Autoblog

Last month, a celebration was held for George Barris, the octogenarian car customizer who created the original Batmobile. At his shop in North Hollywood, in addition to the Batmobile, was a DeLorean from Back to the Future, a General Lee, K.I.T.T., and a Monkeemobile from "The Monkees" sitcom. Problem is, he didn't create those last three cars. Universal Studios, who did the Back to the Future films, and the creators of the other cars want the world to know that.

Barris says he has never claimed credit for those other cars. He did, however, have something to do with various versions of some of those cars. Show cars come in four flavors: hero cars are for photographs, stunt cars are for chases and crashes, promotional cars only do the publicity circuit and replica cars are built by private owners. Barris didn't have anything to do with creating or building the Back to the Future DeLorean, but he did create a replica car and he did "clean up" a stunt car for Universal. He is also credited for "modifications" to the General Lee. And he built the Ecto-1 promotional car for Ghostbusters. Universal says that displaying cars like that in front of his shop and on his web site is tantamount to mispresentation. Whether displaying means taking credit for is up to interpretation, but when asked, Barris stated plainly, "I didn't work on the show and I've never said I did."

Thanks for the tip, Jim!

[Source: LA Times]

It's nice to be back in the swing of things. We're once again cranking out weekly podcasts, and #63 is a compact one. We start off salivating over the news that the next generation Suzuki Swift will be headed for US shores. We devolve from discussing an unsubstantiated rumor into wistful praise for the current can't have it Swift, and even make mention of Swifts from nigh on twenty years ago. The dustup over Alan Mulally's work of fiction at the New York Auto Show keynote draws our ire next. This one has it all, lies, grandstanding media with agendas, attacks, grandstanding media with agendas, misinformation, grandstanding media with agendas, disinformation, and finally, grandstanding media with agendas. Speaking of grandstanding, we nearly go as far as calling Lutz's bluff on the announcement that the hotly anticipated RWD cars from GM are on hold 'till regulators get their shizzle together. Whatevs. The entire GM turnaround is on hold? Not bloody likely. The consensus we come to is: Bad Lutz. So, turn on, tune in and peel out for our latest slice of podcast goodness.

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Tony George is a looming figure in American motorsports. He's the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, founder of the IRL and host of the US Grand Prix. But that didn't stop him from crashing at Daytona on Friday.

George hadn't driven a race car since 2001, but decided to enter the 24 Hours of Daytona this year in a Crawford-Porsche acquired from Eddie Cheever, entered through his Vision Racing IRL team. Driving alongside the 47-year-old motorsport mogul at the endurance competition are racing scions Tomas Scheckter, Anthony Foyt and George's stepson Ed Carpenter.

Tony was testing on Friday when he reportedly lost control of the car and crashed, but fortunately walked away unharmed. Maybe he'd be better off sticking to running his Indy empire and leaving the driving to others.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]