Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

INDY 500! COCA-COLA 600! RACING WEEKEND, TOYOTA RECALLS DOMINATE WEEKEND RADIO!

Very special guests this weekend on www.TalkRadioOne.com! Join us Saturday at 11am Pacific /2pm Eastern for THE CAR NUT SHOW and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern for WORLD RACING ROUNDUP on www.TalkRadioOne.com! It's just us and it's all LIVE!

Steve Parker's The Car Nut Show
Saturday starting at 5pm Pacific

It's an all-LA Times weekend for www.TalkRadioOne.com listeners! Special guest: Ken Bensinger, staff writer for the LA Times, who, months ago, broke the original story on Toyota's unintended acceleration and other problems throughout the Toyota and Lexus line. Ken joins us for an exclusive one-on-one with YOU and all Car Nut Show listeners! Please join in! The call-in number is: 213-291-9410.
Lexus ES300 sedans from 2002 to 2006 are the latest problem childs from Toyota

Steve Parker's World Racing Roundup
Sunday starting at 5pm

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! World's best-known race - The Indianapolis 500 at 10am (PST) on ABC! Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, NASCAR's home town, starting at noon (PST). The day before, Saturday, the Nationwide Series at Charlotte, the Tech-Net Auto Service 300 starting at 11am PST on ABC! Very special guest Jim Peltz, motorsports writer for the Los Angeles Times, joins us LIVE from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway! Join us! The call-in number is: 213-291-9410. Join in!
Podcasts of the shows are available one-hour-or-so after the live programs' conclusion. That's this Saturday at 11am Pacific and 2pm Eastern and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern on www.TalkRadioOne.com!
Mario Andretti wins the 1969 Indy 500 and gets the kiss-heard-round-the-world from STP's Andy Granatelli

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• Motorsports
• ABC

FORMULA 1 RETURNS FOR US GRAND PRIX IN 2012!

Purpose-built track in Austin, TX will host from 2012 through 2021; as we predicted, with Tony George out of the way of F1 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, an agreement is finally signed.

Courtesy FORMULA1.COM:

Formula One World Championship Limited and Formula One Administration Limited (together, the F1 Commercial Rights Holder) and Full Throttle Productions, LP, promoter of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™, announce that a historic agreement has been reached for Austin, Texas to serve as the host city of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ for years 2012 through 2021.
Ferrari at speed at 2009's Japan Grand Prix

"We are extremely honoured and proud to reach an agreement with the F1 Commercial Rights Holder. We have been diligently working together for several years to bring this great event to Austin, the State of Texas and back to the United States. All parties involved have a great amount of trust and confidence in each other and are committed to establishing the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ in Austin, Texas as a prestigious global event," stated Tavo Hellmund, Managing Partner of Full Throttle Productions, LP.

Bernie Ecclestone, President and CEO of the Formula One Group stated: "For the first time in the history of Formula One in the United States, a world-class facility will be purpose-built to host the event. It was thirty years ago that the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ was last held on a purpose-built permanent road course circuit in Watkins Glen, NY (1961-1980), which enjoyed great success. Since then, Formula One has been hosted by Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas and Phoenix all on temporary street circuits. Indianapolis joined the ranks of host cities in 2000 when they added a road course inside the famed oval. Lewis Hamilton won the last Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ in 2007, signalling the end to eight years at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This however, will be the first time a facility is constructed from the ground up specifically for Formula One in the US."

From JamesAllenOnF1.com:

"There is a major push to bring the USA under the F1 umbrella. The failure of the USF1 team was an embarrassment, but now it seems that there are efforts to resurrect the idea of an American team and You Tube founder Chad Hurley is still linked with this.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has a better idea, he believes. He said in an interview today that he dreams of a third Ferrari in the stars and stripes colors."

Comments?

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Breaking - Toyota stops sales of 2009, 2010 Lexus LS

In another potential PR nightmare for Toyota, the company has announced that a steering problem has halted sales of their 2009 and 2010 luxury flagships, the LS 460 and the gas/electric hybrid LS 600h.

On Friday, Toyota recalled 11,500 of the cars, including nearly 4,000 in the US. Today, Lexus stopped selling both models.

Toyota, through their Lexus luxury channel, say they have no solution to the problem, an admitted electronics problem that can cause steering wheels to fall out of alignment for a few seconds at a time.

Owners of the two models have been told to park their cars until the company develops a fix, which Toyota says should happen sometime in late June.

According to the Los Angeles Times, which broke the initial unintended acceleration story, owners of the cars -- which have a starting price of about $65,000 for the LS 460 and $108,000 for the hybrid LS 600h -- will be receiving official notice of the recall in the mail next month.
Lexus' LS 400h hybrid sedan starts at $108,000.

The sales stoppage and recall cover cars equipped with the company's variable gear ratio steering system that's an option on the LS 460 and standard on the LS 600h.

Sales stoppages over safety concerns are rare in the auto industry, but in January Toyota ordered dealers to stop selling eight of its best-selling models after reports of unintended acceleration. That sales halt, called because the company had no remedy for the problem, lasted about two weeks.

The Lexus sales stoppage is expected to last longer. Toyota does not have a solution to the Lexus problem, which can cause the steering wheel to get stuck in a turned orientation even though the car is going straight. The steering wheel, however, can still be used to steer the car.

How should Toyota handle this one? They have absolutely blown it so far with their alleged cover-up of the unintended acceleration (UA) problems. The company eventually stopped sales of eight models and recalled some six million cars worldwide for what Toyota said was a sticky throttle cable. Many still insist that the UA trouble stems from an electronics glitch in the company's "drive by wire" system, and several US government agencies and contracted firms are involved in finding an electronics problem.

Now, with an admitted so-far-unfixable steering dilemma which is purely electronic, we say there will, and should, be more pressure on Toyota to stop worrying about their image and focus on finding and fixing these problems.

Are we right? Is Toyota spending more time ducking the truth and not working on unintended acceleration and other problems?

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THREE CAR STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW (AND COMMENT ON)!

Tesla to Downey, CA - Drop dead!

If you're driving through Downey, CA, I wouldn't recommend driving a Tesla. A dream of Downey leaders to re-open an old Apollo spacecraft facility in their city, just south of Los Angeles, where Tesla told the city they wanted to build the cars, has fallen through.

And many in Downey are pissed.

Tesla buys cars from Lotus and ships them to the US where they are retro-fitted with electric motors and batteries for their all-electric sporty car. They have another, larger car planned for next year.
Tesla EV Roadster

Downey was once at the center, like much of Southern California, of American aerospace manufacturing. The city boomed from the '50s through the early '90s when the country's space program lost much of its funding and seemed to lose its own dreams for the future.

So when Tesla and Downey made the announcement recently, after nearly a year of negotiation, that an old space capsule plant would be re-opened for Tesla to build their EVs, a lot of people thought it a good idea. More than 1,000 Downey-area people could be hired in an area which has been hard-hit by the recession.

Downey and Tesla were to sign their agreement last Friday, May 21st, and city leaders were looking forward to the ceremony as an early Christmas - and a sure way to guarantee their re-elections.

Last Wednesday, the civic leaders of Downey were in Sacramento, lobbying for and getting much of the approval and money they needed to lure Tesla to town, retrofit the facility, make changes to historic buildings (space is history in So Cal) and went home happy.

So on Thursday, about 24 hours before the Downey city council was to vote on the final agreement with Tesla, an AP reporter called a councilperson and asked what he thought of a press conference held earlier that day in Sacramento with Tesla officials and Gov. Schwarzenegger.

"What press conference? I thought we were making the announcement together here in Downey, not at Tesla headquarters," thought one councilperson who appeared on the KPRW Santa Monica daily news show "Which Way LA?" hosted by veteran award-winning So Cal newsman Warren Olney. Tesla's Chairman, Product Architect and CEO Elon Musk appeared on the show as well. Both were cordial to each other and the councilperson admitted that from a business standpoint, Toyota had made Tesla the proverbial offer they couldn't refuse.

Tesla had made a stunning announcement - just six weeks after Toyota president Akio Toyoda placed a call to Musk, Tesla announced that Toyota was going to infuse some $50 million into the EV-maker. Teslas are going to be built at a car plant in Fremont, CA (just south of San Francisco), which was shared by Toyota and GM, a plant recently closed down, putting some 5,000 mostly-union workers out of work. The plant, called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between the two auto giants, with Toyota running the plant, making Tacoma trucks and Corollas and GM building Pontiac Vibes there, too.

The plant is a monstrous 5.5 million square feet and fully-equipped with automotive assembly lines. Toyota gets some good press from their investment and plant re-opening (1,000 people may be hired initially) and will learn more about EV technology and maybe share some of their knowledge with Tesla. Elon Musk, is now on the big map as far as mass-produced EVs are concerned and so is California. Toyota might come up with a challenger for the soon-to-be-on-sale Nissan Leaf EV.

The only loser here is Downey and the people there who thought they might be getting new gigs in the green economy. Was it bad faith negotiating on Tesla's part? Or just business? What do you think? When will the first lawsuit from Downey be filed? Things were a lot simpler when Downey was mostly known as the home of Karen and Richard Carpenter.

Los Angeles Times - Toyota does it again

In yesterday's Sunday edition, the lead story on the LA Times' front page was yet another expose' by writer Ken Bensinger about Toyota failing to notify the public about a serious problem. Bensinger has broken much of the big news about the Toyota scandal and we predict a Pulitzer for him and the paper this year.

ROAD TEST - 2010 MAZDA MX-5 MIATA

Believe it or not, there is still a fairly low-priced two-seater with an open top, engine in front and rear wheel drive, a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution and a stick shift transmission.

Mazda's MX-5 Miata is the best-selling sports car in history and more people race their little darlings at autocross and other amateur and professional events than any other car.

And everyone loves a two-seater. It's the best way to avoid driving the relatives around when they visit and you never have to help your friends when they move.

Miata was designed by a team in the company's Irvine, CA offices. Tom Matano, Mark Jordan, Bob Hall, Wu Huang Chin and Koichi Hayashi were in-charge down the 405, engineering and styling the entire car before it went to Hiroshima, Japan for final tune-ups. Matano, in fact, helped start the Miata Club of America and turned it by far into the biggest enthusiast group for a single model in the country, perhaps the world.

The 2010 Miata we tested is the 21st birthday edition of the car, now only in its third generation. Why stick with the same basic model for so many years? Because from Car #1, there was little to fix or change (other than having to drop the engine to change the oil filter...but that's been fixed).

Out of the chute, the car looked and ran great, didn't leak from its convertible top (almost a wonder in 1989), is now available with a power folding hardtop (which may make it the perfect sports car) and base prices between $23,000 and $29K.

We can report that Miata remains true to the goals of the Mazda's original designers: build a fun, responsive roadster in the tradition of cars including MG, Triumph, but build it so it won't break.

MX-5 is fun, smart, low to the ground, modestly powered, nicely priced and handles like its on rails. It's the closest thing to a go-kart for the street. Or a skateboard.

Still, Miata is sometimes derisively called a "secretary's car," which refers to the car's somewhat anemic 2.0 liter 16-valve DOHC 167-horsepower four-cylinder powerplant (the auto tranny puts 150 horses to the ground; 140 pound feet of torque makes for a satisfying launch at the Stop Light Grand Prix).

Truth be told, the heaviest Miata sold, with an automatic transmission, weighs-in at a feathery 2542 pounds with a 52% front/48% rear weight distribution. This makes the 167 horse engine feel a lot more powerful than it really is and helps tremendously in handling, steering and stopping (when using engine torque to slow with the stick).

WEEKEND AUTO RADIO SHOW LINE-UPS!

Join us Saturday at 11am Pacific /2pm Eastern for THE CAR NUT SHOW and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern for WORLD RACING ROUNDUP on www.TalkRadioOne.com! It's just us and it's all LIVE!

Steve Parker's The Car Nut Show
Saturday starting at 5pm Pacific

Big story this week: Toyota is investing $50 million in ...Tesla!?!? GM and Chrysler paying back loans, GM and Ford turning profits. And our special guest has the greatest job in the world: Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, on the museum and its special summer shows and programs coming up! Please join in! The call-in number is: 213-291-9410.
Tesla

Steve Parker's World Racing Roundup
Sunday starting at 5pm

Indy preview! Special guest Jim Peltz, motorsports writer and Dodger beat reporter and for the Los Angeles Times, joins us just in time for an Indy preview and a look at the seasons in NASCAR and F1! NHRA drag racing: has the 1000' track fatally injured the sport? Plus we'll talk European road racing...if we have the chance! Join us! The call-in number is: 213-291-9410. Join in!
Agajanian Special in 1963 was driven by Parnelli Jones to victory

Podcasts of the shows are available one-hour-or-so after the live programs' conclusion. That's this Saturday at 11am Pacific and 2pm Eastern and Sunday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern on www.TalkRadioOne.com!

Follow Steve Parker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/autojourno

WEEKEND AUTOMOTIVE & AUTO RACING RADIO SHOWS!

STEVE PARKER'S THE CAR NUT SHOW
Saturday, 2/27, LIVE @ 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern on www.TalkRadioOne.com

Ford's 2010 Taurus breaks new ground with a car considered revolutionary when it hit the market for the first time in 1985 as a 1986 model.

Ford's all-new 2010 Taurus and Fusion hybrid... Steve's driven them both extensively and he'll talk about them on today's show! Like low-production number cars built by small companies for high-performance? A new California law would allow more of them on the highway. And the United States Senate has declared July 9, 2010 as "Collector Car Appreciation Day." So, uh, what's up with that? Plus your calls --- 213-291-9410!

STEVE PARKER'S WORLD RACING ROUNDUP
Sunday, 2/28, LIVE @ 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern on www.TalkRadioOne.com

Steve's special guest: Motorsports journalist and ex-IndyCar driver Kurt Hansen. He knows whereof he speaketh ... Plus: Gearing-up for the Indy 500, the Monaco Grand Prix, F1's signature event, and all of NASCAR is at Dover! Plenty more so you be sure to join in at 213-291-9410!
Defending World Driving Champion Jenson Button takes a lap in a BAR Honda a few years ago at Monaco. This week marks the 60th anniversary of the very first round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, which was held at Silverstone (UK) on May 13, 1950. The British Grand Prix, which also had the title of 'Grand Prix d'Europe' bestowed upon it that year, was the first event in a seven-race season, which also featured rounds in Monaco, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Italy, plus the Indianapolis 500.

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ROAD TEST - ALL NEW 2010 FORD TAURUS

Ford's on a roll, no doubt about it. They're making profits, Motor Trend named their entire Fusion line-up 2010 Car of the Year, Mustang continues as a legend which still sells and the Taurus is back - to stay.

All-wheel drive, a near-400 horsepower version and an unexpectedly plush and high-tech interior are all part of the all-new sixth generation Ford Taurus for 2010. Taurus is one of Ford's best-selling cars ever with over 7.5 million of them leaving showrooms since its introduction in 1985 as an '86 model. Incidentally, Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1986 was that all-new first-generation Taurus.

After a week in a 2010 Taurus SEL, we can see why Ford is successful. Taurus is a great example of the company's no pretensions style, making honest cars and trucks in which most Americans, from 16 to 60, can feel right at home. Inside and out, a "just right" combination of US, Asian and European styling, engineering, comfort, handling and performance make this latest (and best) Taurus a true World Car (though in truth it's too large for some major markets).

Here's something you don't read every day: the 2010 Ford Taurus is fun. At least with the paddle shifters which can run you up and down through all six gears in fairly rapid succession. It's not Ferrari-shift fast but for a classic American road car the system is more than acceptable and adds some unexpected but welcome panache for the driver who wants to think he's in something better and sportier than, er, a Taurus.

The suspension is that familiar combination of trade-offs which results in potholes becoming terrorists, though brake dive has been nicely engineered out of the equation. Overall handling isn't as crisp and clean as we'd like, but we'd also like to drive an $80,000 BMW. For a mid-size, mid-price car in the most crowded part of the market, Taurus offers just enough sporty weekday handling to satisfy someone whose weekend car might be a MX5 or Corvette.

Our SEL model offered 19" wheels as an option. Stopping your car today will be four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes. While there's a traction control system for the front wheels, we were able to easily beat it with the car either in "drive" or using the paddle shifters. We got more torque steer and tire squeal than we expected - and we hate surprises. But once you get used to it and get it under control, it can make for a fun exhibition at the Stop Light Grand Prix because the Taurus can beat just about anything off the line for the first 150 feet with judicious shifting and a heavy foot.

Taurus exhibited about as much "push," or understeer, as a Honda Accord, which says a lot about the car's engineering. Like Accord, Taurus feels quite neutral through corners, rarely exhibiting any of that "Why won't the front wheels turn?" tendency of front-drivers when hitting a curve a bit too fast. The AWD models will inherently feel very neutral while cornering.

The original Taurus carried a lot of influence from Ford's overseas units. Taurus designer Jack Telnack, who would go on to become global Vice President of Design for the company, served as chief designer for Ford in Australia (1966) and Europe (starting in 1974).

Taurus was a wild, radical car for its time. Rounded, with what Telnack called a "jelly bean" or "flying potato" shape, the car had more in common, appearance-wise, with Euro sedans like the Audi 5000 and Ford's own Tempo than anything from the US or Japan. It looked slick and it was; its wind-cheating design made for a very quiet interior and also helped with fuel economy. Taurus was different; it was hip.

And it came not only as a family sedan and a station wagon, but also, starting in 1989, in a high-performance version called Taurus SHO (Super High Output) with a V6 engine built by Yamaha.

Don Petersen, who headed Ford from 1985, made use of Jackie Stewart, the F1 champion who was a Ford consultant (and still is) and encouraged all the company's top executives to enroll in a racing school to learn the potential of fun and excitement with cars.

In the mid-'80s there was a real question as to whether Ford's US unit would remain viable, that the Euro and Oz markets would be the ones to concentrate on. But the Taurus, Telnack, Petersen and and the Wee Scott (Stewart) literally saved the company's US operations.

I'M BA-A-CK!!! AND FRENCH CLASSICS...

One-off 1937 Delahaye 145 which was broken into parts and pieces and buried to hide it from Nazis; read on and find out where you can see it now!

Recently I had a pretty serious flare-up of my Crohn's Disease, a chronic illness I've had most of my life and which I don't recommend to anyone - but it was serious enough to put me into Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for two weeks (and, ahem, just for the record, I was not the biggest celebrity there during my stay).
It was of course very hard to stay timely with my posts so it was decided I should take some time off, do some R&R, focus on my health and get back into it as soon as I could.
Well, thanks to all the folks at the hospital, friends and family, Nancy, the love of my life, and a new drug called Remicade ... I'm ba-a-ck!
Plenty of the hottest and most-important-to-you news, road tests, analyses and your questions answered, as always. In the next few days I plan to be hitting on all 12 (or 16 if I were a Bugatti Veyron) and joining back in the Car Conversation with all of you.
Thrilled to be back, thrilled you waited ... and we'll make it up to you!
Here's something special right off the bat, a sort-of "welcome back" gift: a car collector friend of mine has opened his own private museum in Southern California focusing on his collection, probably the world's best, of fantastically-styled pre- and post-War French cars. The LA Times ran a piece on it today and here it is - read it and drool! http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/topofthetimes/topstories/la-me-automuseum-20100508,0,7306782.story

Be sure to visit our new auto and auto racing enthusiast group on Facebook, Driving Crazy!

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