The Chrysler Cordoba with Seats Made of Corinthian Leather

Thanks to Ed Garten for this lead.  Another example of Detroit advertising hype and how it became a part of American culture.

Porsche Preparations for the 2017 World Endurance Championship Series

Almost the entire 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship field met for a joint two-day test weekend at the Italian high-speed circuit near Milan. At the so-called “Prologue” Porsche presents the new 919 Hybrid in the LMP-class as well as the new Porsche 911 RSR in the GT-class.

new 919 Hybrid

new 911 RSR

Conclusion of the LMP1 Team

The Porsche LMP Team is pleased with its performance in Monza. The so-called “Prologue” with 27 cars present, saw the public debut of both the new 919 Hybrid of the world championship title defender Porsche as well as the new Toyota TS050 Hybrid. Both manufacturers ran two cars. The 2017 duel of the two class 1 prototypes is eagerly awaited, especially at the Le Mans 24-Hours as the season’s highlight.

At the Prologue, Toyota set the overall best lap time. Neel Jani (CH) recorded the fastest lap for a Porsche 919 Hybrid on Saturday when lapping the 5.793 kilometre long track in 1:31.666 minutes. The reigning world champion shares the 919 Hybrid with Porsche’s newcomer André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) who returned to the LMP1 squad inside the Porsche family. Together the trio of the number 1 car covered 331 laps (1,906 kilometres) in two days.

At the wheel of the number 2 Porsche it was Earl Bamber (NZ) who set the fastest lap in 1:31.823 minutes. Just like for the sister car, this was achieved during a qualifying simulation on Saturday evening. Bamber took over Mark Webber’s seat and teams up with Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ). The number 2 car crew completed a total of 329 laps (1,894 km) during the Prologue in Monza.

LMP1 Team: Comments on the Prologue

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: „Thanks to a great team effort, we look back not only on a pretty tough week but also on a very successful one. In Paul Ricard, we have concluded one of the best endurance tests ever. This was followed by the car unveiling in Monza which resulted in very positive feedback for the car’s new livery. The two test days at the Prologue were excellent and given the close competition spectators can look forward to a thrilling world championship.“

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “We had split the Prologue into two test phases. On Saturday we focussed on the car’s set-up and managed to improve it. The rain in the evening was an asset because we could practice quick turnarounds in changing conditions. On Sunday we did race simulations with both cars to investigate tyre wear and exercise race-specific routines like pit stops. To meet Toyota for the first time with us and them driving low downforce aero configurations like you’d have in Le Mans was obviously very interesting for both of us. Testing doesn’t allow for proper judgement, but certainly we will see very close competition in every type of track condition. For us as a team it is very important to feel absolutely ready now for the season’s curtain raiser on April 16 in Silverstone.”

Drivers car number 1:
Neel Jani (33, Switzerland): “Practically we have been simulating a race weekend here and this worked out very well, especially as we had to deal with various track conditions. I enjoyed having the Prologue here in Monza. The circuit has a great tradition and special atmosphere and we had lots of fun with the many fans joining us. Another beneficial aspect is that this track doesn’t forgive any mistakes. This gives you an extra thrill.”

Drivers car number 2
Earl Bamber (26, New Zealand): „The guys at Porsche have done great development work to the 919. During the Prologue here in Monza, we have learnt a lot again about the car, especially when driving in difficult conditions. During the Saturday night session we had a thunder storm and it’s very useful to get track time in the rain.”

Conclusion of the GT Team

The Porsche GT Team is well prepared for the first race of the Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC in Silverstone on 16 April. At the final rehearsal for the start of the season – the official Prologue in the Autodromo Nazionale Monza – the two new Porsche 911 RSR successfully completed a comprehensive test schedule over the weekend. The 911 RSR with the starting number 91, shared by Richard Lietz (Austria) and Frédéric Makowiecki, covered a total of 1.292 kilometres. Their team colleagues Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Kévin Estre (France) completed 1.280 kilometres.

The Grand Prix circuit in Lombardy not only offered the ideal conditions to work on the tyres and the setup, but also threw changing weather conditions at the 27 teams: The cars faced sunshine and rain with the corresponding temperature fluctuations.

The 911 RSR, with which Porsche returns to the WEC this season with a factory team, successfully completed the Prologue without any significant problems. They delivered a strong performance on the storied racetrack, on which Porsche once celebrated many great victories at the famous 1,000-kilometre races. In four of the five practice sessions, Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre posted the best time in the GTE-Pro class. Their team colleagues Frédéric Makowiecki and Richard Lietz set second place two times. The Porsche customer teams campaigning the 911 RSR in the GTE-Am class also did well. Gulf Racing with the all-British driver lineup of Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Nicholas Foster as well as Dempsey Proton Racing with Porsche Young Professional Matteo Cairoli (Italy), Christian Ried (Germany) and Marvin Dienst (Germany), also clocked the top times.

A Porsche (and PCA) History and Technology Quiz. Difficult!

These questions were asked on a test at the Porsche Club gathering yesterday. Some are specific to the PCA and I was flummoxed on every one of them.  Here are the first ten:

1. "Porsche Parade" is not trademarked in the U.S. Patent Office.
a.True
b. False

2. A twin turbocharged version of the 928S 32 V-8 engine was adopted for offshore power-boat competition.
a. True
b. False

3. The name for Porsche's new compact SUV is Man, which in Indonesian means "tiger."
a. True
b. False

4. Which PCA Region has hosted or co-hiosted the most Porsche Parades at 5?
a. Potomac
b. Rocky Mountain
C. San Diego
d. Gold Coast

5. Hospitality Tents, also known as Porschecorral's, are a member benefit provided by PCNA, IMSA, and PCA at American Lemans Series and Grand AM races.
a. True
b. False

6. Special Interest Groups, also known as Registers, allow members with specific model porsches to focus on the special aspects of these cars. Which of the following is not a Register?
a. GT/2/3/Cup
b. 912/912E
c. 911S 1969-73
d. 911 Speedster

7.  The hybrid concept was not new to Porsche in 2010.  In what year did Ferdindand Porsche develop the Lohner-Porsche "Mixte" with wheelhub electric motors and a spark -ignition engine?
az.1960
b. 1949
c. 1902
d. 1900

8. The first Porsche advertisement appeared in 1948
a. True
b. False

9. In 1997 Porsche continued the supercar lineage of he 959 with the 544 hp carbon fiber, DM 1.5 M 911 GT1. How many units did Porsche produce?
a. 1000
b. 100
c. 20
d. 5

10. Porsche's customer magazine, Christophorous, is named for the patron saint of travelers.
a. True
b. False

PCA (Porsche Club of America) Region 4, OVR Social, Dayton, OH, April 8, 2017.

This is my 1971 911T targa Porsche, next to the Taj Garage in Dayton

Good weather today really brought the folks out!

I am not exactly sure if this is a 356 speedster or something more special.

Plenty of time to socialize and meet new people.  Here they are announcing the competitive quiz, pitting 3 chapters against one another.

a damn near perfect Porsche 912

a Porsche 914/6, about as nice as you will ever find.

The Locomobile Old 16: One of the most famous of all American race cars

Hi folks -- just learning a bit of early American auto racing history and putting it on the blog. It is amazing how little I know about this topic. Locomobile No. 16 (other numbers used before 1908) was the result of an expensive company effort to build a  competitive race car.  It is now at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, if you want to see it for yourselves, as part of the Driving America exhibit. It was a giant machine, a 4 cylinder, chain-drive vehicle. With a 6.4+ in.  bore and a 7.25 inch stroke, side exhaust valves and overhead intake valves, the engine's total displacement was 1038 cubic inches. Its' fame, as well of driver George Robertson, was due to it being the first America made vehicle to win the Vanderbilt Cup in 1908. The winning vehicle covered the 258.6 mile course in 4 hours and 48.2 seconds for an average of 64 miles per hour.

"Hindsight bias" and doing automotive history

Hi folks --  I read Michael Lewis' Undoing Project over the weekend. Lewis is the author of Moneyball  and The New New Thing, among other titles. The author focuses on two Israeli psychologists and their theories of learning and perception.  In this engaging narrative, a few pages ( pp. 202-8) cover an episode during which one of the main characters addresses a group of historians in 1973. Amos Tversky often said "It is amazing how dull history books are, given how much what's in them must be invented."

According to Tversky, historians are prone to  distort the intuitive interpretation of data. These judgments of past events are subject to an inherent bias, and perhaps this is one reason why well-worn reconstructions of automotive history keep coming back to us time after time. Errors and interpretations are perpetuated. And as a further consequence, writing history is essentially shaped by irrationality.

The problem that historians face is that we write from the present, and thus we know (or better, think we know) the outcome of an event. Knowledge of that outcome influences how we reconstruct it. Our occupational hazard then, involves "the tendency to take whatever facts that were observed (neglecting the many facts that were not or could not be observed) and make them fit neatly into a confident-sounding story.

In sum, a flaw in our reasoning leads us to believe there is a less uncertain world than there actually is ( i.e. "the lessons of the past"). Thus, we revise our narratives so the  stories seem to fit what happened. Most histories then, grossly simplify a far more complex and  random world.