Jan. 18, 2008 - Is The V-8 Endangered?

In several financial publications this week it was revealed that Detroit may completely cut back on production of the fabled V-8 engine. It's kind of hard to believe. The V-8 has been a staple for driving on the road and racing on the track for eons.

With high gas prices, government regulated MPG ratings, the V-8 is doomed. Will this affect racing? Probably not immediately. So many components in racing are
aftermarket built anyway.

But this adds more fuel to the fact that what NASCAR represents as stock cars are a long way from that. The current Cup cars (I didn't say "Sprint" because that would confuse the issue!) are two door real wheel drive vehicles with V-8 engines. Toyota doesn't even make a V-8 engine for consumers. The Monte Carlo is the only actual two door car in Cup recently but it's being replaced by the Impala, a production four-door, like the Fusion by Ford, the Avenger made by Dodge and the Toyota Camry.

There was always something special about having a V-8 under the hood. All that torque felt so "manly." My last four cars have been V-6's. I like them. Their short stroke makes for a very quiet engine. Remember when they ran V-6's in the Busch series? Everyone complained about the "buzzing like bees" sound.

We are facing a lot of changes in the ensuing years. We will have to get used to it.

I guess we can send our V-8's out to pasture next to our turntables, typewriters and dial telephones.

Ain't "progress" wonderful?

Jan. 11, 2008 - By The Numbers

So many turns in our lives are determined by a twist of fate or some quirky moment, a decision or some good or bad fortune. I had such a moment about 10 years ago.

Like in most states, New York has a lottery. I played Lotto here for many years, winning about $40 a couple of times. This one Saturday, the jackpot was $56 million or so. I bought twenty dollars worth of tickets, which was forty games in which you had to pick six numbers to win.

The next morning I checked the newspaper for winning numbers. I had a habit of taking the first three winning numbers and scanning at the tickets. One had the three numbers. I checked again for the other three. For the only time in my life my heart stopped for a second. I thought I had the other three numbers. After calming down and checking again, I found I had five numbers that I needed number 33 and I had 43. If I had picked that one right, my life would have changed for sure.

There were three winners that night, I would have been the fourth and would have won about $14 million. I still had a bit of a victory since second prize is often lucrative, It turns out, there were a lot of second prize winners and I banked a little over nine hundred dollars, at that time the smallest second-prize ever.

If I had won, I would have bought Susquehanna Speedway in Pennsylvania. One thing I have always wanted was to run my own race track. If that had happened there still would be sprint-car races on Sunday nights there. Todd Fisher, the current promoter has done a nice job there.

I also would have sunk my "fortune" into other aspects of racing. All for the want of one number, I could have been a player in racing instead of writing about others who get to play.

I gave up on Lotto.

But who knows? Maybe that's the way things were supposed to be.

I guess.

Jan. 4, 2008 - Racing At The Movies

Despite its being around as long as the movie industry, auto racing has not been served very well by Hollywood. The spate of racing movies have been cliche-ridden, mostly low budget and story lines not even close to fact.

The Big Wheel (1949) with Mickey Rooney and To Please a Lady with Clark Gable (1950) are the staples for race fans, even though there are some embarrassing dialogue in both of them.

I have come up with the biggest turkey of all. It's called Blonde Comet, made in 1941. This one is so bad, me and my companion laughed at the wrong places through most of it. This certainly is a "B" movie but actually it earned an "F." The cast is all actors totally unknown, except for Barney Oldfield. Barney wasn't driving anymore, he was acting in it, smoking the same cigar from beginning to end.

The "plot" was about this lady racer called The Blonde Comet. She started her "career" running in Grand Prix events. She was so successful she returned to the United States driving on dirt tracks. She raced in a 500 lapper at Oakland, California. They did show the actual track. She came in second and after the race, which they said ran five hours and twenty minutes with no pit stops, she wasn't tired at all and he blouse was mostly clean!

Also funny was the various track announcers, certainly not close to anyone who ever called a race. But when she made it to Indianapolis is where it got hilarious as footage of the same race switched from cars of the twenties and the thirties and there was a time Indy was a dirt track with the starter standing on the track!

The only thing missing from this 65 minute film was Abbott & Costello, then it would have been funny on purpose. Well it does have some actually race footage but the real drivers are never identified.

But if you have six dollars to blow and need a cheap laugh. Blonde Comet is available at Oldies.com. They are in Narberth, Pa, The stock number id Alpha ALP 5290D. Get yourself some stale popcorn and enjoy!