Autoblog

We're saddened to announce the passing of Louis A. Perunko, Jr., known to racing fans as Lou Palmer, who passed away this past Saturday, January 19, 2008 at the age of 75.

Palmer was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and was raised in Syracuse, New York. He moved to Indianapolis in 1953 and began announcing for WIBC radio in 1958. He became famous for his regular interviews of each year's winner of the Indy 500 from Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and served as a reporter and anchor for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network reporter from 1953 to 1989, as well as being its chief in 1988 and 1989. Palmer was also an announcer on the CART radio network in the mid-90s before retiring some 10 years ago.

A memorial service will be held this coming Saturday, January 26 beginning at 1:30pm at the Camby Community Church in Indianapolis. Our condolences to the family of the dearly departed.

[Source: AutoWeek]

We're shooting from the hip this week for Podcast #71. Rather than prepare, we're going with gut reactions. Starting it off, we mull over the loss of the USGP from Indianapolis, and postulate on where else F1 may pop up in the US. An F1 race on the Vegas strip would be the bomb. Staying with motorsports, we marvel at how Team SARD spanked everyone extremely hard at Tokachi with a hybridized Supra GT. We're sure that racing will improve the hybrid breed at a much steeper pace than conventional powerplants. In other racing news, Dale Junior has split from Budweiser, so he'll have new livery to plaster all over his left-turn machine.

Moving on from racing, we ponder the leakage and eventual announcement of the Porsche 911 GT2. It's as unassuming as a Porsche can get, but it packs 530 horsepower and uses the rear wheels to push top speed to the 200 MPH realm, while being a docile everyday car. While Porsches always make us giddy little schoolboys, Subaru's recent model line revisions have us alternating between cheers and jeers. The good: the Legacy SUS, or whatever the heck they call their Outback sedan is kaput. The bad: so is the straight Legacy wagon. We devolve into a styling review of Subaru's new corporate language for a while before surfacing again to discuss the inanity surrounding presidential candidates and hybrid vehicles. Idiocy, 'nuff said.

On a lighter note, we discuss the rumored sequel to Disney/Pixar's "Cars." Not surprising when you consider how lucrative the tie-ins usually are. Off entertainment and on to entertaining cars, we ogle the leaked pictures of the FPV Falcon, and discuss the future plans of that platform here in the US. It does look mean, so thanks to that janitor who picked these renderings out of the trash. Our pithy cavalcade keeps rolling along, and we chew over Bob Lutz's latest comments about the future of diesel powerplants in the US. It's odd that Bob is cool on diesel just as GM is poised to roll out new oil-burners. Wrapping up, we put out the call to action again for the Reader Ride - add your pix to the Flickr pool and include details! The hour duration of Podcast #71 will give you enjoyment to and from work, enjoy!

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It looks like there won't be any United States Grand Prix (USGP) next year, at least not at Indy. According to all of the reports we've read, the 2008 Formula One schedule won't have a slot for a United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After eight years of races at the Speedway, the FIA and Tony George apparently couldn't reach an agreement for future GPs at Indy. It seems F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone made some less-than-flattering comments about the event following the June race this year, and July 12 was the deadline IMS had set for a decision on future races. The two parties had been on a one-year extension of the prior contract, but it looks like there will be no extension this time around. There is still some remote hope that an agreement could come in the future, but even if Indy fails to secure a new race, Vegas and New York have been mentioned as possible future USGP locations. No info on those developments has surfaced yet.

Thanks for the numerous tips, everybody!

[Source: Autoweek]

Linux is pretty good at harnessing processor speed, and Chastain Motorsports is hoping to snare some of that effect to propel their Panoz/Honda to victory. The distinctive Penguin logo, "Tux," has been affixed to the nose of the 200+ MPH car in anticipation of meeting a donation goal. The famously open-source OS is applying that philosophy to sponsorship. The Tux 500 is an effort to raise $350,000 in exchange for those high-speed chilled fowl on the race car. There are perks for large donation amounts, but there is no shame in collecting lots of $1 gifts, either. It is an interesting concept, and we will be looking for the distinctive blue car when the checkered flag drops at the Indy 500. As long as the effort secures $25,000, the decals will stay on the car. Currently, donations total $7,600, and the organizers are confident that they'll at least make it to that $25K figure.

[Source: Wired]

Equal rights activists note that, with few exceptions, motor racing is an almost entirely male-dominated sport. In fact, the vast majority of racing drivers are white men, with only a handful of pioneers like Narayan Karthikeyan, Danica Patrick and Lewis Hamilton breaking through the grid. But this year, the Indianapolis 500, one of the most prominent races in the world (certainly in America) will feature, for the first time in motorsport history, three female drivers.

Lynn St. James and Sarah Fisher made history in 2000 when they became the first two women to line up together at the event, but this year Citgo-sponsored Milka Duno (pictured, right) of Venezuela will be driving a Dallara-Honda for the Samax team, along with Patrick and Fisher. Duno becomes the fifth woman to compete in the Indy 500.

The Indy Racing League is struggling, however, to fill the rest of the field. At the last reporting, only 27 entries have been received for this year's race, and seven of those don't even have drivers assigned to them yet. That's a far cry from the traditional starting grid of 33. Among the 27 currently registered for the race are five from Andretti-Green Racing, four from Vision Racing (owned by Indy chief Tony George), three from AJ Foyt, and three cars from Penske. It has not yet been revealed who will drive the third Penske car, and similar question marks loom over drivers from Vision, Foyt, Beck and Sam Schmidt's Indy Pro Series team. Meanwhile, although neither the Cheever nor Fernandez teams competed in the Indy Racing Series this season, insiders were still surprised the neither filed entries for the Indy 500.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

If the US Grand Prix remains at Indianapolis beyond 2007, which is by no means a foregone conclusion, it could switch to running counter-clockwise, the way IndyCars do. That's because Indy is trying to get a MotoGP race and having the bikes run clockwise through the banked turn 1 (turn 13 when running the road course) could prove to be too dangerous when accelerating out of the turn onto the front straight.

The banked turn has always been controversial even for F1 cars because no other modern day F1 track has a similar type of corner, and the cars and their tires aren't really designed for the stresses they face there. After six years of running at Indy you would think that teams and tire makers would have learned and compensated by now, but apparently they prefer to whine about it, then address the problem in their designs.

[Source: SpeedTV]

American motor racing icon Leo Mehl has been inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, which finally honors Mehl with due recognition for his contribution to motor racing in America and around the world.

Leo Mehl is known primarily for his role as head of Goodyear's competition activities. He joined Goodyear way back in 1959 and was directly responsible for the rubber company's success in open-wheel racing. He became head of Goodyear's F1 program in 1967 and stayed in that job all the way through 1996, covering nearly 30 years. Towards the end of his tenure at Goodyear, he was placed in charge of all of the company's racing activities worldwide. After that he left the tire business to become Tony George's right-hand-man, assuming the roles of executive director of the newly-formed Indy Racing League and vice-president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Mehl's induction is into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, located in Novi, Michigan – not to be confused with the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame (located in Comstock Park, Michigan) or the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (located in Talladega, Alabama).

Congrats, Leo!

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Nokia has an upscale division that goes by the name Vertu, which happens to make some pretty nifty phones. They aren't for everybody -- not with pricetags that sound like the down payment on a Porsche -- but they will certainly appeal to those of us who are interested in automobilia. One line of phones in particular should prove irresistible to motorsports aficionados. Vertu's Racetrack Legends series consists of six limited-edition phones, each featuring a different racetrack on its shell. The final two members of the set were just released, depicting Monaco and the Nürburgring.

Like the previous issues (Monza, Silverstone, Indianapolis and Le Mans), the new models each have a uniquely-colored casing (yellow for Monaco, titanium gray for the 'Ring) with a map of the track etched into it. Available for around $6,400 each, they make quite a stocking stuffer. If you really feel like splurging, you can get the whole boxed set. The box alone probably costs more than most of our cars. It's made of carbon fiber, with three drawers under the display level for the cases and oth accessories. Stylish and exclusive, the limited edition ractreack phones are limited to 1000 units each. Limited or not, six grand is an insane amont of money, but hey, to each his (or her) own.

[Source: Vertu via Sybarites]

Alabama's deep-south image may to some seem better suited to NASCAR moonshine-runnin' than the globe-trotting, jet-setting world of Formula 1, but a new motorsport complex in the southern state is keen to change that.

Alabama Motorsports Park is a $350 million project to be built in Mobile on the Gulf coast and will feature four tracks: a road course, a drag strip, a high-speed oval and a dirt track, giving it the ability to host numerous races for a variety of series around the year.

The project's investors expressed initial interest in hosting a second US Grand Prix, alongside the race currently held in Indianapolis. Given the elimination of Italy's and Germany's second races, this seems like an unlikely scheduling move for F1. The Alabama site is not set to be completed before 2009, though, and if the race continues to fail as it has at Indy, it may be up for grabs.

The last time the United States hosted two grands prix in one season was in 1984 in Detroit and Dallas.

[Source: F1i and the Mobile Press-Register]

Picture this - you're in Indy for the NCAA Final Four and you've spent Saturday watching the semifinals, and the finals aren't until Monday. So what do you do on Sunday? Well, Pontiac (maker of the "Official Performance Machines of the NCAA") has just the thing - the "Pontiac Brickyard Driving Experience" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

You'll get a chance to flog a fleet of Pontiacs, including the Solstice and the GTO, through the orange cones in the infield parking lot. You also get to experience a hot lap of the Formula 1 course with a pro driver behind the wheel.

It's free, and you get some Pontiac schwag and refreshments, too. Full details here.

[Source: GM]