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IT'S COME TO THIS: "PRAYER AT THE PUMP" GROUP FORMED

One might think that this cartoon from this week's NEW YORKER magazine (be sure to click to enlarge), which uses an old punchline from the 1920's which originally had to do with yachts to make a point about our country's situation today, "says it all".

While it's a typically NEW YORKER-ish snobby-yet-witty take on "what must be going on in the suburbs," keeping the magazine's urbane and sophisticated readers (or those who pretend to read it while waiting at their doctor's office) informed on the perils of not living in a metropolis, we've come across a French Press Agency (AFP) article which ran on the Web worldwide today, May 5th. And, as the saying goes, "If it weren't so sad, it'd make you laugh".

What was it Senator Obama said about "people holding onto their beliefs" when times get bad? (Okay, maybe he didn't say it that well). The following piece is a typically dumb but predictable American response to a problem over which we all actually do have some control, at least if people bother to vote when they're not praying and "home-schooling" their kids on the evils of science and evolution, and not drilling for oil in Alaska and off our country's west coast. (Photo --- As much as I like Obama, I think Senator Clinton is out ahead of him with her call for a "tax vacation" for gasoline-buyers, but only as long as the oil companies use some of their record profits to make-up the shortfall, and she makes solid proposals for long-term relief at the pump ... Which Obama has not yet done).

I found this piece on Oil Watchdog; click on this line to visit there, a site dedicated to providing information to the public about the worldwide oil industry.

FYI, the French Press Agency (AFP), which carried this piece, was the only "western" press agency which kept a bureau in Hanoi throughout the entire Vietnam War (both the ones against the French and the US, both of which they won for various reasons not important here and now. However, President Lyndon Baines Johnson's own Secretary of Defense, Robert Strange McNamara, and that is his real middle name, has written that the potential for large amounts of oil in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam's east coast was one of the reasons US troops were kept there for so long --- Sound familiar?). For AFP's so-called "intransigence" and "support to the enemy," most all American media, print and electronic, still do not carry their reports; today, thanks to the Internet, we all have access to it. But as a 13-year old volunteer at WBAI radio, the Pacifica Radio station in NYC, I learned that WBAI was the only radio or TV station in the country which then subscribed to the AFP; the station's News Director, Paul Fisher, understood French, the language used on AFP's teletype machine ... This was in 1967. No computers yet.

And just by the way (or, "not for nothing" as my Italian friends in Rhode Island say), oil hit $120 a barrel today, "another record day," just seven weeks before Memorial Day weekend and the Indy 500, the two portents of the traditional "start of America's summer driving season". (Photo --- NY TIMES photo of a gas pump in Gorda, located on California's Central Coast, taken over a month ago; prices ranged from $5.19 to $5.39 a gallon).

Anyway, without any more fanfare nor my interruptions, here is the piece, entitled: "Tired of Paying Through the Nose, Americans Try Praying at the Pump," written by Karin Zeitvogel and distributed worldwide by AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE.

At a Shell gas station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.

"Last week, this station was 3.51 dollars. Now it's practically 3.60. So it's gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars' worth of gas into his thirsty American car.

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer  at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't. (Photo --- Recent pump prices at a Shell gas station near Palm Springs, CA; the range is from $3.85 to $4.05).

The half-dozen activists -- Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen -- joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer. "Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens."

"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life... We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high," Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.

"Lord, the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you are able, that you have all the power in the world," he prayed, before former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version of the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome".

"We'll have lower gas prices, we'll have lower gas prices..." they sang.

At the weekend, Twyman had led a group of around 200 people in prayer at pumps in San Francisco, where gas is touching the four-dollars-a-gallon mark.

On Thursday, US lawmakers and experts at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill painted a grim picture of how Americans are being hammered by record fuel costs and the steepest food price spikes in 17 years.

To read the entire "Prayer at the Pump" story, simply click anywhere on this line.

Also, the LOS ANGELES TIMES ran a somewhat frightening piece today on Chinese businesses finding "bargains" in the US ... Click on this line to read that piece. Doesn't seem "connected" to the "Prayer at the Pump" story at first, but in reality ... at some level, aren't they all?

Finally, click on this line for some rather surprising statements made by members of the Rockefeller family, America's "First Family of Oil (and Money)".

HUGE INVESTOR TO FORD: SELL MERCURY ... AND VOLVO!

Like politics, American big business has its "great families" and its "great characters". And its "great stories" ... This is one of them. In the auto industry, the names Kerkorian, York, Iacocca, Eaton, Lutz and Perot have all had long and strong connections to every one of the Detroit Three, connections several decades long. This week, all those connections again came to light as Kirk Kerkorian's company started buying-up 20-million more shares of Ford (he already owns 100-million shares, almost 8% of the whole company) and advising Ford's CEO, Alan Mulally (a Detroit newcomer), to sell-off that company's Volvo and Mercury divisions. (Photo --- Above, Ford is estimating they will sell 100,000 of their all-new Flex models the first year it's on-sale, Below, Kirk Kerkorian makes a point to reporters; the 92-year old billionaire, with longtime, huge investments in the Detroit Three, is currently in the process of buying 20-million more shares of Ford Motor stock).

Ford's surprise turn of a profit in the year's first quarter brought all this about.

You may remember when we reported on April 25th, that "Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street today with a first quarter earnings report full of black ink -- saying it posted net income of $100 million on total revenue of $43.5 billion. That's compared with a net loss of $282 million on revenue of $43.0 billion during the same period a year ago. Ford stock skyrocketed on the news -- closing the day up 88 cents, or 11.7 percent, to $8.40 a share." (Photo --- Kerkorian's friendship with Lee Iacocca, shown promoting an electric bicycle which a Southern California company is making, using his name, created animosity between Kerkorian and Chrysler after Iacocca left it).

We've been saying "Buy Ford!" and "Buy GM!" for several years (can't say "Buy Chrysler!" anymore, unless you want the whole thing) ... These gigantic American corporations, with so many overseas properties and superior products, Ford and GM (or Opel or Holden, etc)  cars and trucks being the "favorites" in many markets (if not the US), simply can not have their stocks stay in the $10/share range, even if the companies are old-time, unexciting "brick-and-mortar" business, something very unsexy to Wall Street in these days of trying to make enormous sums of money by making as few actual products as possible. If all your company sells is "information," ala E-bay or, the best example, Microsoft, that's been all the better for stock prices since the 1990s. Ford and GM have massive amounts of real estate, buildings, skilled workers, many of them unionized, at that, franchised dealers around the world (highly-protected in this country from the manufacturer by US laws) and made huge sums in the US through the 1990s and early years of this decade by selling massive, heavy, low-mileage trucks and SUVs which don't have to be re-designed every two to three years, like car-buyers demand. Now, "thanks" to $4/gallon gas prices ($5/gallon by the day Bush leaves office; we'll also be at war with Iran), for the first time in about a decade, cars and the new CUVs (Crossover Utility Vehicles), which are built on car-like platforms, are outselling the big trucks and SUVs which Americans managed to get so used to, so easily.

After the announcement, Kirk Kerkorian announced his intention to greatly increase his stock holdings in Ford. This past week, Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. announced that it plans to make a cash tender offer for as many as 20 million shares of Ford stock at $8.50 a share. Kerkorian, Tracinda and York are no newcomers to Ford; Tracinda already owns 100 million shares, representing 4.7 percent of Ford's outstanding shares.

Last month, after the process to buy those 20-million shares of Ford had begun, York had a private meeting with Ford CEO Alan Mulally, the ex-Boeing chief who took the Ford job about a year ago (but only after Ford deposited more than $20 million in his bank accounts). At this meeting, York apparently told Mulally that he needed to sell the company's Volvo and Mercury divisions to help in Ford's "turn-around". (Photo --- Jerry York is Kerkorian's "bagman" in buying-up 20-million more shares of Ford stock, and last month he "advised" Ford CEO Alan Mulally to get rid of Mercury and Volvo; Mulally was not amused).

While Ford is still not making a single cent in profit in the US, the company's recent positive results show that when a company based in the US, as Ford has always been, in Dearborn, Michigan, and shows profits from markets other than the US, it's still good for the company as a whole, especially as far as Wall Street is concerned.

The big problem in Ford's case, and ultimately, for America, is that a lot of the "profit" expected to come from the US for Ford (and GM and Chrysler) will come in the form of cutbacks, as Ford has upped the numbers and the values of the "early retirement buy-outs" which the company is offering tens of thousands of their US employees. And as someone smarter than I once said, "A large company can't cut its way to success and profitability."

Kirk Kerkorian and his investment firm, Tracinda Corporation, has as his "chief aide" a former Chrysler   executive named Jerome B. (Jerry) York. York is Chairman, President and CEO of Harwinton Capital, another Wall Street investment firm. He is also the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, CEO of Micro Warehouse  and he joined the board of directors of Apple Inc. in 1997. (Photo --- Why Mercury needs to be sold, which is unlikely, or shut-down: Their Mountaineer version of the Ford Explorer. First three months of 2008 saw sales of 4,728 Mountaineers, and 27,638 Explorers. Sure, some can argue that those 4,700 Mountaineers represent pricier Explorers which wouldn't have sold, anyway. But could those few sales, and the total costs which go into making them and then the costs of their after-care, really make Mercury viable?).

Click below to read more about Kerkorian, York, Volvo and Mercury ... if Ford will sell those two divisions ... and when!

TESLA OPENS LOS ANGELES STORE; NOW ALL THEY NEED ARE CARS

Those of Los Angeles' much-vaunted and desperately-hip Westside can now shop for their EVs in a new 10,000-square foot showroom owned by Tesla, the troubled Northern California electric vehicle-builder. Tesla employees, not commissioned salespeople, will also staff the facility, opened on May 1st. Located at the heavily-trafficked corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda Boulevards, one of the most-clogged intersections in the entire city, Tesla says (still) that the best is yet to come. Like actual cars. (Photos --- Staging a business opening in Los Angeles? You need red-coated parking valets, uniformed "actors/servers/models" who "circulate" with trays of cheap champagne and "crudites," whatever they are, a security guard-looking person or two, especially if celebrities are expected, and in LA, they always are, and, perhaps most-important, nearly-unreadable signage; Below, Here's an actual big-time celebrity Tesla managed to corral into their dealership opening; yes, it's "Q", or, as he's known to everyone else, Quincy Jones. Jones is also a great actor; see how he acts as if he knows the Tesla exec he is hugging).

A better start would have been locating the showroom even farther west, in the People's Republic of Santa Monica (one of our old and much-missed hometowns) or Venice (the only part of the city of Los Angeles which actually touches the ocean) ... West LA is cool, if you're a UCLA student or a Hasidic Jewish family with 11 kids and family members "in the diamond trade". But it just ain't SM and doesn't even come close to Venice when it comes to cool, where zillionaire actors and their heavily-armored and -patrolled "vertical estates" share block space with 4th-generation public housing and strapped gangsters slingin' rock being the local live entertainment starting at 11pm each evening. Ask about the special Sunday afternoon shows during summer. (And I lived there, too, so don't get hinky with me about it).

Tesla, which forced-out its co-founder, Martin Eberhard, and is engaged in various lawsuits with car designer Henrik Fisker, recently took delivery of its first four production cars --- depending on who you talk to about that very touchy subject.

The first production car went to Tesla Motors chairman and chief financier Elon Musk, while car #2 is reserved for that forced-out co-founder, Martin Eberhard, who reportedly doesn't want his car until a special paint job is ready (we predict he'll never see that car --- getting forced out of a company you help found and staked isn't a good way to engender positive vibes). Tesla says that #4 was seen at the Top Marques Monaco show with U2's Bono behind the wheel. Investors, buyers and others hope that Roadster #3 might soon be on its way to an actual customer's garage.

The automaker says they have already pre-sold 600 cars and has a waiting list 400-strong. Priced at $100,000, Tesla demanded a $100,000 "deposit" from Roadster buyers willing and able to wait a long time until their cars are ready; there are plenty of oh-so-worried green-types with that kind of disposable income in LA. Which brings us to the new store. (Photo --- If you have a car dealership, you need a car to exhibit, like this $100,000 Tesla Roadster, one of four made in-time for the showroom's opening).

With reportage by Mark Rechtin of Automotive News (with our own inspired comments), we learn that the new store, close to the crawling 405 freeway and the congested corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda Boulevards, makes a potent statement for forever-gridlocked Angelenos to buy an electric car.

Click below to read more about and see more photos of the new Tesla dealership in Los Angeles!

HONDA'S ASIMO ROBOT TO LEAD DETROIT SYMPHONY; WE FIRST MET HIM WHEN HE (IT) COULD BARELY WALK!

Here's a press release we recently received from Honda: Honda Motor Co.'s remarkable robot Asimo will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at a special performance for young people on May 13 that will feature superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Asimo will open the evening by conducting the orchestra in a performance of the song, "The Impossible Dream." (Editor's note: Impossible Dream, like Andy Williams' rendition of Moon River, are both much-loved by the Japanese public, apparently fraught with all sorts of deep meanings which a drunk Japanese recognizes more easily than his or her drunken American friends. It's not unusual to hear either song being sung, always loudly and usually badly, on Japan's late-night streets and in restaurants, and, of course, in the estimated 50 million karaoke bars throughout the country).

The 4-foot robot, able to speak English and Japanese, is the latest generation in a line of Asimo robots developed in 2000 by the Japanese automaker.

Honda has teamed up with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to offer music lessons to students in Detroit and has provided more than $1 million to create The Power of Dreams Music Education Fund.

As part of the program, Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma will teach a master class on May 14 for a group of students selected from the Detroit School of Arts. (Photo --- Guest-starring in a corporate video seen at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, Asimo demonstrates features of the company's "FCX Clarity" hydrogen fuel cell family sedan).

"Honda hopes Asimo's appearance will draw attention to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's nationally acclaimed youth music programs, and particularly Detroit Symphony Orchestra's effort to encourage and support involvement of children in Detroit," Honda said in a statement.

Asimo, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, made his first appearance in the United States on Feb. 14, 2007, when he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. (End of Honda press release).

Asimo is conducting ... in Detroit?! Boy, those folks at Honda really know how to rub it in, don't they? Other recent Asimo happenings:

"Honda demonstrated its unique robot, ASIMO, at the Kennedy Center JAPAN! culture + hyperculture festival in Washington D.C. from Thursday, February 7 - Sunday, February 17, 2008.

The robot performed live (?) 15-minute demonstrations several times daily throughout the festival. Visitors will experience the most sophisticated robotics technology and see how robots like ASIMO will someday assist people. The free demonstrations will be held in the Nations Gallery at the Kennedy Center."

And ...

"Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has further advanced intelligence technologies enabling its advanced humanoid robot ASIMO to act autonomously and perform uninterrupted service to office guests. (Photo Below --- If Asimo replaces hostesses at Japanese companies, what will the women working there do? Gosh, maybe they'll let them have real jobs!)

Honda developed an intelligence technology that enhances smooth movement by enabling ASIMO to choose between stepping back and yielding the right-of-way or continuing to walk based on the predicted movement of oncoming people ("Out of the way, Asimo!", "Yes, master," or, "Hai, sensei." At least we hope that's what happens ... Just imagine the other possibilities). Honda also developed a new intelligence technology related to ASIMO's ability to perform tasks such as carrying a tray and pushing a cart. In addition, a newly added function enables ASIMO to automatically charge its battery when its remaining battery level falls below a certain level. Furthermore, a new comprehensive system was developed so that multiple ASIMOs can share tasks by adjusting to the situation and work together in coordination to provide uninterrupted service. For example, if one ASIMO is idled while recharging, other ASIMO robots will step in and perform assigned tasks.

Honda will begin test operations of two ASIMOs equipped with these newly developed technologies December 12, at the second floor lobby of Honda's Aoyama, Japan headquarters."

If human beings suddenly start flying out the windows of the upper stories of Honda's HQ, then we'll know ASIMO may have a problem or two ... But plugging-itself in when the battery gets low? Working in conjunction with other robots? Serious stuff, my friends (as John McCain might say, just like the used car salesman he is).

Hey, Uncle Car Nut, tell us about the time you first saw Honda's robot, Asimo, climb down a flight of stairs! (Photo --- Asimo at rest. It shrinks quite a bit when "off;" gaining height as it powers-up. Latest-generation Asimo is now four feet tall).

Well, sure kids ... Now gather round! And in spite of Honda's efforts (and who can blame them) to have  everyone anthropomorphize Asimo, like a favorite, gentle pet, let's keep in mind that "he" ( or "she" --- and who decides? Mrs. Asimo?) is quite literally a bucket of bolts. Very smart bolts and all the rest, but bolts nonetheless.

It was a cool, wet afternoon at Honda's Research and Development Center on Tochigi, Japan, about 50 miles north of Tokyo, in the lowlands surrounding the mountains where, if you cared to drive up, one would find the Twin Ring Motegi Race Track. Honda, at the time, had some 5,000 engineers working at the Tochigi R&D Center, none of them, they told us, over 40 years old. I bet a like-number of them were women, too, but I digress, kids ... You have to remember, "When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do" ...

Click below to read more about Honda's car-building, orchestra-conducting, and potentially union-bashing robot, Asimo!

VW TELLS BEIJING: "FURTHER OPEN UP (YOUR) SOCIETY"

Volkswagen, the first foreign automaker to enter the Chinese market and a sponsor of the 2008 Beijing games, urged China's government on Thursday, April 24th, to "embrace the spirit of the Olympic Games". (Photo --- VW's Lavida sedan is the first "China-only" car made by Shanghai Volkswagen, and was debuted at the recent 2008 Beijing Auto Show).

Everyone around the world knows what a fantastic "success" the Beijing Olympic Torch Armored Stampede, uh, Run, has been, at least in those countries where a brutal, militaristic central government can offer the Torch Run the kind of, uh, "encouragement" desired by their like-minded buddies in Beijing. (Photos --- It was protesters versus police in San Francisco; a torch-bearer enjoys his moment in the San Francisco sun).

Places like San Francisco, a city which prides itself on offering "the run of the town" to just about anyone, provided the proper permits are paid and security arrangements made. Didn't anyone wonder why San Francisco was the Torch's only US stop? While we understand San Francisco's desire and need to host their Red Chinese guests in a safe and sane manner, the city nonetheless made itself look ridiculous by playing "Hide the Torch" for several hours, toying with the city's own citizens while "kissing up" to Beijing and their crack security teams guarding the Torch.

Surprisingly, but also happily, Volkswagen has become the first Beijing Games' sponsor to stand-up publicly to China's contributions to murderous, violent, cruel repression and political manipulations not only aimed at their own people, but also in Tibet, Nepal, Darfur and other nations. They did it in a way which, while it might seem timid and weak to the average American, nonetheless attempts to "gets the message across" to their Chinese business partners in an Asian, "face-saving" way.  (Photo --- The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has long been a flash-point between the nation which he was forced to escape, in disguise, in 1959, as China began to complete their dominance over the country, Tibet, which had been traditionally led politically and religiously by the Dalai Lama for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years).

Volkswagen is no innocent company. Born in the earliest days of what became WWII, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche sought-out and received a personal commission from Hitler to design and build the "People's Car", what was to eventually be called the Volkswagen. Porsche (the engineering firm Ferdinand founded and led) was involved as were other infamous firms of Nazi Germany, including Daimler-Benz and Bayer, in developing munitions, vehicles and many other war-related products. Today, Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi are all strongly inter-related (by both stock ownership and family) and all, including Daimler, have been involved in the payment of billions of dollars in war reparations to the war's victims and the State of Israel; these companies and many of their top executives and labor leaders, and the German government, have tried to make honest and appropriate amends following WWII, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so. (Photo --- Beijing traffic; the city now averages more than 10,000 new-car registrations per week, a number continuously on the rise).

So it is especially appropriate that the first Beijing Games' sponsor to openly criticize Beijing and try to  push the regime towards more openness should be one which had its own first-hand experience as a member of what was possibly the world's single-most deadly "government;" no one will ever be certain if China killed more people during their "Cultural Revolution" than were killed due to Germany's murderous aggression in WWII.

     As reported by Reuters, "The Olympics offer China and its people a unique opportunity not only to continue their economic development, but above all to further open up their society," Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn told shareholders at the VW annual meeting.
     "We hope and firmly believe that our Chinese partners will seize this unique opportunity."
     The CEO said Volkswagen had stressed this in talks with those responsible in China.
     The second-largest carmaker in China behind U.S. rival General Motors, Volkswagen decided in June 2004 to become a partner of the Beijing games and went so far as to dub the restructuring of its two Chinese joint ventures the "Olympic Programme."
     The Games have turned into a public relations disaster for China after violent crackdowns in Tibet provoked protests in the West and forced runners bearing the Olympic torch around the world to be protected by security forces. (End of Reuters story).

This is the interior of the VW Lavida, "Made in China, Only for China." Around the world, VW interiors are used as styling and quality benchmarks for other car-makers

Click below to read more about Volkswagen criticizing China using "soft diplomacy" and possibly cutting the amount of supplies purchased from Chinese companies!

BIG WILLIE TO BE FEATURED ON NBC-TV SHOW "WHIPNOTIC"

A group of General Motors officials and executives, hosting about a dozen automotive journalists from throughout the Western US, gathered recently in the painfully-hip Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, CA, for a media introduction of the all-new Pontiac G8 and 2009 Pontiac Vibe. All were pleasantly surprised to find the legendary co-founder of the "National and International Brotherhood of Street Racers," "Big" Willie Robinson, in their midst. He was taking a meeting with a segment producer of the NBC-TV automotive show, Whipnotic. Robinson (on the right in the photo) and Whipnotic's Yon Motskin spoke for well over an hour, doing the necessary initial planning for a Whipnotic segment about Willie, his recently-departed wife of 38 years, Tomiko, the Brotherhood and the hoped-for re-opening of Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor area. (Photos by Steve Parker).

Whipnotic, the NBC-TV show, is now in its fourth month of brand-new episodes every week focusing on the Southern California automotive lifestyle each Saturday at 5pm. My guess is that the segment will show sometime in the next 3 to 6 weeks; as soon as we know the exact date, we'll announce it and have it available for viewing right here on this SteveParker.com website and it will also be on the Whipnotic.com website, too.

I have been a consultant to NBC-TV's Whipnotic show,  and also the Whipnotic.com website. We've been working closely with Fred Roggin and Kip Epps, the show's executive producers, on various aspects of the program, and also have been providing material for the Whipnotic.com website since well before the first week both the show and the website went "live" on NBC-TV and the Internet, in mid-January, 2008. We're happy and proud to have been able to have introduced the people behind-the-scenes at Whipnotic to Willie and the Brotherhood and to have some small part in making this segment on the show possible.

Here's the latest on the status of Brotherhood Raceway's re-opening: Land for the track on Terminal Island appears to be available; the concrete barriers, grandstands and other items which have been loaned in the past by the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to Brotherhood Raceway are again available; Southern California weather is now dry and warm for the next several months, and members of both the LAPD and LA Sheriff's Department are making their support known of the track known publicly. Also, and most unfortunately, many injuries and deaths resulting from illegal street racing keep occurring throughout Southern California and throughout the nation, and gang-related crime including injuries and deaths of gang members and innocent civilians resulting from shootings and other violent crimes continue throughout the City of Los Angeles and the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego and Orange. The positive results throughout the entire community which came from Brotherhood Raceway's opening after the 1992 Los Angeles "Rodney King Riots" are well-known; many people in all levels of government in the area are saying that "the time is right" for Brotherhood to re-open.

Whipnotic is the first NBC-TV program produced in both English and Spanish. KNBC sportscaster Mario  Solis hosts the English-language version, seen every Saturday at 5pm on KNBC/TV4 Los Angeles, and repeated at 2am Sunday mornings. The program also airs on KNBC’s Digital Channel 4.4 (available on Time Warner Cable) at 8pm on Saturdays. Toni Romero hosts the Spanish-language version on Telemundo's KVEA/TV52 in Los Angeles, which runs each Sunday at 9:30am.

E-mail Big Willie by clicking anywhere on this line. We're doing our best to keep everyone up-to-date of the very latest news concerning Willie and the track's soon-to-come re-opening. Please direct any other Brotherhood members and/or others interested in Big Willie and the track to this SteveParker.com website. And be sure to let us know any related news by e-mailing us directly; just click anywhere on this line to do so. Thank you!

2009 CORVETTE ZR1: 638-HP, 205-MPH! YOWZAH!

"The 2009 Corvette ZR1 produces 638 horsepower." This is one of those stories which tear our automotive conscience and loyalties every which way but loose, to paraphrase the title of a really bad Clint Eastwood movie featuring him and a chimpanzee sharing cross-country driving duties in a big-rig truck. As we all know, all work and no play make Jack and Jill a boring couple. We don't have to preach to you, don't have to tell you about the price of gas, about the embarrassing lack of fuel-efficient cars and trucks made in America or how none of the Detroit Three seems really, truly committed, as yet, to providing high-mileage, low-emissions cars and trucks. And when Audi and BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz (see a "national" pattern here?) among others, begins selling new-generation turbo-diesel cars and trucks later this year in the US, Detroit will have even more egg on their face. Both Audi and Peugeot have been dominating world sports car endurance racing with 5-Liter, V12 turbo-diesel powerplants in their race cars. The Euro-diesels coming to a showroom near you this fall are fast, quiet, clean and smooth along with having the traditional diesel qualities of high-mileage and engines which, with regular maintenance, start to get "broken-in" at about 500,000 miles. And did we mention enough torque to pull not just a house trailer, but an entire house? (Artwork of ZR1 engine "ghost view" by David Kimble, the world's best).

The bright spot? Chevrolet sells about 35,000 Corvettes a year, almost an inconsequential  number in the American market, which will see about 15,000,000 new cars and trucks sold in 2008. Of those 35,000 'Vettes, about 10%, or 3,500, will be Z06 models. And there will be even fewer of the all-new ZR1 models produced and sold. Just as a reminder, the Z06 is available as a coupe-only and comes with a 505-hp 7.0-liter V8 and mandatory 6-speed manual transmission. It also has specific suspension tuning, tires, and brakes. The 2008 "427 Limited Edition," which is a Z06 with some extra safety and convenience fetaures, is priced at almost $84,000. This means the 2009 ZR1 will base-price for near or over $100,000.

So, all things considered, the ZR1 will be loud, frighteningly fast, have slot-car-like handling, get lousy mileage, produce more emissions than they have a right to make and Chevrolet will probably have to sell 100 Aveos to each ZR1 to keep Chevy legal when it comes to the division's CAFE corporate average fuel requirements) standards. But you know what? With fewer than 3,000 of them planned to be sold, we say: Go for it! At least some people are having some fun out there!

Here's how Chevy described all the excitement, with an occasional note from us here at SteveParker.com: When it was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1’s power was estimated at 100 horsepower for each of its 6.2 liters of displacement. GM Powertrain has completed SAE certification of the ZR1’s supercharged LS9 V-8 and the results exceed the estimate: 638 horsepower (476 kW) and 604 lb.-ft. of torque (819 Nm).

The LS9’s output is nearly 103 horses per liter, or just about 1.7 horses for each of the engine’s 376 cubic inches. It is unquestionably the most powerful automotive production engine ever manufactured by General Motors and enables the Corvette ZR1 to achieve a top speed of more than 200 mph (322 km/h). In fact, on a GM employee website, Chevy engineers reported the ZR1 achieved almost 205-mph at a company test track in Germany.

The Corvette ZR1 goes on sale this summer. Its 638-hp supercharged engine is complemented in the chassis by heavy-duty components not offered in any other model, including a six-speed manual transmission with race-hardened gears and dual-disc clutch technology that delivers exceptional clamping power and lower inertia, as well as strengthened axle components.

Fuel economy testing has not been completed, but engineers are confident the ZR1 will be the most fuel-efficient 600-plus-horsepower car on the market (and how many of those are there "on the market" anyway?).

The LS9 engine is hand-built by specially trained technicians at GM’s Performance Build Center in Wixom, Mich. It is a unique, small-volume engine production facility that also builds the Chevrolet Corvette Z06’s LS7 engine and other high-performance GM production engines.

The key enabler of the LS9’s performance is the industry’s first production application of a new, positive- displacement Roots-type supercharger that has a unique four-lobe rotor design. Its design promotes quieter and more efficient performance, while the large, 2.3-liter displacement ensures adequate air volume at high rpm. Maximum boost pressure is 10.5 psi (0.72 bar). It is teamed with an integrated charge cooling system that reduces inlet air temperature for maximum performance.

A raised hood provides adequate clearance for the LS9, while a polycarbonate window in the hood provides a view of the engine beneath it.

Click below to read more details about the 638-hp, 604-lb. ft. of torque, 205-mph 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1!

FORD'S FIRST QUARTER LOOKING UP WORLDWIDE; USA REMAINS IN THE RED

Good news from Ford! Well, the company is not yet making a single cent in the US, but worldwide the Blue Oval is doing well. Alan Mulally, the former-Boeing executive who is now running Ford and demanded (and got)  $20 million in cash deposited in his bank account before his first day of work, isn't able to yet demonstrate that Ford's American new-vehicle sales arm can recover from the phenomenal bashing they (and GM and Chrysler) have been through the past 37 years. The improving (for Ford and their stockholders) facts below (and haven't we been telling you to BUYBUYBUY Ford stock? It's easy to find ... it's stock ticker symbol is easy to remember: "F"). (Photo Above --- Ford is predicting 100,000 sales annually for their all-new Flex CUV; you might remember it as the "Fairlane" concept car).

While Ford has some great products which they've developed for (and are building in) many other countries around the world, the company's main method of saving money is going to be through worker attrition, voluntarily or otherwise. Fewer workers using fewer platforms to make more models with much-fewer option packages is the secret to Ford's stabilization in this, their long-time home market. And a Ford connection with Nissan/Renault is not out of the question, though Chrysler seems hellbent on partnering with Nissan before the "Ford question" officially arises. (Photo --- Ford's association with Carroll Shelby has served both parties very, very well; Shelby is seen here with their latest collaboration, the Mustang Shelby GT500KR).

FoMoCo US definitely has some sales winners, but even their popular cars and trucks have greatly suffered the past decade --- and more. Mustang has always been a bright spot, and remains so, but a car which sells "only" 50,000-or-so units a year might not be able to keep a place in the factory line-ups of the future. Ford sold 14,737 Mustangs in the first three months of 2007; this year, 2008, January through March sales were way down, to a total of 10,180. In fact, Mustang sales alone for January through March of last year were almost exactly the same as the total number of all Lincoln-Mercury vehicles so far this year.  But there's some nice news, too, when a week after its 44th anniversary on April 17th, Mustang production (not sales, yet) reached nine million units. That Mustang GT Convertible went to a dealership in Iowa, and we predict that car will be seen this coming January on some TV cable network's coverage of auto auctions. As Ford's longest running nameplate, the Mustang sold over 22,000 units on its first day and more than one million sold in the first two years. Those of you of a "certain age" will remember, as we do, that the Mustang was introduced at the 1964 New York World's Fair Ford Pavilion.

Automotive News also reports that Ford Motor Co. will spend more than $100 million to market the revamped 2009 F-150 pickup, the single best-selling vehicle in the US for more over 50 years. A Ford official told AN that the model-year launch budget is in the same ballpark as the spending allocated when the automaker introduced the current F-150 in 2003. When that redesigned 2004 model went on sale, Ford said they planned to spend more than $100 million on what they called the "biggest launch campaign in Ford's history". The same kind of emphasis is being planned for the re-engineered and restyled 2009 F-150, which goes on sale this fall. Ford's Focus is doing better than last year at this time; Fusion's numbers are tied with last year's, as are the Taurus/500's numbers. Ford's critical Edge started-out strong, but sales have either dropped or remain near-steady each month since mid-2007.

Now, that news which may portend further success for Ford in the US (paraphrasing from Automotive News):

Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street today with a first quarter earnings report full of black ink -- saying it posted net income of $100 million on total revenue of $43.5 billion. That's compared with a net loss of $282 million on revenue of $43.0 billion during the same period a year ago.

Ford stock skyrocketed on the news -- closing the day up 88 cents, or 11.7 percent, to $8.40 a share.

Click below to read more about Ford's positive overseas sales numbers and their ongoing attempts to close-the-gap in the USA ... and what they can expect!

INDIANA AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER PLANT CLOSES; 138 MORE LOST USA JOBS

More skilled American auto industry jobs are gone. The three major presidential candidates are campaigning in Indiana, leading-up to that state's Democratic and Republican primaries, both slated for May 6, 2008, just two weeks from now. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both called-for an end to tax deductions for any company which has "off-shored" what used to be US jobs. John McCain, though, using a shuttered factory yesterday as a backdrop for a "media event", promised to "retrain" workers who had lost their jobs due to off-shoring and plant closings while opining that the lost jobs would probably never return to the US. McCain's "event," which had to be one of the worst-planned and "advanced" of any of the campaigns, at least so far, was tantamount to Hillary Clinton holding a press conference on the lawn of AT&T's corporate headquarters and thnaking "her good friends" in the company, or Barack Obama planning a $10,000-a-plate fundraiser in the parking lot of the drug industry's Washington, DC, lobbying offices. Unfortunately for everyone involved, there was more bad news brewing in Indiana just today. (Photo Above --- "Closed" sign at a Buick plant in Flint, MI).

To paraphrase from the auto industry's weekly newspaper, Automotive News, we learn that:

Citation Corp. will idle its aluminum-molding plant in Butler, Indiana, by the end of July, the company said  today. Citation manufactures cast, machined and assembled components for the automotive, heavy-truck and industrial markets. Operations at the plant, including production and equipment, will be shipped to factories owned by Diversified Machine Inc. in Bristol, Ind., and Milwaukee.

"We continue to focus our strategy on opportunities that enable us to meet our long-term business objectives," Citation CEO Doug Grimm said in a statement. " Divesting a noncore business is a logical step in that process and will ensure Citation remains a strong, viable company." (The guy delivering this terrible news is named "Doug Grimm"; now is that some gallows humor or what?) (Photo --- Non-union worker at a bright, clean automotive plant in America; she is helping build Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Alabama).

Interestingly, this website has learned that Grimm joined Citation Corporation very recently, in January 2008, as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors following various senior management positions in the automotive sector. Previously, Grimm had executive positions at Visteon, where he led that company's $4 billion business relationship with Ford globally, including Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. And we know what just happened to Jaguar and Land Rover ... They are both now owned by an Indian automotive company called Tata. Grimm also had top positions at Metaldyne, Dana and Chrysler. Grimm certainly has had varied experience in dealing with once-great American manufacturing companies with severe financial problems, and we won't even try to address the possible "chicken and egg" possibilities.

Cutting the 138-person work force will begin next month. The company has not released any information regarding severance packages. Citation Corp., of suburban Detroit, ranked No. 85 on the Automotive News list of the top suppliers to North America, with sales totaling $527 million for the 2006 fiscal year. (end of AN story paraphrasing).

Get that? OVER HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN 2006 SALES for an American company which employs just 138 people ... And the place is so poorly run by its management that they can't even keep their doors open? Or, the company's owners/stockholders are not satisfied with their earnings and have decided to off-shore the company's jobs to a country where unskilled labor making a few bucks an hour can turn-out shoddy products.

The US auto industry, which came off a 70-year-long bender of worldwide domination beginning in the  1970s, has still not turned-around their industry in a way meaningful enough to keep traditional high-paying American jobs in this country. Now THAT'S something which all the candidates had better address this year, and in a big, realistic and meaningful way.

EARTH DAY! PRESIDENT BUSH LOOKS "GREEN AND MEAN" BEFORE HE'S ESCORTED OUT OF TOWN

US President George W. Bush is eager to appear busy as he marks time until the next president is sworn-in this coming January (and it can't come soon enough, for me or our nation). He has recently included meeting the Pope, appearing on NBC-TV's "DEAL OR NO DEAL" and planning the coming US attack on Iran into his "busy work". On a day when the Democratic candidates fought the latest round of their true Heavyweight Championship, John McCain defended NAFTA to a town-hall-style meeting at Youngstown (Ohio) State University full of union workers that, "Last time I checked, NAFTA was a five-letter word, not four," and was ridiculed by the crowd for doing so, the White House decided to roll-out new Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (those much talked-about CAFE standards) while, basically, no one was listening. But these new numbers, while tougher than the Detroit Three would like them to be, nevertheless were a little bit stronger than some expected. But, hey! It's Earth Day! (Photo Above --- Well, just write your own caption!)

As reported by McPaper (aka USA TODAY), cars and light trucks would have to be 25% more fuel efficient by 2015 under a proposed rule announced April 22nd, by the Transportation Department. Under the proposal, automakers would have to speed up the timetable for achieving an average fuel-efficiency standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Today's car and truck fleets average about 25 mpg.

The proposal would require each automaker's car fleet to achieve an average of 35.7 mpg by the  2015 model year. Light trucks, which include pickups, SUVs and minivans, would have to meet a 28.6 mpg average by 2015. (Photo Below --- Wonder what the MPG is of the all-new Popemobile? This snazzy new model, with Benedict XVI on his glass-enclosed throne, uh, seat, appears to be built on a Mercedes-Benz M-type or G-type chassis.)

The federal proposal is tougher than the fuel-economy requirements passed by Congress last year, which called for a 3.3% annual increase in gas mileage. The federal plan calls for a 4.5% annual increase from 2011 to 2015. If those increases are achieved, Transportation Department officials said automakers would need to increase fuel economy by only about 2.1% a year from 2016 to 2020.

The CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the lobbying arm of the auto industry, said, "Automakers are prepared to meet that challenge."

In the interest of full disclosure, and your own edification, Alliance members include: BMW Group, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen of America, Inc.

To us, the Alliance's positive comment about the proposed new standards is a major red light. Whenever the lobbying arm of this nation's auto industry (including Germany's Porsche) agrees so fully and so publicly with any government standards ... fuel types, safety, emissions, mpg, whatever ... Then those standards deserve a long, hard look by all sides involved. Our 35+ years of experience covering the auto industry tells us that only when all sides involved are upset with new or proposed standards that they might possibly be good for everyone involved ... including this country and all its citizens. Right now, with the White House trying to look "tough on the car-makers," it only looks laughable. These proposed standards are still nowhere near where they should be, not even what the car-makers could achieve practically tomorrow with just a few simple re-settings of the CPUs in every car and truck built after 1974 (a lot of vehicles could get these updates by a quick trip to their local factory service center, putting the vehicle online with the factory computers, and having the engines re-set for better mileage and even cleaner emissions in a few micro-seconds).

(Photo Below --- Fuel conservation made history this past week. Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an open-wheel Indycar race, her victory coming April 20th, 2008, in the "Honda 300" at the Twin Ring Motegi race track in Japan. Patrick's win came about through her judicious use of fuel conservation "tricks", including one as simple as slowing her racing speed while her competitors all needed to make a pit stop with only about 10 laps to go to fill their need for fuel; Patrick and her pit crew stayed in-communication via two-way radio all through the race, and her crew chief outsmarted all the competition when it came to being forced to make fuel stops during the race.)

Click below to read more about these new "proposed" White House goals for improving your vehicle's "miles per gallon" and how they might affect us all.