturgis, the City of Riders! Nestled at the base of the northeastern Black Hills in extreme western South Dakota, Sturgis is not only home to the world’s largest motorcycle rally but a growing community with thriving industry and wonderful recreation.”

That’s part of the refreshingly self-serving and predictable greeting on the Sturgis website, www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com.  The mayor of Sturgis, South Dakota, the Honorable Maury LaRue, and his police force, last week welcomed tens of thousands of bikers, hangers-on, TV crews, presidential candidates with Secret Service entourages, and designers and engineers from every major bike-maker in the world on the lookout for that “next big thing” of home-made accessory or add-on which just might become standard in motorcycle-dom. And more than a few engineering-types from car-makers, too.

In 1936, so the story goes, Clarence “Pappy” Hoel purchased an Indian Motorcycle Franchise in Sturgis, SD. That year, the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club was formed. Two years later, the rally begins; The first Sturgis Rally, known as the Black Hills Classic was held on August 14th with a race of 9 participants and a small audience. My, how times have changed …

But what better time to take a look at a great new Harley-Davidson model and let everyone know that the Harley museum is now open on some 20 acres smack in downtown Milwaukee, WI (but bikers already knew that). Get more info on the bike and the museum at www.harley-davidson.com. Before I forget, just another small bit of news: Harley has purchased MV Agusta, makers of bikes so exotic and race-worthy that inexpensive versions of their non-race street versions start at about $25,000.

Click below for more on the new Harley, MV Agusta and the future of that company, now as part of H-D, the Sturgis Rally and more pictures.

IS YOUR CAR'S INTERIOR MAKING YOU SICK?

Ever wondered about that dreary film which builds-up inside the windshield of your car or truck? Not outside, which can be taken care of easily enough; inside.

For years I’ve thought, “Hey, that stuff probably isn’t too good for anyone, whatever the heck it is,” but unfortunately, I didn’t know the half of it. Turns out there’s more to it than that “new car smell,” that there’s a veritable bouillabaisse of toxic fumes being released by the many different plastics and other chemicals used in car interiors. (Above - Automotive assembly lines are dangerous places, with injuries to workers a daily threat; line workers and consumers should be able to feel safe about their work and the cars they buy, Below - It's the interiors we need to worry about, not necessarily the outside of our vehicles).

Folks of a certain age might remember TV ads for a liquid dishwashing soap called Palmolive. In them, a woman is at her hairdresser, getting a manicure. Madge, the manicurist, is regaling this customer with the benefits of Palmolive, and how it's actually good for her hands, as this lady's hand is in a bowl getting, presumbably, softened. The customer asks, incredulous, "Palmolive!?" and Madge the manicurist says, "You're soaking in it!"

Which is a long way of getting to this: That ugly windshield film? We're breathing it!

Now there’s an organization which is measuring these toxins and just released their second annual report on the problem.

The Ecology Center (www.ecocenter.org) describe themselves as a membership-based, nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded by community activists after the country's first Earth Day in 1970, the Ecology Center is now a regional leader that works for a safe and healthy environment where people live, work, and play.

Find out more, and see and download the complete report on car interiors and child car seats at (www.healthycar.org). For our purposes, we’ll focus right now on the autos, and on the child car seat ratings in a future post, but very soon. The reports are fascinating; they've even factored-in mpg-ratings so the the highest grades go to vehicles with both a clean interior and better fuel mileage.

Click below for more on the toxins which are found in car interiors, and a short list of the best and worst vehicles.

NEW PRESIDENTIAL LIMO SPIED!

Now here's something you don't see every day. But our good friends at Automotive News shared this with us on their website Sunday night, and here's their short report: No, this isn't a prop from the new X-Files movie. It's believed to be the next presidential limousine, a camouflaged Caddy that's going through final testing before carrying the next U.S. president on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. It's part Cadillac, part tank; armor-plated doors are about 8 inches thick. And did that exhaust sound like a diesel? Photo credit: CHRIS DOANE FOR BRENDA PRIDDY & CO. (End of Auto News reporting). And please remember to 'click' on the photos to enjoy them in a larger format.

Every car nut is fascinated by these cars because of the pervasive secrecy which necessarily surrounds them. But whoever wins the upcoming election will apparently ride to the White House in a brand-new whip --- no word yet on wheel size, but I'm predicting 32's (with spinners, of course). It appears Cadillac is keeping the coveted White House motor pool contract for at least the immediate future. The bottom line is that Lincoln, which often traded-off with Cadillac for this honor (and large contract and the prestige which comes with it) every few years, simply doesn't have a car suitable to do the work the Secret Service insists on, like having rear-wheel (or even all-wheel) drive and that (possible) diesel engine.

Rumors said Cadillac installed marine engines in these cars, because they can take punishment which would wear-out a gasoline engine. Marine engines get cooled by the water around them, so the development of a huge cooling system would be necessary for a car so equipped. One of the new diesels would make sense, because take-off torque is almost as critical as top-end speed for this baby. And the new diesels are cleaned-up quite a bit so the your country's chief executive driving by won't sound or smell like an idling school bus. Several of these models are kept on stand-by, at least one never far from the fleet of planes at Andrews Air Force base which accompanies the president wherever he or she may travel. It's just one of many large pieces of materiel which gets to a president's location before she or he actually arrives.

And here's a look at the current model, in action:

I've never liked the looks of the new Caddy limos used for this job (although naturally Cadillac is thrilled to see the president getting in and out of one of their cars for several years on end). The car is too tank-like, it appears too top-heavy, a reflection of what the engineers are trying to accomplish: Shoe-horning several tons of comfort and protective equipment into a car which at least looks something like a real-world conveyance. Oh, and it better be bomb-proof, too. Here's a fun thing to try: If you're ever in the area of one of these limos, try to use your cell phone. It won't work. So no one can use a cell phone to trigger any nasty business. I sleep better knowing there are a lot of people much smarter than I who put-together wonders of rolling technology like these cars. One thing, though: the limo and the folks around it don't look too especially "welcoming," do they?

Finally, this must have been a case of Cadillac calling some of the industry's best-known "spy photogs" and saying something to the effect of, "If I were you, I'd be at the test track at 4pm today, with my cameras ..." Photos like these usually don't see public release without permission from those "on high." But if anything changes, we'll let you know.

NASCAR HOLDS ANOTHER EXPENSIVE TIRE TEST, THIS TIME IN MONTREAL

Well, NASCAR, there you go again!

Last week, for the Sprint Cup Allstate Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the racers encountered tire problems for which Goodyear apparently had no answers. Right-side tires were coming apart at an alarming --- and dangerous --- rate, so NASCAR decided to throw a “competition yellow” flag every 10 to 15 laps, turning a race into a parade, decided by 10-lap’s worth of what we used to call a “trophy dash” to determine the winner.

Goodyear has said since the Indy debacle that the weight of the new race car used in Sprint Cup and the fact that, as we said at the time, there are more g-forces than before on the right-side tires, the company is building a “beefed-up” racing tire for next year’s Brickyard 400. I’d guess they’ll use this new tire at all the banked oval race tracks next year, including Daytona and Talladega.

But NASCAR had another trick up their sleeves for the Nationwide Series race last Saturday at Montreal: Rain tires! (Photos - Above, Ron Fellows won the Nationwide event in Montreal, making him the first winner in NASCAR history to win on rain tires, Below, The huge rear wing and large front air dam, seen here on Dale Earnhardt, Jr's Sprint Cup car, are the visual giveaways of the new Sprint "Car of Tomorrow," now the Car of Today).

Grooved tires, or rain tires, were used two previous times in NASCAR, but never in a points-paying race. In  1999, rain tires were used during Craftsman Truck Series practice at Watkins Glen, NY and in a Sprint Cup exhibition race (in the rain) in Japan in 1997.

According to the TV announcers who couldn’t seem to say it enough, it became the first NASCAR race ever run on rain tires, tires developed by the series’ only supplier, Goodyear.

Sometimes, when a company has a monopoly, they’re not as quick to make improvements and updates as they would if there were at least some competition. Let NASCAR call for bids from other tire-makers for next season for all three of their professional series.

Click below for more on NASCAR, Goodyear and the sport's ongoing tire and safety problems.

FIRST US-MADE CHINESE VEHICLE NOW IN PRODUCTION

It's an automotive first, but with the kind of vehicle "below the radar" of most people. It should make headlines, but it won't. The news: the first major captive import vehicle-maker from China has opened its Oklahoma doors and started-up its assembly line.

The Tiger Champ is the first Chinese-designed and engineered vehicle assembled in America meant for US and overseas sales. No doubt it's just the first of many China-sourced cars and trucks made in and for North America.

Today's happenings were reported via a press release suffering from some badly-fractured English, the kind we used to see from what were once, to Americans, exotic companies with names like Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi. (Tiger Truck's Champ will be available with an array of engine choices and four-wheel drive).

On July 31, a Chinese car-maker celebrated with some very American civic officials the first of its vehicles rolling-off an Oklahoma assembly line near the town of Poteau. Tiger Champ is manufactured by Chongqing ChangAn Automobile Co., Ltd. (marketed under the "Chana" brand internationally), China's third largest vehicle-maker. The Oklahoma plant assembles the truck from parts and kits shipped from China; they also say about 50% of the parts used in final assembly will be US-sourced. About 100 employees are working at the company's first US facility.

Tiger Truck, the company's name in the US (www.tigertruck.com) says they hope to eventually offer a wide-range of products available with gas, diesel or electric-drive powertrains. All Tiger vehicles, says the company, meet the stringent CARB/EPA standards and are available powered by 48V or 72V electric motor, EFI gasoline, Caterpillar Diesel or E-85 flex-fuel. 4WD, automatic transmission and A/C are some of the options available.

Click below to read more about the first Chinese vehicle to be assembled in the USA.