Land speed record holder Dave McDonald of San Carlos can quickly provide a logical answer for almost any question about his hobby of choice — drag racing at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in his 1998 Pontiac Firebird.
He nonchalantly explained the parachutes on the back of the car with the fact that “brakes really don’t do you much good until you get down to about 100 (mph).” Nitrous oxide from the four 30-pound tanks in the car must be added to the fuel slowly in three stages to gain an extra 420 horsepower, he said, or the driver could “smoke the tires.”
“We’re shifting into fifth gear at about 280 (mph). You don’t want the car to get squirrelly at that speed,” he said.
The question, though…Â Details
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Once a biker always a biker. This is a mantra Jesse James lives by. Even with a handful of hit TV shows, larger-than-life personality and movie star wife, James still shows up at his Long Beach, California, motorcycle shop, West Coast Choppers, getting his hands dirty every day. How many other celebrities do you think can say that?
“I’m still here every morning ready to work. I think if I ever get to the point where I don’t work I’ll just get rid of the place. I think TV and everything else takes me away from what I really should be doing, and that’s working, and I feel cheated if I’m not welding something everyday,†says James, looking every bit as sinister as always; tattooed arms draped over the front of an evil looking chrome, black and red chopper.
The thing is, James is far from sinister. An extremely smart businessman and an even …Â Details
STOCKHOLM – Saab Automobile, General Motors Corp.’s struggling Swedish unit known for its family cars, was rescued Tuesday by a consortium led by Koenigsegg Automotive AB, a tiny company that produces only a dozen custom-made super cars a year.
Having penned a memorandum of understanding, GM said the sale would include an expected $600 million funding commitment from the European Investment Bank, guaranteed by the Swedish government. Additional funding for Saab’s operations and investments would be provided by GM and the Koenigsegg Group AB consortium, it said.
“This is yet another significant step in the reinvention of GM and its European operations,” GM Europe President, Carl-Peter Forster, said in a statement.
A person briefed on the deal said …Â Details
Mike Rowand, facility manager at Saturn of Jackson, said if anyone can save the Saturn automobile brand, it’s Roger Penske.
On June 5, Penske entered into a memorandum of understanding with General Motors to purchase the Saturn name, its dealerships and certain assets from the bankrupt automaker. If finalized, the agreement will put the Saturn automobile line under one of the world’s most successful car dealers and parts suppliers in automotive history. Penske owns Detroit Diesel, and the largest car distributorship in the United Kingdom. He is also the same Penske that owns NASCAR and Indy car racing teams.
Still, Penske faces an uphill battle to save Saturn.
Saturn originally was developed as its own entity when it debuted in 1990…Â Details